All kidding aside, I was wondering what this new generation (who were hatched, depending on who you speak to, somewhere at the end of the 1990s) will have to look forward to when they reach work age somewhere near 2020.

Well, according to all I’ve recently read, expectations are that by the year 2020 a lot will happen.

Predictions are that the number of medically uninsured will be much higher. How much I haven’t been able to determine. Also, by 2020 the Social Security system is expected to have cash-flow problems.

Add to this that most employees will have difficulty retiring because they won’t have saved enough plus predictions that even if aging 401(k) participants do retire they are likely to run out of money because of the longer life expectancy. So I guess that an expected increase in healthy, intellectually viable, aging adults who won’t necessarily want to retire is a good thing.

It won’t be any easier for organizations either.

Global competition will continue to push and pull requiring American companies to scale back in order to compete against rivals from nations like China and India where benefits aren’t as rich while at the same time because of a potential domestic labor shortage (the baby boomers have to retire sometime!) many companies will have to up the ante on benefits packages in order to attract American workers.

Now imagine being a twenty or thirty-something Generation Z employee in the year 2020.
First, technology will continue its amazing growth so understanding, adapting and utilizing it will be tantamount as organizations require employees to do even more with less.

Next, telecommuting, temporary and contract employment will continue in popularity as organizations become less about traditional employment relationships and more about the ability to get the work done efficiently and inexpensively from anywhere thus highlighting the importance of making benefits portable and flexible.

Finally, the workforce will continue to diversify as the slow growth in the labor pool requires employers to rethink where to find the best talent while retraining and lifelong learning will be emphasized.

Sounds like we have a lot to look forward to. Hopefully everyone, not just Generation Z, will be ready for it.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 2nd, 2007 at 9:01 am and is filed under Employee Retention, Job Satisfaction, Performance Management. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.