Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Manpower Inc., recently keynoted a Marquette Circles event at the Pfister Hotel.
Marquette Circles, is a business networking program that connects Marquette alumni, parents and friends that are doing business in or providing services to specific industries, and focuses on innovation.
Joerres, a 1983 graduate of Marquette’s Business Administration program, was able to speak about emerging trends and changes in today’s labor market.
According to Joerres, there are really four major ‘megatrends’ that are critical to navigating the changing world of work.
The first one to recognize is the demographics and that talent shortage within today’s work force.
“Multi-generational work environments are on the rise,” Joerres said. Changes in technology are driving demand for new skills and baby boomers are retiring and taking their knowledge with them.
This phenomenon is happening all over the world, Joerres said.
“Japan is facing many of the same problems," he said. "Japan could literally go out of business in five to ten years.”
To demonstrate that experience gap, Manpower recently released its annual ‘Top 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill’ study. According to the results of the global study, the top five are: skilled manual trades, sales representatives, technicians, engineers and management/executives. Here in the United States the trend is a little bit different, the U.S. top five are: engineers, nurses, skilled manual trades, teachers, and sales representatives.
Manpower also identified three other ‘megatrends’ occurring in today’s workforce. Today’s employee is becoming increasingly responsible for their own career development, in today’s workforce the individual rules, Joerres said.
Individuals want to be in control, they decide where and when they want to work, and they can multi-task a lot better than the previous generation of employees, he said. The times are changing, it’s a more one size fits one attitude and it is going to increase the need for employers to be socially responsible, Joerres said.
According to Joerres, emerging technology is also playing a huge role in changing the work world.
“Social networks like Twitter and Facebook open the doors to new and different geological boundaries,” Joerres said.
Consumers also know what they want, and the rise of customer sophistication is also a trend companies need to be aware of.
“The ability to respond globally to customer needs is going to be crucial, responses and solutions are going to need to be quicker, sharper and differentiated,” he said.
A power point of Joerres’ presentation is available on the Manpower website here
