If you look at employees now and employees a decade ago, you can see that they are dramatically different. Just look at the past year and how employees around the world had to adapt and change their way of working. Employees in 2021 are very different compared to a year ago.
So when you think of how much a year can change you, imagine a whole decade. Or a century. This leaves the question: how will we have changed a year from now? 10 years? Tomorrow? With the world in a constant process of change, skills and mindsets will have to change as well.
What we thought laid in the future, has become relevant. And in order to stay relevant, organisations and its employees must prepare for what will be expected in the future. The future, which will come much sooner than you think.
After the year of 2020, the future employee will be expected to have certain principles, and they are becoming true already today. These types of skills will be necessary for employees to embrace, and for companies to consider when hiring new talent. Here are the 5 principles the future employee must have:
1. Flexible work
The days of going to your office desk everyday are long gone. The future employee will have a much more flexible working environment. Not bound to a desk, cubicle, or even building. Instead, they will be able to choose when and where to work.
Staying at home, going to the office, or maybe a coffee shop down the street. This hybrid working model has come as a result of companies shifting to remote or flexible work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most companies, and their employees, will not be going back to the office. The future employee needs to be able to adapt to this new way of working.
2. Knowledge sharing
Sharing information with your colleagues has become an important part of organisations’ way of operating. Before, employees didn’t share information with their peers, hoping to seem smarter than them. This is no longer feasible. By sharing information, an organisation will become far more successful.
Which is why a lot of organisations have shifted to a structureless organisation, removing hierarchy and walls between employees. All in the hope of knowledge being shared more frequently. The future employee is expected to share knowledge, ideas, innovative thinking, and work together with their peers. Knowledge sharers will be the new leaders of tomorrow.
3. Communication
Communication has come a long way. Employees used to rely on communication taking place in person, on the phone, or through emails. But there is new technology being invented every day, and how we communicate is rapidly changing.
The future employee will need to use new ways of collaboration and communication. They will need to adapt and embrace new technology, and learn how to use it in the most efficient ways. Being stuck in old ways will not be beneficial. Successful employees are the ones that embrace change and find excitement in new technology.
4. Build a career
The future employee is no longer expected to follow a one-size-fits-all career path. You want to change into a different department? Sure. You want to become a manager? Great. The future employee will have the unique possibilities of creating their own ways.
Building your own network, sharing valuable ideas and knowledge with their peers, continuing to educate themselves. The sky’s the limit! With the right skillset, mindset, and network, anyone who wishes to do something will be able to. Organisations will appreciate the efforts and willingness to achieve your goals, whatever they are.
5. Lifelong learning
The future employee will be shifting from a knowledge worker, to a learning worker. There is nothing as valuable as knowledge. Having the skills of knowing how to learn, to acquire new information, will be the most valuable principle to know.
Succeeding in the future will be dependent on how you learn and apply your knowledge to the forever changing environment. What you learned in school will no longer be enough. The future employee will be expected to continue to learn, in any way possible. They will be expected to become lifelong learners.
It’s important to stay ahead in this forever changing world, important to stay relevant. There are heaps of articles on the future of work, and how we are expected to adapt, work, and learn. To succeed now, and in the future, you will need to adopt these 5 principles into your everyday life.
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