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Workplace Trends and IssuesB-11Workplace Trends and IssuesThe Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM, 2007) has identified thetop challenges facing companies today:1. Succession planning (replacement of retiring leaders)2. Recruitment and selection of talented employees3. Engaging and retaining talented employees4. Providing leaders with the skills to be successful5. Rising health care costs6. Creating/maintaining a performance-based culture (rewarding exceptional jobperformance)To face these challenges, the workplace of the future is expected to become moredynamic, diversified, flexible, and responsive. Organizations and their employeeswill need to adapt to the ever-changing world of work, complete with resource limitationsand technological innovations. Let’s examine how some of these challengesare being addressed.Workforce Diversity: Recruiting and RetainingDiverse TalentChanging workforce demographics continue to challenge many employers (see theIn Focus box “Name, Title, Generation”). Diverse employees have diverse needs,interests, and expectations. Organizations that can best address these issues will beIN FOCUSName, Title, GenerationIf you visit MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube as part of yourdaily routine, you’re probably a millennial. If avatar, blog, andWiki don’t sound like Star Wars characters to you, then you’resurely a millennial. So what’s a millennial? Google it, and you’llfind millennials are the Net Generation, born between 1981–1999.Millennials, also called Generation Y, are walking around loaded—with gadgets, that is. They are the most technologically savvygeneration, and they have entered the workplace. They’re greatat multi-tasking, pragmatic thinking, future-looking, team playing,and tech-operating. But they have their faults, too: Theywear iPods during meetings, assume everything is public, havenarcissistic tendencies, demand immediate praise, and don’t liketo be criticized, not even constructively (Tyler, 2008).Generation gaps are challenging employers in many ways.Some employers are seeing as many as four generations ofworkers walk through their doors. In their book titled WhenGenerations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How toSolve the Generational Puzzle at Work (2002), authors Lynne C.Lancaster and David Stillman discuss the generational issues facingthe workplace. Multiple age groups means differing values,goals, and perceptions. In one example, they describe the waysthe four generations view the process of feedback:• Traditionalists (born 1900–1945): No news is good news.• Baby boomers (born 1946–1964): Once a year, with lots ofdocumentation.Differing Work Styles Millennials often prefer to work collaborativelyand may be most comfortable with the constant interactionthat this work environment facilitates.• Generation Xers (born 1965–1980): Sorry to interrupt, buthow am I doing?• Millennials (born 1981–1999): Feedback whenever I want itat the push of a button . . . and NOW!Surely, the workplace of the future must embrace all generations,train them to get along, and build complementary teams.Leaders of the future will need to inspire all of their employees,from the traditionalists to the millennials alike.