Over the next decade, seven major changes will be in the organization of markets and the workplace.

In the coming decade, seven major changes are reshaping organizations and the workplace. From the most severe global pandemic of this century to unprecedented political/military tensions in 80 years, the world has entered an era of instability, profound discontinuity, and unpredictability. This necessitates organizations and leaders to embrace new thinking, tools, energy, and commitments to achieve success and formulate people-centric strategies for the next decade to inspire organizational resilience and thrive in chaotic and disruptive markets.

We predict that the "great disruption" and "resignation wave" caused or accelerated by the pandemic will lead to seven business and societal transformations: Employee Expectations and Autonomy, Longevity and Workplace Changes, Human and Technology Collaboration, Digital/Virtual/Metaverse Living, Data and Privacy Games, Trust and Corporate Governance, Stakeholder Capitalism in a Turbulent World. These changes may have disruptive and far-reaching effects on the future of work, workforce - especially talent development trajectories - and workplaces as we approach 2030.

The Road to 2030: People-Centric Strategies

Employee Expectations and Autonomy

To adapt to the ever-changing world of employee expectations and autonomy, organizations need to break away from traditional models of work and workplace operations and shift towards more flexible, human-centric, and digital approaches, such as creating hybrid work arrangements to meet employees' remote working needs. In the future, agility and innovation will be crucial, as employees seek more meaning, choice, growth, and autonomy in their work. Job natures will need to change accordingly, liberating employees from job descriptions and breaking down roles into skills, experiences, and interests, enabling employees to be seen as unique individuals beyond job descriptions, promoting inclusivity.

Longevity and Workplace Changes

The increase in age presents employees with more opportunities and higher expectations for potential career paths. By 2030, an extended workforce lifespan will provide a vast labor resource. Research has shown that companies with employees of different age groups have higher productivity, retention rates, and profit growth expectations. To fully leverage the benefits of generational diversity, companies need to compete for individuals across all age groups by offering higher salaries and age-appropriate benefits. They must care for employees' lives outside the workplace, focus on ergonomic and inclusive workplace design, and extend the working years of all employees. Additionally, companies should pay attention to and help older employees overcome entrenched age discrimination issues.

Human and Technology Collaboration

Attitudes toward the relationship between humans and technology are shifting from substitution models to enhancement models, reimagining work as an organic fusion of people, teams, and technological ways of working. By 2030, automation might offer better opportunities, allowing people to engage in higher-order work. Consequently, companies need to rethink the experiential aspects of the workplace to facilitate effective collaboration between people and technology. Organizational leaders should encourage the use of technological innovations to enhance and support employees' work, utilizing integrated tools and technology for social collaboration, knowledge sharing, and personalization to improve productivity and achieve new goals.

Digital/Virtual/Metaverse Living

Advancements in digital and virtual technologies, along with the emergence of the metaverse, have increased interconnectedness and shifted global business models from targeted interactions with homogenous populations to community-driven interactions featuring diverse people with shared interests from various regions. This transformation creates new business opportunities and requires investment in customer engagement and employee development to effectively interact with these micro-communities. Beyond return on investment, key performance indicators related to consumer and employee engagement should be considered when investing in broader digital transformation initiatives. To drive digital transformation strategies effectively, finding high-skilled employees to create metadata architectures and various applications will be a challenge.

Data and Privacy Games

Data control and privacy issues have extended from consumers to the workplace, such as disputes over employee and corporate intellectual property ownership. For such disputes, human resources and legal departments should review and update employment agreements or consider adopting new forms of joint corporate and individual intellectual property ownership. In addition to intellectual property ownership issues, regulatory authorities are increasingly focusing on corporate data practices, necessitating greater awareness among managers of compliance, legal updates, and the impact of data breaches on operations. To establish and maintain trust with consumers and employees, companies should responsibly collect and store data and maintain transparency regarding its use. Companies should also implement a range of security measures to predict and effectively prevent cybercrime, with artificial intelligence and other digital tools serving as enablers in detecting and addressing threats.

Trust and Corporate Governance

Trust is a critical element for a company's success among internal and external stakeholders. For companies, demonstrating authenticity, valuing the values upheld by the organization, and providing trustworthy, consistent, and fact-based information are crucial. Similarly, increasing focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) management can help build trust between employers and employees. Employees expect executives to lead by example and consider trust as an integral part of the organization's talent development plans. Corporate managers and HR experts should explore new ways to change the workplace to balance the needs of work, organizational needs, and costs, reconsider autonomy and decision-making, and establish a closed-loop communication and feedback system between employees and management.

Stakeholder Capitalism in a Turbulent World

Today, as shareholder capitalism is rapidly transforming into stakeholder capitalism, companies are not only focused on financial performance but also on broader environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues to seek long-term value creation. To balance the needs and interests of customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and the natural environment, and achieve greater transformation, CEOs and boards of directors need to pay more attention to the impact of their organizations on the long-term well-being of various stakeholders, including employees, customers, and communities—not just shareholders. In the next decade, we expect to see a convergence of personal, corporate, and societal values in business and talent decision-making.