How will companies in 10 years?

The technology will advance and the workplace in 2018 will be very different in how they are now. That is the prediction made by a group of experts assembled by the Human Resources Management Worforce portal which also gives a wake-up call for companies to begin to take note.

The conclusions of this expert panel are dominated by the feeling that the job is temporary and "village" for teams still more mobile and flexible.

They consider that the figure of "freelance" win integers. Furthermore, with regard to management style, say that social networks will change the "command and control" style prevailing in favor based on collaboration and teamwork.

Participants in this panel include amounts in human resources experts from companies such as Yahoo, Ernst & Young, Infosys Technologies and SAP. Furthermore, had the expert opinion of the American academic world.

One of the predictions in which almost everyone agreed it was about the explosion of social networking and other collaborative technologies such as wikis (web pages can be edited by many volunteers).

In fact, "collaboration" and relationships are two words that are going to sound in the workplace over the next two decades. Yes, these places will be increasingly removed physically and geographically, although technologically very close and connected.

Adaptive structure

The structure of the work will be more "adaptive," with more informal managers. In addition, the use of virtual teams will grow, with many people communicate via video, email and text messages, as argued by the representative of Infosys in the panel.
In fact, the work seeing the faces of peers could be in danger of extinction, as the contacts face to face will be increasingly scarce.

"Our communication is so dependent on email or SMS," says Nandita Gurjar, Infosys, in the journal Worforce Management "that no one will talk on the phone anymore."

Participating experts showed different views on what effect the arrival of Generation Y or workers in the "millennium" (those born in the 80s) to work. Some predict that contribute to the boundaries between private life and working life are diluted. Others, however, anticipate that the presence of this group will not have great impact and talented people will continue to work hard and prosper in organizations.

Business Travel

There was also some disagreement on the number of business trips to be made by 2018. John Haggerty, Cornell University, says that will be made less. By contrast, other participants predict that companies will demand managers with a more global experience, so you are going to have to travel far from their country of origin.

Where there was unanimity that it is increasingly moving to put more emphasis on ethical leadership and corporate responsibility. In 2018 this will be ensured through better training and recruitment that is made will take into account both aspects significantly. Indeed, the recruitment process will become more virtual, and precisely for that reason, also be global.

The representative stressed that SAP will be a transition from leadership based on order and control to styles that prevail collaboration and dialogue. Therefore, organizations are going to be forced to think differently about the kind of leadership they need, and about the capabilities that they must have.

About the benefits that employees will have a few years, this panel of experts said that will be more creative and personalized, and that would include the care of dependent people or pets, among other things unthinkable today.

All participants agreed in pointing out that Human Resources will play a greater role than at present. In this regard, the representative of Ernst & Young predicted that the term "Human Resources" would disappear, and suggested names like "personal" or "employee relations."