Web 2.0 and the future of workplace relations

A new report from ACAS comments on Web 2.0 and how such technology could have an effect on the future of workplace/employment relations.

For employees the following is discussed in the new report:

The use of social media by unions to reach both a younger generation and a more dispersed workforce is already well underway.

Commentators believe that the unions are moving from the services model of the 90s through the organising model of the noughties to the more sophisticated social movement model with its greater appeal to a younger audience.

Web 3.0 technology with its seamless integration between data bases will enable
much greater interactivity between users and the web.

This will enable trade unions to refine their recruitment practices where individuals can be attracted to a social movement website first and then directed to trade union sites.

For employers:

As the virtual workplace becomes more prevalent, employers will need to give careful thought to the management of a dispersed workforce where employees may have infrequent face-to-face contact with their colleagues...

For more details and concluding comments see The Future of Workplace Relations - An ACAS View.

2030: A workplace odyssey

According to a BBC News article, office life will change dramatically by 2030.

Some details:

1) As workforces get more mobile, technology will ensure that everything an employee needs is available no matter where they are.

2) Head offices and individual desks are likely to disappear in favour of hot desks, collaborative spaces and decor that adapts to a worker's mood.

3) Walls could become screens showing diaries, documents or video conferences.

4) Homes and cars would measure mood and tune surroundings to, for instance, soothe a worker if they were feeling stressed.


For more details see Workplaces set to get 'smarter'.

I wonder where we'll be parking our jet packs in 21 years time or whether we'll be able to take a few years off to take that once in a lifetime trip to Mars!

The future of work

Every now and then some organization seeks to predict the future of work.

Part of this long line of futurologists now includes Price Waterhouse Coopers.

The title of their ideas of what work will look like is 'Managing tomorrow's people: The future of work to 2020'.

A summary of what to look forward to includes:

Organisations operating in today’s world are facing some of the greatest people management challenges in the history of business: the talent crisis, an ageing workforce in the Western world, the rising demands for global worker mobility as well as the organisational and cultural issues emerging from the dramatic pace of change in the past ten years.

But how will these changes impact businesses over the next decade, and what other social, economic, environmental and demographic factors will have an impact on the world of work?

I'm not going to say whether such prediction will come true or not, because there is normally always a grain of truth in anything that is based on reasonable assumptions and a well-thought-out-methodology, but one thing always strikes me about mainstream accounts of work is that they, simply, gloss over the reality of work.

For example, there is no mention of trade unions in the report despite the fact that trade unions have been around since the beginning of industrialisation.

For more details of a working utopia see Managing tomorrow's people: The future of work to 2020 (downloading report involves minor registration process).

New models of work?

The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) has produced some findings on how we now work and has come up with a range of new models to help explain the many changes in the workplace in the past few decades.

The EOC claims to build on two widely accepted models of working - flexibility and part-time work, and, home working.

The 'third generation' is said to combine "time-stretch and flexi-space options with greater control and choice for employers and employees over where and how work is done."

The third generation involves four new models of working:

- Timelords,
- Shift-shapers,
- Time-stretchers, and
- Remote-controllers.

For a general view of these findings and propositions see Transformation of work: Final report (EOC).

For the whole report see Enter the timelords: Transforming work to meet the future (EOC).