The New Workforce: Five Sweeping Trends That Will Shape Your Company's Future

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking, Educational: Well worth your time.
Review: Human resources executives are naturally concerned about what's coming. Part of their job is to prepare for future workforce and workplace needs and advise senior leaders regarding appropriate strategies. Those senior executives are also beginning to wake up and smell the trends. The smart ones are hungry for the insights that will empower them to lead their organizations boldly into the future.

Harriet Hankin, president of a benefits design consulting and administration firm in the Philadelphia area, brings corporate experience, an ownership role, and the perspective that comes from serving as an objective consultant to corporations. She's obviously done her research in order to present key trends and their impacts.

The book is organized into two sections: The Five Major Emerging Workforce Trends and The Impact of the Trends on Human Resources. Hankin selected five trends; as a futurist by profession, I see a number of others on the horizon. Selecting the more influential trends can always be challenged. This book addresses Longevity, More Varied Household Types, Generations, Diversity, and Trust, Respect, and Ethics.

The book is written in an almost conversational style, with stories and anecdotes that flavor the text and make the book even more readable. Hankin includes some information which, while it may not be right on target from a serious business perspective, broadens the reader's appreciation of the issues raised. The depth of the author's research comes out in the notes at the end of each chapter. Readers interested in gaining even more knowledge about a topic Hankin discusses will easily be able to follow her research path. Call-out boxes and charts fit well into the book design, enhancing the value for the reader.

In the second section, Hankin shares a treasure chest of ideas that employers may apply. There are enough ideas in these pages to keep a human resources staff busy for quite a while! Among the valuable features I appreciated is a list (on page 181) comparing the kinds of reward priorities that will be preferred by various generations.

A helpful appendix offers an outline for engaging employees in a future think tank experience to help prepare tomorrow's workforce. A comprehensive index makes it easy to find what you're looking for if, as I expect, you'll want to go back to this book for repeated readings and considerations.

As a qualifier, I am author of "Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Too Few People," a book on the coming shortage of skilled workers. The issues we concentrate on as workforce futurists, are well-addressed in "The New Workforce." If you're in management or human resources-or moving in that direction in your career, read this book.


Rating:
Summary: An Easy-Read Must-Read
Review: This book was great. Especially for a business book, it moved quickly and was packed with important and insightful stuff. I liked the readable style and personal experiences that the author shared.

The book also went beyond sharing the facts and provided lots of ideas for dealing with what the future workforce will demand.

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: This is a fantastic look into the future of the workforce and is a must read for anyone who owns a business or works in human resources or personnel departments. In fact, this is also worth reading by anyone who works in a mid-size to large company, since all companies will soon be forced to deal with the trends that the author identifies in this book and the information will undoubtedly be helpful to any employee. The book is a pleasure to read with both personal and professional anecdotes interspersed with the author's prescient thoughts on a subject in which she is an expert. Thoroughly enjoyable.