Five Predictions About The Future Of Careers and Workplace in 2012

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The intersection of people’s careers and those in HR are easily intertwined. Whether people become more open to changing jobs mid-career (as has become the norm), certain industries beefing up while others are in decline, it impacts human resources professionals in a distinct way.

So what’s coming up in 2012?

Five predictions about careers in 2012

We’re finally wrapping up our look into 2012 by looking at the direction careers are going in 2012 and beyond. Our guest on TLNT radio is Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti of the Apollo Research Institute to talk about some of the latest trends in careers that she is seeing.

We talked about the five trends she’s seeing:

Continuous employment: Multiple jobs and employers – Obviously the days of 30 years at one company are largely over but even working at one company at a time is slowly becoming a thing of the past. You’ll see people who work a day job and freelance on the side or are perhaps working several part time jobs. And that won’t just be out of necessity or economy but because that’s what they want to do.
Tiny but mighty: Small businesses and self-employment will drive job creation – We’ve all heard how smaller companies drive a lot of the hiring in this country (and that it is hard to track because of that). The concerning part is whether we’ll continue to see job creating incentives focused on big businesses rather than smaller ones?
Women rising: Working women will impact the marketplace – Women are continuing to rise in the workplace and in business ownership/leadership. While progress has been made, the trend is far from over. What we can expect is more women owned businesses at the end of 2012 and, if trends continue, those businesses will perform better than average.
Education matters: Lifelong learning will be vital to career success – The rate of change in the last decade has been fairly amazing. The web is ubiquitous in Corporate America, technologies have come and gone, and the rate of change of business has continued at a rapid pace. Learning becomes outdated more and more quickly so an emphasis on continued learning, and literally every day learning, will be a reality.
Showing up for work: Face time will become a precious commodity – And in keeping with the change theme, look no further than the fact that face time, once a given ten years ago, will now become more rare than ever. Employees will look to make the most of the time they spend interacting with each other, especially when it comes to face-to-face communication.

Where do you see careers and the workplace heading in 2012? More change or more of what we have today? Listen to the podcast for more insight on this fascinating topic.

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