Are You Ready for “The Mobile Workforce”?

Imagine a manager circa 1965. Picture him in his dark pants and short-sleeve white Oxford button down, narrow tie, dark rimmed glasses, and let’s throw in a loaded pocket protector to complete the picture. Let’s make him one of the most successful managers in his company at the time. Now… let’s put him in charge of a 21st century workforce.

Each member of his new team has the following characteristics:

• They all work from a home-office and are across several states and more than one country;

• They all put in over 40 hours a week (but not always from 9-5 and not always M-F);

• They all have their own portable laptop, portable printer, scanner and PDA;

• They have their own phone number (for work and personal) and their phone is with them all the time;

• They have 24/7 access to the internet and its plethora of downloadable software applications;

• They have several social networking profiles and network for new opportunities of all kinds regularly;

• Well over half their meetings are via WebX or GoToMeeting;

• They talk about shopping at places like E-Bay, Amazon, and NoBetterDeal.com like our parents used to talk about shopping at Kaufmann’s and Horne’s;

• They google, blog and twitter as a matter of course throughout the day;

•  They are cyber school graduates and all working on their advanced degrees online;

• Each has a portable retirement program (IRAs and 401ks);

• They have (or likely will have) some kind of ‘portable’ health care program;

• A ‘sustainable’ workplace is one of their top 3 reasons for choosing their employer;

• They identify more with their region and their profession than they do their company – i.e. “I am an accountant from Austin” (versus “I work for Dell”);

• They talk in terms of ‘self-defined PTO’, rather than corporate-defined vacations and holidays;

• Managing their money is a matter of direct deposits, EFTs, ATMs and ‘virtual wallets’;

How would our high performing circa 1965 manager do? How many of his habits, paradigms and best practices would apply? If he was unwilling or unable to learn, adapt and change… he would fail. No question – right?

Are we really any different at times? Do we try to apply our own experiences and past best practices to the management of our team at hand without really thinking about how or even if the team will embrace these practices? We have to change, we have to approach management differently if we are to keep up with the next generation workforce that is being forged right before our eyes.

The workforce today is more mobile than ever before and its only becoming moreso. “Mobile” both in terms of logistics and company loyalty. Companies don’t have the traditional hooks to keep workers engaged with the organization. They have to do things differently or they will die on the vine as workers migrate toward ‘more sustainable’ organizations.

In past and, no doubt, future postings on this blog, we will make the case that ‘coaching versus training’ is one of those differences but that is only the beginning.  How ready are you?

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Tags: Executive Coaching, Executive Coaching Pittsburgh, Lee Hecht Harrison Pittsburgh, LHH of Pittsburgh, mobile workforce, Pittsburgh