Future Work/Life is my newsletter in which I explore ideas focused on the future of work and how to build legendary companies & careers. If you find it interesting, please share it!
AI & RECRUITING
I’m going to assume you’re already signed up for former podcast guest Hung Lee’s excellent Recruiting Brainfood newsletter. If not, get on the case now, please!
Hung’s an expert on the effect tech is having on the world of work, and his deck on Recruiting in the Era of Generative AI is well worth a read. Here are a couple of helpful slides to get you started:
LIFE DESIGN
It used to be that you waited until middle age before you realised you have to be intentional about finding meaning in life. Now, Gen Z is entering the workplace demanding it. And I, for one, think that’s something to celebrate.
And the work part of that is important according to Pew Research Center’s new report on ‘What makes a fullfiling life?’.
Why?
When asked what it takes to lead a fulfilling life, the public prioritizes job satisfaction and friendship over marriage and parenthood. Some 71% of all adults say having a job or career they enjoy is extremely or very important in order for people to live a fulfilling life. And 61% say having close friends is equally important.
I’ve obviously written about this a little over the past few years, and you can hear me talk about designing a meaningful life on a bonus episode of this week’s podcast after I appeared on Christopher Lochhead’s Follow Your Different show.
MULTI-GENERATIONAL WORKFORCE
There I am talking about Gen Z again when arguably a bigger question is how we continue to effectively utilise the skills and experience of older workers.
I’ve written previously about Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott's work and, in particular, that that we longer experience the three-stage life of Education - Work - Retirement. Instead, we're experiencing the emergence of the multi-stage life as people live longer and extend their careers.
Clearly this will impact how we manage the multi-generational workforce as Cloey Callahan writes in WorkLife :
These folks, currently aged between 57 and 75 years old, are staying in the workforce longer than people ever have before, making it critical that leaders don’t neglect their needs. By 2030, a whopping 150 million jobs will shift to workers over the age of 55, according to a new global study from management consultancy Bain & Company. It predicts that older and experienced workers will make up more than a quarter of the workforce by 2031.
And it’s happening globally. In Japan, almost 40% of workers are over 55 years old. Europe and the U.S. aren’t far behind with anywhere from 25% to 30%. A part of that is the “unretirement” trend where retirees rejoin the labor force, joined by increasing retirement ages in general.
More to come on this topic in the weeks ahead…