The workplace

There’s really one key driver behind the five major changes that the report describes: the management of the scarce resource of skills and knowledge.

Our experts have painted a vivid and consistent picture of how the workplace of 2020 will look.  What’s interesting is to contrast their  visions with the perceptions of our sample of 1,000 workers.  The value of training may not be apparent to them yet but there’s an encouraging willingness to get involved (although for many there are limited opportunities to do so).  While our experts envisage a greater willingness to move work location our sample is far more conservative and tied to the local community.  People are - surprisingly - less willing to adopt a more flexible working regime than our experts anticipate.  However the biggest divergence in the beliefs of our experts and our sample is in how much change there will be in the next ten years.

By 2020 five major changes will have shaped the workplace:

• A polarisation between knowledge workers and the unskilled
• A shift in power that will favour employees
• The increasingly critical role of training and the issue of who pays for it
• The changing labour market forces
• The measurement of the intangible outputs that will drive the economy

There’s really one key driver behind the five major changes that the report describes: the management of the scarce resource of skills and knowledge.

For those with skills and education, the workplace of 2020 offers a great deal – a better standard of people management, more flexibility in how they work, relatively higher wages and a focus from their employer on making their work life more stimulating and interesting.  Among the Delphi Panel of experts, 83% expect the quality of working life to be higher for employees than it is now.  In chapter two we’ll consider the employees’ perspective on this and envisage their working lives.

For those without skills or qualifications, the future looks challenging – but not hopeless.  The recession has hampered progress on reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.  To succeed, young people will have to value education, seek out learning opportunities and view training in a positive light. 

The knowledge economy will define Britain’s future workplace.  The resource required to succeed in it is education. 

The successful worker of 2020 will, most of all, be distinguished by an attitude.  An attitude of willingness and enthusiasm to learn.

Taking this on-board will, we believe, give individuals the freedom to take full advantage of the opportunities the 2020 workplace offers.