The New World of Work Presented by Kelly Services

12 October 2013, Malaysia: On 02 October 2013, I was invited to an exclusive AmCham (American Chamber of Commercial) Singapore breakfast talk by Kelly’s CEO Carl Camden. Listed below are some of the notes penned by me: - 

Trends of country governments - outsource “primary social responsibility” to private organizations / BPOs.

Now days the norm is employees are responsible for their own talent development and the company is merely a workplace that facilitates the development.

Job life cycle is getting shorter: -

• 1960’s – 70’s : 15 to 20 years
• 1980’s – 90’s : 5 to 7 years
• 2000’s – present : 1 to 3 years

In the past, the work attitude was to get a “good job” after graduation. Growth with the company; company provide training and developed your career path …

In present time, “good job” mean the employee is able to partner with the company to “build” his career … e.g., I want to be a manager … please give me the exposure and opportunity

Changes in mindset: 

• Gen Y: 3 years is too long to develop my career – I will miss out a lot of opportunity, prefers new assignment / exposure every 3 months.
• In the past: 2-3 years working experience … labeled as job hopper and the hiring manager prefer people with 10 years and above as they are more stable;
• In current time: 10 years of working experiences in an organization … can he / she handle change and new work environment pressure. Hiring manager prefers those with 2 to 3 years working experiences. Assume these employees can handle change more effectively.

In the past, short employment was labeled as temporary job / employment … part-time … then freelance … now more and more people accept the wording “Free-agent”

Challenges for HR professional and employer:

• Who are your employees?
• How do you manage BPO & “free-agent”?
• Workforce management skills

Kelly’s see the free-agent as an opportunity for their business “Talent Supply Chain Management”

Most company fails to see that their organization workforce diversity & inclusive program must consider “free-agent” (e.g., contract employee, etc.)

According to research:

• Employee under permanent employment usually are not kind to work for an organization while “free-agent” are more kind to work and productive to an organization … for short-term assignment / opportunity.
• Average Talent only stay with you between 2 to 3 years
• Most CEO in USA length of service is about 3 years
• People who prefer permanent employees are usually those who are insecure e.g., lacking of the skills and knowledge, educational qualification, experiences, etc.
• 80% of CEO don’t have social media account (e.g., facebook, linkedin, tweeter, etc.). Don’t understand the power of social media in the new world of work.

Organization should not label employees who resigned as not loyal but continue to engage them … as based on Kelly’s experience … they usually come back to work permanent or “free-agent”.

Under the new world of work, organizations need to create a working culture that facilitate work environment that people don’t see each other.