I walked into a meeting the other day and noticed a few employees having a discussion they were totally into. With my interest piqued I subtly approached them to eavesdrop, like any good HR pro would do, on what they were talking about.
It turned out they had started the conversation by talking about all of the changes which had taken place over the course of 2009. They referenced the market improvements, staffing changes and celebrity gossip. But, as they kept talking about change, the timeline became more drawn out. At some point, they got to the most significant changes they had seen since they began their careers almost 25 years ago (the group was mostly boomers). I couldn’t help but build the same level of interest they were showing. Some of the things they mentioned were:
- Ashtrays at every desk. It didn’t matter if you smoked; you had to have an ashtray at your desk, in case a smoker stopped by because they were not to drop ashes on the floor.
- One computer (called a terminal) on a “Lazy Susan” in the middle of 5 desks. When you needed it you just twisted it to face you and shared it with your teammates.
- Email. When email first came out, employees would talk about how it was so stupid to have electronic messages, and they thought it was just a fad that would fade quickly.
As I listened, I started to feel a sense of pride in my generation. We would never tolerate sharing a computer or breathing in someone else’s unhealthy habit. We are after all, Gen Y – the go-getters who demand to make positive change on a daily basis. And I am proud of that. Then, I thought a little more.
Inevitably, we will be telling the same types of stories in 25 years. Advancements in technology are speeding up, not slowing down. It is very likely there will be even more drastic change in our lifetime than that of past generations. So, I asked myself, “What are the things recruiters do today which will be looked back on and scoffed at?” I was surprised at how hard it was to answer this question, but here are a few of the things I came up with:
- Video conferencing will dominate the interview scene. The next generation of recruiters will find it hard to believe we actually made hiring decisions based on a phone call. I can just hear them, “You can’t even see how someone dresses, they could be in their pajamas!” Video conference technology will be much less expensive and utilized by all recruiters (if it’s not replaced by teleporters, you hear me trekkies).
- College Career Fairs will not exist. Due to more efficient selection, the utility of career fairs will fall to a point where they are no longer attended by employers. What will be the new source of revenue for career services?
- Assessment use will be much more prolific. With advancement comes a drive to quantify decision making, and assessments are a great way to do this for hiring. The problem is they are a logistical nightmare due to travel, and online assessments inherently present the potential of faking. Biometric scanners will fix the faking concern and employment law will eventually catch up to the fact that good assessments are much less biased than hiring managers.
- And here is my long shot – Your LinkedIn profile will have a section to upload your genetic report card so recruiters can consider your potential health care costs. Unless healthcare reform really impacts the rising cost of healthcare.
Agree? Think it will be even more radical? What else will we laugh about in 25 years? And maybe more importantly, what should we do to prepare for it? Hit the comments…
on the genetic report card, i’m going to swing to the opposite pole and say that having gotten through some initial reform in ’10, we now have a public health care option.
nice post.
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Josh,
Great post! Gen Y is definitely changing the recruitment process. While genetic report cards might be out of my leauge, I can definitely see video conferencing making big waves as well as more remote work cropping up to cut relocation costs. I also expect to see more non-traditional ways of finding the right job candidates (i.e., social networking).
I completely agree career fairs are on their way out. I think what would be much more beneficial to students and employers is smaller, hyper-targeted networking events and services similar to those offered by outside career coaches and recruiters.
Heather
Josh,
Thanks for the trip back down memory lane… we do forget how much the workplace has changed over our working lives. And although the internet is taking over our recruiting lives, there is still a lot of room for the personal connections that are so critical to finding and recruiting great talent for our clients.
Enjoyed reading your post Josh. I agree with most of your predictions, but I don’t think the genetic cards will be linked on a social networking site. Genetic cards will probably surface sometime in the future. I think the information would be too personal for people to post. Also genetic discrimination will probably lead to tons of law suits. The idea of genetic cards reminds me of that movie Gattaca, where jobs are based on DNA. Overall great post.
Sorry Josh, but I think you are totally off base. I think most of that stuff you talk about won’t be around in 25 years. Video will be replaced with something else, LinkedIn will be LOOOOONG gone. Assessments may be around but will be entirely different.
I foresee virtual reality interviews or holographic resumes that are actually life histories. Assessments may come in the form of brain scans. We have laws on the books now that bar the use of genetic information and rather than the use of genetic information becoming more widespread I foresee even greater clamps being put on that. As we know, once on the books laws never go away.
Fun to predict and guess the future. The fact I recognize is that by 2015 half the American workforce will be Millennial Generation. They grew up digital and the leading edge of that generation is now 30. And these digital natives makeup a generation cohort bigger than the baby boomers.
Wouldn’t GINA make it illegal to use genetics for a hiring decision?
I think you are on the money in many instances, but I believe the last is a no. Our recent employment posters included verbiage that prevented discrimination based on genetic information, which would prevent employers from making decisions on genetic potential for disease.
I love the Editor’s Note…”And if you want to know what the future of HR looks like? Have a conversation with Josh and be blown away by his smarts.” Blown away by his smarts?! The man used “hear” instead of “here” in his last bullet-point. Eesh. The Editor’s Note is a bit of a mess, too. Not impressed.
@jennifer – dunno if spelling is a reflection of one’s smarts but my bad… this editor obviously didn’t do a very good job of editing. thanks for stopping by.