Associations are increasingly well positioned to help members and industries build innovative workforce solutions through their professional development and certification products. As waves of innovation, millennials, and baby boomer retirements alter future workforce design, forward thinking organizations can transform themselves and become professional development partners for their members.
Future Workforce Needs
A global study developed by SAP and Oxford Economics notes “The nature of employment itself is undergoing a transformation. So is the composition of the labor pool, as the entrance of the millennial generation, along with globalization and social change, increases employee diversity.”
How can Associations help members respond to this growing challenge and build innovative workforce solutions? Instead of the traditional grand Association strategy for all constituencies develop specific workforce solutions by career stages. The career stage model (early, mid, and late career) helps associations design data based and more customized and relevant professional development solutions for their members.
Innovative Workforce Solutions: Call to Action
The SAP and Oxford Economics White Paper encourages employers to consider the following:
- Prepare for increasing diversity, changing employee demographics, and evolving definitions of work.
- Gain a better understanding of incoming millennial employees.
- Enhance employee engagement by providing the incentives and benefits that people actually want.
- Improve executive leadership skills and cultivation.
- Foster a culture of continuous learning that develops talent and empowers workers while capturing and retaining vital knowledge.
Associations Provide Career Stage Focused Solutions
Working with your members to continuously hone workforce professional development and certification products at both the early and mid-career stages will increase your association’s alignment with critical member business outcomes. Member Impact Surveys (not satisfaction surveys) will help your association understand how professional development solutions should be aligned to help members drive their business outcomes.
Evolving Definitions of Work
According to Richard Wahlquist, President and CEO of the American Staffing Association, employers from all sectors of the economy should prepare for a distinct and different future. Wahlquist says, “Workplaces will become smaller and more decentralized, management hierarchies will shrink or disappear altogether, and talent will be even more fluid, moving in and out of projects and organizations. Hyper connected workers will have less interest in traditional career paths. Their focus will be on personal development and having more control over their lives and their careers. The biggest challenge for most organizations will be to create higher levels of talent engagement and higher levels of alignment with workers’ personal core values.”
Innovative Workforce Solutions
The need for companies to improve operating performance and profitability looks to drive innovation and marketplace disruption far into the future. Driverless cars, drones, and how millennials choose to work present future focused Associations with exciting opportunities. Winning the future for your members through the development of Innovative workforce solutions is the more compelling future that will inextricably link your association with their business outcomes.
Free eBook “Accelerating Strategic Member Engagement” is available upon request for all Association Executives at www.potomaccore.com
