Web 2.0 and workforce planning

by Matthew Hodgson

October 9, 2009 at 8:12 pm · Filed under Communities, Culture, Web 2.0

For some decades now, workforce planning has been an inportant part of strategic thinking in our organisations. It ensures that we have the right skills, knowledge and abilities to do what we needs to do. But with technological advances penetrating our workplaces at an alarmingly rapid rate, offering web 2.0 solutions to increase worker productivity, collaboration, communication and social learning in order to capture and share organisational knowledge, what are the generational factors and the technology influences we must now take account of in planning for both our current and future workforce?

The Baby Boomer technology gap

In the 70s we employed Baby Boomers and with them the values of hard work, family, the need to address gender equality, and a demand for participatory democracy in the management decisions of the organisation that resulted in today’s trend toward less-hierarchical work structures [1]. While they represent 30% of the population their values are the foundation of today’s management practices [2]. Their attitudes and behaviour toward technology largely reflects a generation who know and understand the use of the telephone and television as marketing and communications tools but whose views of computers and the internet reflect beliefs that these new technologies have negative effects on productivity and business [3]. As a result, they use technology less than other generations, from personal computers to mobile devices [3], and with the advent of social media are less likely than others to create content and are less involved in sharing their knowledge and experience through writing blog articles or creating videos and posting them online [4].

These adoption factors have serious consequences for the tech savvy Generation-X and the often labelled ‘Digital Natives’ of Generation-Y. For if Baby Boomers are the managers setting the agenda, casting doubts on the security and value of web 2.0 within the workforce, and limiting its penetration, they may be responsible for creating a workplace alien to the needs of those generations who will replace them as senior managers of our organisations. We see this picture emerging most typically in government organisations. Web 2.0 tools essentially equips workers with tools to create and share knowledge, but its adoption faces cultural hurdles by conservative Baby Boomer workers who see knowledge as power and therefore have vastly different attitudes towards collaboration in the workplace [5]. For many Baby Boomers, web 2.0 symbolises a loss of control and a sense of inferiority when they compare themselves to their technically fluent younger colleagues particularly given the collaborative and open nature of web 2.0 tools, such as wikis for example, eliminate the public service’s command-and-control structures because even people working at the lowest levels of an organisation have direct access to executives [5].

The truth of the matter is ultimately that 76 million Americans will retire over the next two decades. Only 46 million will be arriving to replace them. Most of those new workers will be Gen-Yers [6]. If we are to take workforce planning seriously, therefore, we must plan for a workplace in which Baby Boomers leave behind a legacy — open, transparent, collaborative, and technology rich — suitable for the generations who will follow. One in which the gext generation of senior executives — Generation-X — will thrive in and Generation-Y will want to be a part of.

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1. Cohen, W & Simons, J. 1995. A new spin on the economy. US News and World Report, p54-55.

2. AARP, 2004. Baby Boomers Envision Retirement II

3. WorldOne Research, 2009. LexisNexis Technology Gap Survey

4. Owyang, J. K. 2009. How To Reach Baby Boomers With Social Technologies. Create And Sponsor Social Content And Allow For Their Voices To Be Heard. Forrester

5. Hadar, G. 2008. Managing the enterprise information network. Fed Web 2.0 Reaching across generational boundaries.

6. Gelston, S. 2008. Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers: Workplace Generation Wars. CIO Magazine, 15 Feb. Online at: http://www.cio.com.au/article/205772/gen_y_gen_x_baby_boomers_workplace_generation_wars?pp=2

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23 Comments »

Technology is always changing. A person must know how to adapt to changes for growth. As a small business owner, I’ve accepted to learn this change. With this digital age, tools are available for us to make our life easier, our business more successful. But it’s still the age old knowledge is power that would enable us to be really successfuly with any business venture. So research.. research and research!

It is interesting to think that the working world is so completely dependent on the Generation of the future, Generation Y. It wonder what the world of head hunting and decidedly level minded hiring will look like in 10 years?

“Baby Boomer workers who see knowledge as power and therefore have vastly different attitudes towards collaboration in the workplace”

People who have risen through the ranks based on time in a position are very afraid of what happens when knowledge is available to more people, because it means that people will be judged on their drive and their actions and not on the hoarding of information.

I think that you will see a vast number of baby boomers just fade off into retirement and that the next level of managers coming into position will be much more driven to action as opposed to relying on the scarcity of knowledge to define their value in the workplace.

In regards to how you plan for that you rightly point out that it will be through the use of collaborative tools and a collaborative mentality towards solving problems.

In our company http://rapidinfluence.com we provide strategic planning software online and the two main drivers of the product are collaboration (it’s delivered online) and calls to action as the entire system is based on defining the actions required to implement a strategic plan. This strategy for the implementation of strategic plans is markedly different than how most baby boomers approach strategic plan implementation and is probably representative of a whole class of software that focuses on collaboration and sharing as their backbones.

If a firm added a work force management then it will be a really nice way to tackle the current problems and also helps in the future planning of the company.

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