Over at Harvard Business Review Tammy Erickson writes up her “Predictions for 2010: Five Changes in the Way We work”. This is an interesting comment and one I commend to readers of this blog; her predictions seem not only to be spot on but also have considerable implications for the way people are managed and engaged.

One clear result of the recession is greater disenchantment with, and mistrust of, the corporate world when it comes to income and job security, not to mention transparency. This is going to help accelerate the process already underway which is leading many employees, particularly knowledge workers, to become less engaged and more independent. For those in Human Resources this presents both a challenge as well as an opportunity; the more so as less enlightened line management may look for someone to both blame and solve the problem at the same time!

The way work is perceived by people and society in the early C21st, especially in the developed post-industrial economies, is undergoing a steady and inexorable sea-change. I also like the idea of the changing relationship between employer and employee from the paternalistic to one of a matter of choice. It has huge implications for corporations, and suggests that the war for talent is far from the victory, claimed by some in the media, that the employer won as the recession hit home during the last year. As we go through 2010 companies are going to increasingly discover that good talent is not only scarce, but that it retains the freedom to choose for itself the where, who and how it will work. The coming decade will likely shape the future of work in the developed world for the rest of the century – the old employer / employee relationship where the employer dictates the terms looks set to be consigned to the last century.