The “job for life” model is dead

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to design digital workplaces or “offices in the cloud.” These environments enable companies to allow flexible and remote working for their teams. I also teach the digital literacy, fluency, communication and collaboration skills needed to work in these modern technology-rich workplaces.

In a recent blog post entitled The job for life model is dead. Here’s what millennials need to know Jonas Prising, the Chairman and CEO of Manpower Group made this observation.

“Going forward, we’ll need a generation of workers who are hungry to learn and eager to keep pace with the times. They will pioneer new ways of combining business and technology to be more productive, and they’ll update old work models to match.”

If you are serious about future-proofing your business you are going to need to look at the people you have working in your business and ensure that you have the right culture and skills to be able to compete in a digital world.

Often companies don’t know where to start or even where their blind spots are which is why one of the first things we do with the businesses that we work with is a Digital Readiness Assessment. One of the outcomes of this assessment is to get a clear picture of the skills that you currently have, and the skills you need to acquire in order to to become a digital business.

Prising continues:

“The World Economic Forum ranks technological change among its top global challenges, and they’re right; it is going to require extraordinary effort to keep pace. Individuals, companies and even nations will, at times, see their skillsets become outdated.”