In 2016, we published our book – The New World of Work. After looking at the trends over decades and making our own educated predictions of the direction that the world of work would take with advancing technology. In the short time since publication, we’ve already seen some of our predictions come to fruition.
In The New World of Work, we explored how millennials were changing the the way we work; the idea of flexible, futurist, free and fearless workplaces; the concept of brand-self, as well as the steps businesses should be taking to be appealing to prospective employees. We also took the time to look at how Bitcoin and Blockchain were influencing the working world.
So, what exactly has changed since 2016?
Millennials are here to work.
Even the word ‘Millennial’ seems to be a kind of buzzword. Usually said with a negative undertone, there is still a huge amount of hesitation and bias when it comes to the young people in our workplaces. The word conjures up images of smashed avocado and lazy teenagers but unlike their name, Millennials are not a hot topic now, only to become obsolete later down the track. They’re here to stay and they’re here to work – hard.
Not only are Millennials ready to work hard in our established businesses, they’re ready to go out on a limb and start their own business ventures. A research report from GoDaddy found that 62% of Millennials plan to start their own business before 2026 – not only has the technology available to them given them the means but they have also the drive. Millennials have lived through the Global Financial Crisis and have seen their parents struggle to stay afloat – they are determined not to let that happen to them.
Blockchain is no longer futuristic.
Many people find Blockchain difficult to understand, but the technology is already changing the way that our money moves around the world and when there are less limits for our money, there are less limits for us too.
For a while, companies have been trialling Blockchain and similar technology to see how it can work for them but 2017 has been a big year for everyday workers in terms of seeing the results. Just recently, in October, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced that beginning next year, they will have instant transfers between financial institutions. Currently, transfers can take anywhere between 2-5 days.
They’re not the only ones. Transferwise has been using this technology for several years and now, Australians can use it to transfer money overseas without the hefty fees and in much less time. It changes the way we think of our money and how we operate day to day.
The Commonwealth Bank said it best when they said “the use of Blockchain technology creates transparency between buyer and seller, a higher level of security and the ability to track a shipment in real time. The advancement from paper ledgers and manual processes to electronic trackers on a distributed ledger reduces errors and accomplishes in minutes what used to take days.”
There are small changes happening everyday …
Now, nearly at the end of 2017, it’s clear that the world of work has slowly been changing, even without us noticing. It won’t be long until we forget that bank transfers used to cost us in time and money and before we know it, all the great business leaders of our world will be Millennials.
Who knows where we’ll be in just a year’s time but now is the time to be looking ahead and readying ourselves for the advancements to come.
