Question

Explain why understanding demographic and geographic trends are important with respect to career planning. Give examples for each trend and discuss how those examples could impact career prospects.

demographic: aging economy (needing more healthcare professional). Two income working household now cause a demand in childcare? give examples

geographic: why are more people moving to the south and south east. why are businesses doing the same? give examples

Answer 1

demographic change

Demographic change is the main reason organizations need to adapt their practices in order to respond to increasing diversity within labor markets. Diversity alters pools of potential employees, and the needs of employees, as well as influencing broader business objectives like service provision. In addition, the constantly changing demographic profile of the broader population means that organizations need to develop strategies that will meet the needs and desires of the country’s citizens.

Some major and common demographic are outlined below.

Family structures are changing

• One-parent families more common
• Parents juggle work, parenting, household chores, and childcare

Ageing population

• Pressure on health and welfare services
• Unpaid caring work by their children
• Positive aging, gradual retirement

Labor force diversity

• Women’s participation
• Ethnic and religious diversity

These demographic changes will have profound implications for organizations and managers in the coming decades. Implications include: the need to have better understanding and awareness of different cultures including their practices and religious beliefs; an appreciation of how diversity can benefit organizations; need to implement flexibility in work whilst ensuring quality of work is not eroded; the creation of non-discriminatory environments within organizations; and better integration of work and life so that workplaces are more family-friendly.

Diversity brings business benefits. These include the following: the development of economically beneficial partnerships; new markets; legal compliance; products and services that are culturally sensitive and appropriate; people who are adept at social networking and team-work; social and environmental responsibility; a diverse workforce brings its own rewards in terms of increasing cultural awareness, sensitivity and awareness in individuals and firms.

There is a lot more you can learn about managing diversity and changes of the workforce. If you would like to gain further insights into this topic you might be interested in our unique eLibrary.

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION CHANGES

1. The continued distribution of workplaces.

Centralized offices will evolve, providing a greater variety of work settings to support collaboration and diversity of needs. Simultaneously, workers will increasingly work in other distributed workplaces: at satellite offices, supplier and customer locations, off-shore locations and home.

2. The challenge of keeping workers engaged and connected.

As workers are more physically dispersed, it becomes more difficult for them to engage with one another. To encourage socialization, planners need to link conscious workplace strategies with social technologies, and work policies.

3. The difficulty of changing culture

. The hardest part of changing the workplace is not the physical environment or technology, it’s changing the people. The key to success is to give employees a voice in the planning process, and allow them the choice of when, where, and how they work.

4. Adopting new workplace practices.

With workers increasingly scattered geographically, work practices need to adapt. Because it is no longer possible to communicate casually with a distributed work team, leaders need to formalize good work practices for the team.