Employers must compete. And no longer employees.

One of the most important value drivers of the economy is innovation. However, without young, highly qualified employees, it will fail. Their high demands of their function and their work surroundings irritate companies more and more, yet due to the lack of ‘high potentials’ they are a part of the daily agenda. Thus, a way out of the dilemma is needed for a world in which more and more employers must compete rather than the employee. A new study shows solutions

Jochen Schenk, Chairman of Real I.S. AG and Prof. Bernd Thomsen, CEO of TGISC®, agree: “Irrelevant of whether it is a young spin-off or an established company that needs freelancers: Innovators, often from the IT- and telecommunications industry, short “ITC”, will work increasingly in knowledge networks and thus, create innovations that will remain stimuli for successful national economies.” “However, these”, adds Prof. Thomsen, “cannot simply be conjured up online.” Real life still appears to have a value in the age of the Internet.
The study of the future of work in knowledge-based branches, which examines how innovations evolve, has proven that companies must occupy themselves with knowledge management in order to adjust to the needs of young, highly qualified employees. These “digital natives”, who are the turbo-booster for innovation, live the digital rationality given them by the Internet - the sustainable employer, who relies on this knowledge, must be prepared. They must change their work surrounding in a specific manner in order to win over and commit long-term employees who create innovations (and who know nothing of unemployment). This must be independent of whether or not they work as insurable employees or as self-employed “one-brain-companies” or if they are active as company founders. Herein lays the key for successful national economies.
The employees of tomorrow need to be attracted differently.
Branches such as ITC in which innovations are an important value driver, have new challenges.

How is society changing and what does that mean for the future work world? The aforementioned, important results of the study, which have been verified by the so-called TrendMonitoring®System and by means of qualitative market research through the LiveResearch®-System (high validity also through analysis of non-verbal forms of expression), can be traced back to five so-called mega-trends, i.e. developments that continue for several decades. “Acceleration”, “Competition for Knowledge”, “Subjectification of Work”, “Volatile Employer Selection” and “Germany - Country of Freelancers”. However, these mega-trends are not the results of the study. Rather, they offer the fertile ground for the highly relevant correlation between innovation, knowledge networks and attracting their most important disciples.

Acceleration: The acceleration of the world is influenced by the dynamics and complexity it expresses in many aspects. E.g., networks such as Twitter or Facebook encompass the world and inform you of happenings before others do. This demonstrates the enormous power of digitalization. With the result: worldwide networking that becomes the turbo-booster of accelerated time.
Competition for knowledge: Knowledge is the most important asset in order to remain competitive. “Knowledge dwells in people”. These people, who are highly relevant for their company, must be found and bound. Short innovation cycles are decisive in competition. The society of knowledge alters the economy.
Subjectification of Work: This trend describes the search for meaning. Important employees ask themselves: “Why am I doing this anyway?” The affinity for these issues is becoming stronger in knowledge-intensive professions: “I do not live to work, but rather, I work to live.”
The Employer Selection is increasingly volatile: People reflect their own values and choose their jobs. In the context of sociodemographic development, from which the increasing shortage of highly qualified employees results, they have it even easier.
Germany is not only a shrinking country, but also a freelancer country. This is highly relevant for the tertiary sector. These are exactly the employees needed by the economy. Since 1994, the overall economic proportion of freelancers has doubled.

Hence, companies must adjust to the new needs of young, highly qualified and coveted employees. High demands of their function, as well as their work surroundings are characteristic for these “digital natives”.