Population growth will change the face of the workplace - Van den Barselaar

Offices of the future will be increasingly mobile and flexible. "Jobs of the future will see more people working from diverse locations such as home offices, temporary business spaces, café's and hotels," says Lyndy van den Barselaar, managing director of human capital solutions provider Manpower Group South Africa.

This, she says, is a result of the amount of traffic that will be on the roads and the diminishing amount of land space for the building of new homes and offices. She explains that technology will assist in allowing staff working off-site to do so with greater ease, and to interact with colleagues from all over the world with just the click of a button. "Investment into this type of technology by businesses will replace current investment into things like property, property taxes and maintenance," she says.

Businesses of the future

Van den Barselaar explains that, given the shift that will take place, jobs of the future may see increased employment in certain sectors and decreases in others. "Staff members possessing a combination of technical and interpersonal skills, who are able to adapt quickly to a changing work environment, will be important for businesses of the future." She notes that businesses will also be looking for employees who are able to create new products and services, as well as those who can identify more efficient ways to work.

Given the amount of technology that will be used in the workplace across all industries, sectors such as Information Technology, Telecommunications and Technical and Mechanical Maintenance will experience increases in employment opportunities.

"Hotels and restaurants may also experience this increase, as they will be used for meeting places when face-to-face meetings need to take place. Hotels, especially, will be an important part of the jobs of the future, as many global employees will make use of their meeting and conference rooms, as well as access to WiFi," says Van den Barselaar.

A report by CNN released in April, stated that as the traditional office space undergoes a global demise, hotels are already starting to change their function to accommodate the new wave of mobile workers. Meeting rooms are being rented out for a certain rate per hour, to give off-site employees a place to work and interact with colleagues using technology.

She notes that, unfortunately, many industrial sectors will experience lesser employment opportunities, like mining, farming and car manufacturing, where the skills can be replaced by machines. "Of course, there will always be a need for people in operating and maintaining the machinery, but many jobs will be lost to machines as well," concludes Van den Barselaar.

For more information, go to www.manpower.co.za or www.manpowergroup.com.