Hi there, thank you for taking the time to read a little about me and my blogging! My general rule with blogging is to keep it short and sweet - I am a Gen Y'er afterall, so my attention span is short. But we are all busy right, and reading blog entries should provide a short, sharp injection to provoke different thoughts, or get another perspective on something. So one thing is for sure, it will be short and sharp!
Does it blow your mind to think that a quarter of Turkey's population is under the age of 12. Wow! And what about the fact that Brazil will need 36,000 Engineers by 2012 but only 16,000 places in Universities? Oh, and Africa’s population is currently growing faster than any other major region and is projected to account for 21 percent of world population by 2050, up from just 9 percent in 1950. Incredible! Guess what percentage of total website traffic to FTSE 100 websites, ends up at the career section? 80%. Yep. 80%.
Stats like these blow my mind. I love it. We could talk and write about this all day. We have been talking and writing about Generation Y since 2006, but what really floats our boat is the impact that they are having on the workplace. The arrival of GenY to the workplace closes the chapter on the War for Talent (about time isn't it?) and begins a new chapter: The War for Personal Productivity. This shifts the war’s focus on Talent as a whole, which can be tracked through pools of people, and makes it the War for Me…The battle is now individualised and personal!
GenY is absolutely the biggest catalyst in driving the New World of Work and shifts in attitudes and aspirations towards work - for the first time ever, new hires (GenY) are coming to work already prepared and experienced with the tools of doing work (they self-organise, communicate, collaborate, project manage, give feed back etc). But the New World of Work is not a generational thing - it is about facing the current problems associated with 'getting work done'.
A global survey of over 500,000 employees across 2,000 companies revealed an average productivity level of just 34%. No wonder McKinsey talked about the war for talent (for so long) if it’s taking 3 people to do 1 job!
Global employee engagement surveys recorded an average of only 57% employees engaged. India was the highest ranked country with 78%. Japan was the lowest ranked country with 38%.
The average estimated economic costs of disengaged workers are huge:
· 100 billion in France
· £30 billion in the UK
· US$6 billion in Singapore
· US$350 billion in the United States
Crazy isn't it. All because our systems, processes, policies, structures, hierarchies and attitudes towards 'getting stuff done' are mostly still intact from the 20th century. It's time to ditch the 20th century way of doing business and embrace the New World of Work. I have a little task for you....ask 10 people in your division or business unit this question: How easy do we make it for you to do great work? Let me know how you get on!
Emma's professional background is as diverse as the countries she has travelled. It started out in Australia where she was born and lived until she was 21. At just 19 years old she joined one of the best marketing and business consultancies in Australia where she specialised in communications, organisational change and engagement. It was here that she worked on the communication strategy for the Government and also worked with Qantas and Travelex.
By age 21 she was living in Peru rebuilding devastatingly poor communities, teaching english, learning spanish and visiting homes to try and establish a safe source of drinking water. She fell in love with the people of Peru and has since returned to the school and community to visit all she fell in love with.
On arriving in the UK in 2005 she joined Bruce at BnB and worked to build an internal engagement and external client engagement model across the 10 companies. Together they merged and rebranded a divison in Asia and it was on the return flight to London that they created the brainchild...e3 Unlimited.
In just a little over two years they have created an international brand, a generational research business Ask Gen Y and worked with some of the world's best companies. In 2008 Emma was included on the prestigious ' 35 Women Under 35' list and made headlines in the Sunday Times. Emma speaks globally about the generational and demographic challenges facing organisations and how to reinvent the way work gets done.