The Future of Work- and of management

Javier Cabrerizo: The Future of Work

After my previous post on the future of work I realized about the following: in a few days I've come across the special report from Business Week "The Future of Work" , a new book from two McKinsey researchers under the title "Mobilizing Minds: Creating wealth from talent in the 21st century organization", and the Management Innovation Lab where a friend of mine acts as the executive director.

Obviously the theme of managing talent has been popular for a while but now it's becoming even more popular. And more serious research is being thrown into it, which is something to celebrate.

Based on experience in managing highly talented teams internationally I've come to one basic conclusion:

Employees are more committed and show less turnover or attrition rates when they feel the company is investing in their "employability". This is counter-intuitive but crucial: the more a company invests in employees (trainings, soft skills development, ...) the more value the employee perceives in staying with the company.

Now if you're managing a team of highly educated professionals, are you the type of person that's afraid of investing in developing their skills and capabilities because they may leave? Or are you the type of manager who understands that, in reality, that's precisely the only way to retain them?

I expect to see these ideas developed with the new research that is being conducted about the topic and I hope it will help change the mentality of obsolete managers that are just too abundant.