According to new research from Accenture, “Career Capital,” 4,100 professionals in 32 countries believe the most common workplace changes that will happen by 2020 are flexible hours and multitasking.
Overall, the study found that a vast majority of men and women believe building their career capital—the differentiated skills that define and advance their careers—is key to success in the workplace, and that the most successful employees will be those who can adapt to the changing workplace.
Following are some of the key findings from the study:
Workplace Changes
Workplace changes by the year 2020 will focus on multi-tasking and flexible hours. The professionals surveyed as part of this study believe that multi-tasking (49%) and flexible working hours (46%) will be the most common workplace changes of the future.
Skills
Respondents believe that the most important and most marketable skills for the future workforce will be multi-tasking (57%), speaking more than one language (54%), and being a team player (54%).
Leadership
More women are expected to be at the top by year 2020. Both men and women who responded to the Accenture survey have positive feelings about the progression of women in leadership roles in the future. In total, 70% say the number of women CEOs will increase by 2020 (15% think the increase will be significant), and 71% think the number of women board members will also increase. At the management level, nearly half of respondents (44 percent) say their companies are preparing more women for senior management roles than they did last year.
Experience and Education
Experience is expected to overrule education in the future. More than half of the professionals who were surveyed (51%) agree that they have more education than they need to do their jobs, and nearly three out of four (72%) agree that experience is more important than education in their current jobs.
Gender
The survey found that men and women believe they bring different attributes to work. Globally, both believe efficiency is the top attribute they bring to the job, but women are more likely to say so (59% women vs. 53% men), and men are slightly more likely to say the top attribute they bring to the job is their leadership skills (29% men vs. 23% women).
What do you think of these survey results? Do you agree that flexible hours and multitasking will be the most common workplace changes by 2020? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the future of women and the workplace.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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Did they also include work location? I am seeing lots of people take their work home nowadays. And this is not only true for business owners. I have seen employees ask for that flexible schedule as well.