Loyalty is no longer enough to both employers and the workforce

How does the fourth industrial revolution, blurring the real and technological worlds, affect companies and the way they do business? How do companies manage their corporate culture to increase employee engagement? What tools and methods are used to keep employees motivated and engaged?

The business world has been changing fast, even dramatically. In the not-so-distant past, loyalty was key to both employers and the workforce, with job security becoming a main goal. If you had the opportunity to work in a corporate company, and if you worked hard, you would have found yourself a job for life. The concepts of ‘loyalty’, ‘job security’ or ‘job for life’ just seem too detached from reality for companies and employees nowadays.

The Millennium generation – those born between the early 1980s and early 1990s – is conquering the workplace, slowly taking the place of Generation X, the baby boomers, born between the early 1960s and late 1970s. With the Millennium generation, a new set of values has arrived.

The rhythms and paradigm of life itself have changed. In our increasingly complex world, life, work, production and politics have become independent of time and space. Industries are being disrupted, start-ups are eating away business models and the average company these days lasts about a third of the lifespan of 50 years ago. The hierarchical structures defined in the industrial society are being replaced by active network systems and evolutive organisational models. The experience economy is spreading rapidly. We are not trying to solve the chaos anymore; we are only struggling to manage it.

Consequently, there is plenty of thinking and advice out there about different methods and approaches to sustain companies’ lifespans, drive sustainability and increase employee engagement. The real dilemma of large companies seeking to survive and adapt to rapidly changing market conditions is that they need more employees with creative and innovative ideas, but these profiles seem to be less inclined to work at large companies than in the past.

We will discuss why that is next.

READ MORE:
Millennials and innovation in the workplace
Generation Z and innovation in the workplace
How innovation can help you conquer the new generations
How to create a culture of collaborative innovation in younger generations
Why is innovation management a powerful tool to engage Generations Y and Z
Six best innovation practices to engage Millennials and Gen Zers

Aylin Olsun, managing partner of ASO Company
Diana Neves de Carvalho, Exago’s CEO