New rules for a global workplace

By Ray Williams  »  The business environment has changed dramatically and will never again be characterized by stability, and dependent relationships between employer and employee. Consider the changes: During the early 1900s, 85% of Canadian workers were in agriculture. Now less than 3% of the population is in the sector. In 1950, 75% of US employees worked in production or manufacturing. Now less than 5% do. Today, about two-thirds of employees work in the services sector, and knowledge is becoming the country's key product. The first practical industrial robot was introduced in the 1960s. By 1982, there were approximately 32,000 robots used in the United States. Today there are 20,000,000. By l996, there were 500,000,000 websites. In 2002, the most recent data available, counted 210 billion websites. Most routine technical jobs can be done from almost anywhere in the world. There is no doubt, work is going global. New technologies and instant global communication have created intense competition for business. The economy is shifting toward service- and knowledge-based jobs. Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, says that soon the right-brained, creative dimensions of humans will dominate the workplace. Taking care of your career involves managing perpetual motion. Organizations will continue to reshape themselves to fit this rapidly changing world. Employees must reinvent themselves, and continually align themselves with new organizational needs and realities. In New Work Habits for a Radically Changing World: 13 Ground Rules for Job Success in the Information Age, Price Pritchart outlines several attitude and behaviour changes required of employees. Among them are these tips: Work from the heart and invest yourself passionately in your job. The most common solution to problems used to be to hire more employees. Today, there is no room for employees who just put in their time; Act with a sense of urgency. Emphasize action over analysis. Learn to fail, fix it and move on; Create a clear role for yourself, based on knowledge of your strengths, rather than depending on the organization to define that. The new world of work will be full of ambiguity and paradox. Think and act like an owner. Increasingly, self-directed teams and project teams are the structure of work, management ranks are thinning. Embrace life-long education and learning. No longer will education be seen as an early phase of life but a requirement for employees for their entire careers. Hold yourself accountable for outcomes. In these times of self-directed teams, empowered employees and boundary-less organizations, employees also get measured by the collective results. Holding yourself personally responsible also means seeing the big picture and looking beyond your own output. Contribute more than you cost. Think in terms of being paid for performance – the value you add, rather than simply activity levels. See yourself as a service centre. This heightens the importance of knowing your customers’ needs even if that customer is internal. Make yourself indispensable. Manage your own morale. Management and the organization are not responsible for your morale. Rather than allocate blame, develop emotional self sufficiency. Be a fixer, not a finger-pointer. Organizations need people to take care of problems and offer solutions, not whiners and complainers. Employees expect too much of the employer, and too little of themselves. Alter your expectations. Stop thinking about what you're entitled to based on your past history, and start thinking about your value today and in the future. The global workplace is establishing new rules that require companies to act upon new expectations and will require a different kind of employee, one that demonstrates added value and takes personal responsibility. • Ray Williams is executive vice-president of Premier Career Management Group in Vancouver and president of the International Coach Federation of Vancouver. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it