This is just one of the questions arising from our project exploring the future of work, which has been identifying drivers likely to affect the workplace over the next 25 years, 50 years and beyond, and their implications.
Changing workplace practices are starting to alter work, as we know it. This is being driven by enabling communication and information technologies, leaner workplaces, changing consumer demands and a greater need for sustainability.
One of the key trends emerging with the changing nature of work is a greater demand for work flexibility.
Traditionally, the view was that new mothers were the ones seeking flexible working arrangements as they juggled paid employment and their family; but this is no longer the case.
Today a wide range of workers, from millennials to those at the end of their career, are negotiating directly with their employer to work in a way that suits them - working evenings or starting early so they can have a long weekend, or working from home to remove the daily commute or make their working time more efficient.
Today as I write this, in my parents' house in Ireland, my brother sits in the other room working for a tech company in New York. His wife, who only a few months ago was doing 12-hour days for Adobe Systems in New York, is reflecting on the positive environment she now works in two days a week at the local garden centre creating and enhancing their social media profile.
Entire countries, including Finland, are already trialling alternatives to the traditional 8am-5pm workday, and the office desk as the traditional work space - developing ways to measure work productivity as outputs and targets met rather than hours spent in the office.
Obviously, flexibility does not suit every workplace, but the point is change is happening. This suggests New Zealand too should be preparing for new ways of managing the requirements of its workers, particularly balancing the diverse needs of young employees and an increasing number of people now working beyond retirement age.
Understanding their needs is key.
The ageing workforce studies have shown working longer is good for the wellbeing of people, and is likely to positively impact on the issues of social isolation facing retirees.
But we need to know more. We need to understand how an ageing workforce affects the economy, the health sector, business, and the community, given the projections that a significant proportion of the 65-70 group will continue in the workforce in one guise or another.
How do workplaces put processes in place that help these employees work to their strengths? Should workplaces change expectations from physical aspects to more of a knowledge contribution?
At Otago, we are researching how workplaces are set up to manage the needs of this group, and hope to produce some case studies of best practice for workplaces.
The millennials
Millennials (also known as Generation Y) are the demographic born from 1980s to early 2000s. This is the generation highly familiar with communications, media, and digital technologies.
This age group, more than any before, is predicted to switch jobs frequently, and to have greater expectations from their workplace. Research on generational differences suggest millennials seek a good work-life balance and are not afraid to ask for flexibility in their workweek.
Again, how do we structure work to meet their needs?
One of the issues we found employers grappling with when we talked to them in our future of work study was how to help these millennials fit into the current workplace when they leave school, university or training institutes. A common theme was that millennials need to ''fit'' the current workplace structures But one employer suggested that rather than asking millennials to change, we should change our workplaces to suit them.
In other words, the world is changing, and we have to adapt.
Something for employers to ponder
Employers take note - ageing populations and the emerging millennial workers are seeking work flexibility, while businesses overseas are already making changes. If you are not looking critically at what you are doing, and planning changes to fit in with the changing nature of work and a diverse workforce, you are effectively going backwards.
Now is the time to think about how you'd like your workplace to look in 10 or 20 years' time, and what you need to do to adapt, before you are forced to.
-Paula O'Kane is a senior lecturer in the University of Otago Business School, department of management. She and colleagues Sara Walton, Diane Ruwhiu, and Virginia Cathro worked on the Future of Work Dunedin project. This is the second in a four-part series being publishing on the opinion page arising from the Business School project.
