🔖 Summary in 3 Sentences
A macro perspective on current workforces and workplaces. Thru data, show us the insight of globalization, workspace, management, pay, and the aging workforce. Give us a glimpse into the future of workforces and the challenges we're going to face.
🧑🏻 Who Should Read It?
Anyone who is interested in topics regarding workforces, such as globalization, workspace, management, pay, and the aging workforce.
🔑 My 3 Key Takeaways
The health of workforces.
If a has done much he is more contented after his labours than if he had done nothing whatever; for by work he has set his powers in motion.
The health of the workforce is essential for business productivity. When your employee always takes leaves or is sick at work, it will directly impact the productivity level of the company. When we talk about the health of workforces, what we think about is subsidized gym membership, stress-management programs, and healthy eating initiatives. But research shows that these incentives hardly improve the health level of the employees. The company that experiences low levels of sickness absence, high retention, and high morale tend to be those companies with good culture. So what makes a company healthy is not the health-related perks, but a job that makes the employee feel secure, fair, and grow.
Good job.
Spend increasing sums of money to motivate people to do unappealing and/or boring work or save money by instead making work more appealing and rewarding, thereby raising more powerful levels of intrinsic motivation. If you want people to do a good job, give them a good job to do.
Labor cost is the biggest expense for most companies. Research shows that the labor cost is rising consistently, but productivity is not growing as fast. There are more and more people employed to work in the economy, but the overall productivity of the economy is not improving according to the addition. As the owner of the business, the design of the job is very important in order to increase the productivity of your company. Bosses should not increase the productivity of your company by just increase the headcount, but also spend time designing the job so that you can do more with fewer people.
Aging workforce.
One of the bigger underlying demographic changes that will shape the future of work is that the workforce is getting older and people over 50 are now much more likely to be in a job than in the mid-1990s.
Since young, we've been told to get a job and work until we're 55 years old, then we can retire with our pension. But now, we can see there's a lot of people at old age who still can't manage to retire. It's very important to plan financially, so you can be financially free early. You might be in your 20s or 30s, but 50 is not far away. If you don't plan early, you will be stuck in the rat race for the rest of your life. You have to keep learning to be competitive in the labor market. I've known two programmers in 30, one is leading a team of programmers and building incredible software, but another one is still waiting for his senior to teach him at work. Time doesn't wait, keep learning.
💭 Afterthought
Reading this book is like reading an academic essay. A lot of references and data to prove his point. Don't really like this kind of book. Prefer book with less reference (easier to read) and more case study (easier to relate). But overall, it does expand my view on the labor market.
🛍 How to Buy?
I bought this book on Shopee's BigBadWolf for RM13.50. You can buy it with this link.
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