10 October 2005
How the changing world will affect communication
According to a report from Davis & Company, a variety of social and economic forces have rendered the assumption of a homogenous workforce false.
This assumption, from 50, 20 or even 10 years ago, was that an organization’s workforce represented a single demographics segment — that employees as a group were more alike than different.
A variety of social and economic forces have rendered the assumption of a homogenous workforce false.
The report, Seven Demographic Trends Driving Employee Communication, also states that changing demographics are likely to create an even more complex and diverse workforce in the future, making communication more complicated than ever.
To help communicators build a program that responds to such varied audience segments, the report defines two different sets of demographics:
- Macrodemographics, relating to global or national trends that will impact the organization.
- Microdemographics, which are unique to an organization, unit or location.
The report provides an overview of seven key demographic trends that impact the workforce, and, by association, communication. They are:
- the aging developed world;
- the new baby boom;
- education;
- work migration;
- women in the workplace;
- technology; and
- languages.
It also identifies three essential areas when focusing on microdemographics: geography, tenure and age ranges and recommends HR as a good source of organizational demographic information.
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