hwy120

The Future of the Workplace Is Already Here

What do you think the workplace of the future will look like? Years ago, obviously under the influence of The Jetsons, I envisioned a future of flying cars, helpful robots, and talking computers. Though we're edging closer to that vision, we're still likely years away from household help like Rosie the Robot Maid or R.U.D.I, George Jetson's mega-helpful computer.

Not having my own oracle to consult on what the future really holds for small businesses, I turned instead to the folks at Elance, the world's largest online freelance employment platform. This week the company released its Elance 2010 Year in Review, which highlighted the workplace transformations 2010 brought us and took a "sneak peak" at 2011 business and work trends.

Keeping Mobile in Mind
Some of the seeds for next year have already started sprouting. Just a few years ago, the "rule" for small entrepreneurs was to start a business, build a website, and then create a mobile app. Elance, however, said the priority will be to go mobile earlier. Based on their 2010 activity, Elance said there was a 98 percent increase in demand for mobile developers, as "touch screen tablets and mobile devices" become a high priority for Americans.

Elance said whether you are looking to construct new websites or revamp existing ones, you need to design with mobile in mind. This should lead to "simpler, cleaner, and more straightforward Web designs and a shift in design philosophy that puts mobile first, and desktop second." (Think short, easy-to-read content in one-column formats.)

Social Business Shifts Gears
By now we all know businesses must be social to capture the attention of consumers. But this year social shifted from being all about connecting to being more about coercing -- in a "gentle" way, of course. And what better way to convince consumers to do business with you than by offering discounts? That's what's made Groupon the "fastest-growing company ever" according to Forbes and prompted the company's founder to walk away from a $6 billion buyout bid from Google. In fact Elance reported that demand for workers with social media skills grew significantly this year as "social buying quickly went from a cool trend to an economic force."

Content will still be king in 2011, but Elance said creating "keyword-rich content" for the purposes of search engine optimization "simply won't cut it next year and beyond." Instead, they predicted, "search engines are beginning to find new ways to differentiate quality original content by tracking social media 'buzz' through sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz." If your business uses content, Elance said, it will be "all about quality, not quantity in 2011."

Based on 2010 hiring patterns Elance also declared traditional marketing (direct mail, telemarketing, etc.) dead, giving way to "cutting-edge forms of promotion and customer acquisition" like search engine and social media marketing. In fact, Elance predicted, "next year, traditional marketing will become even more obsolete" as more businesses adopt viral and social marketing methods.

Cloud Computing Changes the Game
As we told you last week, there's a lot of activity going on in the cloud. This trend will continue next year, as Elance declared that "online work won't be just a buzzword in 2011 -- it will be the way to do business, period." If you want to compete with other businesses (either large or small), you need to be prepared to "adopt more robust online tools" including the kind of real-time collaboration which is best accomplished using cloud computing.

This trend has also led to explosive growth in the use of online workers, and Elance CEO Fabio Rosati said he doesn't expect a slowdown anytime soon. According to Rosati, more professionals are "opting to work online instead of onsite, marking a fundamental shift in labor practices." Elance itself surpassed the 1 million mark in job listings since its inception in 2006, posting over 375,000 jobs this year alone.

This transformation impacts workers and business owners alike. If you're looking for a job, you might want to ditch your resume (which Elance claimed are on "the brink of extinction") in favor of a digital portfolio. And if you've given up on the job hunt and decided to pursue the entrepreneurial life, starting as an independent contractor is a good place to begin.

You won't be alone. About 30 percent of the U.S. job market, an estimated 42 million workers, now consists of independent contractors, part-time or temporary staffers, and the self-employed. By 2020, this "contingent workforce" is expected to grow to 40 percent of the overall job market.

Science fiction writer William Gibson, the man who coined the term "cyberspace", once observed: "The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet." The future of work has already arrived, too -- and 2011 will be the year it goes into wide distribution.