By Jane Atherton, HQN LAOD Hub associate

We all know that the world of work is rapidly evolving, and the changes we’ve seen in the last five years are just the beginning. The housing sector has experienced significant shifts over this time, with increased scrutiny and regulation demanding high-quality services to meet growing needs.

While we can’t predict the future with absolute certainty, it’s crucial for organisations to anticipate how work will transform. By understanding trends affecting the workforce and workplaces, we can better prepare for what’s to come.

Here are a couple of global figures about the future of jobs:

  • By 2030, one in 16 workers may need to switch occupations
  • Job growth will be concentrated in high-skill areas like technology, engineering, and maths, while middle and low-skill jobs may decline.

When thinking about the future, it’s helpful to consider megatrends reshaping our world and workplaces:

  • Climate change: While 78% of businesses are setting Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) goals, only 6% have the necessary talent to achieve them
  • Technology disruption: Skills disruption is on the horizon, with 44% of workers’ skills set to change in the coming years
  • Demographic shifts: An ageing population and skills mismatches may lead to talent shortages, requiring investment in upskilling and reskilling
  • A fracturing world: Wars, tensions, and natural disasters may prompt organisations to take a stand on social and political issues, posing reputational risks if not handled carefully
  • Social instability: As trust in government declines, businesses are increasingly expected to support their employees with financial security and mental health services.

These elements should be considered within your organisation’s People Strategies when planning for the next three to five years. To remain effective, resilient, and forward-thinking, registered providers must adapt to these trends and plan to future-proof their workforce.

With all this change on the horizon, it’s business-critical to consider how to upskill people to adapt to increasing technology and future work methods. This ensures that neither the sector nor our customers are left behind. If customers have expectations for service delivery, we must be able to meet them. If we’re setting strategic ambitions around new green technology in our homes, we must be able to install and maintain them.

So, what knowledge and skills will be important in the next three to five years and beyond? Here are our top five thoughts on this:

  1. Soft skills: Communication skills, active listening, empathy, and quality interactions with customers will be essential. And while these have been traditionally referred to as ‘soft skills’, they’re not really. They’re hard and that’s why learning them is important. Developing these will skills help reduce complaints and improve customer satisfaction.
  2. Digital and data literacy: Technology is transforming how customers will access services. Employees will need to use digital tools, advise customers on their use, and understand the ethics of generative AI.
  1. Sustainability and environmental skills: With net zero targets in mind, sustainability measures are in most registered providers business strategies. Training will need to be tailored to different job roles, from surveyors to those responsible for green building design and energy efficiency. There’s then the moral argument for raising the education levels of all employees around sustainability. To enable them to be better citizens of the world, make informed decision about their environmental behaviour and collectively reduce the carbon footprint of the organisation.
  2. Management and leadership capabilities: Developing managers and leaders is key. Focus areas include managing diverse and remote teams, performance management, emotional intelligence, building trust, coaching skills, accountability, and managing change.
  3. Adaptability: With the rapid pace of change, fundamentally employees at all levels will need to be able to manage change and flex their mindset and skillset to adapt and successfully navigate uncertainty. Building these capabilities and skills will likely require a mix of learning interventions from structured learning to experiential opportunities tailored to the work group.

At HQN, we’re launching our new training course, ‘All change – develop your adaptability and growth mindset skills’ exploring the development of transitions and adaptability of employees. We have course dates running from May to December this year or alternatively book a session for your team. Read more about the course here.