25th Jan 2011

CEO of Manpower: We Have Entered "The Human Age"

Manpower Inc. believes that the global economy has fundamentally changed. The focus is now on you.

A global corporation that connects temporary workers with businesses, Manpower keeps up to date on employment trends. In Davos, Hub Culture sat down with Jeffery Joerres, the CEO of Manpower Inc. and asked him about his company's most recent report. In the interview below, Mr. Joerres explains how the global economy has (slowly) emerged from a recession, but he also explains how he believes we have entered a new age of employment.

Mr. Joerres believes that we are at the beginning of "The Human Age." We had the industrial age, then the space age, followed by the information age; now we enter an age dominated by individualism and human capital. Or so Manpower predicts. Below is the interview.

The focus is not on technology, but how it is used. As Joerres said, it isn't the iPad, but the "10 billionth" ap that is downloaded.

Below is a schematic of how Manpower views this shift from the "information age" to the "human age."

Yesterday Today

Industrial/Information Ages The Human Age
Capitalism Talentism
Access to capital the differentiator Access to talent the differentiator
Driven by owners and companies Driven by skilled individuals
Workers chasing companies Companies chasing workers
Companies dictate terms Employees dictate terms
Workers living near (or from) place of work Workers living (or from) anywhere
Talent glut Talent shortage
Unemployment from over-supply Unemployment from specific demand
Technology the enslaver Technology the liberator
Closed borders Open borders
Migration rare Migration commonplace
Job for life 10-14 jobs by age 38
Corporate opacity; secretiveness Corporate transparency; openness, human approach
OECD countries growing and dominant Non-OECD countries growing and dominant - BRIC-MIST, esp. China, India, Africa
Work for an organization Work with an organization
Be lean and mean Look out, not in
Size matters Agility matters
Hire power Hire passion
Command and control Flexible frameworks

What do you think? Do you agree?