Top 5 Trends Likely to See in 2017
Successful businesses adapt. They adapt to the changing workforce, new market demands, and ever-evolving technology. They have to, companies that don’t adapt, die. Understanding what changes are on the horizon can help pave the path to adaptability and success.
Many Millennials
Millennials are becoming the fastest growing segment of the workforce. Estimates say that by 2025 these young professionals make up 75% of the workforce. Being able to successfully manage millennials and prepare them to take leadership positions will help ensure your company is poised for success in 2017 and beyond.
Remote Workforce
One thing millennials value almost above anything else is flexibility. They want to the ability to work from home, the coffee shop, or while sitting on the beach. From the business perspective, it is advantageous to be able to hire talent from all over. Having a larger pool of talented potential-employees from which to pull is a definite plus. We will continue to see the remote workforce and more opportunities for remote operations.
Strength-Based Training
You have probably heard the old adage, “do what you are good at, not what you love.” The same goes for the workplace. Companies are looking less for generalists and more for specialists to focus on doing one particular task, and to do it well. Having laser focus helps not only the employee, but the company as a whole. According to Ian Altman, Gallup Research shows that productivity increases 21% when employees are doing something they love. In 2017, businesses will invest more in training that focuses on an employee’s natural talent than on generalized training.
Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT)
The concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around since the ancient Greeks, however as technology has advanced so has AI. The goal of AI has evolved from imitating humans to helping humans. As AI’s goals shift, so do its inherent intersection with the Internet of Things (IoT).
The Internet of Things (IoT) being the concept where everyday items – from your car to your window blinds – join the internet; basically if it has an on/off switch you can connect it to the internet. It follows then, that the technology that controls IoT devices will also make use of machine learning. As a result, devices will start to communicate and help each other make decisions.
Conversational Systems
Along the lines of devices communicating, we have seen a dramatic increase in humans and machines interacting on a conversational level (think Amazon’s Alexa). Gartner believes that this is but the beginning. One market research firm predicts that by 2020 conversational user interfaces will be a $600 billion market.
This is but a sampling of what’s in store for us in 2017. We live and work in an exciting time. For more on what’s going on in the Dynamics NAV world in general, be sure to check out our How-To blogs.