The Changing Landscape
I found myself riding to the doctor’s office yesterday. I had not been to this specific doctor and his office in approximately 18 months. I was taking a route that I had taken many times before. What impressed me was the number of items that had changed along the route. Where previously businesses had been that I had known for years, were now different businesses. Buildings I had known looked different, obviously having been either refaced, or in some instants rebuilt from the structure that had been there previously. On a couple of sites, new construction was actively going on. This was all in the space of a drive of about 5 miles.
What I was seeing on this drive was in fact no different than what I am seeing in my own immediate neighborhood. While I live in a residential neighborhood, a small commercial district of stores is only about one block away. Even in that district, businesses that had been there less than 10 years ago have been replaced by other businesses. In other locations new businesses had come in, and within a matter of months, were shutting their doors. Yes, I have been around for a long time in terms of my life. As such, change would be expected in areas that I knew as a child or a young adult. However, some of changes I was seeing were in locations that I have lived only over the last 14 years, since I married by current spouse.
I bring this about, because this “changing landscape” not only impacts the visual in our life, but even those items that are not so visual. During this last year, two organizations for which I do contractual career coaching work have changed their models. One, joined forces with two other outplacement companies, and an online resume writing organization. Their model for working fragmented how support is provided to the end client. One area of the operation does all the resume writing and development. My branch acts as coordinator of services, and helps with other aspects of a job search such as strategy, interview preparation and offer negotiation strategies. The second organization, which for years concentrated on specifically providing relocation services to accompanying spouses in an organizational company move, is looking into additional areas in to which to offer their services. The numbers of families physically relocating as part of a job move has lessened substantially, especially transfers within the United States. One can now work remotely from their present residence, even if their co-workers and home office are hundreds of miles away.
When I completed my career coaching studies twelve years ago, one of the principles that I was taught is that a target job role and position has 3 components to it. Those components are an industry in which one works, the type of job function and responsibilities that you have, and the location of the job itself. Those factors all still apply. However, what has changed within that dynamic is the how quickly those three components change in today’s technological ever-changing world. New industries emerge as industries that have been around historically either lessen in scope, or disappear altogether. Organizational structures in companies have continued to get more functional and flatter in nature, than in a vertical organization structure. As such, the responsibilities, and skills one must have to perform a particular job role evolves and continually changes. Keeping abreast of these new skills, being trained, and certified in them and exhibiting that you have used them productively in a work environment becomes essential. As I indicated previously, where one performs their job role from now does not always need to be in person. It may be essential for some roles, but for many other support roles the need to have office space and people working at it, is not always needed by a company. In some cases, a company starts anew and develops its structure with a mindset of their staff all working not at an office site, but in their own home.
Will this pattern continue to go on as it is? Most likely it will. Will it ever be replaced by a different model? Perhaps it will, but I do not foresee it happening in the near future. What is one to do if they feel impacted by the ongoing change? They can research and look for places that look to do things the way with which they are most comfortable, (and may find them, but not without a lot of investigation). They can look to continue to update their skill sets to provide the talents that the market is seeking. Or they can choose to start their own business and provide services the way they feel is best and look, to connect with the customers that seek services the way they are delivering them.
