The Future of Attraction, Motivation and Retention:
A Literature Review
Created by Karen Kelley, Brian Moore and Sue Holloway, CCP
November 2007
In May of 2007, WorldatWork embarked on a literature review. The purpose of
this review was to reveal the critical points of current knowledge on two topics:
1. Critical environmental circumstances that will affect the ability of organizations
to attract, motivate, and retain workers.
2. Implications for the practices and professions associated with attracting,
motivating and retaining workers.
The Review Process
The first phase of the project involved gathering resources. Primary criteria for
inclusion of a resource included credibility of author, and contemporaneity
(materials written within the past five years were preferred). We looked, primarily,
to the work of authors specifically concerned with future trends.
Once resources were identified, the review team began reading. A list of themes
was developed so individuals could document their findings in a consistent
manner. Criteria for inclusion of a theme included: consistent recurrence of the
theme throughout the materials the team were reading, and applicability to the
stated purpose of the project (i.e., identifying critical environmental
circumstances and implications that will affect attraction, motivation and
retention).
A graphic illustration of the team’s “world view” was developed in order to
understand the relationships between themes that were being developed. The
graphic (presented below) represents theme elements that developed during the
literature review, and which affect the ability of organizations to attract, motivate,
and retain workers.
Once the visual and conceptual organizers were in place, the team met regularly
to share synopses, discuss implications, draft preliminary statements, and refine
the final documentation.
Theme Elements: A Visual Perspective
Organizational
Needs
Business Strategy
Human Capital
Needs
Labor Force
Labor
Market
Diversity
Demographics
Skills & Talent
Employee Attitudes
& Expectations
Human Capital Strategy
•
•
•
Work Design
Outsourcing
Training
The graphic above shows elements that affect the ability of organizations to
attract, motivate, and retain workers. In an environment where the global scope
of opportunity and technology are all-pervasive influences, an organization’s
interaction with a rapidly changing labor force will result in dramatic
transformations in human capital strategy, work design, outsourcing, and training.
The field of play is the global scope of opportunity.
Originally, the team identified a theme called “globalization.” It soon became
apparent that many of the review documents were taking the term “globalization”
for granted. It was difficult to ascertain whether all of the authors were talking
about the same thing. Some authors took the term to mean the mobility of
workers; others used it to mean global operations, while others used the term to
indicate global economic systems. The review team came across the term
“global scope of opportunity.” This phrase suggests a broad perspective which,
hopefully, will prevent readers from defaulting to a limited view of globalization.
In every book or article the team reviewed, the fact of the global scope of
opportunity was a given. The futurist authors pointed to an all-pervasive,
inexorable integration of markets and technologies that will enable individuals,
corporations and nations to interact more quickly and easily than ever before.
Another major portion of the field of play was technology.
As with the global scope of opportunity, there was consensus about technology.
All of the futurists predicted a world of astonishingly advanced, omnipresent
technology. The technological revolution has reached around the world, with
important consequences for organizations, governments, and the labor force.
And while many people marvel at the speed of advances made over the past few
decades, the futurists all agree that the end of the exponential leaps in
technology is nowhere to be seen. Not only will the world be connected; it will be
intensely networked.
Within this environment of globalization and technological advancement,
organizational needs are changing, business needs are changing.
At the same time, the labor force is evolving.
In this environment, the organization, which represents demand, meets the labor
force, which is supply, and the space of their negotiation is the labor market.
Where organizational need meets availability of talent (or lack of), things get
interesting. The resulting evolution of human capital strategy, work design,
outsourcing, and training will change the face of attraction, motivation and
retention forever.
Predictions
The team compiled eight predictions about critical environmental circumstances
that will affect the ability of organizations to attract, motivate, and retain workers
in the future. Each of the main themes represented in the graphic (i.e.,
Organizational Needs, Global Scope of Opportunity, Technology, Labor Force,
Human Capital Strategy, Work Design, Outsourcing, and Training) has an
associated prediction.
Identifying the eight predictions was not difficult; there was great consistency
throughout the review materials. Initially, the team was concerned that the
reading materials would yield a chaotic perspective, but as it turned out, there
was remarkable consensus among the futurist authors. It was also noted that
what we were reading about as “the future” might actually be the present for
some organizations, particularly more progressive ones.
1. The successful organization of the future will excel at acquiring, organizing
and strategically deploying global resources.
2. There will be increased global connectivity, integration and
interdependence in the economic, social, technological, cultural and
political spheres.
3. Technology will advance at an even more rapid pace than in previous
decades.
4. There will be continuous, dramatic changes in the labor force.
5. Human capital will become an even greater source of value.
6. The way work is organized and performed will evolve and change
continuously.
7. Outsourcing will increase.
8. Self-paced, self-directed individualized virtual learning will dominate
business training.
Implications
The second part of the literature review involved extrapolating from the initial
predictions in order to identify some implications for the practices and
professions associated with attracting, motivating and retaining workers.
Following are some examples of the implications identified by the literature
review team.
Organizational Needs
Recruitment and retention will be part of a business’ competitive edge in a
hypercompetitive market. Ongoing intensive and strategic efforts will be focused
on these aspects.
In the near future, an organization’s ability to attract, motivate and retain will
emerge as the primary indicator of fiscal performance and survival. To that end,
given the diverse workforce, organizations will be offering more variety in
rewards as they try to access the best and the brightest in a seller’s market.
The triple bottom line (i.e., measuring organizational success in relation to
economic, environmental and social criteria) will become increasingly accepted
(and expected).
Global Scope of Opportunity
Sourcing talent, like everything else in the future, will be a global affair. The
global scope of opportunity will involve companies in many complex systems:
economic, social, technological and political. Clearly, there will be challenges as
economic and geopolitical interdependencies bind people more tightly into one
global system.
In this environment, an organization’s most important strategic concern will be
people. People issues will be at the top of the agenda for companies interested in
growing, being innovative, being productive, and being competitive.
Technology
All-pervasive technology will be a double-edge sword: while it will be easier to
work when and where you want to, it may be harder to get away from the job.
The futurists see technology deeply integrated into the workplace, and in
people’s lives: both at work and at home.
Organizations will use technology to expand business processes and
relationships.
In the near future, workers will be able to download information and applications
via wireless anywhere, anytime. Small personal computing devices will enable
immediate access to information and training.
Digital communities will cater to specific interests (both work interests and leisure
interests) and offer individuals the opportunity to virtually interact and collaborate
with anyone, anywhere.
Additionally, advanced bioscience will eliminate many diseases and increase
longevity, altering the health and lifespan – and reward needs – of the workforce.
Labor Force
With an increasingly diverse workforce, no single reward element will be a value
driver. Job enrichment, flexibility and career development will be valued above
job security and stability. There will be increased importance of the value
proposition for individual workers.
Despite the current interest in multigenerational demographics, there appears to
be a new trend that cross all age groups, gender and geography: workers who
value (and are motivated by) opportunities for growth. These workers will
redefine traditional concepts of loyalty, job satisfaction and career advancement.
Instead of being concerned with job security and stability, they are interested in
gaining new experiences and having opportunities for growth. These workers will
expect to offer premium performance to an organization, in exchange for careerenhancing growth opportunities. They will look for flextime, contract and
consulting alternatives, and be absolutely comfortable in a virtual work
environment. The traditional career path will be a thing of the past – there will be
many opportunities for workers beyond affiliating themselves with one
organization.
Workforce composition will shift as the population ages, and as more women
enter the workforce. For a diverse global workforce, no single reward element will
be a value driver. There will be increased importance on the value proposition for
individuals.
Retention will be a significant issue: in the past, lower-skilled talent represented
most of the movement within organizations; increasingly the movement will be
within the highly-skilled talent.
Human Capital Strategy
In the past, business focused on the efficiency and effectiveness of HR
operations. Increasingly, the focus will turn to leadership, talent management,
performance, and culture. There will be increased interest in understanding how
investment in human capital creates value.
There will be more aggressive emphasis on reward differentiation for engaging
and retaining critical talent. Increasing commitment, retention and productivity will
be the goals, and these can only be accomplished through improvements that
are mutually beneficial for both the organization and the worker.
Assessment will be more important and more valuable as organizations assess
rewards that attract, motivate and retain their workforce. Businesses will have
access to more data, which means an opportunity for more analysis. That said,
measurement will still present a challenge. The technology will be there, the data
will be there – but people will need to understand how to think about measuring
the value of human capital.
Work Design
With workers working outside the traditional environment, HR will face new
challenges in work design. Additionally, the most successful efforts to increase
worker motivation will likely involve the design of work itself.
Dramatic technological advances will mean that being “at work” will include
working in telecommuting hubs, using online technologies to network with global
colleagues, and participating in virtual worlds. Being at work won’t mean being at
the office. High value work will frequently be conducted outside of an
organization’s facilities and collaboration will be the norm. Technical networks will
support human networks. That said, technology that makes “going to work”
easier, may make leaving work much more difficult.
Outsourcing
For purposes of the literature search, outsourcing is defined as the movement of
internal business processes to an external entity. Outsourcing will increase as
more jobs are viewed as partly or completely outsource-able. Future challenges
include: motivating a non-employee workforce and motivating people who are
doing prescribed tasks or who do not have career paths or logical career
progression.
Job design will be examined as organizations look for ways to pull jobs apart to
find pieces to outsource. Thought must be given to the motivation of workers
assigned “pieces” of the work.
There will be a need for tools to assess skills of graduates in different countries
to determine who is “truly qualified” for specific positions. An engineer from one
country may not have the same skill set as an engineer from another.
Training
Technology and learning will be integrated with daily business tasks and woven
throughout workers’ lives. Authors writing about future trends agree that there will
be continuous connectivity and a wealth of information.
Instantaneous connectivity and readily-available information mean knowledge will
become less proprietary and more “open source.” Training will be available in
small, readily accessible, easy-to-use modules for use at any time.
Mass collaboration will allow networks of people to share information and create
knowledge together. Digital communities will flourish, and experts will assert
themselves through these communities. Virtual education will become a
satisfying social experience for learners, as people integrate virtual experiences
into their lives.
Thoughts on the Future of the Profession
In conclusion, we’d like to take a moment to share our thoughts regarding some
topics that came up during the course of the literature review. During our
meetings, there were several interesting discussions about the likely trajectory of
HR practices in the near future, speculation about what may be the most
significant issue for the profession, and a few comments on the likely
requirements for the highly successful practitioner of the future.
HR Practices: Balancing Standardization and Appreciation for
Differences
In order to respond to the rapidly-changing environment outlined in our report,
HR practices may undergo a period of standardization. The adoption and
implementation of standardized approaches would spring from a desire to find
common processes in the midst of what seems to be a chaotic global and
technical environment. We commented, humorously, several times, that there will
certainly be vendors who will market software “solutions” to organizations that
feel overwhelmed by what we’ve called the “global scope of opportunity.”
Cynicism aside, there is a good chance that the human response to tremendous
flux in the environment will be standardization of practices. And there may well
be a desire to develop profession-wide standards.
While there may be a desire for standardization, we also foresee an increased
need for the appreciation of differences. With an increasingly diverse workforce,
there will likely be need for variability in rewards. As another example: on a local
practice level, it is important for professionals to discern when it is correct to
leave processes and programs alone, and when it is necessary to intervene in
order to break down bureaucracies.
Balancing standardization and appreciation for differences will require strategic
skills and excellent judgment. When you consider all of the environmental
circumstances we’ve discussed in this report, it is easy to imagine a knee-jerk
response that includes standardizing processes without consideration of the
opportunities for innovation and collaboration that might be available.
Conversely, lack of judicious planning and programs could easily result in chaos.
Engagement
Engagement may be the “next big thing” to challenge the profession. While the
concept of engagement is not new, the environmental circumstances outlines in
this report will magnify the need for deep engagement. As professionals and
organizations explore the need for effective and innovative engagement of
workers, there may opportunities for the systematic development of theory and
research which will benefit the entire field.
There is also a good chance that organizations, and the profession, will be
interested in assessing programs to determine their effectiveness. Given the
stakes of the undertaking, it is likely that organizations will want to establish
methods of measuring engagement program effectiveness.
HR Talent
If HR is to succeed at helping companies tackle their people-related strategic
challenges, it must expand its capabilities beyond basic HR operations and
administration. This is not a new statement. We hope that by offering the context
of the environmental circumstances in this report, it is clear that HR talent will
need to evolve in order to respond to the needs of organizations and workers of
the future. Strategic and analytic wisdom, deep appreciation for measurable
effectiveness, and keen judgment despite myriad choices will be hallmarks of the
professional of the future.
A Glimpse of the Future: Continued Exploration Through Collaboration and
Innovation
Our goal in sharing this look at the WorldatWork literature review is to foster
continued exploration of the future of attraction, motivation and retention. We will
be using the predictions from “The Future of Attraction, Motivation and Retention
Literature Review” to engage in collaborative discussion and innovative thinking
with experts and practitioners in the field.
A discussion forum has been established on the WorldatWork website. We invite
members and non-members to join us as we identify and discuss important
trends that affect attraction, motivation and retention. Please join us at
http://www.futureoftotalrewards.org/ to read and participate in this collaborative
discussion.
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