This is the first in a series of blog posts looking at workplace trends and how you can best position yourself for advancement. The trends have been identified by Catalyst Canada in their paper Workplace Trends: Today’s Decisions, Tomorrow’s Successes. The full report is available for download by Catalyst members. Non-Catalyst members are able to view a description of the report only.

In order to prepare for your success you must have an understanding of what the future looks like in the workplace. Catalyst experts have identified six trends that will affect the workplace in the future. Over the next six weeks I am going to explore each of these trends and provide information that you can use to plan your future advancement in the workplace.

Trend 1 - The Growing Talent Shortage

According to Catalyst the science and technology sectors have been identified as facing a talent shortage. This shortage is rapidly affecting more fields, including advanced manufacturing and healthcare. Many global organizations are facing large retirement numbers associated with aging populations.

This shortage provides an opportunity for women to establish themselves as leaders in the workplace. Employers will have to put aside their unconscious discrimination of women as leaders and put strategies in place to attract and retain women in their organizations. Women will have greater opportunities to work for companies that value their leadership skills and diverse decision making talents. Employers will be pushed to diversify the pipeline of talent to be successful.

Where does this leave you as a woman working in this changing world? How do you set yourself up to be successful?

• Be a strong contributor and focus on work results. Keep track of your successes and celebrate them.
• Ask for strong metrics to chart your progress. This will put your successes front and centre at evaluation time.
• Act as an advocate for women’s advancement in the workplace. Make sure talents and skills of female peers are recognized and celebrated.

As employers become more aware of the trends and the shifts that will have to take place for success, you will be better positioned to take advantage of this different work environment if you put these strategies into your everyday work life.

Next week we’ll explore the second trend: Generation Y and the Interaction of Four Generations in the Workplace.