The accelerating rate of change in business, the economy, and society challenges both business and HR to adopt new rules for leading, organizing, motivating, managing, and engaging the 21st-century workforce. The report reflects seismic changes in the world of business. This new era, often called the Fourth Industrial Revolution—or, as we have earlier labeled it, the Big Shift—has fundamentally transformed business, the broader economy, and society.
Deloitte’s 2017 report Rewriting the rules for the digital age because a principal characteristic of the new era is not merely change, but change at an accelerating rate, which creates new rules for business and for HR. Organizations face a radically shifting context for the workforce, the workplace, and the world of work. These shifts have changed the rules for nearly every organizational people practice, from learning to management to the definition of work itself.
All business leaders have experienced these shifts, for good or for ill, in both their business and personal lives. Rapid change is not limited to technology, but encompasses society and demographics as well. Business and HR leaders can no longer continue to operate according to old paradigms. They most now embrace new ways of thinking about their companies, their talent, and their role in global social issues.
We have developed a “new set of rules” to make sense of this changing landscape. These rules reflect the shifts in mind-set and behavior that we believe are required to lead, organize, motivate, manage, and engage the 21st-century workforce. While it is hard to predict which emerging business practices will endure, it is impossible to ignore the need for change. This report is a call to action for HR and business leaders, who must understand the impact of change and develop new rules for people, work, and organizations.