How the Globally Connected Landscape Has Affected Employee-Employer Relationships

There is no doubt that we currently live in a globally connected age. Thanks to things like social media and messaging apps, people can stay in touch with people from all over the world, so for millennials, relocating doesn’t mean the isolation it would have in earlier technological times. People have friends all over the world that they communicate with every day, and in business, it is also possible to form important working relationships with offshore teams and companies.

As a result of our new, smaller world, employers have had to change how they think about the people who work for them.

It Doesn’t Matter Where Your Team Is
In the pre-internet days, people would form close teams for business purposes based on the people around. Now, however, you can work very closely with people who live on another continent through virtual offices. This means that employees are used to having the option to work with businesses in a different country to the one they live in, and also have developed the skills to work with people in other places as if they were sitting in the next cubicle. This means companies have had to work harder to find ways to retain staff, and also that they have more options themselves when it comes to hiring.

More Opportunity, But Also More Resources
 In one sense, the world has become more competitive because you can hire someone from just about anywhere, but in another it has become more employee focused because there are more opportunities and that makes it more important to retain talent. Companies now tend to look to things like flexible working options and employee benefits, as well as training, as ways to inspire the people they hire to stay with them. However, the rise in recruitment agencies has also meant that a company with a vacancy can search the whole world for talent in certain situations.

People with aspirations to work with major brands, for instance those interested in FTSE 100 futures, may have a tougher time getting into those companies because they have the option to search for employee talent just about anywhere on the globe.

Nothing Is Permanent
Another change that has happened in the employer-employee relationship as we have moved towards greater global connection is that nobody really expects to have a job forever. In previous generations, a job for life was a normal thing, however Millennials change jobs and locations often, and don’t see any new job as a guarantee of a lifetime of work or as a commitment to lifelong company fidelity.

With more global connectivity, people are more exposed to opportunities that could improve their careers, pay checks and life experiences, and so to manage Millennials who have spent their whole working lives with these things available to them, companies have had to really sell themselves as employers. This is also a two sided coin, however, because it means employers can build up new teams for projects of a certain duration without being worried that those staffing them were expecting a job for life out of the deal.

It is very interesting how being more connected as a world has changed how we manage people and what employees expect from their companies. As we come to see global communication as more and more of a norm, we will probably see greater shifts in how we view global teams and how we recruit and retain talent.