“There's now this notion that you, as an individual, are an independent agent, and you can determine what your career path looks like,” explains Alex Smith, HR executive for the City of Memphis. In today’s episode, host D-Rich sits down with guests Alex Smith and Nona Austin-King, CEO of Career Catalyst Group, to discuss the future of work and how employee expectations and desires have changed thanks to technological advancements, societal shifts, generational differences, and of course, the pandemic.

Growing up, most of us were taught that we would go to college, get a job, stay with that company forever and then retire. However, that’s just not the norm anymore. In fact, there has been a large shift, in part propelled by the pandemic, where employees are taking control of their career paths. Now, people are looking more for flexible and remote opportunities where they can temporarily grow a skill set rather than provide a lifetime commitment. In response, employers have an evolved understanding of what the employer-employee relationship entails and realize that people are not necessarily looking to be tied into the same role long term anymore. Thanks to this, the relationship is on more equal footing and employees often hold more power at work than they realize. 

The future of work is happening right now. The expectation of a long term employment relationship is mostly a thing of the past and employees have more control than ever before over their own career paths. Join Nona Austin-King, Alex Smith, and host D-Rich on this week’s episode of Southern Soul Live Stream - Podshow to learn more about how the idea of work has changed throughout recent years and what employers and employees alike should anticipate for the future. 

Quotes

• “The thing that I have been most surprised about is going through this process is not just about landing a role. It is helping people to build that self confidence again, elevating their mindset, and really just rediscovering the excellence that's already inside of them. There is no magic pill, it's already inside of you.” (10:57-11:24 | Nona)

• “The term ‘future of work’ means changing the way businesses run based on technological advances, generational changes, social shifts, but the reality is the future of career management, the future of work, is right now.” (16:42-17:01 | Nona)

• “I believe that a lot of us have the skills needed in the future, but we just need to be able to identify that in a story.“ (18:27-18:42 | Nona)

• “When many of us were growing up, or even when we talked to our parents, they gave us this whole adage about, you're going to go to college, get a job, and work for a company for 25 years, retire. And there was this whole sense of having this long term employment relationship with an organization of some sort, and you do your time, and you're able to retire and move on with your life. But nowadays, it is very different.” (40:26-40:54 | Alex)

• “There's now this notion that you as an individual are an independent agent, and you can determine what your career path looks like, and chart that out. And you can design it the way that you want.” (41:56-42:07 | Alex)

• “That's the new contract. That's the future of work now. This idea that people can move and be very transient, that they can work from home or work in hybrid environments, that they can be in an independent contracting space, or they can also be a full time employee. But they have flexibility to decide how they want to work and when they want to work.” (42:21-42:42 | Alex)

Links

Connect with Nona Austin-King, CEO of Career Catalyst Group:

• Website - https://careercatalystgrp.com/
• Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nonaaustinking/
• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/careercatalystgroup/

Connect with Alex Smith, HR Executive City of Memphis:

• Website - www.consultalexsmith.com
• Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chroalexsmith/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CHROAlexSmith

About Southern Soul Thursdays - @SoulThursdays

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