A new renaissance?

Work will become just a part of what we do and who we are. Our lives will become a cycle of, work, further education and personal pursuits. There will be no official finish line based on age. Some people will ˜retire' early while others will work on for either fun or financial reasons.

Now how would this pattern of work, education and personal pursuits play in your business? These ideas are no longer ˜out-of-the-box' but very much part of a growing day-to-day reality. If we want to capture talent, and more importantly get it to turn up on our doorstep each and every day, we need to consider them. And you need to get them on to that strategic business agenda.

There are - it has to be said - companies that ˜get this' new wave of need. Sara Lee's operations in Australia have a work contract that actually says, ˜There are no fixed hours. We don't care when people come to work as long as they achieve what we agree their work responsibilities are.' In the UK, Dutton Engineering has introduced a working year. Employees work a fixed number of hours per year, with the plan that they increase their presence when things get really busy. In Belgium, the printing firm Casterman has a working week that lasts only a weekend Friday night to Sunday night plus one full Friday every fortnight. There's a queue to volunteer.