Perry Timms kicked off his session in his usual high-energy manner, talking about how we got involved in Twitter and started to connect with some really cool HR people on there.

Perry looked back to 2008 and looked at the news and articles about work in 2008. There were 140 million Facebook users, and people were using Windows Live Spaces, Blogger, MySpace, and WordPress.

There are now 1.15 Billion people on Facebook, 1.01 Billion people on Google+, 500 Million on Twitter, 150 Million on Instagram and 70 Million on Pinterest. In 2004, 2% of the US Population were on Facebook. In 2014, 93% of the population of Turkey are on Facebook.

Perry then switched focus to 2020, starting with the book ‘The 2020 Workplace’ which suggests that businesses will be using social media to listen. Brian Solis ‘What’s the Future of Business?’ was recommended as healthy inspiration for social media in the future.

Perry’s thoughts for 2020:

The rise of wearable technology – Google Glass is a great example around today, Augmented Reality will start to create applications that we haven’t even thought about yet.

Thought-activated technology – We’ll see exoskeletons which will support people with disabilities, but we’ll also see military and warehousing applications.

Platform aggregation: As we see the rise of information flow, we’ll see an increasing number of aggregation platforms that bring content to us e.g. Flipboard. Instead of us finding the news, the news will find us.

Geo-location/virtual hangouts: The capability in our phones will change the way that we work with people, meetings will continue to move from face-to-face to virtual (e.g. Google Hangout) and we’ll have more opportunistic meetings with people who are nearby (as highlighted by our phone).

Open workspace platforms: Collaboration tools will allow us to have open collaboration, far more effectively that email. This is happening now, but will be much more prevalent in 2020.

A virtual collaborative workforce: We’ll use technology to break down barriers, form new networks, and create wide Personal Learning Networks.

3D Social Learning: Digital, Demand-led, distributed will help accelerate sharing, much like the CIPD Communities.

Trading social capital: We will continue to share more information, and our social network will become a source of personal competitive advantage when looking for a job.

Connected candidates: Social is being applied to work and recruitment. Sites like glassdoor.com allow employees to share experiences of working for an organisation, and that will apply to the recruitment experience as well.

An energetic glimpse into an exciting future!

Perry Timms – HR 2020 from Ian Pettigrew on Vimeo.