Shift or shrink: Frank Van Massenhove at TEDxGhent

Frank Van Massenhove explains how companies in the 21st century will have to compete for employees. Embracing his radical and original ideas about the use of social media, teleworking and mobile workplaces, can help managers lead their company into the 21st century.

In 2005 we wondered
what our biggest problem would be.

We were surprised that it
turned out to be:

how do we find people we need
to efficiently realize our mission?

But we, the management, all baby boomers,

should not have been surprised.

We ourselves have created the problem.

Everyone thinks that our generation

was all about 'Make love, not war'.

But in reality we practiced
'Make love, not children'.

(Laughter)

Our parents had 2.2 children.

We produced only 1.2.

It takes 2.1 children to replace
the people who retire.

Our children are doing better.

But their children enter the labour market
around 2030. Too late.

Against all intuition the number
of people at work keeps expanding.

The situation in Belgium
will become problematic

already in 2014, when as many people
leave the labour market

as the number of people
entering the labour market.

It looks like 2020 is going
to be the most difficult year

with a replacement ratio just around 60%.

In the meantime, the war
on talent will burst

in all its intensity.

Therefore, the nature of the labour market

will change dramatically.

In the old days, labour
supply exceeded demand.

The employer chose the employee

and he could make high demands.

In the near future
labour demand will exceed supply.

The employee will be scarce.

In the future the employee
chooses the employer.

Every company, everyone who employs people

will have to compete with anyone
who employs people.

The challenge is: who gets these people?

For every company the key
question of the future is:

how do I become and stay a sexy employer?

I am convinced the answer is:

change your corporate culture.

Customize your culture
to the culture of the millennials,

because those are the people you need.

Key question: which corporate
culture lures the millennials?

Millennials want a high
degree of self-determination.

They are no salary slaves.

They don't want their boss
to decide where to work.

Our motto is: work at home, home at work.

Work at home.

Then the next logical question is:

who can work from home?

Don't go there.
I know what the result is going to be.

The top is allowed to work at home,

the graduates also,
the rest you can't trust.

The real question is:

which functions are not eligible
for work from home?

You will be surprised.

92% of our people are perfectly
able to work from home.

And 69% does.

This requires a total change
of all processes and workflows.

Until now, the employee
had to follow the file

because the file was a paper file.

Today's technology makes it possible

to make files follow the employee.

Digital is the new normal.

The employee expects to work with
technology which is state-of-the-art.

At least the kind of edge technology
he is working and playing with at home.

It's natural for him to work any place,
any time and with any device.

Bring-your-own-device
will be standard in years to come.

If state-of-the-art technology
is like having breakfast,

using social media is like breathing.

If you save on technology
at the expense of employees

and you don't trust
your employees on social media,

they feel like a prisoner
in your organization.

If you really want millennials to leave,

keep working with the old versions
of Microsoft Office and ban social media.

Let your employees work
wherever they want,

but make sure they feel
at home at work as well.

The workplace is not a place
for solitary concentration.

It is the place where you meet people.

As an employer, think
about [what] the workplace

where you want to meet other people
should look like.

The setting in which people work
should not depend on hierarchy.

It should depend on the activity
you are executing at that specific moment.

So you can read email
here, but also at home

or at Starbucks, wherever there's
an internet connection.

You can have a meeting here,

but of course we have
videoconferencing as well.

And coffee?

Coffee you can drink anywhere.

Mostly it is drunk at home.

Which is very cheap for the employer.

In such an environment, creativity
seems to come naturally.

But to create a truly
creative organization,

you need to do a lot more.

Everything must be
designed for the employees

to participate in the continuous design
of the future organization.

When you enter an organization,

you smell the boss and his culture.

What kind of bosses do we need

to create a creative environment?

Not this one, because he is like this.

We need bosses that are like this.

How do we know if they are
the new good bosses?

How do we know if the team manager
is a team builder?

How do we know if she is a real
coach for you?

Well, we ask the team.

Every year, we organize a bottom-up evaluation
of all the bosses in our organization.

You wouldn't find much creativity
in an organization that is based on this model.

You will have to work hard to ensure
that you have this kind organization.

How to get there?

Easy, ask your employees.

Give them time.

Encourage them.

And certainly don't fill up their agendas

with 100 percent operational assignments.

Make them proud.

Think and do authentic branding.

Ask all employees to use social media.

Beg them to talk about their organization,
not your organization.

Become a conversation company.

It's hard work, but it
brings magnificent results,

including financial ones,
although that's only the side-effect.

It's collateral profit.

First and foremost you have to
make your people feel at home at work.

And don't tell them when to work.

Only bad bosses and bad employees
are happy with the time clock.

Bad bosses think that you're
a good employee

when you get there on time
and don't leave early.

Bad employees think
it's okay just being there.

In the end it's all about results.

Each team must know
what results they should achieve.

And the entire team decides
who does what, not the boss.

A boss should never tell
people how to work.

He's to decide what the results should be.

That's what an authentic boss does.

He doesn't lie. He walks the talk,

not because he read it
in a management guru's book,

but because he believes in it,
he is convinced,

he is enthusiastic about it.

For the old style boss,
employee equals function.

An organization has financial resources,

it has logistical resources,

but you don't have human resources.

People are no resources.

Your recruitment policy
should reflect that rule.

Be like the Rolling Stones.

What would happen
if Charlie Watts had enough

of the follies of Keith and Mick and Ron?

Would they place and ad
for a drummer who can keep pace?

No. They would leave no stone unturned

until they found a new Stone.

If your people are really important,

then you feel about their future.

Not only their professional future,

because
that's only about the company's future,

but their future, their life's future.

Certainly not every millennial is a card
carrying member of the green party,

but be sure, they hate
filth, they hate waste.

The world is their world.

For them, global warming
is no theoretical problem.

They feel it. It destroys their world.

So don't expect them to work for a company

that is part of the problem.

Their friends would have
a lot of criticism

if you work for a polluting company.

Make no mistake, in making choices

they rather listen to their friends
than to their employer.

Even if your business has
nothing to do with ecology,

then you should be part
of the environmental solution.

That's why we buy products
that are cradle-to-cradle.

That's why we drive small hybrid cars.

In a few years, we will produce
all the energy we need.

The paper purchases are reduced by 72%,

the printers by 84%.

And everyone in the organization
knows this strategy

and is convinced that management
makes good choices.

Strategy and branding
are key tasks of management,

but their task ends there.

Management determines where to go.

The people decide how
and what to do to get there.

Sometimes you need
to completely break with the past.

We chose a totally new environment also:

less space, no walls.

So many changes, and do
we get our results?

The first year after the change,
we realized a two digit productivity rise.

But again, that's collateral profit.

It's people that matter.

Benchmarks indicate that our people
are the most satisfied federal employees

because they can choose when to work.

That's what they love.

People choose to work from home

because they are fed up with traffic jams

and trains that are always too crowded,
too late, too hot or too cold,

but they continue to work from home

because in doing so, they have become
director of their own lives.

On Saturday, everyone is fighting for a parking
lot at IKEA or at the shopping mall.

Not our people.
They shop on Monday or Tuesday.

Our people work when
they are concentrated.

When you are concentrated, you only need
6 hours to get all your work done.

Anna is correct.

And thereby, everybody
wins 4-5 hours a day.

Time is really the new money.

Also our organization is gender-balanced.

At all levels, there
are as many women as men.

And strangely enough,
we don't have a gender program.

What's the secret?

Our young mothers
don't need to take a part-time job

to pick up their children
at the daycare or at school.

Part-time employees get no promotion.

Full-time employees do.

Sometimes, things are easier
than you imagine.

We are very happy with these results

because it makes us
more attractive as an employer.

Because we know family
is the first priority for millennials,

not the organization they work for.

Important, yes, but not a priority.

Accept it. Family is parents,
grandparents, children.

But family isn't just family.
It's also their friends

and anyone with the same values.

The employees have to
experience those family values

in the organization.

That means: remove hierarchy
and status symbols.

It means creating a physical
environment that promotes

the meeting between all employees.

No walls.

These are the eight motors of change.

Employers have no choice.

Companies in a coma, get serious.

Change or disappear.

Shift or shrink.

And change is like breathing:

You stop, you die.

Thank you.

(Applause)