2012 will see remarkable changes in trends and unionization of white collar employees will be one of them. Employees have become mere statistics in organizations, given the demand-supply pull of talent. The absence of the personal touch in managing such extensive number of people in the white collar employee-base (knowledge workers) will give rise to emerging unions formed by such groups. Employees in such widespread organizations tend to feel isolated at times and unionization of this mass is evidently an upcoming trend in the near future.

Along with unionization of the white collar employees, the coming year will also witness digital opinion forums/virtual unions. The new generation has grown up with social media and other technology platforms, which will eventually result in virtual opinion forums or virtual unions where large scale discussions on all topics will materialize. Talent managers are perhaps not prepared to handle such a situation. There will have to be a change in the perspective to manage this tsunami of opinion through digital forums.

Furthermore, attrition will double in the next year. Increasing business growth will continue to increase the demand for talent and companies will become picky and will seek and prefer specialized skills. As a result, employers will have to create a culture to embrace women talent, be prepared for the multi-employer concept as specialists will want to engage for work and not for time bound employee contract-based hiring. Companies will also have to cater to the new generation worker profile that demands more transparency and ethical values. These changes will in turn impact talent management in terms of goal setting, engagement, compensation, etc.