Aim

The aim of this module is to look at the future of work for your business area and do a trend (STEEP) analysis.

This analysis will help you to work out what may impact your organisation in the future.

Objectives

Use a STEEP analysis to identify societal, technological, economic, environment and political trends.

By the end of this module, you’ll have a STEEP analysis that your business area agrees on.

Activities in this module

Activity 1: Look Back to Look Forward

Use the Look Back to Look Forward template (PowerPoint, 1.1MB)

Use this activity to:

  • document any changes within your industry or business area that have moved you to where you are today
  • understand what triggered the moment of change that has led your business area to where it is now.

You’ll consider changes in your industry, sector or work area that have impacted your workforce and the type of work you do, such as:

  • What big technology changes have there been?
  • What changes in laws have affected your organisation?
  • What are the past innovations that have occurred in your industry?

Example using traffic lights and signals

The early management of traffic signals was manual traffic direction which was replaced by the use of gas-operated lights when gas as a power source became available.

These days we see the use of sophisticated sensors, Bluetooth connected vehicles and CCTV.

These changes have been triggered by the need to improve the safety of pedestrian and vehicle movement and to ease congestion and have been enabled by new technologies.

In the future, we expect that artificial intelligence will continue to impact this area for example the use of algorithms to adjust traffic signals in real-time.

Activity 2: Social, technology, economic, environmental and political (STEEP) analysis

A STEEP analysis is a framework to:

  • help uncover the external factors that can influence an organisation and business area
  • identify any social, technological, economic, environmental and political trends that are likely to affect your work areas.

Identify trends that may impact your operating environment rather than the impacts themselves, which you’ll do in another activity.

You’ll use the STEEP analysis to create future scenarios for your business area.

How to do this activity

To do this activity, you’ll need the:

STEEP analysis template (PowerPoint, 1.2MB)

Step 1: List the social factors and change drivers

Thinking of the next 3 to 5 years, list each factor and what’s triggering the change.

Consider these questions and add other questions that may be relevant to you:

  • What will the age, size, wealth, diversity of the Victorian population look like?
  • Are public attitudes and expectations changing? Is personalisation now a feature of many online services?
  • What changes in behaviour are we seeing? For example, what impact will the increase in social media use have? Is public trust in government increasing or decreasing?
  • Where are people living and working? For example, regional and urban.
  • Is migration increasing or decreasing?
Step 2: List the technological factors and change drivers

Thinking of the next 3 to 5 years, list each factor and what’s triggering the change.

Consider these questions and add other questions that may be relevant to you:

  • Are there any emerging technologies, such as drones, robotics or autonomous vehicles?
  • How might Artificial Intelligence develop in your industry, sector or area of work?
  • What are the emerging issues around cybersecurity?
  • Are there any trends around data collection to be considered?
Step 3: List the environmental factors and change drivers

Thinking of the next 3 to 5 years, list each factor and what’s triggering the change.

Consider these questions and add other questions that may be relevant to you:

  • What global environmental issues exist? For example, pandemics, global warming, climate change, deforestation and so on.
  • Can you identify the environmental forces relevant to your industry or sector?
  • Are there any environmental outcomes or targets we need to achieve?
Step 4: List the economic factors and change drivers

Thinking of the next 3 to 5 years, list each factor and what’s triggering the change.

Consider these questions and add other questions that may be relevant to you:

  • Can you identify economic factors that will impact your industry or sector? For example, cryptocurrencies, real estate, stocks and shares.
  • Is the economy in a period of growth, stagnation or decline?
  • Are incomes increasing or decreasing?
Step 5: List the policy factors and change drivers

Thinking of the next 3 to 5 years, list each factor and what’s triggering the change.

Consider these questions and add other questions that may be relevant to you:

  • What legislation and policy changes could affect your work? For example, your 2050 carbon footprint.
  • How will government regulation affect the way we work?
  • How could a change in government affect your operating environment?

How to run this module as a workshop

To run this module as a workshop, use:

Module 2 workshop slides, facilitator guide and speaking notes (PowerPoint, 1.2MB)

Workshop facilitator tips for this module

For the Look Back to Look Forward activity, focus on identifying the changes but also what’s triggering the change.

For the STEEP activity:

  • focus on specific indicators of future change and the triggers for these
  • get groups to use their time to focus on the trends and not on the impact of the trend as this is covered in a later activity
  • be aware people can worry about job security when you discuss future scenarios or talk about disaster scenarios
  • remind everyone why your group is doing strategic workforce planning: to prepare and adapt the workforce so it’s ready for the future.
  • allow at least a week between this workshop and the next for people to work on the STEEP analysis more, re-group and refine their work.

Workshop timeframes

Run a 1-hour workshop with this breakdown:

  • 15 minutes for the Look Back to Look Forward activity
  • 10 minutes to introduce the STEEP analysis
  • 35 minutes for group work

Offline research and small group work: 1 hour

Analyse and refine outputs: 1 hour

Total: 3 hours