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Brentwood, TN—There are always new trends in the workplace, ranging from technology to globalization, but two in particular are going to impact almost every business, according to Dan Schawbel, founder of WorkplaceTrends.com. These are the leadership gap and the transparent workplace.

In a blog on hr.blr.com, Schawbel says most companies aren’t addressing these trends because there’s no immediate pain. But ignoring them only means they’ll become a bigger threat to your business in the future.

Every day 10 million Baby Boomers are retiring, says Schwabel, but a study conducted by his firm and Saba finds relatively few (15%) of employees aspire to executive level positions. (Editor’s note: this corroborates Nielsen’s Millennial study, which shows a greater willingness among Millennials than previous generations to trade off income for a balanced lifestyle.)

Schwabel’s study found that while 59% of companies surveyed agreed that succession planning is more challenging in today's economy, only 23% make succession planning a high priority. And almost half (46%) said “leadership” was the skill hardest to find in employees.

Why? According to his findings, companies still adhere to the annual review when employees want constant feedback to improve; employees want personalized training and development courses to learn how to be leaders; and, finally, employees—especially Millennials—want training to be online instead of in printed manuals.

Transparency in the workplace is becoming essential, and traditional companies who keep secrets and control their message are not resonating in a real-time world with social media. Millennials are very open about sharing everything and they want to work for a manager that is honest, open, and is willing to share information about what's really going on at the company, says Schwabel.

Companies that openly engage employees on everything that's going on at work, will be able to retain them more than those that operate on a “need to know” basis. The way to earn the trust of employees is to share as much as you can, he says, because you’re showing them that you trust them with this information. Read more here.

Separately, Forbes magazine last fall presented Schawbel’s “10 Workplace Trends For 2015.” To read that list in its entirety, click here.  

Top image: Fastcompany.com