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George Washington University recently sponsored a survey which aimed to identify some business trends among knowledge workers and get an idea what the industry might look like in the future. The economic downturn and associated belt-tightening across all industries, while miserable, also presents an opportunity for the knowledge management industry (amongst others) to retool and plan for being efficient in the next generation of business.

Dan Holtshouse, over at KMWorld.com, summarizes the survey:

One hundred and twenty-five professionals and executives participated in the survey, which was conducted in mid-2008. Three-quarters of the respondents were from North America and one-quarter from Europe and South America. The survey group was highly senior level, with almost half consisting of executives and directors/managers. A wide range of organizational sizes were represented with more than one-third reporting 25,000 or more employees. Approximately two-thirds were from business and one-third from government organizations. The 35-part questionnaire was developed through interviews with KM thought leaders, KM publishers, academic leaders, business/government professionals and survey design experts.

And what did they find? According to KMWorld, the survey identified trends of interest to the Hotspotter such as how positions will be filled and knowledge backfilled with the backbone of the mobile worker pool; outsourced talent. Writes Holtshouse:

A significant number of organizations, however, are likely not to hire new employees at all, but will instead outsource the work, use fewer workers overall or fill the organizational needs through the use of specialized “for hire” services.

Ah! Specialized “for hire” services! The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.

There are a couple charts available at the bottom of Holthouse’s article, and it is labeled as “Part One”, so keep checking back at their site for the part two, which is sure to be just as interesting.

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