The Future Report

Have you ever kept a diary of how you spend your time? Well, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has. They have released their time use study which measured the daily activities of 2,000 diverse households, and of those aged 15 years and over in those households, had them keep a diary over two days and account for all their time. It’s a pretty fascinating study and reveals a lot about how much time people are spending on work, domestic duties, recreation, and even sleep. It also explores how rushed or pressed for time people feel. So, in this episode, Ashley Fell sits down with social researcher and futurist, Mark McCrindle to unpack what this study reveals about how we spend one of the most precious things we have – which is our time.

Gen Z and Millennials describe those in their teens, twenties, and thirties today. This life stage is often characterised by the need to keep up with their peers and the culture around them. As society continues to adapt to changing lifestyles and economic conditions, our team at McCrindle was commissioned by Afterpay to conduct a study about Gen Z and Millennials. The study sought to determine how and if these generations are re-balancing their spending priorities, lifestyles, and mindsets to keep up with the ever-shifting role that culture - which this report defines as a pursuit of new trends, innovation, experiences, and wellbeing - has on their lives and back pockets. As you can imagine, it reveals some fascinating insights about what Millennial and Gen Z Aussies are thinking, buying, investing in, and planning for. So, joining Ashley Fell on the podcast to discuss this report are two McCrindle researchers who worked on this report, Anna Colthorpe and Hannah Butcher.

Avatars. NFTs. Blockchain. Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency. Virtual and augmented reality. What do all these words have in common?  They relate to The Metaverse. While it may have begun as a vague concept, over the last year it has gained immense traction, and many are now calling it the future of the internet. Particularly as it relates to Generation Alpha. Gone are the days when kids plugged a console in front of a TV and played Mario Kart with their friends in the living room. Now, they are socialising in the virtual worlds of Roblox and Minecraft, early adaptations of The Metaverse, or Web 3.0 as many are calling it. In this episode, we are going to unpack what the Metaverse is, how Generation Alpha are already setting the agenda and why it is essential for organisations to understand and engage with the Metaverse if they want to not only exist but thrive in the future. Joining Ashley Fell to do just that is social researcher and futurist, Mark McCrindle.

Over the last few years, remote work or work-from-home became widespread. This is because it wasn’t something that was just promoted or strongly encouraged. It was mandated. And it went on for some time. Because of various lockdowns and restrictions, some companies work-ed-from-home, full-time, for years. And possibly still are. Now, as we (with fingers crossed) say goodbye to lockdowns and work-from-home mandates, workplace leaders have both the challenge and opportunity before them of working out what their new normal will be. What was mandated and followed through on, has now become a choice. Will they encourage or even force people back to the workplace? Will they stay fully remote? Or will it be a hybrid? And furthermore, what definition of hybrid will they adopt? It’s not easy, and it’s not straightforward. But it is important, and that’s why we’ve just released a new report about this topic and why we have the author of that report and Managing Director at McCrindle, Sophie Renton joining us.

Breaking into the housing market is a hot topic amongst today’s younger generations with skyrocketing house prices, the rising cost of living, and low wage growth making it pretty difficult to get a foothold. So, if younger generations can’t break into the housing market, what sort of impact will this have on their financial aspirations and wealth accumulation? Joining Ashley Fell to shed some light on this topic is Social Researcher and Demographer, Mark McCrindle.

While the Baby Boomers are currently more active in the workforce for their age than the generation before them, over the next decade we will see a significant changing of the guard as the youngest of the Baby Boomers move past 65 and ease out of the workforce. When they do, they will leave a very significant knowledge, labour, and leadership gap for the following generations to take up. But that doesn’t mean a quiet retirement because the Baby Boomers are redefining this life stage and what ageing looks like. Our host, Ashley Fell sits down with social researcher, Mark McCrindle to find out why.

Generation Z describes those born between 1995 and 2009, placing them today aged between 13 and 27. While many of them are students, in just a few years they will comprise a third of the workforce. In our work we find so many people wanting to understand the mindset and perspective of Gen Z; who they are, what is important to them, and how to remain relevant for this emerging generation. Joining Ashley Fell to discuss this, is our Research Lead at McCrindle, Steph Razey. 

Today we want to talk about a word or phrase that made its way to the Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Year in 2020 which is: Cancel Culture. As social researchers, each week are deploying surveys and analysing demographic and community data. We gather content from focus groups and in-depth interviews and draw out the trends. That is social research. While analysing these data sets gives us specific insights into certain groups or areas, it also gives us a very broad read on our society. One outcome of this type of work is that we are often asked to share insights and perspectives not just from a particular study, but a general perspective on our society and where we see it going. This is often labelled as social commentary. So, in this episode we going to take our social research hat off and put the social commentator hat on, to see what is going on in our broader society and where things are going. Joining our host, Ashley Fell, to do just that is Social Researcher and Principal of McCrindle, Mark McCrindle.

A few weeks ago, the latest Census results were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While there were a lot of interesting findings, one big generational shift has occurred in the last five years: the Millennials have overtaken the Baby Boomers to become the largest generation.  So, in today’s episode, Ashley Fell sits down with Social Researcher, Geoff Brailey to talk about this shift, the differences between life 40 years ago compared to today and reframing some of the social stereotypes of the Millennial generation. 

Welcome back to another season of The Future Report! Over the last few weeks, Mark McCrindle and Ashley Fell have been out travelling and sharing insights at conferences in Europe and the United States, which after two years of closed borders has been a bit of a treat! In today’s episode, our host, Ashley Fell sits down with social researcher, Mark McCrindle to discuss international conferences and travelling in a post-covid world.