The days of managing a workforce with an impersonal attitude to staff are coming to an end.

If management is becoming more about getting are retaining skilled workers then it will involve a very different style of leadership skills than those currently being used by Australian managers.

They will need to acquire these new skills to create a more flexible work environment that better accommodates their employees whether they are part-time or contractors.

A different attitudinal approach of younger workers will test the skills of managers. Generation Ys think that they can always get work, they tend to possess economic security and have an optimistic view of life.

All of these factors combined mean that employers will have no choice but to take a more enlightened view towards their human resources management.