Companies will look for ways to contain or reduce the costs of benefits. We may see an increase in the formation of coalitions to put pressure on benefit providers.

Domestic-partner benefit coverage will be essential to remain competitive.

Retention will continue to be a major issue, particularly of part-time employees. Many communities will face a decrease in the number of candidates for part-time positions.

Edith Sayre Auslander, Vice President, Human Resources, Tucson Newspapers

Technological advances will change our products, our work processes and our customer interactions. This will in turn change the way companies hire, train, pay and manage employees. Because technology is changing at a faster and faster pace, companies need to be prepared to upgrade skills continuously.

The workforce will be more diverse and dispersed (potentially, globally). Differences in culture, language and location will require integration efforts that affect policy and practice in every employment activity, from recruitment to pay and benefits. The labor market will be more open and dynamic, with buyers and sellers of knowledge and services connecting and reconnecting as needs change.

The trend toward more employer responsibility for the social welfare of employees will continue through legislation like FMLA, ADA, COBRA and immigration law, and will expand into the arenas of retirement planning and financing.

Kathryn M. Downing, Publisher, President and CEO, Los Angeles Times

Fewer people, better paid, working harder.

Greater variety of work arrangements, including part-time, remote-site, temporary, and other innovations that suit both employers and employees.

Andrew Barnes, Editor, President and CEO, St. Petersburg Times

The human-resources function will evolve from being led and staffed by human-resources professionals to being managed by business people with human-resources skills. This is a faster, surer way for human resources to have a greater impact on the bottom line.

Diversity and continuous employee development will determine who wins. Customers will demand that suppliers look like they do in order to do business with them. Older workers will play a greater role, as retirees re-enter the workforce in greater numbers and employers struggle to fill positions with qualified candidates.

Employers will be challenged to become the most compelling and relevant sources of information for employees, who have ready access to information sources that are not necessarily accurate or in the best interest of employers.

John W. Madigan, Chairman, President and CEO, Tribune Co.

The impact of technology on the workplace and on the skills necessary to do the jobs in a technological age of innovation, speed and diversification.

The changing face of America will dramatically affect the way we do business in the workplace, in our communities and in the world. The world will be much easier to navigate as we work in a truly global economy.

Flexible work hours and telecommuting will be the norm as employees put more emphasis on their personal quality of life. Technology will allow this concept to become an acceptable practice.

Virgil Smith, President and Publisher, Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times

By 2000, we will have seen the workforce in the United States change from one that was predominately white male to one that is predominately minority, more female. Employers will be more involved in employees’ personal lifestyle problems, which will be reflected in the types of wages and benefits provided.

This same workforce will demand and be allowed to work from home, not in an office setting, except there will be socialization periods when workers will gather at a central point. Employers will like it because they will not have to provide workspace that costs money, and they will arrive at a pay system on a piece basis.

All of this creates the need for HR practitioners to develop reward and motivational programs that will entice people to work for the company and remain with the company.

Frank A. McDonald Jr., Vice President and Director of Human Resources, Media General Inc. Publishing Division

A majority of women in all job categories; a vast majority in editorial.

Jerry W. Friedheim, Former ANPA President and Newseum Executive Director, Founding Publisher, Presstime, now retired