European postal social partners finalised the project “Trend research for the postal Sector in 2030” conducted in 2018-2019. The project enabled the European social partners to elaborate 5 possible joint scenarios on the postal sector in 2030. Throughout the course of the project it permitted the social partners to stage highly interactive workshops, to brainstorm and think out of the box on the future of the sector.
The results of the project, with in particular the scenarios and the methodology to elaborate them, are published in the project final report which is available in English and French.
In order to strengthen the communication around the possible scenarios, a communication booklet has also been published. It presents the 5 scenarios in a short and dynamic manner. The project consisted of a prospective study on the future of the postal sector, in particular from a social perspective. Trends impacting the postal industry have been identified and respective future scenarios were created jointly by European social partners.
From a content-perspective, the project enabled the group to elaborate 5 plausible scenarios on possible futures of the postal sector in 2030. These scenarios were built jointly by the European social partners who actively contributed to each step of the scenario planning process. These 5 scenarios are very different one from another and also depict some more and some less desirable futures. All of them are, nevertheless, balanced with positive and negative aspects in order to portray possible and realistic futures. On this basis, initial recommendations were elaborated by the European social partners. This very concrete output is an opportunity to:
- Identify how the postal sector may potentially look like in the future thanks to 5 diverse scenarios.
- Follow and anticipate the main trends in terms of economy, technology, environment, employment and society with an impact on the postal sector. A specific attention was given to the impact of digitalisation on the workforce in terms of skills and work environment.
- Allow a joint learning experience for the social partners as an eye-opener, exploration of the challenges and opportunities for the postal sector.
- Allow for further ideas to draw actions so all can better prepare for the future. Indeed the scenarios which seem less desirable are very useful to draw actions and encourage thoughts on steps to avoid them while the desirable ones enable all to set recommendations for an aim to reach them.
In addition to the detailed final report, a dedicated booklet with short versions and the visuals of each scenario has been published so that the SDC members can present the different scenarios within their respective organisations. This booklet will enable to disseminate the scenarios among social partners at the national level, to the main stakeholders of the sector or even a wider audience.
