The Perfect Storm:
The Impending Workforce Crisis
by Gregory P. Smith
In the movie The Perfect Storm a small fishing vessel has the misfortune
of encountering the worst Mother Nature has to offer. Just like this boat,
today's employers are facing a combination of conditions just as threatening as
this boat faced on the high seas. If businesses don't prepare today they could
face a similar misfortune.
Over the next decade the leadership talent pool (35-44) will be reduced by 9%.
That number will further shrink to 10% by 2020 according to the U.S. Census
Bureau, International Database.
Tamara J. Erickson, co-author of Workforce Crisis delivered a thought
provoking presentation at the recent Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM)
conference in June. In her presentation, "New Models of Work: Avoiding the
Coming Crisis of the Changing Workforce," she points to five issues all
employers should be concerned with:
Issue One: Not enough bodies. The growth in the working-age population
is screeching to a halt.
Issue Two: The workforce is getting older. The U.S. population
2000-2010 shows a rapid growth in the over-55 workforce. This means the
leadership pool is shrinking.
Issue Three: Inappropriately skilled workers. Over the next decade
only 30% of the 21-year-olds will obtain a college degree, while over 90% of the
new jobs created in the U.S. will require a college degree.
Issue Four: A highly diverse workforce. The emerging workforce has
diverse values across the following generational groups: Traditionalist;
Leading-edge Boomer; Trailing-edge Boomer; Generation X and Generation Y.
Issue Five: Less desire for a leg up. All groups are showing a decline
in their desire for greater responsibility.
Some Perspective
With a pattern of declining birthrates, skill shortages, and an increasingly
older population, we see a common pattern affecting the workforce of the
industrialized world. In the U.S., we have the added situation of boomers and
"echo-boomers" which indicates changes in the workforce are not going away in
this century.
Compounding the issue during the next decade only 30% of twenty-year-olds
will obtain a college degree. The bottom line is HR will have to change the
"requirements" of job descriptions to "desires," and employers will need to
spend more time educating and training their workforce. That is according to
Tamara J. Erickson, co-author of Workforce Crisis.
Additionally, organizations face increased ethnic, generational, and racial
diversity. These diverse values and generational differences place greater
demand on managers and leaders. They need to be managed and led in a different
manner. Sadly, the educational system is not prepared for a knowledge economy
needed to produce high-performance in organizations. Employers will have to fill
the gap. They also need to be looking at ways to converge HR and training as a
standard practice to keep pace in a highly complex labor market. Organizations
need to be gearing up for this now.
Are your managers and leaders able to cultivate the diverse talents of
diversity, generational differences, and shifting talents?
Will they be able to lead teams to increased productivity and
high-performance?
Have you put plans in place to increase professional development in your
organization? If your answer is no, or you are not sure, you may have a greater
reason to be concerned.
A Solution
Cultivate the potential of each person. Build greater flexibility in your
work hours. Discover what satisfies and dissatisfies each generation. I assured
a client recently that engaging in a retention plan to address this issue would
put her organization in a better position to gain than lose her workforce to
retirement or the competition. Her organization is already seeing the boomers
looking for greater flexibility in taking time off for leisure. But, at the same
time, they want to stay employed. Meanwhile, the 35-45 year olds are looking for
more family time and are less willing to take on greater responsibility.
I recommended a plan that combines the following:
- Start with a sound hiring strategy for the best talent that meets
or exceeds current and future needs.
- Create a plan for retaining new and identified existing talent in the
organization.
- Examine workplace dimensions such as leadership, communication,
training, and recognition.
- Examine, train, and coach with a leadership style for existing managers
and for up-and-coming leaders in the 25-34 year-old group that focuses on:
- Maintaining and enhancing team member self- esteem.
- Focusing on behavior (what team members do rather than their attitudes
or personal characteristics).
- Encourage team member participation in decision making and problem
solving.
Fortunately, there is still time to act in putting your organizational plan
in place.
Recognize the world around you is changing. It includes the new millennium
workforce that has totally different needs and expectations. It is about
adapting. Prepare now and avoid being caught in the storm.
Gregory P. Smith shows executives and business owners how to reduce employee
turnover and build high retention workplaces. He is the author of Here Today
Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High Turnover to High Retention.
He speaks at conferences, conducts management training, and is the President of
a management consulting firm, Chart Your Course International located in
Atlanta, Georgia. Phone him at (770) 860-9464 or send an email at
greg@chartcourse.com. More information and articles are available at
www.ChartCourse.com and
www.HighRetention.com.
|
