Looking For Top Talent? You’re Not Alone
I did some talks recently in Little Rock, Arkansas with some amazing business leaders that had passion and focus. So promising. The big issue though they were facing, was fascinatingly similar to everywhere else I travel in the world when speaking to business leaders… The frustrating search for finding skilled and ‘hungry’ talent that fits their culture. One would think that with eight billion people on the planet, there would be no problem finding talent.
How We Got Here
Part of the problem is that we, those leading businesses, knew 30-years ago that there was going to a huge wave of Baby Boomers and Generation X team members that were going to retire. Yet, we did nothing to ensure that there was succession planning in place to transfer knowledge and to nurture young talent. Government incentives to businesses to hire apprentices for trade programs dried up. Organizations started to worry about short term shareholder return instead of looking to the ‘long play’.
Generation Y (those born between 1980 and 1995) became the most educated and connected generation in history and chased white collar jobs.
Generation Z (those born from 1996 to 2012) have the highest propensity to enter the entrepreneurial world.
Domestic talent moved away from service sector jobs.
COVID accelerated the challenges.
The Solution?
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix.
- Businesses need to shift to long term thinking. Resupplying the labor pool is not going to happen overnight.
- Education needs to shift its focus to building the future talent that can think critically and can fill skilled trade and knowledge worker jobs.
- Governments will need to prioritize education and build better incentive programs for businesses that prioritize succession planning.
- Do not fear Artificial Intelligence (AI). It is here. It is only going to become more pervasive. Figure out how it can help you. We all went through the same challenges trying to understand the world wide web and social media. We figured that out, we will figure out AI too.
- Continue to build a great culture. One that is values aligned and purpose driven.
- Despite the challenges, be true to your greatness as an organization despite all the clutter and stress that is trying to distract you. By ‘greatness’ I mean your distinctive advantage in the marketplace that has served your top customers better than anyone else.
- Never before have we needed leaders (not managers) more then we need you now.
Click here to get his weekly Tuesday Tune Up blog posts straight to your inbox.
Tags:
Business Strategic Planning,
Generations in the Workplace,
Hiring,
Planning Process,
Succession Planning,
Talent Retention
