President's Viewpoint
Recruit, Retain, Develop: People are Key to Success
As the 21st century becomes historical fact, we leave behind the mythic proportions of the potential impact of flipping from “99” to “00.” Yet, some things remain the same. Among the commonalities we face every day is the truism people are key to success.
The topsy-turvy world of business in the year “01” is more of the same: economic slowdown begets economic downturn begets economic recession in a world so integrally linked that no matter what “fail safes’” we implement in one country, we will all be affected by what happens elsewhere. In all regions in Canada, we experience that odd combination of heated economies and emerging unemployment.
In some sectors, employers cannot beg, borrow or steal employees, whatever salaries they offer. In other sectors, people are unemployed with little hope of finding meaningful work again. In logistics, we have employers searching for logistics professionals, and logistics professionals out of work. Our database is full of both.
It is not simply a matter of matching resumes with job descriptions. If it were that easy, the Logistics Institute would create a job search service to replace its portfolio service ProLog Connect (PLC). The job search facility in PLC is only part of the story: the real focus is on skills capacity analysis.
For individuals and companies, ProLog Connect provides a service to identify skills available through individual portfolios and skills required through company capacity analysis. And this is the key: skilled professionals are needed to bring the right competencies and expertise to a work situation – not just anybody can fill a position.
Last summer, when Air Canada and Canadian began to merge under the leadership of the Air Canada takeover, Toronto cargo operations faced a severe shortage of front line personnel. Under great pressure to maintain customer service levels, they initiated a recruiting process that entailed interviewing thousands of candidates over a relatively small number of days. Yet even in the face of severe pressure to fill empty slots, they didn’t hire just anybody who showed up for an interview. They selected only the qualified, and only those with the potential to develop skills needed to deliver service.
Qualified professionals must bring two things to the hiring table: expertise that qualifies them to get through the door, and capacity to grow that keeps them there. The strategy of “warm bodies to fill empty slots” is a non-strategy, even under the direst of circumstances. But why should anyone want to work anywhere? Professionals should be as choosy as the companies looking for “strategic employees.” How do we select the right place to work in?
In late 1999, the Conference Board of Canada examined the problem of recruiting and retaining skills needed to compete in the global marketplace. They surveyed 500 Canadian firms from 16 industry sectors 16 and published their findings in early 2000 as What to Do Before the Well Runs Dry: Managing Scarce Skills. Here are the highlights.
• There is a skill shortage, and this poses a serious threat to the competitiveness of Canadian industries. • Shortages are generally acute for experienced employees. • Shortages are most acute for employees with highly sought after technical skills, such as information technology, engineers, scientists, technicians, trades people. • Experienced middle managers are in short supply as well.
It is important to note that while entry level employees are easier to find than non-entry level ones, it was felt by those surveyed that the majority of inexperienced “new-hires” lack essential interpersonal skills. The ability to manage the work is as essential as the ability to do the work. To quote a few executives:
People management has suffered the most due to skilll shortages.
Many young candidates with technical abilities have basic deficiencies in putting thoughts together in an organized fashion.
We are hiring employees who are not quite ready interpersonally, with the hope they will develop into their job.
The Recruitment Challenge: But the real key to managing scarce skills effectively is by ensuring that recruitment and retention efforts are strategically aligned in the pursuit of acquiring and developing essential talent. What are firms doing to recruit top performers? Three “recruiting success indicators” emerged from the study:
1. marketing the organization as a great place to work
2. providing a learning environment [increasing training and development]
3. augmenting student programs [e.g., co-op programs, internships]
So why should I work for you? – Marketing the Organization: Whether as a new entry into the labor market or as a seasoned professional focused on further career development, key things to look for are:
• Challenge – is the work interesting and meaningful or will I be bored?
• Cutting-edge technologies and business practices — is it real supply chain management or is it unenlightened logistics practices?
• Culture of participative decision-making — do we achieve success through collaboration or is it top down management in the old style pyramid?
• Values – does the company stand for anything or is it simply out to make money or cut expenses?
Be Forewarned: you have no idea what the company culture is really like until you get there. Recruiters are trying to sell the company to you, as much as you are trying to sell yourself to the company. This is only the first step, and never the final step.
What’s in it for me? – Life Long Learning: We should all be developing careers, not simply looking for jobs. And only an organization with a culture promoting life long learning can provide opportunities for us to develop careers as people and professionals.
• Knowledge, skills, expertise – these are the most valuable commodities in today’s labor market, as in today’s global competitive market; look to LQ™ be hired for what you can do, not for what you have already done.
• Risk Factor – the more you learn, the more marketable you become, and companies must risk losing people they’ve trained in order to recruit the people they need; if the company won’t risk losing people, it cannot afford hiring and retaining them either.
• Time – increased training/development budgets are bogus unless companies also commit to increasing time so employees can take advantage of training opportunities; it is not the money they intend to spend, but the money they actually spend that counts.
Who’s responsible for the future? – Growing our Own: As professionals we are responsible for the skills we leave behind, as well as the skills we bring to the table. We must assume a leadership role and develop our replacements. We must ensure there are the right skills in place so that the work we accomplish continues to grow.
Working on a company-wide basis, we need to foster business education partnerships, support co-op placements, and engage in school-to-work transition programs. On a professional level, we must be prepared to teach the next generation that will succeed us as professionals.
The Retention Challenge: The highly skilled, successful professional is the most marketable, and the hardest to retain. We should focus not only on those with technical skills, but also on those with “high potential.” As professionals, we must recognize we are potential employees.
The “retention success indicators” that emerged from the study include:
Holding managers accountable for retention: ultimately, people leave managers, not organizations. Poor management, inter-personal conflict, ineffective leadership — these are the reasons why people leave.
• As professionals, we are leaders accountable for retaining our work teams. “Strategic Human Resource Management” is our key skill. Having mechanisms for identifying high potential employees:
• Does the organization provide bona fide career paths tied to skills, training and professional development opportunities?
• As professionals, we have a life long commitment to develop our careers: does the organization enhance our opportunity to meet this commitment?
Having a clear understanding of the needs and values of employees:
• Does the organization tailor career development to life cycle stages?
• Does it honestly foster work life balance? As professionals, we are leaders in the community of professionals: what opportunities will we have to devote time and expertise to our profession? Establishing effective succession management systems:
• Does the organization emphasize skills that lead to opportunities and movement within the system [vertical or lateral]?
• As professionals, we are committed to the success of the organization: what expertise can I grow for the organization, as I grow my own career?
Employees and professionals want to be challenged, enjoy life as well as work, be recognized for our contribution to the organization, receive just compensation for the work we do, and change, that is, move within the organization as opportunities arise.
These are listed in order of preference, and we must note that compensation is not the first on the list. Money becomes the primary issue in labor relations only when employees/workers are devalued by the company for who they are and what they can accomplish. As one person surveyed said: I’m looking to be excited by my work when I wake up every morning. When my jobs stopped being exciting, I always moved on.
Professionals are more than just employees. We have publicly recognized expertise, skills honed by experience, and leadership capability grounded in self-con-fidence. P.Log.s are mobile, marketable, and loyal to their profession. Never forget that.