Talking Talent

While we’ve all heard the doom and gloom about the dire state of our nation’s skills shortages, let’s look at what organisations can do to keep the employees they have and maximise their potential.

To start with, it’s time companies started paying more than lip service to the often-recited slogan: “People are our greatest assets.”

While this basic reality is well understood by most companies, a fundamental change in people management is essential for organisational growth. If we really believe that people are our company’s greatest assets we should measure the importance of them within our companies.

So how do we put systems, processes and reporting in place to get better focus on the development of human and knowledge capital within organisations?

We need to measure, value and manage our most important asset - our people. Start by analysing the results of customer satisfaction and employee opinion surveys. Ask your employees whether they feel they’re well led, whether they understand where their organisation is heading, if they feel part of that direction and whether they feel engaged in where their leaders are taking them.

Organisations have much to learn about their achievements and challenges by consulting with their employees and customers. And more importantly, measuring staff and customer satisfaction can predict the company’s success levels in the next 12 months.

The future of any organisation relies on its ability to harness its human potential, and all business leaders wanting to succeed must aim to extract 100 percent from each and every staff member. If you compare the way we manage cash and inventory you wouldn’t survive running an organisation wasting up to 60 percent of those assets. We shouldn’t allow ourselves to waste human assets.

It would be impossible to talk about labour shortages and not comment on the appalling lack of women in many of the high technology professions.  For example, a quick scan of almost any IT department, IT conference or vendor environment from the trenches to the corner office confirms that women who embrace technology as a life long career remain a rare breed.

There is no doubt that the opportunities for women in technology have advanced in the past few decades as have education initiatives aimed at leveling the playing field and attracting women into the industry. However for every woman rising to prominence or embarking on a career in IT or undertaking an IT course at university, as my daughter is, there is another opting out.

The number of women in the industry continues to decline and the reasons women give for leaving are the same ones I heard two decades ago; they are the micro inequalities such as wage discrimination, the boys club and the lack of work/life balance.

Restricting women’s job opportunities costs the Asia Pacific region up to $47 billion each year.

This startling figure was revealed in a report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, released last year, which also suggests that, as a nation’s female employment rate rises, so does its GDP.

With that in mind, Australia’s industries have a golden opportunity to increase our productivity by increasing the participation rate of women.

The “glass ceiling” (where women feel they have to work harder than male colleagues to achieve success) and the “old boys club” (with its informal male networking) contributes to the perceived or real exclusion of women from many high performance job opportunities.

So, what can we do to turn the tide?

I’m a strong advocate of providing women with the skills to succeed in a male-dominated working environment.  Some of those skills are:

1. Negotiation. Women employees across Australia’s economy earn just 83 cents for every dollar their male counterpart earns, so clearly, women can benefit from enhanced skills to enable them to negotiate salary packages and working conditions.
2. Self-promotion. Women often take the modest approach where they believe they will be rewarded for good work without self-promotion. Instead, they need to learn to not just “stand there” but “stand out”.
3. Work/life balance. The fast pace of life has become frantic for many women. We need to provide skills and training to help women gain and maintain work/life balance.

Is all this effort designed to get women into the workforce just for the sake of getting women into the workforce?

As the UN study shows, women are extremely valuable contributors to economic growth. As we confront rapidly changing patterns of paid work opportunities and work time arrangements, it is often those companies and industries perceived to care about the “people” aspect of business - such as work/life issues - that attract and retain the best talent.

There is no doubt we have a digital divide in Australia.

While the number of Australians connected to the Internet grows each year and costs fall, the gap between the information-rich and information-poor is still palpable.

Those on higher incomes are leaving lower income earners behind.  Those in the city have almost unlimited access to information and the capacity to be plugged in to a global economy, while country people still suffer from the tyranny of distance.  Single parents, unemployed people and older Australians are also missing out.

And in today’s wired world information is power and this digital divide can mean a dramatic inequality of opportunity.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Household Use of Information Technology (2005-06)  reveals that while the number of households with broadband Internet connection almost doubled (to 2.3 million households), and while the number of Australian households without access to home Internet has decreased by 20 per cent (from 2002 to 3.2 million households in 2005-2006), that’s still millions of households without home access to the Internet!

Tellingly, the ABS’ 2006 Children’s Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities survey indicated that of the 2.7 million children aged 5 to 14 years, 92 per cent used a computer and 65 per cent used the Internet at any site.

What about the other 35 per cent of children who don’t have regular access to the Internet?  Or the 8 per cent of children who aren’t using computers at all?

Those on the wrong side of this digital divide face being marginalised as the ‘net becomes an increasingly dominant feature of economic and personal life.  And for young people, this means more than being able to access MySpace and YouTube.

In the job market, for instance, the best opportunities can increasingly be found on the Web rather than via traditional sources.  As more and more companies, government services and community groups deliver their services via the Web, these disadvantages will intensify.

Broadband is a national priority - but more than that, we need to ensure that all Australians are connected to the information superhighway in the first place.

Readers of Career News were recently asked “What advice would you give a friend who feels they are not balancing their work and life?”

Some of the responses are really insightful.  Have a read…

“Even if you work long hours by choice or necessity, you have to try to make the most of your time off. Plan an activity with family or friends at least once a week. Exercise regularly; try to have dinner with your spouse, family or a friend on a regular basis. Go to church, enjoy being a spectator at a sports event, go for a long walk, help a neighbor out… These things all keep your life in perspective no matter how busy you are.”

“Love what you do. Find fulfillment in hard work. And enjoy each day. Plan your life outside of work - don’t just sit back and hope something happens, make it happen!”

“My work is a part of my life. I’m in the early years of building my career and want to move up quickly. I know that I need to establish myself now, this is my decision. I work hard to accomplish a lot. It’s like an athlete, if you want to be at the top of the game, you have to put in the hours - and be self-driven. If you enjoy what you do, ultimately this contributes to your happiness and sense of fulfillment.”

“Enjoy your weekends. There’s plenty of time to have a full life. I hear so many people complain, but these are the ones that don’t ever do anything with their time off. Get up early and workout, after work spend time with your family and friends. At least one weekend per month, plan an activity. Live your life!”

“Work hard so you will be able to provide for your family. Hard work is a good and admirable trait.  I think too many people are afraid of working hard. Yes, it does require compromise, but what doesn’t?”

“Plan, prioritise and schedule better. Don’t be afraid of hard work.”

The old business model of fierce competition at all costs has passed and we are now entering an era of collaboration.  The ‘business is war’ mentality has made way for a model of business networks that reach out to global markets and boost sales as a unified force.

There’s no doubt that low cost and real time transfer of ideas, knowledge and skills over the Internet has made business collaboration easier.  Not only does the Internet provide a fast communication channel, but the wide reach of the Internet allows such groups to easily form in the first place, particularly among niche interests.

In today’s high-tech business world built in cyberspace, it is ‘collabronauts’ who are seeking out new universes and driving their businesses through the stratosphere.

The idea of the ‘collabronaut’ was coined by Harvard Business School academic, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, who describes pioneers of the new global economy as “astronauts who explore outer space, are explorers of cyberspace, explorers of new possibilities while creating links and connections, and explorers of the possibilities that can come through collaboration”.

In her book, Evolve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow, Kanter argues that “those willing to leave their home planet to bring back knowledge of strange new worlds and new civilisations” are masters of collaboration.

In order to deliver value to the customers, technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Sun have created what Kanter calls “space stations for the Internet age”. These platforms enable everyone else to use the technology; but it’s an elaborate and complex relationship, because these companies themselves also work much more closely together.

“It is more than Wal-Mart working with Procter & Gamble as a supplier,” she says. “It’s joint planning; it’s developing technology together. It’s a daily interchange.”

Ultimately, the best collabronauts are adept at making connections - both human and intellectual.  They seek out new ways to benefit from joining forces with partners.  They bring organisations closer together, create links, foster relationships and initiate partnerships that may initially seem like joining two groups from alien planets.

I’ll finish with the words of anthropologist Margaret Mead, who asked “can a small group of people who see and respond differently to the world make a difference? Indeed, history shows it is the only thing that ever has.”

I’ve mentioned before that teleworking could be one of the solutions to Australia’s climate change challenge.

This week alone, 32 million Americans could be telecommuting at least one day. They would not drive 1.2 billion miles – which is equal to 51,000 times round the Earth.

Additionally, by not wasting time being stuck in traffic, telecommuters could be more productive for the equivalent of 4 million extra workdays during this one week alone. Productivity improvements, typical for telecommuters, would provide a bottom line benefit to the US economy of $311 billion yearly.

A Canadian company called Teletrips Inc capitalises on the benefits of telecommuting by engaging companies in a work from home program. Companies that allow their employees to work from home can calculate the greenhouse gas emission savings, which are then credited to the employer. Emission credits are tradable on a market and thus earn employers money.

The project offers flexibility for workers, earning potential for employers and a bonus for the environment. For example an employee commuting 40 kilometres could save 8.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide by avoiding one trip to work.

With an economy in its 17th year of uninterrupted growth, Australia’s skills shortage has never been worse. People are crying out for doctors and nurses, bricklayers and plumbers, code cutters and engineers . In states that are booming thanks to a mining bonanza - Western Australia, Queensland and South Australia - engineers, surveyors and truck drivers are in short supply.  The Economist has reported that one state-owned water authority complains that it is losing truckers to mining companies offering A$100,000 a year - more than double their previous salary.

While the war for talent wages, Australian companies are fighting back to help employees find a better work/life balance.  Across the spectrum of Australia’s economy, Australian enterprises are focusing their attention on reviewing and enhancing their entire employee value proposition, rather than pumping extra funds into salary increases.

In a tight labour market ‘soft benefits’ such as wellness programs, rewards and recognition, child care and parental leave options can be the difference between keeping and losing an employee.

Parental leave policies, in particular, have once again been under the spotlight for review – particularly the number of weeks of paid leave, staggered parental leave payments, return to work policies and child care assistance schemes.

Many companies pay a ‘baby bonus’ for women on maternity leave, and provide more options as they transition back into the work force.

Global technology services company, EDS, offers its employees twelve weeks’ paid maternity leave as well as flexible work arrangements which help retain their top talent.  Flexible work arrangements include returning from maternity leave on a part-time basis wherever possible and flexible hours to suit family life.

Employee wellness programs have also gained in popularity as an alternative to greater levels of salary spending. Wellness programs often include the provision of onsite health and fitness programs, yoga classes, bowls filled with fruit, onsite health checks and health education seminars.  Wellness programs also make good business sense, healthier employees are more productive employees.

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What sort of workforce will Australia need in the future?

Some issues I see on the horizon include the retirement of baby boomers and the potential clash between ‘digital natives’ (the current generation of teenagers often called Y Genners, that has grown up immersed in technology) and ‘digital immigrants’ (most of the current workers - Baby Boomers and early X Genners) who are adapting to new technologies but whose pivotal education and development has not been heavily influenced by technology.

Y Generation workers’ continuous exposure to technology will make them more impatient ‘job hoppers’, and the compensation is that they are likely to be more creative than their predecessors.

This will have interesting implications for the public sector, where, in most cases, technological change will continue to occur more slowly than in the private sector because of more regulatory constraints and greater risk aversion.

I think that the traditionally long tenures of civil servants will keep shrinking, which means that government agencies will need to come to terms with a more ‘volatile’ workforce. Although external service providers can help, government agencies will need to retain critical skills in-house, and the faster employee turnover among suppliers will not make things any easier.

And of course this technology literate group will be in management positions (at the middle and top levels) by 2020, and not just in IT departments (or whichever areas will manage IT by then).

However, will government be able to retain the most talented people, or will these individuals be so disappointed by the earlier part of their careers marked by low-tech environments and a lack of flexibility to abandon government and leave the public sector with a much greater skill shortage challenge than it faces today?

Moreover, will this force government to outsource critical processes to a much greater degree than we can envisage today?