Talking Talent

In the most recent issue, Workforce Magazine provided some stats on the top HR leaders among Fortune’s 20 Most Admired Companies.  Jason Corsello (who writes Human Capitalist blog) analysed those statistics and uncovered some interesting facts:

• Companies also appearing on the Best Companies to Work: 8 (40%)
• Average HR leaders’ tenure at their company: 15.2 years
• Years in top HR leadership position: 3.1 years (this is somewhat misleading as 50% of the leaders have been in their position less than 2 years)
• Demographics: Male 11 (55%), Female 8 (40%), Undisclosed 1 (5%)
• Average age of top HR leader: 48.8
• Youngest HR Leader: 35 (Laszlo Bock - Google, 35)
• Average age (male): 50.6 (52.2 without Laszlo Bock)
• Average age (female): 46
• Previous backgrounds: sales (Nordstrom, Goldman Sachs), legal (Target, UPS), product management (Microsoft, BMW)
• Facebook users: 2 (both female)

Also, 66 per cent of the companies included use VP/SVP of Human Resources as their title of choice.  Interestingly, Google and Southwest are more progressive and use “people” instead of HR (goes back to yesterday’s post about “talent” v “HR”.

I’ve been browsing through The Trump Blog (yes, a blog is born every minute, and it seems that even multi-billionaire property developers have time to blog!), and in it The Donald shares his thoughts about how to build great staff.

In recent years, I have built a public reputation for firing people. In all honesty, I put much more emphasis on hiring people and promoting those already working within the company. I think I’m a pretty good judge of character. When I interview people, I try to size them up fairly quickly. I don’t waste a lot of time on interviews because, although first impressions are lasting and often tell me immediately what I need to know about someone, every hire is a gamble.

Impressive credentials don’t always add up to a great performance or a good fit. I’ve had résumés that have blown me away and then, the real live person has done nothing once he or she has joined my staff. Likewise, nonexistent credentials don’t mean nonexistent talent. Being circumspect helps a lot and keeps you from being surprised. Time will do the weeding out for you. All you have to do is pay attention.

Donald Trump says that one of the characteristic he looks for in employees is a concern for the organization as a whole. “I admire employees who see themselves as having a direct relationship to the success or failure of the company they work for. When employees believe they are important to the company, their work reflects that loyalty.”
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Hear, hear, Donald.

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?

With the economy facing capacity constraints and the population ageing, it doesn’t make sense to have skilled people driving taxis.

Fifty-year-olds are still perceived as being past their used-by-date in the workforce.  At the same time, the latest census data reveals that 11 per cent of Australia’s population is between 55 and 64.  It is these people that the ICT industry needs to do more to attract, retain and retrain.

Research analyst firm, Mercer, says that workers aged 55 and older, particularly women, appear to be the answer to the ongoing skills and labour shortage – not generation Y – and Australian employers must consequently shift their focus from young to old to maintain productivity.

Research findings reveal that by the year 2012 the amount of workers in the labour force aged 55+ will increase by 14 per cent whilst the amount of workers aged 25-54 will increase by only 5 per cent.

Furthermore, the amount of women aged 45+ will increase by 12 per cent whilst the number of men in the same age group will increase by only 6 per cent

Mercer’s Tim Jenkins says that there’s a sense of urgency for employers.  By 2012 demand for skills is expected to increase 18 per cent in the construction industry; 13 per cent in the accommodation, café and restaurant industry; and 12 per cent in the wholesale industry, but with no guarantee that demand will be met with supply.

“In four short years there will be close to a quarter of a million more workers aged 55+ in the Australian labour force and assumptions about what an employer should expect from an employee, and vice versa, have to change.

“Australian employers have to re-define what the average daily and weekly job looks like and how it is remunerated in order to hold onto older workers, maintain productivity and keep downward pressure on wages that, according to our research, are forecast to rise at an average annual rate of 4.2% between now and 2012.

This seismic demographic shift threatens the sustainability of many Australian businesses.

So why does a recent survey by career management firm, Linkme.com.au, tell us that almost three-quarters of Australians believe that finding new employment – across all industries - after 50 is almost impossible.

People are telling me that they feel ‘on the scrapheap’ once they hit 45, and yet these are the very people who have a lifetime of skills and experience to harness.

One woman I spoke to said she was advised to change her resume to say ‘more than 10 years’ experience’ instead of ‘more than 20′ and to remove the dates from her degrees – all to reduce the perception that ‘older’ means ‘out-of-date’.

In industries where work is increasingly based on knowledge-creation, the focus needs to be on the workplace as a key arena for encouraging ‘lifelong learning’ as part of work.

Retaining and retraining older workers will save recruiting costs, maintain institutional memory and technical knowledge and give a higher return on investment in training.

However, it’s not just the responsibility of employers.

Employees need to recognise that they work in a fast-paced industry where training is paramount.  Continuing employment or re-entering the workforce may require a commitment to retrain and some attitudinal shifts too.

The most important factor in a mature person’s employment prospects is: are they adaptable?  Those most at risk of redundancy and underemployment have had fewest opportunities to acquire new skills and develop a positive attitude to learning.

Australia’s economic growth – and our industry’s prosperity - is partly dependent on mature-age workers remaining in the workforce for as long as possible, so it’s time to discard negative perceptions of baby boomers and support them in their working lives as much as Gen-X and Yers.