Building for The Future

We all work for a living and many of us have been in conversation recently that speaks to the pain points nearly every business is experiencing. Where is the talent? See, I wrote the book on the Talent Emergency long before the pandemic. The skills gaps, the available talent pool dwindling and skilled talent slowly realizing they have the upper hand. All facts. Add the pandemic to the mix and any issues that were symptomatic in 2020 have become fully exposed by now. I was convinced before the Pandemic that the Talent had won! There was no war on talent, the talent won. See, amidst the pandemic a fascinating thing has taken place. The world is acknowledging the challenge of working families and the fact that they represent a third of the workforce. Recently, I discovered Great Place to Work conducted the largest study ever of working parents. The DATA says it all. Parents are diverse and families can be made up from any subset of humans. What was once standard benefits design is no longer enough to retain skilled talent let alone attract new talent. The now evidence shows Boomers that had one foot out the door opted to exit the talent pool with two feet. With 30 million people missing between the Boomers and GenXer’s, Millennials now being 50% of the talent pool and yet talent development was neglected in most companies. Many were not prepared for the void of talent. Always being able to buy versus make talent was a luxury afforded to us for nearly an entire generation. Everyone is tired and resilience is being tested.?

Even before the pandemic, the freelance market was the fastest growing employment sector with companies like UPWORK, freelancer.co,?FIVVER and this year, now SHIFTPIXY. It represents 35% of the global workforce. 1.1. Billion freelancers in the world. In 2019, before the pandemic, 57 M people worked from home in the USA. Even then 75% of them said, “they wouldn’t trade their freelancing career for a job”.

Key factors in leaving the role of employee to date include:

Flexibility 68% and I argue the second factor for career driven professionals is the opportunity for advancement to increase personal income while exercising freedom. Why? Well, 55% of the freelance market comprise of people working full time. That’s right Millennials that have jobs typically consider it their side gig as they are working their passion on the side. They are investing their discretionary effort into the dream, not yours.

Bottom line, if employers do not tap into the hearts and minds of the their talent, there is nothing to keep?them in their current jobs. The truth is clear. Deloitte research data shows that 84% of those experiencing burnout have no passion for their job. It would seem it’s time to prioritize strategic culture plans as general strategy and operational plans of today will fail without genuine culture plans.?

Now that we understand the playing field a bit better. Let’s talk about what really is happening.

Many of us look to history to gain insight into the present moment. If we agree that every organization shares the talent challenge it makes sense to look to one of the largest employers in the world. The US Department of Defense. Ben Eubanks is a researcher that I follow. He shared this story and it’s a good example that drives home the point I want to make. Years ago, the United States Air Force was crashing more planes than ever before. This was happening after World War II, but they were puzzled, because the planes were safer than ever. They had new features and new ways to keep pilots safe, but they were crashing more than ever before.

So they began to think that maybe the pilots were a different size than the pilots who the planes were built around originally–after all, pilot error is often cited as the reason for a crash or problem in midair. So the Air Force assigned a team to measure all of the pilots: their height, the length of their thumbs, the circumference of their neck, the size of their boots, all the things you can possibly imagine around the size of a person–literally hundreds of measurements.

And then they averaged those together. Okay: so the average person is between this much and that much tall, they have this big of a boot size, they have this long of an arm, etc.

But one of the researchers said, I wonder how many of our pilots are actually in that range. So he went through and he looked at all the data.

And for thousands of pilots, there were exactly zero who hit the mark on all the ranges the Air Force identified as “average.” he found that the percentage of them were in the single digits that hit average on just those three metrics. The biggest lesson? There’s no such thing as an average pilot, just like there’s no such thing as an average employee. Loved this share from Ben~.

Also newer research tells us that what matters most in the job and it used to be my manager. Yes this is still relevant but the primary factor has shifted significantly to the top reason being support for myself, my family and my social needs. This is number one in 2022.??I personally have scaled a business with part timers. Meeting talent where they need to be met requires really understanding the life style and stage of your talent. This requires customized programs directed at talent that is not one size fits all.?

For over a decade now I have served on Advisory Boards for Best and Brightest Companies?to Work For. In the recent year, there have been many leading organizations that capitalized on their culture, extending care over revenue and won with talent retention, improved culture metrics and better team cohesiveness.

There are five areas specific to working families that were derived by Maven’s research and it really critical in attracting the talent that has choices.

#1 Seeing benefits as special and unique for their needs makes employees 2x as likely to stay

#2 Feeling able to be themselves at work makes employees 2x as likely to stay

#3 Believing leaders genuinely care for them as people makes employees 2.3x as likely to stay

#4 Experiencing a psychologically healthy work environment makes employees 3x as likely to stay

#5 Feeling treated as a full member regardless of their job role makes employees 1.6x as likely to stay.?

Some trends I have seen include shifting from a rigid framework to a flexible, personalized approach to a job. Example, Radio Flyer, Robert Pasin has long championed that flyers design their jobs, review themselves and this is a manufacturer in downtown Chicago widely awarded for excellence in their HR practices.

Mentorship programs have morphed into businesses formally identifying internal coaches and advocate programs. One of my favorites last year was when PWC pivoted by offering Parent Flexibility Champions.?A real partner that helped working parents develop their own flexible working arrangements. This requires greater communication and transparency in businesses and among teams specifically.

Where I was onsite was in essential businesses last year and it was wonderful to see companies investing in the heart of their culture. More supportive two-way communication and no decisions isolated to the top. By only speaking to one segment of your workforce, inequalities will be felt. It is imperative that every business listen to each demographic and create an environment where they feel heard and acknowledged. In smaller organizations it can be done qualitatively but in larger organizations I recommend quantitative data and culture teams or ambassadors.??We provide comprehensive Culture Services at HRBoost.

I long have preached Generational Agility is the new core competency among companies and leaders at all levels within those companies. Significant impacts on the importance of understanding the ways we all approach work, let alone how we get motivated to learn, grow and evolve with the businesses we serve. For this reason, I will attempt to shed some light and build your generational agility with respect to how the generations view three areas of work.

1)Work Ethic

2)Training/career development

3)Incentivizing & Motivating

These three areas are significant because each generation views each of them differently and it requires operational leaders or managers to be adept at meeting talent wherever they see are. This is why it is a competency.

Let’s retain Boomers – Seek meaningful impact and in person exchange matters – we are seeing INVESTMENT DAYS whereby companies have people come together in person. This wonderful term was shared be a leading law firm in downtown Chicago, Levenfeld Pearlstein.

By 2050, the number of individuals in the labor force who are age 65 or older is expected to grow by 75% while those who are 25 to 54 is expected to grow by 2%. (Source: DOL)

The threat of Gen X – they require freedom. How do you employ Freedom and choice in your business? Autonomy and Trust? This demographic in the talent pool as amassed skills growing the ladders of the past. The biggest threat of workforces today is Gen X joining the freelance marketplace.?1/3 current workforce is freelance talent.

HIRE A?Millennial! Put them on something MEANGINGFUL. Tenacious and enterprising, taking time to discuss how to create a framework by which this younger talent can act as intrapreneurs in your organization.

The Opportunity of Gen Z The research is fresh but shows promise for even the newest of graduates joining the talent pool. They are being coined to be like the greatest generation, career focused, fiscally conservative and yet technologically savvy and globally connected and aware.?

We are seeing a trend that organizations are building strategies around not just improving?your skill but your life. Many are moving to value Well Being at work and what that looks like for anyone coming from anywhere to be a part of your team.

Sure we take pride in America on our individuality but the companies that do a good job of really working on allowing talent to be the best version of themselves in your company.

Deep consideration to the journey of an employee through life WHILE working for your company is a good exercise and it doesn't have to be done in a board room. The people are good about knowing what they need, the question remains do you know what they need and can you offer it??

The concept of Shared Leadership is something I talk about often. Even looking back as this slide I shared in a presentation in 2020, it is still relevant and now more than ever. Every business I walk into I ask if they have considered how leadership is defined in their business. Is there a common language for everyone to understand how leadership lives here?

What elements of Leadership have you been witnessing given the current circumstances. We believe in Shared Leadership, leadership can live at all organizational levels. Yet, many have not expressed this in their organizations. Thus, there is a real opportunity to redefine leadership. One grass roots approach is to invite your team to create a common language for leadership and then reinforce it. Example – Expectations exercise on What do we expect our Strategic Leaders to Define? What do we want our Operational Leaders to Model? And last but not least, if someone new starts with us tomorrow, how are they invited to lead? In my company, this is something we teach! Innovative Leadership Programs are available on a Self Study basis or you can license to be a Certified Facilitator.

If you create something unique and meaningful with your team not for your team. I believe that not only retains the talent you have today but builds on something much bigger for the future. When you work toward shared creation together you will have a culture as unique as art.?

Do your best to keep in mind we are creating the future together. In order for this to work well for everyone we must build the future together.