Something's gotta give . . .
After just having returned from our first (extended) Spring Break, which consisted of thousands of miles road trip across the wonderful US of A (lots of fun - highly recommended), one thing I had already started noticing was the massive issue with staffing.? But wow!? This is by no means a localized and/or short-term problem – every single place I visited saw this issue made manifest. This is from Savannah to Sydney, with no signs of the shortage going away anytime soon.
Not just the prolific volume of “staff needed” signs in windows of most (all?!?!?) premises... or the more desperate plea that I saw in one place... “tell us ANYTHING that we can do to get you to come work with us?” ?– but I truly lost count of the number of times we came across:
?This is ACTUAL.?SALES.?WALKING.??OUT.??THE.??DOOR.
By the way, this is not just a problem limited to front-line workers.? This is a problem hitting at all levels of all organizations, even into the corporate bubble.? From our standard white-collar roles, to specialist digital skills that are so highly sought-after, to the people that have our very customer happiness in their hands. ?There are literally BILLIONS of dollars that our organizations are missing out on because they don’t have the right talent in place. ?There are literally billions of dollars in transformation agendas being wasted, often because the requisite skills are not in place to support their success.
Something’s gotta give.
It is time to think differently.?Companies cannot react their way through this and hope for the best.? We can’t do things the same way we always have, thinking talent is just going to materialize. ?The evidence speaks for itself, it hasn’t.
So, what can we do?
The problem with the way most organizations operate is that they are inherently short-term.? Optimizing right now is comfy, even if it is just perpetual reactive, fire alarm response. Trying to solve for the immediate problem only, and we will get to that “strategic” stuff later. “The workforce will show up, it always has in the past” or “we’ve never had to do it before, and we are still around”.?
All the time we speak to orgs that are so entrenched in their annual operating cycles. Looking only 12 months out from a budget-based view of the world. ?Or thinking the operational rostering or tactical workforce management is where they need to focus.
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But where has that gotten them?
This is a problem that is not going away. ?Every industry, in every country is on alert for severe skills and worker shortages forecast into the foreseeable future. ?This is not just IMHO btw – there are endless reports and articles about this...
Organizations need to urgently step it up and step out of their current limited views, planning from one quarter to the next.? You can’t click your fingers and just materialize requisite staff and skills overnight.?
You need an integrated understanding of internal and external forces to get those crucial insights. Clarity of purpose and the people required, known well ahead of time. ?Without any alignment on the longer-term direction and context, the org never truly knows where it is heading and how it is going to get there. ?If we don’t look at the longer-term and understand the workforce size and skill need, we won’t actually have it in place to then be able to deploy on a shorter-term basis. This is what we are now seeing made manifest. It is not an accident.
How are you going to do things differently??
Workforce Planning | Learning and Development | Organisational Development | Culture I Wellbeing
1 年Alicia, I was just looking for the post you tagged me in about layoffs this week so I could respond with my thoughts. Then I stumbled across this post from 2 years ago. It’s hard to believe the pendulum has swung so far….so fast. But then, I think, maybe that’s just because I’ve been fortunate to work with organisations who invest in SWP. I think about all the humans who are impacted by the lack of planning. I wonder how many are factoring in social costs when determining the return on investment in SWP. It may be just the algorithm, but I’m not seeing as many posts about wellbeing these days. I would like to think that’s because the need has reduced, but I worry that’s not the reason.
Growing Your Bottom Line & Improving Client Outcomes in the Future of Work
2 年Alicia, thanks for sharing!
LinkedIn Top Voices in Company Culture USA & Canada I Executive Advisor | HR Leader (CHRO) | Leadership Coach | Talent Strategy | Change Leadership | Innovation Culture | Healthcare | Higher Education
2 年Brilliant Alicia Roach
Perhaps complacency crept in with all the false alarms in the past? The talent crisis that was mainly hype in the early - mid 2000s ? But now we are in a new era and need to think differently.
CEO at eQ8 Strategic Workforce Planning Expert
2 年I never thought I'd be denied service at a Chili's! According to Paul Krugman at The New York Times, the Great Resignation is morphing into the Great Reshuffle. Companies must plan or they will get into a deep hole.