Navigating Workforce Strategy

Workforce demands and compositions are shifting in response to economic, social and demographic trends. Talent assets need to be managed as aggressively as the fine-tuning applied to other organizational assets. Everything else fails if the right talent isn’t in the right place. This requires an alignment of workforce strategy with business goals.

In the changing world of work, the one constant is the need for an exceptional workforce. The effectiveness of your workforce strategy makes the difference between thriving and diving. Today, talent is the only source of sustainable success and differentiation. Building an exceptional workforce will drive higher levels of performance and positively impact your organization’s ability to deliver on business strategy.

I will be presenting on this topic at the SHRM 2011 Conference and Exposition on June 28 in Las Vegas. Please join me and learn language, a process, business drivers and key metrics to architect an effective workforce strategy is aligned with business objectives.
Architecting a high-performing workforce strategy starts with the foundation of a five step process:

• Identify current state and future goals;


• Establish understanding and commitment;


• Gather the data and assess priorities;


• Analyze results and conduct gap analysis; and,


• Action planning and implementation.

Why make the investment? Building an exceptional workforce will drive higher levels of performance and will positively impact your organization’s ability to deliver on its business growth strategy. Investing in this process upfront will iidentify constraints and accelerators to organizational performance – top strengths to leverage and top priorities to fund and why. It will also increase executive alignment across functions and geographies, while also aligning talent initiatives to business goals – whether they are related to globalization, growth, productivity or even the brand.

I hope to see you at SHRM.

Speaking to the Top of the House

The ability to influence an executive audience is an essential requirement for today’s leaders of all levels. Unfortunately, many are unable to effectively influence senior audiences to take action on their ideas. At the SHRM 2011 Conference and Exposition on June 28 in Las Vegas I will be speaking on this topic and I invite you to join me. In this highly-interactive session, you will learn how to:

• Immediately capture and sustain the C-suite’s attention;
• Present yourself credibly, authentically and engagingly;
• Deliver ideas that provide inspiration;
• Develop confidence to excel at results-oriented communications.

Recent research found that high-performing organizations have the head of HR reporting directly to the CEO. Only 67% of low-performing organizations had their reporting lines set up this way. As a result of this infrastructure, the high-performing organizations reported a stronger and more productive connection between business strategies and HR strategies when the head of HR reports directly to the CEO.

CEOs sometimes forget that people are the only real sustainable competitive differentiator. It’s up to HR to ensure the CEO realizes the value of these assets and commits to investing in a talent strategy aligned with business objectives. Lack of a talent strategy is the number-one impediment to executing on business plans. It is HR’s role to step up and convince the C-suite how to do this. Why? Because there are countless examples of how the business strategy falls down and goals are missed if talent is not aligned.

If you are an HR leader and want to earn a seat at the executive table, you must market the HR function so senior management realizes the value-add and the full impact of what you do and how you contribute to the business. You need to understand each C-level executive and relate your function’s activities to his/her strategic imperatives. One of the unique opportunities about being in HR is that your responsibilities infiltrate every aspect of the business. Why? Because it takes talent to get the job done. The collective talent of our workforces is the only sustainable differentiator that will provide competitive advantage over time.

I look forward to seeing you at SHRM.

Are Competitors Pursuing Your Talent?

This may come as a surprise, but have you considered that many of your competitors are actively pursuing your talent? Right Management research tells us that nearly half of employees (45%) say they were contacted by another company about a possible job offer during the past 12 months. If you aren’t tuned into this reality, it’s time to pay attention.

Sure, there may be some wishful thinking amid the data. But it’s fair to consider these reported job offers as another sign the job market is stirring. For the past couple of years our research has tracked a restless workforce, frustrated by the slow job market, always on the lookout for greener pastures, cruising job sites, putting out feelers and e-mailing resumes. At the same time, what’s become a kind of perpetual job hunt is now matched by organizations which constantly scan the potential talent on tap in the marketplace.

No doubt social networking has accelerated the growing back and forth in the job market. Because of social networking every employee is now more visible. Everyone seems to be linked or recommended, and everyone knows people at many different companies. This is a dynamic that feeds on itself and is reshaping the fundamentals of the job market in ways we may not yet understand.

For their part, employers need to be unquestionably concerned that their people may be targeted by competitors. A revitalized job market will put a lot of intellectual property into play and employers are increasingly uneasy about their ability to retain top talent.
It would benefit employers to have clarity around the particular skills and competencies they need today and in the future. Identify your true real-up-and-comers and have a conversation of consequence with them about their careers. Take pains to align their individual goals so they can deliver on business objectives. Employees actually want to know and need to know how they can contribute to the current and future success of the business.

Some Employers Find It Hard to Fill Jobs

Despite high unemployment and the sluggish job market, 23% of employers often find it difficult to hard to fill key jobs, according to recent research we conducted with over 700 firms across the U.S. Moreover, another 64% find it hard occasionally.

The findings reflect the challenge organizations always face when it comes to bringing in top talent. HR professionals know that whether it’s a weak or strong job market finding and recruiting certain key people are a demanding process. Moreover, the difficulty varies according to job level, industry, requisite skills among other things.

The survey also found that qualified internal candidates are scarce. Only 3% of respondents said they have an ample leadership pipeline to cover most of their needs. And the majority of 80% relies on a combination of internal talent development and select external hiring. As many as 17% routinely look externally before filling critical roles in the organization.

Virtually no employer feels confident of his or her own management pipeline. Management ranks are very lean, and nobody should be stunned by this reality, not after the organizational streamlining that’s taken place over the past two years. Now companies find themselves not just short-handed, but also fearful of the loss of their top performers. The year ahead holds great promise, but there will also be serious talent management challenges for organizations of all sizes.

Organizations with scarce talent management resources need a different strategy to secure the right talent for key contributors and pivotal leadership positions within the firm. Without this focus, an organization risks losing even more top performers, as these types of positions typically have greater scope and influence over other positions within the firm.

Without a well-constructed succession planning system for rapid replacement of key roles, and more broadly, a well aligned succession management plan to ensure firm-wide talent progression, organizations are highly exposed to risks of underperformance and further loss of talent.

Leaders Beware: Mass Exodus Looms

Workers are poised for a mass exodus in 2011. They are feeling increasingly restless and intend to leave in droves if opportunities open up in the job market, according to a recent poll we conducted of 1,400 workers. As many as 84% of the employees say they plan to look for new jobs in 2011, up from 60% reported in our survey a year ago. Only 5% now say they intend to remain in their current position.

While somewhat alarming, this finding is more about employee dissatisfaction and discontent than a measure of projected turnover. We view it as a barometer of trust in management or commitment to the job. Basically, it’s a workplace equivalent to opinion polling on whether or not ‘this country is moving in the right direction.’ Just as people are questioning their elected leaders in government, so too are workers wondering if their management is up to the challenge of renewed growth or developing a sound strategy moving forward.

The underlying factors contributing to employees’ backlash is most likely the prolonged recession, continued job market weakness along with disruptive economic and workforce changes. Employees’ trust has been seriously shaken and there is a general lack of confidence in leaders.

The discontent is widespread. But this does not mean an organization’s management is helpless and nor can it afford to ignore the problem. If the job market picks up a lot many employees are going to take advantage of it, and organizations stand to lose some of their top contributors. This is a wake-up call to management.

One proactive step management should take is to identify star performers and have open and constructive career discussions with them. High-value employees always have opportunities available to them. Know who they are and be sure to take care of them in ways that are meaningful and aligned with the businesses goals.

Do you know the commitment levels of your employees? Do you have a plan in place to retain your star performers?

Worried About Work

Increasingly, I’m hearing that employees are worried about work and, as a result, many are stressed and tense. One of the most common reasons for this worry is a lack of confidence in being able to meet expectations. While workloads have increased as a result of layoffs and cutbacks, managers can go a long way in reducing stress and boosting confidence. How? First, invest time by engaging in regular career discussions. Next, ensure employees are equipped with the tools and have access to the resources needed to excel in their jobs. Then, look for ways to develop them so they're ready for what's next.

Many leaders these days are asking employees to do more, to do it in new ways, or even to do something entirely different. It’s a matter of enterprise-wide agility to sustain performance in volatile market conditions. Jobs and responsibilities are changing, business models are being redesigned, and generally there are just fewer people to do more work. Individuals need to be developed to rise to the next level of required performance. Companies that invest in talent to meet present and future needs have a strategic advantage – an agile, ‘ready-now’ workforce that can respond to changing needs.

With so many competing pressures and responsibilities, as well as constant change due to market realities, career management discussions can end up on the back burner for both managers and individuals. Having such discussions with employees can be a great first step in getting employees more broadly engaged. But managers need to be equipped with the tools to discuss career opportunities and create an environment where employees feel valued and want to grow in their roles. If successful, the outcome will be greater job satisfaction, commitment, and even advocacy – all essential for a healthy bottom line. If unsuccessful, workers will continue to feel stressed and pressured, which will likely harm the organization’s culture and overall performance.

Managers are in a great position to help employees find meaning in their work. When employees are passionate about what they do and really believe they are adding value, most find greater satisfaction in how they contribute to the organization’s success. And employers benefit by building a highly engaged workforce that outperforms the competition.

Are your employees worried about work? When was the last time you talked with them about their careers?

Is Change Interfering With Your Productivity?

Nearly two-thirds of senior executives and human resource professionals say that employees are struggling to focus amidst all the changes at work, according to a recent poll conducted by Right Management. While that may not be completely surprising to you, the larger problem is that they also acknowledge it is seriously impacting productivity levels.

Reacting to change is an emotional roller coaster. The greater the impact of the event and the less welcomed the change is for people, the more dramatic the emotional response will be. The process often includes a time of clinging to the past, followed by a period of apathy or hopelessness, and finally the eventual acceptance and positive movement toward the future. It’s actually a healing process, and individuals differ greatly in how long they move through it and how well.

To accelerate the pace of change implementation and increase the potential of succeeding with the objectives driving the change, you need to build change management capabilities at all organizational levels. Each organizational level – senior leaders, middle managers and staff – needs to learn how to effectively respond to and manage change. But each requires different capabilities, depending on role and amount of control over the process. For instance:

-- Senior leaders need to ensure engagement and alignment. They should encourage input from employees, communicate and keep them informed about the change process, value and act on ideas, follow through on actions, and model appropriate responses to change.

-- Middle managers need to facilitate change and help employees understand the reasons and objectives for the change. Provide direction and support, understand typical responses and cycles of change, guide people through the cycle, and help them to maintain their productivity through the process.

-- Employees need to continue to meet performance objectives during and after a change initiative. Involve them in the process. Ensure they understand the rationale for change, their role in making change work, and what is expected of them. Create strategies to help them overcome natural resistance to change, and show them how to recognize their own styles and reactions to change through assessments, workshops and team meetings.

If you are frustrated with the impact of change on productivity, consider building change management capabilities at all organizational levels. Are your employees struggling to focus and maintain performance levels?

Overqualified for the Role? Great!

I was dismayed to read a recent article that advised recruiters and hiring managers to pass over the over-qualified worker. Seriously? The market is a gold mine for talent right now. As the economy stabilizes, many workers are making the move to find new jobs or change careers. And we still have a lot of high caliber talent among the ranks of the unemployed who are looking for new positions.

A new job's value isn't always defined as a promotion or progress up the proverbial career ladder. Many people are looking to make a change to be part of a different culture that is more aligned with their own values. Or perhaps explore opportunities to learn and grow. Or even find a role that provides the chance to do what they do best but with a more manageable and flexible schedule.

No one expects workers to stay with one employer for their entire career. In fact, we’re finding that often highly-qualified job seekers are taking what we term “bridging” roles - jobs that will fill a gap and get them to the next chapter in their careers. They take them for various reasons. Some take them to bridge their move into retirement. Some are open to contributing in new ways. Some do it so they can keep their skills fresh and relevant or learn new ones.

In short, there is a lot of talent available today. The New York Times reports that the number for people in positions where their experience or education exceeds their job descriptions is roughly one in five American workers. This frequency inevitably increases in hard times. Academic research on the subject confirms that workers who perceive themselves as overqualified do, in fact, report lower job satisfaction and higher rates of turnover. But the studies also indicate that those workers tend to perform better. Moreover, there is evidence that many of the negatives that come with overqualified hires can be mitigated if they are given autonomy and made to feel valued and respected.

Perhaps you’ve been questioning hiring someone who may be perceived as overqualified. Go ahead. Tap the great talent available today. It’s to your advantage.

Lack of Skilled Trades Intensifies Talent Mismatch

Despite high unemployment, many employers are struggling with a talent mismatch: individuals don’t possess the specific skills demanded by employers. In particular, lack of skilled tradespeople is making the issue more intense and there are no signs of it easing up any time soon, according to a new study released by Manpower, Strategic Migration – A Short-Term Solution to the Skilled Trades Shortage. This shortage is detrimental to the physical infrastructure, economic health and potential growth of nations and businesses.

Skilled trade shortages afflict 10 of the world’s largest economies, with the United States ranked number one as the most at risk. This talent crunch could potentially have a devastating effect on economic growth. Companies lack the talent they need to operate efficiently and prolonged unemployment of large sections of the workforce will continue to drag on the recovery and make turnaround unsustainable.

The shortage of skilled trade workers stems from several problems, including the retirement of older blue-collar workers without adequate replacements, technical training that isn’t meeting businesses’ needs, and the higher status accorded to knowledge work over more manual forms of labor among those beginning their careers.

Such workers can’t be offshored, but they can be onshored. When the right skills cannot be found within a country’s borders, strategic migration can involve recruiting from elsewhere to bring the necessary workers to the work, alleviating the immediate pressure of the talent shortage and allowing stakeholders the time and opportunity to work on long-term solutions to the talent mismatch.

In the short-term, strategic migration is a practical answer to the talent mismatch. The long-term approach will require employers to partner with governments, labor unions and academic institutions and individuals to train and reskill workers. Employers need to invest in developing their workers, provide for varied career paths for skilled tradespeople, understand how the aging workforce will impact their viability, and plan for growth by upskilling workers to provide the supply of talent to meet changing business demands.

Do you need to migrate talent to meet the shortfall in skilled trades?

In Pursuit of Excellence

A recent HR discussion forum question came my way, asking: “Why is it so difficult to find an excellent employee? Why are there so many mediocre performers?” Based on my experience, the root cause here lays not so much with employees as it does with the organization lacking the ability and infrastructure to identify skills, competencies and attitudes that will align with the company's unique cultures.

Let’s face it, thanks to the recession the current pool of available talent is rich with experience and expertise. Yet some firms struggle to hire the best people despite high unemployment. Many hiring managers continue to search for ways to attract and hire candidates who will fit their organization’s culture and thrive in their dynamic environments.

The challenge stems from five key recruitment steps that may be deficient and hindering the process. It’s not so much about what the candidates are lacking; it’s more about what the process is missing. If you are struggling to find excellent candidates, consider whether your process is lacking:

1. A definitive success profile that captures the right knowledge, skills, culture fit, abilities and experiences as a benchmark to hire against.

2. A good sourcing strategy. Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong places for qualified people or haven’t created a compelling employer brand to attract the best people.

3. A solid evaluation system that can assess for the required elements of the success profile.

4. A consistent and accurate rating of candidates against the success profile. (For instance, how much delegation ability is good enough or how proficient does this person need to be in a specific skill? And are we all assessing this person the same way by rating the person by the same criteria?)

5. A systematic process to transfer information captured in the hiring process into a meaningful application in the on-boarding process? (For instance, if we know a candidate is good in one area and weak in another, then let’s craft an on-boarding plan that leverages strengths and accelerates development around weaknesses.)

The difficulty finding suitable workers limits the economy’s ability to grow. It’s a difficulty that needs to be overcome. There is great talent available. A well structured hiring process will help you find the ones who will take your company to the next level.

How many excellent people do you have in your organization?

Stretching to new heights

With flatter organizations and leaner resources, we need to make the most of what we have. Often, staff cuts necessitate the assignment of new roles and responsibilities to existing employees. Stretch assignments can be a productive way to develop employees and also meet the business demands you’re expected to deliver on without adding head count.

Research reported in Fast Company revealed that 68% of Emerging Leaders said that stretch assignments had the greatest impact in accelerating their development. For High Potential employees, 57% reported the same.

To make stretch assignments successful for all parties, it’s important to set realistic goals at the outset. Engage employees in discussions to make sure the new projects are aligned with their skills and interests, as well as those needed for the business. And once underway, schedule regular reviews to discuss progress and track results.

Stretch assignments provide numerous benefits, broadening both the individual and the organization to achieve new heights in performance. As Elliott Masie cites in a recent Great Leadership blog: “Unfortunately, organizations do not use stretch assignments often or strategically in their leadership development efforts.” He continues with listing the multitude of benefits, including lower cost development, bonding with the organization which bolsters retention and engagement, and career path exploration for high potentials.

There are also some limitations to factor in. Stretch assignments are custom for each individual and are not a one-size-fits-all initiative. If you want the latter, send your leaders to a workshop. As a leader, you need to be hands-on in actively supporting the assignment and your employee. This includes coaching or mentoring throughout the process and committing resources to provide employees with the experiences that will hone their skills.

Yes, stretch assignments can be complicated. But the return far outweighs the risk when implemented properly.

What's growing in your greenhouse?

You’ve made significant investments. You’ve put the infrastructure and systems in place. You’ve cultivated, nurtured and multiplied. Now it’s time to reap the rewards as you harvest the wealth of all you have grown… from your workforce, that is. And the last thing you want to see is your investment walking out the door just as it begins to deliver returns.

Why does retention matter? Your workforce provides a critical competitive advantage. While some organizations feel many employees can be easily replaced, the truth is that there is no way to easily replace the institutional knowledge, customer relationships and business opportunities that walk out the door with them. Losing top performers leaves organizations in the precarious position of plugging gaps that can leave them scrambling to meet objectives. And given the mismatch between demand for talent and the skills available, it may not be so easy to fill those plugs. We know that those with sought-after skills can leave, by choice. Investing in employee retention efforts can be the fabric that enables your organization to thrive rather than fade away.

An organic talent development process enables organizations to promote from within. Promoting from within is an opportunity that can have significant positive impact on the organization’s future success. It maintains the integrity of the company’s brand, fosters strong corporate identify, and provides continuity of the organization’s culture. It also instills confidence in leadership, provides hope for career advancement with the same employer, and leverages shared knowledge and the investment made to develop that knowledge. And, just as important, it’s a valuable retention tool in your engagement strategy.

With a strong, “ready now,” committed and highly-engaged workforce, you are a force with which to be reckoned. Investing in developing talent also breeds a culture of high-performance – one that your competitors will strive to emulate.

What are you growing in your organization?

Looking Beyond the Obvious

As the talent mismatch widens, employer’s need new mindsets for sourcing candidates. Look beyond the obvious supplies of talent and consider hiring candidates who fit with your culture and train for specific skills that are teachable to fulfill the requirements of the role.

To fill large and systemic talent gaps, expand the pool of available candidates and consider:

Internal role changes
The best source of new talent may already reside in your organization. Redeploy existing talent to new roles and locations. People are willing to move geographies yet employers are still learning how to capitalize on this trend. Consider redeploying existing talent before laying them off. As many as 18% of outplaced candidates are rehired by their past employer.

Consider skills transfers
Some industries are cutting their workforces, while others are growing faster than the talent supply. Consider the talent available in low-growth industries that can migrate to new fields. Review the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections 2008-2018 to see where the growth is and where the shrinkage is to come from. Some of these people may have highly valued skills – such as those in sales, finance and management – that can easily be transferred to a new industry. Be opportunistic in response to significant changes in local labor markets, such as businesses closing or relocating and leaving capable people behind. According to Human Capital Management, nearly half (47%) of jobseekers change industries to land a new role.

You can’t change what is happening relative to external trends or today’s economic reality. But you can change your workforce strategies in order to respond to those trends and position your company to effectively meet these challenges and beat the competition.

In Pursuit of the Young and the Old

As the global economy continues to improve, today’s talent mismatch will become more pronounced. That means employers need to think differently about how they fill their talent needs now and in the future.

For most of the twentieth century, the assumption that the working-age population would continue to grow formed the basis for future workforce planning. It is well-documented by the Deloitte and others that that assumption simply no longer holds true. Since 1990, the global labor market has doubled. By 2050, the world population will reach nine billion – yet, many employers still can’t find the right people to fill essential positions. Birthrates are declining and populations are aging.

To meet this challenge, we recommend that organizations redefine the parameters of their search for talent and focus on expanding the pool of talent. Consider:

Engaging an aging workforce.
Develop specific strategies to attract and recruit older workers. Develop plans to motivate older workers to stay on with your organization longer. According to Manpower research, only 14% of employers have specific strategies in place to recruit older workers. While only 21% of employers have strategies in place to retain their older workers. Fortune magazine and Ken Dychtwald report that many boomers are “un-retiring” and are prepared to reenter the workforce. Dychtwald advises unretirees to change their mindset, consider this a new beginning and target industries with older clients (such as banking).

Investing in younger workers.
Customize work experiences that leverage the unique attributes of Generation Y to increase their contribution and engagement. The underemployed and under-skilled are another potential pool, especially as local governmental agencies and others move to help them with training and other programs to enable their transition into the workforce.

Expand your talent pool: hire for fit and train for skills.

Check back tomorrow for final part in Owen's four-part blog series on Teachable Fit and learn more strategies to expand the search for talent.

How Fit Are Your Next Employees?

The changing nature of work and the dwindling size of the traditional talent pool are converging – leaving companies searching in new ways to meet the demand for the skills required in today’s economy.

Employers need to redefine the parameters of their search for talent and focus on new priorities. Essentially, hire employees for their potential to fit within your culture and team and invest in developing the specific skills needed to perform on the job. Manpower calls this Teachable Fit – a new approach for easing the talent mismatch.

The premise works as follows: When employers can’t find candidates with the full range of skills needed for particular positions, they can recruit candidates, perhaps from outside their industries, who possess adjacent skills with an eye toward filling the gaps in their capabilities. It’s important to understand how fillable those gaps are – both in terms of technical skills and candidate mindsets – and at what cost. We know from Right Management research that as many as one-in-three employers are looking for a good motivational fit compared to only about one-in-ten who are looking for specific technical skills or relevant experience.

From a CEO perspective, it is important to assess where you are today and where you want to be – before you can even start to build the bridge between the talent strategy and the business strategy. Assessing talent enables you to evaluate your current workforce and forecast future needs; the resulting gap analysis provides a roadmap for sourcing, onboarding, developing and accelerating talent, and aligning performance with your business direction.

Today’s talent mismatch will continue to intensify. That means more competition for available qualified people, against a backdrop of what Talent Management reports as higher turnover and as many as one-in-four high-performers walking out the door. Employers need to think differently about how they fill the talent needs now and in the future. They must look beyond the usual places for candidates and consider those who are best positioned with their skills and personalities to benefit from training and development.

Check back tomorrow for the third in Owen's four-part series on Teachable Fit and how to expand your talent pool.

Playing Matchmaker

Although the current global economic situation has increased the number of overall jobseekers, as many as 31% of employers worldwide are experiencing difficulty filling positions due to lack of suitable talent available in their markets. Really? Really!

As Manpower reports in its 2010 Talent Shortage survey, there are not enough sufficiently skilled people in the right places at the right time to meet demand. This gap will widen and intensify over the next few years as economies rebound, the nature of available work shifts, and several decades of lower birthrates throughout much of the world catch up to us.

Without an intentional approach to workforce strategy that embraces how the world of work is changing, organizations will be unable to effectively execute business strategy. Led by the CEO, organizations must apply the same rigor used to create an overall business strategy to create a workforce strategy. The resulting blueprint provides a line of sight into understanding the talent choices available today that impact an organizations’ ability to deliver on business strategies in the future.

You can’t change what is happening relative to the external world of work trends or today’s economic reality. (For more on our World of Work trends, see my article in Chief Executive.) But you can change your talent strategies to respond to those trends and position your company to gear up for growth in this context. Talent is the number one impediment or success factor to executing your business plan.

The key is to align the right talent approaches to your business strategy.

Check back tomorrow for the second in Owen's four-part series on Teachable Fit and hiring candidates for fit, not just skills.

Integrating contingent workers into company culture

Temporary staffing is on the rise, thanks to the ability it gives companies to adjust their workforce based on business needs. In fact, it’s likely that the regular use of contingent workers, instead of full-time employees, will become a permanent practice in many organizations.

But, as more businesses start to rely increasingly on temporary workers, they also face new, complex challenges: integrating these employees into their culture and ensuring they’re as engaged as full-time staffers. It’s a tall order since it's much more difficult to create a strong bond with contingent workers.

To that end, companies need to decide just how tightly they should integrate contingent workers into the organizational culture. While one business might feel these employees should be considered to be a true extension of the organization, another might look on them, in effect, as appendages. But each approach requires a different approach. The former company, for example, might include temporary workers in all organization-wide events – company picnics, holiday parties and the like – while the latter would probably refrain from doing so.

Organizations that make the use of contingent workers an important part of their workforce strategy and take appropriate steps to integrate them into the culture will find a significant payoff: a reliable talent pool to draw from – with demonstrated skills and fit – when hiring opportunities arise; as well as an engaged, loyal temporary workforce and, ultimately, stepped up levels of organizational performance.

Hiring practices gone bad

It’s been quite some time since I’ve witnessed such poor advice on hiring practices as cited in a recent CNNMoney article on Out-of-work job applicants told unemployed need not apply. Let’s revisit the fundamentals: Most unemployed people do not lose jobs for performance-related issues!

The reality, based on our own research and some 30 years of experience in helping the unemployed, is that more than one-in-two people lose their jobs because they are impacted by a downsizing. Mergers, restructures, divestitures and plant closings frequently result in the need for organizations to let people go. According to the article, the myth is being perpetuated that most employees get laid off for performance issues. This is simply untrue.

If you’re sensing I’m a little cranky, it’s because I am. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 in 10 (6.1 million people) have been jobless for 27 weeks or more – by far the highest proportion of long-term unemployment on record, with data back to 1948. Most of these out-of-work people were laid off for the reasons cited above. It is naïve to exclude the unemployed when trying to fill positions for needed talent. If some employers are dumbing down the unemployed to this level, you can only imagine the negative values with which they treat their own employees. Most will likely want to jump ship at the first opportunity.

The reality is that unemployed people do get jobs. And frequently, they are even rehired by their past employers. We also know that most source their new opportunities through networking (and, thankfully, not from the narrowly focused so-called staffing “experts” quoted in the above-referenced article). And the real kicker is that most of the outplaced job seekers we work with land new jobs at the same or higher salary as they held in their previous positions.

In an environment where there is a fundamental disconnect between the skills companies require and the skills employees offer is widening, can you really afford to discount half of the available talent out there to fill your open positions?

Focus on HR "soft" issues ensures value after a merger

Global merger and acquisition activity could rise as much as 35% this year. But for mergers and acquisitions to succeed, it’s essential that companies address such "soft" issues as effective change management and alignment of culture with strategy. Yet, senior leaders seldom give them the priority they deserve.

That was the conclusion of a study by Right Management of post-M&A performance that surveyed 156 companies in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. It found that the top factors correlated to achieving value and growth were, in large measure, human resources issues. Yet, the four composite indices where participants gave their organizations highest marks were productivity, value creation, business integration, and customer focus, while the four bottom-rated indices were talent management, alignment, internal communications, and culture integration. Thus, according to the study, "hard" issues tend to be addressed more effectively than softer, people-oriented factors.

Why does this happen? Part of the explanation lies in the role of HR executives in most organizations. Because they often are perceived as not being conversant in finance and business basics, HR professionals tend to be left out of M&A planning and implementation. As a result, their input is given short shrift.

That’s a mistake. HR should be brought in at the front end of the M&A process – before the ink dries. In fact, because "people" issues are so important to M&A success, organizations should give HR and business considerations equal weight. Business objectives, after all, can only be achieved when top performers are there to make them happen. In the process, HR professionals need to be actively involved in the planning and implementation, and given full-time, dedicated resources related to culture and change-management issues.

But HR professionals also have a responsibility to step up to the plate by calling attention to the substantial value they add to the integration process. To make the case for the benefits they can bring to the organization by focusing on talent retention during and after the transition, they first need to demonstrate to senior leaders their understanding of key business issues. Here’s some of the value they can bring:

-- Facilitation of preliminary integration discussions with business leaders
-- Future focus on workforce strategy
-- Development of retention strategies critical for the deal to succeed
-- Active role in due diligence process
-- A first look at organizational design, cultural issues and leadership
-- Planning the launch of the integration team

If leadership doesn’t include HR as serious partners – they run the risk of undermining the potential value the organization can reap from the merger.

Workforce strategy: looking to the future

The speed of change, created by advances in technology, means that jobs are evolving at a breakneck pace. And that has significant implications both for organizations and individuals.

An urgent issue relates to addressing vital questions about future workforce needs: What skills and abilities will be necessary for success that are not in play now? How do you assess the current talent pool for the skills that will be required in the future? What is the best approach: to hire from the outside or to build competencies internally? Or, should you move to a temporary staffing solution?

As organizations struggle with these questions, individual employees also face a world in which many jobs are becoming extinct, while new ones are appearing to take their place. They must address a different challenge: finding ways to adapt and grow, to embrace these changes and turn them into opportunities.

For organizations, the solution lies in understanding which type of skills and abilities will be required as driven by workforce trends like demographic changes, technology use, increasing market sophistication and other forces. Then creating a process ensuring they have the right people in the right roles – and that their talent strategy supports their current business goals and future business strategy. For individual employees, it’s the chance to look ahead to the future, rather than at the door that’s closed behind.

In either case, the ability to create a plan for addressing rapid workforce change will mean the difference between success or failure in the market.