Talents, Skills, Companies & Education: All Week

Getting A Grip On What's Underneath Talent Issues--And What We Can Do

This headline from Reuters grabbed my attention:

"AT&T CEO Says Hard To Find Skilled U.S. Workers"

The specific issue: Chief Executive Randall Stephenson says AT&T can't find enough  skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from India.

Anyone with any telecommunication "customer service" interaction might be inclined to say that those already employed don't have the skills either. (I don't think that's true, by the way. I believe that too many  companies measure success in ways that serve internal paper-pushers and have little to do with resolving customer issues).

The surprise: Instead of talking about recruitment and retention, Stephenson talked about public education. He is distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the high school dropout rate is as high as 50 percent.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.

Now: fast forward to the world of luring talented people away from their existing jobs.

Personalized iPods and "Passive Candidates"

Just when I thought I was pretty much on top of what's happening, I found this on BusinessWeek.com:

"Tempt Talent With Creative Recruiting"

It really is an interesting read and will give you a sense of just how creepy competitive the job market is getting. And I learned a phrase I hadn't heard before: "Passive Candidates." This is a euphemism for people who are already happily employed but highly desired by other companies. "Passive Candidates" gave me the same queezy feeling that I had when I first heard an HR director announce that he was in the process of "right-sizing" his company. (About 750 soon-to-be-former employees wondered exactly what made it "right").

How does one reach this targeted "passive" talent?

• Send a personalized iPod with artistic packaging and a recorded message from the CEO

• Need programmers? Design a coded message only potential hires can decipher, then put it on a billboard directly in front of the offices of your rival (from whom you want to extract the programming talent).

• Design a Resignation Toolkit that helps the object of your desire take the guesswork out of kissing the current employer good-bye.

This Week Is About Talent For the Long Run

Businesses want to hire the right people. You want to know what your real talents are and how to get them used. While organizations wring their hands over a shortage of talent, current employees scream that they are being underutilized. And in the midst of all of this, educational institutions are not focused on building the talents and skills needed--and projected--by businesses of all sizes.

I'm deeply invested in surfacing the systemic nature of the Talent "issue." I spend much of my speaking and consulting practice working with individuals and companies on all aspects of the talent equation. I can say this with great confidence: It's not about hiring or retention or T&D or public education. It's about all of those and how they are currently disconnected.  To treat them individually without systemic context can lead to doing the wrong things really well and wondering why there's still an overriding problem.

I hope you'll join in and add your own observations, experiences, concerns, and questions.

Comments

[Karin H.]

Hi Steve

Wow, that's an awful lot to take in - so many related issues indeed.
My thoughts:
Schooling: teach the basics and focus on enabling creativity - that way one has learned not to "just follow the rules or guidelines" but know what the result of the job should be when employed no matter where (very short thought, I know).
Training (schooling during employment): focus on the result, not the steps how to do a job/task. (see 1).

Personal experience: been 'promoted' many times from one department to another - when I was employed, now I fortunately run my own business - and every time it was due to the fact my employer was made aware that flexible, skilled workers who had been given the trust could tackle most new problems. Without bragging I was considered one of those 'happy' problem solvers ;-)
The minute this was not longer recognised or appreciated the fun of work went out of the window and all tasks became dull and uninspiring - even when the monthly pay-cheque still increased. I left ;-)

Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

[Steve Roesler]

Well, Karin, you quickly tossed in a lot to think about as well.

First, with the "schooling" element, you used the phrase "enabling creativity." I think this is worth exploring further, as there is some much emphasis on "teaching" creativity when, it fact, it is something that is nurtured and allowed to bubble to the surface.

Second: We all like to get more money, but ultimately it doesn't seem to replace more respect and genuine recognition of one's talents and contributions.

This should be a fun week. . . :-)

[Jo]

To think like a sociologist for a moment, Karl Weick, the social scientist, makes the point that we often describe social problems in ways that are not solvable. And of course that begs the question, of why?

Why do businesses talk-up the difficulty of hiring people? And why doesn't their share price plunge when they do this?

[Steve Roesler]

Jo,

There is also a process ('Questioning to the Void') whereby one continues to ask "Why?" until there are no answers left. At that point, one looks to see if more info actually exists and where to find it; or, has the answer been reached?

Why doesn't share price plunge when businesses say they can't find the right people to hire? There may be multiple causes or there may be one. I don't know. One possibility seems to be that if "everyone" is saying it, then no one appears to be better--or worse off--than anyone else. In this case, it would have a stabilizing effect.

Hmmmmmmm. . .

[Pooja]

Well written article. This is a good piece of information; it will be great if more such articles can also be published in SiliconIndia, as I am a member of SiliconIndia.com, I am sure that such information will be useful for most of the members. http://www.siliconindia.com/register.php?id=T49I1Fh5

[Steve Roesler]

Hello, Pooja,

It's good to see you here and I appreciate your comment. I will have a look at the SiliconIndia site. . .

[Jim Stroup]

Hello Steve,

"I can say this with great confidence: It's not about hiring or retention or T&D or public education. It's about all of those and how they are currently disconnected."

I'll be interested in seeing where you go with this. I will say that a weakness I have seen in all of these areas is an inordinate focus on delivering the product rather than developing the process.

In many of these systems, that focus results simply in rewriting the rules or even corrupting the data in order be able to report the presence of what is being demanded, even if it's not really there. In others it forces managers to pervert the process to produce near-term results at the expense of long-term ones.

This should be a great discussion - looking forward to it!

[Steve Roesler]

Jim, I sure appreciate the way you framed this. For me, it's dead on.

Now the trick will be to tie things together in ways that highlight the elements you point out.

Let the games begin!