Employers, employees, workforce councils and labour unions should have a common goal: sustainable business growth. That is where the focus should be, since this is best for all involved, or not?
Do you know where your business is going to be in the next three years? Which departments or divisions will decrease and where will your revenue growth come from? What is the organisation’s plan to achieve sustainable growth?
More and more the broader global business community shares the strategic understanding that the right talent, positioned in the right roles is crucial to this plan; and for 49% of the total list of 743 certified Top Employers that span five continents testifies talent management is in the top 3 of most important priorities.
Attracting and retaining the right talent begins with appropriate workforce planning: What does the future business require from your leaders and your employees? What kind of competences do they need and in what way are these competences specific to the needs of your company? Understanding this and planning appropriately should be a top priority for all companies.
Planning is just one aspect of this process. Managing current employees is of course, another. This means being transparent towards your people regarding the company’s future needs. Timing this appropriately is also important so employees can anticipate their own next career steps and how these complement the requirements of the organisation. Give your employees the opportunity to get the best training. Provide them with the right tools so that they may learn, and apply new skills and knowledge to ensure their and the organisation’s success.
This will result in two distinct benefits. Staff will become more flexible and adaptable, and therefore more effective. For the company, this means an increased agility, and therefore ability to adapt to quickly to changing market conditions.
Training is also a reward for staff. It acts as recognition of the potential of the employee, serving to increase their engagement and motivation. If this training is also combined with formal education qualification such as an industry certification or diploma, it can be even more effective. Keep in mind that the different types of training; if that training is to function as recognition and a reward, may indeed need to take different forms relative to the generation of employee it’s specifically targeting namely school leavers, generation X, Y and Z and baby boomers. Here are two examples.
McDonalds – school-leavers – new employees
A great example for the engagement and development of young people is McDonalds; who hires new employees and provides a two-year foundation degree accredited by the Manchester Metropolitan University. McDonalds provides school leavers this unique development opportunity at the start of their career within the organisation and this approach definitely helps to retain talented employees.
IT Market – older staff
Too little focus on workforce planning as a central element in the business strategy can severely impact your future preparedness. For certain markets this is easier said than done.
For example, the IT market is a difficult one in which to operate due to the fact that it’s constantly changing. Hard hit by the crisis, programme languages become obsolete, while globalisation and outsourcing have become constant factors. All this means jobs in the IT sector are not future proof particularly from a generational perspective. Both companies and organisations need to be fully aware of this.
It can be argued that it is the responsibility of companies, employees, workforce councils and labour unions to make sure employees from the baby-boomer generation who are available for the labour market, and who bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience, stay attractive within the market, and in particular in the IT labour market. Training and development opportunities will indeed work to do just this.
An interesting and pioneering case in that perspective is Capgemini NL.
In January, more senior (and by implication, older) employees within the organisation were asked to take a 10% salary reduction to avoid redundancy. As Jeroen Versteeg, CEO of Capgemini Application Services Benelux puts it: “There is a mismatch in what these members of staff earn and what they are able to do.” To compete with low cost IT suppliers operating out of competitive economies such as India, the organisation wanted a clear strategy that allowed them to retain more senior staff yet update their knowledge and expertise in order to stay competitive. The company’s innovative approach, although not an easy one, preferred to adjust the remuneration policy of senior staff members rather than lose them entirely.
Reaching our potential
Top Employers annual research reveals that the leading employers in some of the world’s largest economies are increasingly focused on medium-to-long term workforce planning, and the competencies needed to meet business strategy and goals i.e. 59% of Top Employers have a medium-term competency forecast.
Practices applied regarding (future) competence needs.
Source:Top Employers Institute formerly known as CRF Institute, International Best practices Report Leadership Development and Succession Report 2012
A clear business strategy and strategic workforce planning allows company to position themselves better for success in an increasingly uncertain global economy. And it requires employees stay proactive in their professional development to support their company’s growth, and that companies offer the best-in-class training to their employees, all the while communicating clearly to make sure all are fully involved. This is where I believe real focus lies.
I like to invite you to share your experiences of workforce planning and talent management within great companies who are getting it right. Give me that smile, so we can be more proud of what great people can do and be more confident as well towards the future. Please tweet @hansrothweiler, leave a comment or email hans.rothweiler@top-employers.com
