The Wall Street Journal provides an article that does a nice job of laying out the upcoming shortage of workers.  The focus is upon the different generations and the general drive behind each.  The article is rather rudimentary, but it provides a clean view of the problem.

First:

Americans of childbearing age simply are not producing enough kids to meet the economy’s future need for workers, notably in fast-growing fields such as medicine and engineering. The shortfall is coming largely because the fabled baby boom generation was so huge—75 million Americans born in the 18 years from 1946 to 1964—that no other generation can be expected to match it any time soon.

Ok, that point leads to this:

They are being replaced by two younger generations, each with its own desires regarding the opportunities and rewards available at work. The challenge for hiring managers is to figure out what these workers’ needs are, so that employers will be able to find them, hire them, and keep them on the job.

Retention is going to be a top business initiative over the next couple of decades which is a simply outcome of supply and demand.

The baby boomers: They place a heavy emphasis on work and successfully climbing the corporate ladder. Work is an anchor in their lives.

The Gen Xers, born between 1965 and 1980: They enjoy work but are more concerned about the work-life balance.

Generation Y, also known as Millennials, born after 1980 and now age 28 or younger: They often have different priorities than their Gen X and baby boomer counterparts, Smith says.

“Because of their reliance on technology, [Millennials] think they can work at any time and any place and believe they should be evaluated on the basis of work produced—not on how, when or where they got it done. Curiously, most Millennials want long-term relationships with employers, but on their own terms,” Smith says.

And finally, here is the rub we have seen between Baby Boomer managers and Gen Y employees:

The Millennials respond poorly to those who act in an authoritarian manner and those who expect to be respected due to higher rank alone. They believe they can learn quickly, take on significant responsibility and make major contributions far sooner than baby boomers think they can.

Exactly.  There has to be a balance between the boomer manager allowing the Gen Y worker to grow quickly in the role and the Gen Y worker not expecting too much, too fast.  There is distinct tension between these two goals.

As they see, read the entire thing.

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Apparently the answer to that question depends upon whom you ask.  From an older RecruitingTrends.com article:

Furthermore, executives’ innate understanding of what defines flexible work strategies varies. While the largest percentage (45%) define it as pertaining to time, 31% view it as something to do with an employee’s location, and another 23% see flexible work arrangements as something other than time or location.

I would fall in the “Flexible location” group in terms of defining it.  It would appear that this relatively new phrase requires a better definition.  Or perhaps all new phrases and terms begin with some ambiguity.

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CareerBuilder.com offers up another list with “wacky” in the title.  For web purposes, wacky is a euphemism for link bait, but I’ll bite.  The list is comprised of the most unusual excuses provided by employees for being late.

1.  
   1. While rowing across the river to work, I got lost in the fog.
   2. Someone stole all my daffodils.
   3. I had to go audition for American Idol.
   4. My ex-husband stole my car so I couldn’t drive to work.
   5. My route to work was shut down by a Presidential motorcade.
   6. I wasn’t thinking and accidentally went to my old job.
   7. I was indicted for securities fraud this morning.
   8. The line was too long at Starbucks.
   9. I was trying to get my gun back from the police.
   10. I didn’t have money for gas because all of the pawn shops were closed.

As a manager, I would find #8 completely acceptable.

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Another good article here from WSJ titled New Career, Same Employer.  The gist of the article:

Ernst & Young LLP last year named Nancy Harley director of career mobility for the Americas, a new position designed to help employees of the accounting firm move into new roles. “The longer someone stays intrigued and challenged, the longer they’re going stay with the firm,” Ms. Harley says.

Observers say employers are creating or expanding these programs to improve retention rates in a competitive job market, particularly as Baby Boomers begin to retire.

The initiatives typically include Web-based programs for evaluating employees’ career goals and suggesting relevant paths.

Interesting title - director of career mobility.  That position, or some form of it, may become quite common in the next 5 years.  Evaluating skills, talents and motivations is already a common tool used today by companies in both hiring, evaluating and promoting.

Here is an example from the article of how a large company handles this topic:

Accenture’s career-change initiative includes resources such as an online skills-assessment tool and a Web page featuring video clips of workers who have changed careers at the company. Every Accenture employee has an internal career counselor. Employees are urged to work with these counselors to develop a plan, including searching the company’s internal online job board.

I like the idea of an internal career counselor.  Obviously, Accenture is large so they have the ability to offer these resources.  However, managers can still be tuned into these topics with their employees.  This management skill will surely become more important as Gen Y increasingly becomes the largest generation in the workforce.

On a related note, I wrote an article a couple years ago that talked about Gen X and Y desiring a skills path for their personal development.  You can read it here.

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This Wall Street Journal quick-hit article is shocking:

Companies are rolling out software that allows them to mine their employees’ emails and electronic address books for contact information, in a bid to make it easier to establish relationships with potential clients and others. But the tools also raise privacy concerns, and have been met with resistance at some firms.

“Raises privacy concerns”…that is an understatement.  There has to be more to this story, but I can’t imagine companies using these tools.  If they do, I suspect the natural reaction will be for employees to carry around their contact info on their cell phone and not place it on their company computer.

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This I did not know - from a Pioneer Press short Q&A article (my editing):

My company has a new district manager. He and I got off to a bad start when he divulged my salary in a mass e-mail and caused an uproar among my new co-workers. Some of them do the same job as me but make considerably less. When I called him on this, he responded, “What’s the big deal? They all tell each other anyway.”

A: Even though the manager showed poor judgment, he didn’t break the law, according to Richard Kass, a partner at Bond, Schoeneck & King in Manhattan. “Employees have no right to privacy in their salaries,” Kass said. The manager may have “acted stupidly,” he said, but he did not break any laws.

To take it one step further:

Your situation is unusual and is the inverse of a situation that actually is illegal. Companies typically get into trouble for directing employees to keep their salaries secret and then trying to punish those who exchange salary information, Kass said.

I’m a bit surprised by that fact.  It may be legal, but the manager sharing that information sure seems like a morale-killer.  He may have unwittingly opened a Pandora’s box.

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Remember the book, All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Perhaps not, unless you are a seasoned vet like I am, but the premise is still sound. Today I was reminded of the power of principle centered leadership.

This morning I attended a meeting of the Manufacturers Alliance, a group of 300 or so manufacturers here in Minnesota who share best practices, lead training seminars and otherwise help their peers get better. The keynote speaker was Tom Tiller, CEO of Polaris Industries.

Tom’s message was so crystal clear I need to share it. Polaris, he told us, has increased its value by 150 times in the last 20 years (despite intense competition, wars and several economic ‘downturns’) because of one thing – people.

Tom said they treat their employees like gold, foster a culture of innovation and participation, and make sure they get and stay close to their customers. “It’s our passion for outdoor activities like snowmobiling and off-roading that drives our contact with customers. We use the product together and talk about what could make it better. I am with customers, using our products, more than 200 days a year.”

Wow! That’s a lot of time with customers. That’s a lot of time actually using the product. That’s a lot of time spent listening – to both employees and customers.

Tom ended his presentation with a quick story about his employees’ passion and commitment – during spring flooding a few years ago in Roseau, Minnesota, both the company’s plant and many employee homes were threatened. More than 400 Polaris employees showed up at the plant to help sandbag for 48 hours straight (Tom among them). They watched their houses float away but managed to save the plant.

What’s so simple about Polaris’ strategy? A clear and unshakable faith that success will come if they focus on their two most important constituencies – their customers and their employees. It wasn’t their strategic planning, their marketing plan or the way they organized their shop floor.

Does it work? Well, one would expect discretionary lifestyle purchases like snowmobiles, ATVs and the like to be down these days. Instead, Tom told us this morning, Polaris expects a 22% increase in sales this quarter.

Simple.

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Steven Rothberg over at CollegeRecruiter.com provides a money quote in his post Why Today’s College Students Need Not Fear Exploding Offers.  Obviously, Steven’s market is geared towards college students, but this paragraph is applicable to all businesses when it comes to hiring (emphasis mine):

The recession of 2001-03 was worse than the recession of 2008 and employers are looking backwards in order to better understand what to do as they move forwards. Although many and perhaps most employers have scaled back their college hiring plans for this spring, there’s little talk of exploding offers. More employers realize that recessions are tactical problems and college recruiting is strategic. You don’t solve tactical problems by grossly altering and certainly not abandoning your strategic vision. You may tweak the strategy here and nip it a bit there in order to survive the tough times, but organizations which confuse tactics with strategy are organizations which tend not to survive let alone thrive.

That is excellent advice for any company in this present economy.  I experienced this abandonment of strategic vision back in 2001 as a Regional Sales Manager for a high-tech company.  The company was small, but growing quickly in a niche market.  Unfortunately, the President buckled under the potential economic impact of a recession and abandoned the very principles that had grown the business.  Instead of slight adjustments, he collapsed the entire company by attempting to go a different direction.

I’m reminded of a short post from Seth Godin a while back titled That moment.  Here it is in it’s entirety:

When you are sitting right on the edge of something daring and scary and creative and powerful and perhaps wonderful… and you blink and take a step back.

That’s the moment. The moment between you and remarkable. Most people blink. Most people get stuck.

All the hard work and preparation and daring and luck is nothing compared with the ability to not blink.

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Yesterday I posted on this “determine your own vacation time” approach to management.  It is totally foreign to me.  Today I come across another company with the same approach.  This HRE Online article - In Their Own Words - contains comments provided by Gen Y workers on a recent survey.

First the vacation comment (my empahsis):

CarMax

“Time away from work policy instead of vacation and sick days. There is not a set amount of time you can take, you just work it out with your manager. The office’s atmosphere is very bright and open. Management is very accessible and will answer any questions that you have. They encourage management throughout the company in order to give you a better overall understanding of the company.”

This one is rather astounding:

Quicken Loans

“When I was in training, it was mid-winter. On the first very cold day of the year, I had an amazing experience. I pulled into the very large parking lot and saw about eight people driving golf carts around, picking up employees. It was none other than the owner, CEO and president along with other executives of our company out there in the freezing cold picking us up and driving us to the front door. Upon walking in, there were donuts and warm apple cider waiting for us. If that’s not employee appreciation, I don’t know what is.”

We are up here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota so I am rather appreciative of this effort.  Owners, CEOs and Presidents that are willing to actually give of their time and effort for their employees reap greater retention rewards than just monetary rewards.  Yes, I know money goes a long ways, but imagine combining a monetary reward with this effort.  If I were an employee at Quicken Loans, I would be blown away with this effort.

You know, sometimes the best retention efforts are not wrapped in strategy, planning committees and focus groups.  They are simply people serving their employees in an unexpected, thoughtful manner.

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BusinessWeek.com’s playbook section offers a very short, but highly intriguing article title How Netflix nets and keeps talent.  Here it is in it’s entirety:

PAY LAVISHLY Higher-than-average salaries—and tying bonuses and raises to the market, not a pool—can make stars less likely to bolt. Money is no object in hiring.

PROVIDE COMPENSATION CHOICE Employees are more likely to excel if they can pick how much of their compensation they get in stock rather than cash.

FOSTER TALENT HUNTERS Encouraging everyone to hire the three people they’ve loved working with most during their careers creates an intense, fun workplace.

LET THEM GO Don’t give B performers a middling raise. Give them a decent chunk of cash and show them the door. And don’t surprise them. The laid-off leave with their dignity.

LIMIT RULES They reduce error. But they also stymie innovation. At Netflix, employees are responsible for their choices, even in how much vacation to take

Let Them Go is one we often see in companies…that is they accept mediocrity and do not let B performers go.  In sales this approach is cancerous.  The mediocre performers often have a negative effect on the top performers.

How progressive is Netflix’s management?  Employees determine how much vacation to take?  That is the first time I have encountered that approach.  That is an intriguing approach, isn’t it?

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