I have spoken to many HR professionals who talk about the difficulty of finding talent, even with high unemployment. Well buckle up because it is just going to get worse, which is bad for HR but if you are a highly skilled employee, is good for you. Mike Hicks, Director for the Center for Business and Economic Research, recently spoke at Walker and then was interviewed on Inside Indiana Business. He has been studying job markets during the past several recessions and has concluded we are at an unprecedented time where the jobs of low skilled employees are not coming back, leaving these employees in a difficult position. What it also does is place a premium on employees with key skills as the Indiana economy shifts from a manufacturing economy to a more service based economy. Employees who are educated will be in demand as organizations will not be able to find the critical positions due to lack of employees with necessary talent.
This will also place a premium on employee loyalty and keeping top talent as it is going to be increasingly difficult to replace the loss of top talent. Therefore, companies must get rid of the traditional ways of doing work and come up with new and creative ways to work. I predict a fundamental shift in how work is done in the future, by that I mean no longer the traditional 8-5 in the office Monday-Friday, and I also don’t mean the traditional come in, do your work and get your paycheck. Work is going to becoming increasingly flexible and more give and take will happen in the workplace. The reason is, if you aren’t progressive in work and the workplace, employees will find a company that is, it will become a recruiting tool and a way to improve employee engagement and loyalty.
I wrote a blog containing a pictograph of employee loyalty, I think it might be time for many HR and business leaders to becoming familiar with this, because this is the challenge they will be wrestling with more and more.
