A June 2013 CNNMoney.com headline – “Home Builders Struggling to Find Workers” caught my attention. Given that millions of people are unemployed in the U.S. and the importance of the housing market to our overall economy, I was hooked and read on. The article highlighted findings from a National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) survey which showed nearly 50% of its members had fallen behind on finishing projects – 15% turned down jobs – and 9% lost or canceled sales. The simple reason given for these disturbing results was many home builders could not find enough workers to keep up with demand! Some home builders have even been forced to ‘poach’ workers from competitive job sites to meet their needs.
This trend is not unique to the U.S. housing industry. We have 3-4 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. as well as 3-times as many people unemployed. Deloitte calls it a ‘Talent Paradox’. Currently U.S. unemployment remains high, voluntary turnover is low, but employers are facing talent shortages. The shortages are across the board including technicians, skilled trades, sales reps, engineers, and laborers.
Don’t get caught short on engaged talent and create unnecessary product/service delays, customer satisfaction issues, and lost business. Here are some key questions and areas I help my clients to proactively discuss, debate, and ultimately address.
As the economy and your industry rebounds, will your organization’s--
Securing a strong future of organizational high performance requires making wise investment choices. One critical set of choices to make involves human capital and talent. What current investments should your organization be making ‘now’ to attract, develop, engage, and retain talent in the future? Don’t get caught short!
This trend is not unique to the U.S. housing industry. We have 3-4 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. as well as 3-times as many people unemployed. Deloitte calls it a ‘Talent Paradox’. Currently U.S. unemployment remains high, voluntary turnover is low, but employers are facing talent shortages. The shortages are across the board including technicians, skilled trades, sales reps, engineers, and laborers.
Don’t get caught short on engaged talent and create unnecessary product/service delays, customer satisfaction issues, and lost business. Here are some key questions and areas I help my clients to proactively discuss, debate, and ultimately address.
As the economy and your industry rebounds, will your organization’s--
- ongoing efforts trying to do more with less people allow you to retain needed talent? (Research indicates up to 2/3rds of employees may be ready to ‘bail’ current employers.)
- current workforce be strong company advocates to attract future talent?
- business culture be unique and different to balance competitive C+B?
- high potential employees be easily ‘poached’ by other organizations?
- employees eligible for ‘early’ retirement leave but ultimately work somewhere else?
- employee engagement (commitment, effort, and loyalty) enable your organization to quickly respond to new opportunities?
Securing a strong future of organizational high performance requires making wise investment choices. One critical set of choices to make involves human capital and talent. What current investments should your organization be making ‘now’ to attract, develop, engage, and retain talent in the future? Don’t get caught short!
RSS Feed
