Myths: Winning with talent or not?

Myths ● Denials ● Rethinking
What CxO’s need hear!
It’s Time for Straight Talk
. . . . about a Blended
Workforce
and Talent Acquisition
SP3M
Competing for the Future © SP3M Group LLC All rights reserved
Talent Solutions with Purpose

Myth #1
COMMON BELIEF: There will be plenty of talent in the ranks of
the unemployed to choose from if/when I need more employees.
REALITY: The longer unemployed semi-skilled or skilled workers
are out of work, the less likely they are to have kept pace with the
job skills development they will need to be productive in the new
economy. We are now seeing nearly 10,000 retirements per day
from the workforce according to the Social Security Administration.
Incoming Gen y and Gen x combined are a smaller pool of skilled
workers with fewer business skills and vastly different work and
learning behaviors than the “work your way up the ranks” baby-
boomers possessed. Supply and demand plus expected new
compensation (tax) laws will dictate. When “A” players are bid up
and out, analytics, career path opportunities and training offerings
will dictate.
© SP3M Group LLC All rights reserved
SP3M
Competing for the Future
Call us today 678.532.7090To find us Google SP3M

Myth #2
COMMON BELIEF: I will be hiring soon to meet growth demands.
There will be plenty of skilled talent available.
REALITY: In case you haven’t heard, employers can’t find enough
skilled workers to fill current openings. Statistics indicate only one
skilled worker for every six openings is available in the labor
markets and that “skills gap” is increasing. More than 60% of
currently employed knowledge workers say they will seek
opportunities elsewhere when the economy improves. That means
they are unhappy with their current job and/or employer. It could
be your company. Again, the longer unemployed workers remain
out of work, the less likely they are to have kept pace with the job
skills development they will need to be productive in the new
economy. Incoming Gen y and Gen x combined are a much smaller
pool with fewer business skills and vastly different work and
learning behaviors.
SP3M

Myth #3
COMMON BELIEF: My employees are loyal, compensated well
and happy to work here. “They are lucky to be working here.”
REALITY: Are you absolutely sure of that? What empirical data
from an objective source do you have to support that belief? Are
you willing to risk your business if 10% of your workforce left for
another job during the same week?
Most companies slashed HR, training and learning budgets in
2008, 2009 and 2010. Many have had lay offs, payroll freezes,
bonus cuts and expected everyone to do more with less. If any of
this fits your organization, how would you rate your chances of
loyal retention when you want to hire to grow your business?
SP3M

Myth #4
COMMON BELIEF: We don’t need any more learning or
performance systems. We just need to improve productivity.
REALITY: To compete in the new economy, you will need engaged
talent, virtual teaming with fair performance measurement tools,
open feedback in an open environment, and solid leadership to gain
a competitive advantage to achieve more productivity gains. More
importantly, you will need to incubate that talent to germinate new
ideas, create innovation to retain their interest and service. You may
not need more performance support tools. You may not have the
right tools, but their automation and seamless integration is
necessary for just-in-time learning for knowledge enabled teams to
meet your business objectives in a sustainable manner.
SP3M

Myth #5
COMMON BELIEF: We already have great learning and training
systems selected and run by our IT Department, but these have
not produced the results promised.
REALITY: The “War for Talent” isn’t about which supporting
technology is better or has the advantage. IT, software and SaaS
development cycles removes much of the advantage early
adopters once had in using technology. Sure IT performance has
to continue to improve, but learning and better management has
to improve across the enterprise as well.
This war is about talent. People not IT. How you treat and develop
them. The talent that keeps your business growing. Very soon
talent acquisition, development, and retaining high performers
(HiPos) methods will be the ONLY real competitive advantage.
SP3M

Myth #6
COMMON BELIEF: Talent selection, development and training is
an HR function and responsibility.
REALITY: Talent strategy in this environment begins at the top
with hands on direction. If only half of the recent research studies
on these subjects are correct and census data accurate the “War
for Talent” will become very intense. It already is for engineers,
healthcare professionals and even fine dinning restaurant servers.
Turnover will increase due to talent mobility and shortened product
life cycles requiring continual shifts in skills requirements. With the
incoming generations, it’s not about who pays best. With outgoing
generations, you may have no idea how much intellectual capital
walks out the door with turnover or retirements. Contracting with
former employees is, at best, only a short term fix and only adds
to the cost of turnover.
SP3M

Myth #7
COMMON BELIEF: We need to work more closely with local
higher education institutions to fill our future needs for talent.
REALITY: Yes, that’s true, but the results will not be available any
time soon -- if ever. How long do you think it takes to get
approvals for curriculum changes businesses need and keep them
current in the political environment of higher education that tends
not to be business friendly?
By comparison, how long did it take for Smartphones to become
ubiquitous? Every minute of every day 70 hours worth of video
content is uploaded to YouTube. The number of Facebook users
now equals the third largest population on the planet. What a
student learns during the first two years of a four year college
undergraduate program will be obsolete by the time they
graduate. We already have a shortfall of thousands of skilled
workers right now!
SP3M

Myth #8
COMMON BELIEF: Our HR professionals are directed to provide a
compensation program to compete for talent that will drive our
growth strategy.
REALITY: That’s great, but once you meet your salary cap, you
will need to play “Money Ball” with good analytics, because pay is
not the driver of incoming generationals.
SP3M

Myth #9
COMMON BELIEF: We use outside contractor resources and
contingent workers as needed or for fixed term projects to achieve
our business goals.
REALITY: Great. That’s a good strategy to optimize cost per
employee, but is it measured against customer experience and
internal cooperation with part or full time employees.? Do you
have a Vendor Manager and a vendor management system that
delivers accountability metrics? Is the cost for outside resources
factored into your cost per employee and cost per sale?
As the use of outside or contingent workforce continues to grow,
the pool of skills in the market will just shrink faster. What are
your options or alternatives when that occurs?
SP3M

Myth #10
COMMON BELIEF: We can’t backfill years of neglect and abuse
of our formal education system. Why is private enterprise
expected to provide skills development and take the chance of
training folks that move on?
REALITY: You’re right. It’s stinks. We are stuck with our lack of
insight and reactionary attitude toward the failures in our formal
education system. Higher education programs from athletes to
underprivileged have been abused at the expense of the average
students’ knowledge growth. However, the facts are what they are.
Educated workers will come to you without some skills previously
learned at entry level jobs that no longer exist. They will change
jobs several times in their working career faster whether you invest
in them or not. Those companies which have the best attraction of
continued learning and retention programs will have a competitive
advantage.
SP3M

Teamwork creates success!
Collaborative teamwork wins championships!
The answer is, there is NO one answer and, yes,
there will always be risks to assess and measure.
The answers you will need for this month, quarter, or
year may not be the same answers you will need for
next quarter or year. The same business philosophy
must be applied to your to ongoing management and
blending of talent utilization.
You will need to use a combination of acquired
talent, up-skilling your current skills gaps by
categories of need. You may also need rapid
learning content that can be repurposed while
contract specialists fill gaps until you can build or
repurpose performance support tools and metrics
into a manageable and scalable system.
SP3M
Now you may be thinking how can you hit your
target business goals without rolling the dice and
find a means to mitigate risk?

SP3M
The primary issue is to provide your HR staff with outside
expertise to help assess, design and install a sustainable
business and talent model in a timeframe and with an ROI
you can live with.
Here’s what doing more with less can sometimes achieve.
This is NOT Teamwork!
NOR is it providing ease of use with learning and technology!

The graphic above is
similar to the outdated
post WWII organizational
structure which far too
many firms still retain.
All recent data suggests
those with flatter
management structures
and grooming workers
for the new economy
with multi-generationals
in virtual teaming mode
with just-in-time
accessed information
and push/pull learning
wins championships.
Learn more at:
www.competing4thefuture.com
www.blendedworkforce.com
www.sp3mike.com
SP3M
So if you find yourself
confused about the path
ahead, you are not alone.
Call us today 678.532.7090
To find us Google SP3M

Teamwork creates success!
Intelligent teamwork wins championships!
Sometimes an
outside objective
view can help align
all the right skills
and tools you
need.
The graphic above is
similar to the outdated
post WWII organizational
structure which far too
many firms still retain.
All recent data suggests
those with flatter
management structures
and grooming workers
for the new economy
with multi-generationals
in virtual teaming mode
with just-in-time
accessed information
and push/pull learning
wins championships.
Learn more at:
www.competing4thefuture.com
www.blendedworkforce.com
www.sp3mike.com
SP3M
Talent Solutions with Purpose Call us today 678.532.7090
To find us Google SP3M

Myths: Winning with talent or not?

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Myths: Winning with talent or not?