Competing for Talent: Lessons from the World of Marketing

While conducting research on the latest theories about organization effectiveness and the nature of complex, adaptive systems, I was struck by the parallels to a world I know a lot about: marketing, sales, and customer relationship management.

The data says we are facing a severe shortage in prime-aged (ages 25-54 years) workers in the coming decades, which means there will be competition for the best talent, even if this recovery will be “job-less” in the near term. When the imperative to compete more aggressively for customers emerged in the late ‘80’s and 90’s, we saw massive investments in the data, technologies, and analytics to better understand and more efficiently meet the needs of customers. TQM, Customer Satisfaction, Direct Marketing, and CRM all emerged out of the relentless focus on reaching, acquiring, and retaining customers. We are an adaptive species so in times of scarcity we always get creative in how we compete for resources, whether it be game, water, customers, or workers.

The good companies have always valued their best talent. But in recent years, with such intense focus on improving the bottom line and reducing expenses through repeated restructurings, many companies have reverted to an “employees-as-parts” mentality – believing that employees can be shed and reacquired at will, like ordering parts from a catalog. As this recession ends, these companies will be in for a rude awakening.

They will have to learn how to compete for people and they will be well served to take a page from the Marketing Best-Practices Handbook:

• Understand that your relationship with your customer employee is a two-way street which grows stronger only when there is a healthy flow of value between both parties
• Understand your customer’s employee’s needs, expectations and values
• Segment your customers employees into needs-based segments in order to more effectively address segment-specific needs and wants
• Understand that not all customers employees are created equal and that different approaches will be required for different people
• Understand customer employee preferences for communication and interaction across all available touch points so that your expenditures to reach them are efficient and effective
• Understand where your customer employee is on the employee lifecycle and determine how his or her needs may differ depending on where they are.

Also like the world of marketing, the leader who better addresses the needs and expectations of his or her workforce will be rewarded with greater energy, engagement, and loyalty. The days of unspoken contracts for long-term employment are long gone. The younger generations have no expectations for or belief in loyalty from their employer, mainly because the companies can no longer promise loyalty in return. So in the realm of talent engagement, like customer relationship management, the only thing that really works is building a strong relationship between the organization and the individual, a relationship in which both parties perceive real value.

Scott

Everyone’s Feeling a Loss

As a professional who focuses on improving retention and engagement in organizations, I’ve been surprised by the number of people who say, “You must not be busy these days…anyone who’s working must be happy to even have a job. So engagement’s not an issue. Right?”

Wrong. Right now, many organizations are filled with the “walking wounded,” people who have watched their businesses decline, and then experienced one loss after another. Whether these losses have come in salaries, 401K matches, paid vacations or worst of all, valued colleagues, employees have been devastated, and simply having a job doesn’t fill the void.

I saw this great survey in one of my web searches. A study was done in which they asked people, “How many hours a day do you spend looking for a new job while you’re at work?” Amazingly, nearly half of them admitted to spending up to three hours. Or then again, maybe I shouldn’t be amazed....

And you can almost hear the employers thinking, YIKES!

The irony is, now is the time that organizations need their team members to be at their best. Every drop of profit needs to be squeezed out, and employee productivity and engagement represents one of the best opportunities most businesses have. But meanwhile, the losses pile up.

Jennifer

The New Adventure

With this post, Jennifer Rosenzweig and I are launching our blog, "Enlightenment, Incorporated." As many of you know, she & I have co-authored a book by that title which is due out in the coming weeks. The full title is "Enlightenment, Incorporated, Creating Companies Our Kids Would Be Proud To Work For." The book describes our belief that we are in the early stages of a profound change in the US business environment. Several trends are changing the rules of competition again and will require organizations to continue to adapt to these changes to survive and thrive in the next business cycle.

As Boomers retire, and don't worry, they will eventually retire, they will create a shortage of prime-aged (25-54) talent. Further, as they enter the "twilight" of their careers, they are redefining their values to consider their legacy and contribution. The Gen Xers and Millennials (Gen Y) have already entered the workforce with radically different expectations, experiences and values, so the organizations they choose to work for will need to address these emerging needs and expectations. Technology and communications continue to reshape how we work and the companies we work for. Dynamic, adaptive network organizations, with porous boundaries and virtual, telecommuting workforces will be the norm. And finally, the pressure for greater social responsibility and sustainability is rapidly becoming a strategic mandate. What this means is that the future business model will be very different from the traditional model we find in most organizations today. It also means that one of the over-riding strategic priorities will be the ability to attract and retain the very best people.

There are many firms out there that can help with this or that claim to focus on this issue, but we believe that while many firms offer point solutions - training, coaching, recruiting, incentives, compensation, etc., people will only remain fully engaged within an organization if the whole business model is perfectly suited for emerging environment. That is why we have launched a new company, Dragonfly Organization Resource Group, to address this opportunity.

This blog will be an avenue to share our thoughts and beliefs about the issue of the organization of the future. But it will also be about our experience starting a new venture in the depths of a recession. To date, we have connected with a lot of you and we are already on our journey. So we hope that you join us on this path, contribute and get involved. We also hope that this is fun and entertaining.... God knows it has been for us.

Scott