Staffing for the Future
Results of the baseball playoffs not withstanding, we all know that the only two things we can count on are death and taxes. That's why data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is interesting to employers. It shows that by around 2010 the U.S. will be experiencing a labor shortage. How can this be? In a nutshell, as the economy continues to grow jobs (even at a small rate) baby-boomers are beginning to retire and there aren't as many Gen-Whatevers to replace them. How can you prepare for this?
- Plan for turnover. You can analyze your turnover data to predict which jobs are most likely to have a shortage of employees.
- Improve your retention. Focus groups and surveys are excellent ways to learn why your people are staying or leaving.
- Improve the skills of your younger staff. Learn about their strengths and development needs so you can grow your talent in-house.
This is not some far-fetched futuristic prediction like your PC operating your refrigerator. While the stock market gyrations may affect some individual decisions, the baby-boomers will begin to leave the workforce soon and there are not as many potential employees to take their place.
If you want to learn more about proactively staffing for the future, please contact Warren Bobrow.
Award Winning Analysis
In our last newsletter, we discussed the value of focus groups. Given the feedback we’ve received, I was reminded of yet another important reason to use focus groups…to create buy-in from your clients or customers. One of our clients created an award-winning management certification program that received an Excellence in Practice Citation from the American Society for Training and Development. An integral part of building a program that was (and continues to be) widely supported by the stakeholders was a thorough needs analysis. A key element of a needs analysis is gathering information from the end-users. Not surprisingly, we relied heavily on focus groups (for many of the reasons we highlighted in last month’s issue) along with previous course evaluations to create a roadmap for the new certification program. If your organization can benefit from grass roots support for the programs you plan to implement, seeking employee and customer input can greatly increase your chances for success
If you want to learn more about facilitating focus groups or conducting needs analyses in your organization, please contact Kammy Haynes.
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