I came across this article from McKinsey & Company about hiring and thought I’d share it. What I liked about the article is it helps us understand the “great reorganization” from the perspective of three different groups of people. Those that are reshuffling, reinventing, and people who are reassessing. The article explains this as follows:
- Reshuffling. Employees are quitting and going to different employers in different industries (48 percent of the job leavers in our sample). Some industries are disproportionately losing talent, others are struggling to attract talent, and some are grappling with both.
- Reinventing. Many employees leaving traditional employment are either going to nontraditional work (temporary, gig, or part-time roles) or starting their own businesses. Of the employees who quit without a new job in hand, 47 percent chose to return to the workforce. However, only 29 percent returned to traditional full-time employment.
- Reassessing. Many people are quitting not for other jobs but because of the demands of life—they need to care for children, elders, or themselves. These are people who may have stepped out of the workforce entirely, dramatically shrinking the readily available talent pool.
I have the following takeaway:
While the pace of the “great reorganization” may slow as the economy does, personal lifestyle decisions made during the last few years are here to stay and the root cause of those decisions are varied. This means as leaders we need to prepare for continued turnover in the coming years as people find new opportunities better aligned with their personal vision. In the end, I think this will make for a much happier workforce, though it will continue to create a lot of pain and disruption for businesses and consumers alike.
What can we do?
1. Look closely at your cross-training.
Are there any positions in your company where only one person knows how to do the work? If so, you’re vulnerable and need to make some effort to cross-train some people on the team.
2. Add a layer of personnel.
This is going to require some creativity to be feasible financially. I’ve had great luck with hiring outside of the US. I’d prefer to hire here at home, though that isn’t always workable. Consider building relationships with talent organizations in other countries to gain access to a much wider pool of resources. That may be just what you need to fill gaps and create more reliability in the delivery of your product or service, especially if (when) a key person leaves.
These times test our ability to adapt, lead and grow. It’s likely to be a long winter in many industries as the markets find their bottom, but remember, the best opportunities come during these challenging chapters.
