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Keep Resourcing, Recruiting Strong
Given the stubborn unemployment rate of almost 10 percent, the sharp market erosion of 401(k) values, the rapid inflation in healthcare costs and the continuing slow growth of many of our major trading partners, HR executives could be excused for believing that resourcing and recruiting is no longer a first-tier priority. That would be a very short-sighted, and perhaps fatally short-sighted, view. We need to be stronger in global talent acquisition, meaningful executive replenishment and multi-layered succession planning in the next five years. Our resource strategies need to shift radically -- and now. Several riptides are pulling us in different directions and also making the problem less visible. Initial short-term numbers indicate that early retirement by the boomers is slowing. Some of the general trends are highly misleading in terms of the need to replenish senior and middle managers. The sharp rise in unemployment has led some Social-Security eligibles to file for Social Security as soon as their unemployment benefits run out. Many of these filers may well return to the workforce when unemployment eases, but chances are that middle managers will not return to the same 40-to-45-hour commute plus work week that they had before. As the business cycle recovers, inventories come down, and manufacturing and services resume, how will we get the product out the door with less-highly-skilled help? There are several things we should be doing now to meet that recovery. * Train up your replacement resources now: Commit to extra spending in training and learning to make the newly minted manager into someone who can handle the business issues as well as the senior manager he or she is replacing. This means using outsourced and in-house learning resources, and ensuring that mentoring and development programs are in place inside the organization to smooth out the rough spots. * Concentrate precious recruiting resources: Shed general recruiting and entry-level recruiting to recruitment-process outsourcers that are expert in that area; are global in their ability to resource certain kinds of jobs, such as chemical, mineral, electrical and other engineers; and can cost-effectively fill your strategic recruiting pipeline. Keep your internal business-partner hiring managers for mission-critical jobs that clearly can impact the future of your business. * Spend systems dollars on talent first and on other processes second: Ensure that your HRIT spend is going toward your strategic priority, and that you have best-of-breed applications and subsystems. Whatever you do, don't wait for everyone to realize that they are all facing the same problem. When the cycle has turned, and it inevitably will, everyone will be scrambling for the same key talent. We are beginning to see the first spotty indications that the bust cycle is finishing. Concentrate your current firepower not on outsourcing, insourcing or shared sourcing as a panacea but, instead, use all the tools in your arsenal to have the best suite of talented resources for the next five years in your business. Lowell Williams is executive director of HR Advisory Services for EquaTerra, a BPO consulting firm based in Houston. He can be reached at lowell.williams@equaterra.com. February 7, 2011 Copyright 2011© LRP Publications |
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© Copyright 2012 LRP Publications. All rights reserved.
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