The Perfect Labour Storm

1. A current shortage of internal quality leadership skills.

2. A shortage of external candidates for senior leadership positions.

3. A continuous graying of the workforce with a growing number of these employees considering retirement and/or at least a more flexible work schedule.

The pressure from this unique perfect storm is creating a sense of urgency with respect to identifying high potential employees and developing an internal leadership pipeline. This strategy requires that internal leadership capability must be identified as early as possible and a systematic development plan implemented.

An individual development plan should be written so that progress can be monitored and tracked. The initial step in developing a training plan is to conduct an assessment of the employee. This should include a personality and communication style review, a leadership skills assessment and an assessment that helps to identify the individual’s motivational elements. Employees who know themselves well will be better able to take advantage of their development plan.

Development plans may include formal academic coursework, assignment to special projects, work with a senior management mentor, attendance at conferences and/or rotation through a variety of departments and progressively more responsible jobs. At a very minimum, skills need to be developed in the area of developing mission and vision, strategic and financial planning, setting goals and ensuring accountability, leading and managing teams, project management, and results-based leadership. Then again, the employee should be assessed regularly to determine skill growth and the need for readjustment to the learning plans.

From a succession perspective, employers shouldn’t wait until there is a vacancy but instead, they need to identify the key job roles that exert critical influence on the business. Next, conduct a demographic review of your workforce and create a retirement forecast, identify which individuals might be at risk of leaving and any other mobility patterns that can be found. Finally, identify one to three backup persons for every job role, prioritize those individuals most ready to take on each role and then develop a training program for each person.

At the same time, employers need to examine strategies that can be implemented to help them retain their workers, especially mature workers who instead of retiring might be interested in a more flexible work schedule. When an employer is experiencing a larger vacancy rate, they need to consider creating a deliberate strategy to attract and recruit older workers.

At the same time as the perfect labour storm hits our industries, businesses will also now need to pay attention to the issue of multi-generations in the workplace and challenge the many myths that come along with it. For instance, you need to disregard the myth that older workers will not take direction from a younger person.  Or, the myth that young talented workers won’t invest time in developing their skills.

On the other hand, organizations that successfully manage through this perfect storm and become role models will invest in training and culture building so that their workplace can take advantage of all the skills that everyone brings to their work. These organizations will focus their attention on values, strategy, leadership, customer focus and the recruitment and retention of workers. Their operational philosophy and supporting strategies will be well thought out, consistent and deeply ingrained throughout the company. Their employees, no matter what age, will be committed to success.

The perfect labour storm is not just moving closer and closer, it is here and now today!  Yet, with strong planning for employee development and succession, this challenge can be overcome.