What is the single greatest challenge facing any business today, large or small? A recent survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting LLP and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists provides a vivid clue – and a distinct warning:
A shortage of skilled and talented workers has become the most pressing concern among employers, supplanting the perennial leading problem, [the] rising cost of health care…
A similar survey in the oil and gas industry echoes this concern:
Nearly 90% of senior human resources (HR) executives at 22 top international oil and gas companies believe their industry faces a talent shortage and call the problem one of the top five business issues facing their companies.
Top five issue? Try growing your business without a sufficient number of talented employees. Without talent, the best companies in the world will spin their wheels. Sure, there are lots of challenges in the workplace, but a lack of talent is, or will be, the constraining resource in business.
Dina Pyron, of Ernst & Young’s Global Oil & Gas Center observes that, “The lack of key talent could potentially impact corporate growth, financial performance, safety and reputation. This should raise a red flag to leadership that immediate and innovative solutions are necessary.”
Solutions are, indeed, necessary. Unfortunately, this is a problem that cannot be solved, at least not in the traditional sense. You simply cannot produce more people where they don’t exist! According to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, the state’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.2% in March 2008 while the Texas jobless rate dipped to 4.1% – a thirty-year low.
With no talent to be found, big business is looking everywhere to find it – including your business. This means that the talent shortage will likely impact your company even in the unlikely scenario that you have all the employees you need!
The only real solution to this problem is training and development – no, not for your employees, but for your managers. A survey of almost twenty thousand employees indicates that 88 percent of employees leave companies for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with money. Instead, the vast majority of those reasons are directly attributable to the immediate supervisor or manager. Remember this: employees join companies, but they quit managers.
If your company does not have a plan to adequately train and develop your managers into effective leaders, what will you rely on to keep your talented employees on board?
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