The Skills Shortage: changing workplaces forever!

By James Adonis

In 2008 more people will leave the Australian workforce than will enter it. The skills shortage is set to force change upon organisations that is so revolutionary that our workplaces will be unrecognisable in just a few years' time.

My research of 200 managers earlier this year has found that 74 percent of managers are negatively impacted by the skills shortage. Further to this, only 23 percent are unscathed by the lack of talent.

And yet according to research by Diagonal Consulting, a staggering 9 out of 10 organisations do not have a talent management strategy in place.

The desperation to find talented people and the higher costs that will be experienced by companies as a result, will accelerate the transformation of our workplaces into environments that are fluid. Totally fluid.

It's predicted that 90 percent of white collar jobs will disappear by 2020. The pioneer of this belief is the guru of management gurus, Tom Peters. When this guy speaks, the rest of us listen.

In his brilliant book, Talent, Peters explains: "Between the microprocessor, 60/60/24/7 connectivity, and outsourcing to developing countries, the developed nations' white-collar jobs are doomed. Time frame? Zero to 15 to 20 years. How confident am I on this point? Totally."

And that's just the beginning of the immense change that will be thrust upon our workplaces.

In the very near future, most people will be employed to work on projects as opposed to filling job vacancies. This means employers will need to shift their thinking from staffing jobs to staffing available work. Long-term employment will be dead.

Employees won't be employees anymore. They'll be business owners, working for many organisations, occasionally at the same time. Bruce Tulgan, author of Winning the Talent Wars, states: "Explode the organisation chart. It's only holding you back."

Job security will disappear forever. The notion of a job for life will no longer exist. Employees will know they've got to look out for themselves first and foremost. In the mildest sense, this will result in company disloyalty. In the most extreme sense, it will result in company ignorance.

Flexibility will cease to be a benefit that companies provide; rather it will become a demand that's forced upon each employer by the necessity to remain competitive in a market where candidates hold the balance of power. Best Buy, an American company, is already the leader in this. Best Buy has initiated 100 percent employee flexibility, which means employees can work as many hours as they like, whenever and wherever they like, so long as they achieve their performance targets. Eventually, all organisations will follow suit.

Bidding wars will intensify and salaries will skyrocket. As employers desperately try to get the most talented people working for them, they'll offer extraordinarily high salaries without realising that money attracts people to organisations but doesn't actually keep them there (unless you increase it by 20 percent every three months). A study by Manpower has found that 40 percent of Australian companies are already paying higher salaries as a result of the talent crisis.

Employee turnover rates, already on the increase, will accelerate even more. And it's likely to be the most talented people that go. With the cost of each resignation at double an employee's annual salary, costs will soar. Research by PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that not only is it difficult enough finding talented candidates, but 48 percent of employers are struggling to even hang on to their existing talent.

And all of this has nothing to do with WorkChoices. No amount of government regulation will stop the trend that's taking place in the workplaces of developed nations. As the Baby Boomers retire and the Gen Ys take over, the majority of employees will overwhelmingly be demanding quick promotions, total flexibility, and substantial rewards.

The introducers of the term 'war for talent', McKinsey & Co, released data which shows that companies that were successful in attracting, developing, and retaining highly talented managers earned shareholder returns that were 22 percentage points higher than their competitors.

The entrepreneurial and freedom-seeking mindsets of Generation Y employees hold the key. Gen Yers are demanding today what all employees will be expecting in a few years' time. The most progressive companies are those that use the present Gen Y experience as a testing ground. Just like training wheels on a bike, this is our chance to experiment with unique and leading-edge strategies before the talent revolution takes over.

We can wait for the changes to be forced upon us, or we can get a head-start now. It's time to accept the inevitable. Our workplaces will never be the same again.

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