Hardly a day goes by without someone sounding the alarm about the labor shortage. If there is no fundamental change in the way human resources are managed, the situation will be much worse in a few years. The biggest challenge is that we are no longer talking about a technological change – like the evolution of railway transport, where steam locomotives were followed by diesel and then electric locomotives – but about the division of technologies, where even a small change brings new innovations that we would not have thought of before. Education in the traditional model is no longer able to serve the new needs, especially those applying for IT specialists.
A new industry creates at least two others, which results in a demand on the labor market that has not been experienced before. In addition, more and more knowledge would be needed. A vicious spiral is thus taking shape, while the demand for specialists is increasing, more and more of them are needed, and their training takes longer than before.
The question is, what can be done? Businesses need to learn to plan for the future, keeping in mind what expectations will be in 2-3 years. This requires transforming the company culture and forward-looking strategic thinking from both the HR team and the company management.
Deep changes are essential in the management of the workforce, because in the current situation, there is a completely different stake if some people decide to leave a company. Of course, we should not forget that people's relationship with work has also changed radically. Today's young workers are more agile, more willing to take risks than previous generations, they need to be shown much more of what they can expect in a workplace, because it is also important for them to participate in something that they can feel is theirs and with which they can create value. They need to be able to perceive not only the current situation, but also to see ahead, to know what perspective lies ahead. If a company does not enable this, it will inevitably lose young talents.
Any change only works well if all participants understand the need for it and do their part. The HR department alone is not enough for success, because the demands of employees are now very diverse, bean bags, free coffee and a foosball table are no longer enough to convince Generation Z. People have quick access to a wide variety of information, which means they can easily find out if something works better in another workplace. If they don't see any development opportunities at their workplace, if their old colleagues can't advance either in knowledge or position, it discourages them and they end up changing. Of course, management alone is not enough for change, the entire organization needs to be switched to a new mode. Perhaps the most important thing is for businesses to realize that the world will no longer be the same as it used to be, there will no longer be people who enter a workplace in their 20s and stay there for 15 years.
The training opportunities offered by a company play a key role in managing new challenges, and companies that deal with the training of their employees in a structured way have a clear competitive advantage. At first glance, this may seem to go against the interests of companies, since a more qualified employee can more easily get a job elsewhere, but according to research, those who are further trained are more likely to stay with their employer. If companies develop a structured training plan that takes into account not only the needs of the company but also the personal interests of people, its implementation can reduce the number of people leaving by a third or half. However, it is important to mention that creating the opportunity for further training is not a universal weapon; it can only work effectively if companies also properly manage other incentive tools – wages and working time flexibility.
November 2018