Get 'em While They're Hot: How to Attract, Develop, and Retain Peak Performers in the Coming Labor Shortage

By Tony Zeiss

Is your workforce strong enough to keep your company afloat? As the average worker’s skill levels decline, the labor supply is projected to decrease dramatically and exponentially--creating a skilled labor gap that the US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates will leave our economy in need of tens of millions more workers. In his beneficial manual for businesses, Dr. Tony Zeiss shows your organization how to compete--aggressively--for the rapidly dwindling resource of skilled workers. As an experienced and award-winning educator, Zeiss has unique insights into the techniques that are necessary to attract, develop, and retain skilled and productive people to both public and private organizations. In Get ’Em While They’re Hot, you’ll examine how the right people can keep your products and services fresh and competitive, how to train your current workforce in the latest industry trends, and how to leverage and respond to job market changes to position your company for future success. The labor shortage is more than a hot-button political topic. This essential manual will help your company adjust to the challenges ahead, and do what is within its power to not only survive, but thrive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Sep 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9781418513573

Book preview

WORDS OF PRAISE FOR

GET ’EM WHILE THEY’RE HOT

by Dr. Tony Zeiss

"All organizations, including public colleges and businesses, need to act now to ensure their long-term viability. Get ’em While They’re Hot is a wise investment in the future of your organization. Reading it is the first step to take to prepare for the future."

—Dr. George R. Boggs

President and CEO, American Association of Community Colleges

"In the competitive climate today, owners and CEOs of automobile dealerships, NASCAR teams, or any other business, fully realize the importance of attracting skilled and loyal employees. Get ’em While They’re Hot is a great resource that will provide a competitive advantage to any organization!"

—Rick Hendrick, CEO, Hendrick Automotive Group

"Get ’em While They’re Hot illuminates a serious challenge faced by all organizations. Astute leaders will welcome this visionary book!"

—Ken Thompson, CEO, Wacovia Bank

"Tony Zeiss rightly warns of a looming challenge to all organizations, including the cities of this great nation. My colleagues across the country should read Get ’em While They’re Hot."

—Honorable Pat McCrory, Mayor, Charlotte, North Carolina

"This energetic and timely work will help organizations compete in attracting, developing, and retaining skilled employees as millions of Baby Boomers retire. Those of us who lead large businesses must be proactive, just like the book, Get ’em While They’re Hot."

—Dr. Ruth Shaw, CEO, Duke Power

The Belk organization is strategically positioning itself for the coming war for talent. Zeiss's book is a timely resource for any organization that hopes to succeed in this competitive climate.

—Tim Belk, CEO, Belk Stores Services

I’m pleased that a respected educator like Tony Zeiss has written a practical guide for America’s businesses to reference during the anticipated labor and skills shortage. As he points out, creating and keeping a skilled labor force requires strategic effort from business, education, and government!

—Representative Sue Myrick

U. S. Congress, 9th District, N.C.

People the world over perform well in the workplace and develop organizational loyalty by being treated well, trusted, and encouraged to grow professionally. Tony Zeiss’s new book provides a splendid model for creating high-performance and loyal employees. His advice can help any organization create a stronger workforce!

—Ambassador Mark W. Erwin, CEO, Erwin Capital

Former Ambassador to Mauritius

"Get ’em While They’re Hot is exactly what business leaders and human resources professionals need to prepare for tomorrow’s labor-force challenges. As a national consultant on management and labor relations, I'll be advising my clients to read this book!"

—Jim Bavis, President, Bavis Consulting Group

Former Corporate Vice President Employee Relations, Sprint Inc.

"When you are in the highly competitive soft drink business, every advantage helps. Get ’em While They’re Hot will provide you with just such an advantage. The ability to attract and retain top-performing employees in a tightening labor market is becoming critical for success."

—Dale Halton, President and CEO, Pepsi Cola Bottling,

Charolotte, NC

GET ’em

                 WHILE

        THEY’ RE

                HOT!

How to Attract, Develop,

and Retain Peak Performers

in the Coming Labor Shortage

DR. TONY ZEISS

Get_Em_FINAL_0003_004

This book is dedicated to my friend and mentor,

the late J. William Bill Disher. He served as CEO and

Board Chair of Lance, Incorporated, and as Chairman

of the Board of Trustees for Central Piedmont

Community College, 1993-2004.

Copyright © 2005 by Tony Zeiss

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

ISBN: 0-7852-0865-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zeiss, Anthony.

Get 'em while they're hot!: how to attract, develop, and retain peak performers in the coming labor shortage/Tony Zeiss.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-7852-0865-8 (hardcover)

1. Employees—Recruiting. 2. Employee retention. 3. Personnel management. I. Title.

HF5549.5.R44Z45 2004

658.3'1—dc22

2004024378

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 QWM 08 07 06 05

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter One: Knowledge Is Power

Chapter Two: Positioning for Success

Chapter Three: Attracting Peak Performers

Chapter Four: Developing Peak Performers

Chapter Five: Retaining Peak Performers

Chapter Six: Strategizing for a Successful Future

Notes

About the Author

Acknowledgments

PREFACE

Where will your organization be in twenty years? Will it be stable? How about in ten years? Will it still be competitive in five? Will it even exist a year from now?

How confident are you in your workforce? Are employees’ skills and qualifications up to speed with today’s ever-changing technology? Are they gaining new skills, or have their skills become obsolete?

If you are at the head of an organization, here are some sobering statistics to consider about today’s labor force.

• The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2011, our economy will need 10 million more workers than will be available.

• Futurist Rick Smyre predicts that 40 to 60 percent of the jobs that will be needed in 2015 don’t exist today.

• Business Week writer Samuel Palmisano cited an IBM study predicting that 42 industries will create 13 million jobs in the next two years and more than 95 million jobs over the next decade.¹

• At most community colleges, nearly 70 percent of recent high-school graduates require remedial math or English before they can take college-level courses.

• Only 20 percent of American jobs require a bachelor’s degree or higher, yet 75 percent require technical skills training beyond high school.

• Only about 50 percent of all university freshmen graduate with a degree.

• According to the Associated Press, of 1,000 who applied for manufacturing jobs at Siemens, only 35 had the skills to be hired.

In spite of these statistics, I have seen thousands of distraught people move from being almost penniless into financial success by gaining new skills and credentials in more promising occupations. These astonishing-but-true labor-market realities must be dealt with quickly and strategically by every organization. Read this book to position your organization for success!

Chapter 1

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

—author unknown

America is about to experience the greatest labor shortage in its history. At the same time, today’s skilled workers—already too few in number—are more independent and mobile than ever. Unless your organization prepares for this impending national crisis, it will cease to exist. If CEOs don’t give increased attention to the business of human resources, their plans will be useless. In turn, if HR personnel fail to understand their organization’s business strategy and fail to connect it to their hiring and workforce development plans, their efforts, too, will be counterproductive.

The survivors of the looming labor shortage will be those who strategically position themselves to meet their future human resource needs. This book is designed to help you prepare for and succeed in attracting, developing, and retaining peak performers throughout the forthcoming tight labor market.

THE BARE FACTS

Before we can strategize a response to this approaching labor-force threat, we must clearly understand what we are facing.

Demographic Realities

Even though unemployment in the United States is currently hovering around 6 percent, and 3.9 million jobs have been cut from 2001 to 2003, the consequences of a tight labor market will begin soon. Labor economist Tony Carnevale predicts that the supply of labor is about to fall very short of demand. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that, though total employment is expected to increase from 146 million jobs in 2000 to 168 million jobs in 2011, only 158 million workers will be available. ¹

A serious lack of skilled workers will begin in 2005 and grow to 5.3 million by 2010 and to 14 million by 2015. If the need for unskilled workers is included, the shortage will be 7 million in 2010 and 21 million by 2020. Shortages will be most acute among managers, who are approaching retirement, and skilled workers in high-tech jobs.²

The pressure to find and keep skilled workers is already becoming serious and will get progressively worse. Baby boomers are retiring in record numbers, and there are not enough people in succeeding generations to fill the need. In fact, by 2010 some 30 million workers will be older than fifty-five, and organizations both public and private are facing the dual challenge of decreasing workers and declining worker skills.

Senator Tom Harken cited a recent Aspen Institute publication titled Grow Faster Together or Grow Slowly Apart: How Will America Work in the 21st Century? and called the coming labor shortage a major crisis. This crisis arises from a worker gap, a skills gap, and a wage gap that, if not properly addressed, will threaten U.S. competitiveness and indeed our very way of life. ³As you can see, success will belong only to those who recognize the problem and position themselves to win in this new labor environment.

I was recently privileged to have a semiprivate meeting with President George Bush before he delivered a major workforce development address at the college where I serve. I was impressed by the president’s response when I mentioned the coming labor shortage. He agreed that America had to gear up to provide more skilled workers and that the country was experiencing a major job transformation. His grasp of the imminent scarcity of workers and what it means to America was extraordinary. In his address he stated:

We’re not training enough people to fill the jobs of the twenty-first century. There is a skills gap. And if we don’t adjust quickly and if we don’t do smart things with the taxpayers’ money, if we don’t properly use our community colleges, we’re going to have a shortage of skilled workers in the decades to come. And if you’ve got a shortage of skilled workers in the decades to come, guess what’s going to happen to America—we’re no longer going to be on the leading edge of change. It’s going to be hard for our children and grandchildren to find the kind of jobs that will be being generated in the world’s economy.

Even the president of our nation understands the dual threats of a decreasing workforce and the need for increased skills among workers, but most organizations have yet to prepare for these threats.

A National Association of Manufacturers publication reports that the manufacturing sector has lost more than 2 million jobs in the recent economic downturn, yet 80 percent of large and small manufacturers report a moderate to serious shortage of qualified applicants. ⁴ As an example, according to an Associated Press story on February 16, 2004, Siemens Diesel Systems Technology in Blythewood, South Carolina, recently experienced grave difficulty in finding skilled workers.

As mentioned in the Preface, Siemens received 1,000 applications for new manufacturing jobs. Of these applicants, the company put only 35 to work. What was the problem? The applicants were not skilled enough, especially in mathematics, to do the job. Siemens was forced to import workers from automotive states. Fortunately, they were able to attract skilled workers from other states. But with the coming worker shortage, this will no longer be a working option.

Job Trends

This country is in the middle of a major shift in its economic base. Our parents witnessed the transformation from an agrarian- based economy to an industry-based one. We have witnessed the transformation from an industry-based to an information-based economy. Today we are witnessing yet another transformation that capitalizes on the abundance of technology and information to enter a service-based economy.

America’s jobs are changing, requiring higher skills and greater knowledge, and companies are attempting to remain competitive. We are experiencing the exportation of a huge number of both manufacturing and information technology jobs as other nations’ workers acquire the skills to do what our workers used to do. Furthermore, these foreign recruits can do the job for less pay than American workers.

QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS!

Various constituencies are raising many questions about job needs. The primary questions policy makers are pondering include: (1) How can we find jobs for the unskilled and unemployed? (2) How can we help the education system produce educated and skilled workers? (3) How can we stimulate innovative technologies and new job growth to replace