Employment in 2016
- Thread starter Marc
- Start date
M
mguilbert
The company I work for is a global company. As far as keeping talent our executive team believes in keeping smart employees. They have an incredible benefits package. A "Cadillac" health care plan and a very generous 401k matching and pre-match. They believe an employee who is just about the size of the paycheck will always be looking for a new job/position. A smart employee cares about benefits also. We currently have an average length of employment of 11.7 years. With many employees with over 20 years at the company. These employees with a very high retention rate range from floor operators to upper management.
It isn't your Uncle's work force anymore. Young people have a wider access to means of gossip (social media) and may have less tolerance for sticking it out in a thankless position. That said, hard data supporting the idea that young people won't stick around just hasn't been clear or easily available.
The fact also is young people learn differently and interact differently. A workplace needs to adapt training programs and communication methods to be effective with this demographic.
There's a common refrain that young people don't want to work hard. That's a myth but it looks like truth if we expect the same behaviors or responses to motivational stimuli as the Baby Boomers have had. Employers need to learn to engage people - to ask what people think and then really listen.
People like David Lee have been talking about this for years - how to make their workplaces into an "employee magnet" so recruiting good people is not so difficult, as the job search process is also becoming at least partly driven by social media. I'm not affiliated with HumanNature@Work but have often wish I was...
Some organizations are catching on. A client of mine has a set of business objectives (and associated initiatives to achieve) that includes "Employer of Choice."
The fact also is young people learn differently and interact differently. A workplace needs to adapt training programs and communication methods to be effective with this demographic.
There's a common refrain that young people don't want to work hard. That's a myth but it looks like truth if we expect the same behaviors or responses to motivational stimuli as the Baby Boomers have had. Employers need to learn to engage people - to ask what people think and then really listen.
People like David Lee have been talking about this for years - how to make their workplaces into an "employee magnet" so recruiting good people is not so difficult, as the job search process is also becoming at least partly driven by social media. I'm not affiliated with HumanNature@Work but have often wish I was...
Some organizations are catching on. A client of mine has a set of business objectives (and associated initiatives to achieve) that includes "Employer of Choice."
I am currently looking for a machine parts inspector and it is turning out to be harder to find than expected. I have changed my 'requirements' to work ethic, trainable, and basic math and computer skill. I decided I will need to fully train, and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea; this includes how to read a micrometer. I interviewed a person who is a current inspector and handed them a standard 1 inch micrometer and they could not read it accurately (they could read a digital fine).
I decided that I needed to hire someone with no experience and a willingness to learn and advance. Right now it is turning out to be younger people between 18 and 22 simply due to type of person being looked for.
My main criteria is 'work ethic' (at work on time, working while here, and not calling in sick constantly). This is turning out to be the main stopping point right now. I went to a fast food restaurant and talked with a manager I know. He could only recommend 2 of the 20(ish) employees due to 'work ethic'.
As a note, these are all anecdotal positions.
I decided that I needed to hire someone with no experience and a willingness to learn and advance. Right now it is turning out to be younger people between 18 and 22 simply due to type of person being looked for.
My main criteria is 'work ethic' (at work on time, working while here, and not calling in sick constantly). This is turning out to be the main stopping point right now. I went to a fast food restaurant and talked with a manager I know. He could only recommend 2 of the 20(ish) employees due to 'work ethic'.
As a note, these are all anecdotal positions.
Recently, I saw an article on LinkedIn describing how organizations are looking for those soft skills - empathy, compassion, learning ability, work ethic, etc. The premise is, I believe, that you can train a person for a skill, but you can't train soft skills.
Whether or not I agree with that last statement, my concern is more about how the heck does one communicate those soft skills in a resume? Your 'Skills and Accomplishments' are worded to tell a story per bullet - Action Word + Activity + Result:
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* Analyzed and communicated Client feedback trends resulting in 25% fewer end user complaints and 6% revenue improvement from returning Clients
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Where in that statement above should I discuss my late nights of developing the reports to gain the numbers to analyze or holding leadership's hands as we attempted to solve problems and not point fingers or listening to the Business Analyst on the team as he discussed his decision on putting his mother into a nursing home?
Adding to this conundrum is the increased usage of auto-populating HR programs such as Taleo. They don't have sections for "Soft Skills" and not all include a section where we can attach a copy of resume where we might list them.
Whether or not I agree with that last statement, my concern is more about how the heck does one communicate those soft skills in a resume? Your 'Skills and Accomplishments' are worded to tell a story per bullet - Action Word + Activity + Result:
---
* Analyzed and communicated Client feedback trends resulting in 25% fewer end user complaints and 6% revenue improvement from returning Clients
---
Where in that statement above should I discuss my late nights of developing the reports to gain the numbers to analyze or holding leadership's hands as we attempted to solve problems and not point fingers or listening to the Business Analyst on the team as he discussed his decision on putting his mother into a nursing home?
Adding to this conundrum is the increased usage of auto-populating HR programs such as Taleo. They don't have sections for "Soft Skills" and not all include a section where we can attach a copy of resume where we might list them.
Love it!
While technical colleges are trying to crank out machinists and many employers are trying to access this group of semi-skilled people, I can only applaud your willingness to train because a lot of worthwhile youngsters are not heading toward those programs for whatever reason. Employers really do need to learn to step outside the traditional paradigm of trying to fill a role with a defined set of skills with the "perfect recruit."
People sometimes write job ads without a clear understanding of how the recruitment would work - as you have described. It hobbles the job search.
I was talking with a client this week about the maddening nature of the modern job hunt. She mentioned someone advising to add the buzz words into the resume as "white text" (invisible font) so the software would pick them up and send the resume on to a live person to look at. I was thinking, Wow!
But it becomes necessary for us to list some of our accomplishments such as successfully leading a diverse team or initiative, so the real person can then get the message and ask for a meeting.
I was talking with a client this week about the maddening nature of the modern job hunt. She mentioned someone advising to add the buzz words into the resume as "white text" (invisible font) so the software would pick them up and send the resume on to a live person to look at. I was thinking, Wow!
But it becomes necessary for us to list some of our accomplishments such as successfully leading a diverse team or initiative, so the real person can then get the message and ask for a meeting.
Marc, in the United States jobs are hard to find. Most people are under employed or unemployed. It is because many jobs are being shipped to global sites where labor is cheaper and technical skills are available. For example, we have a job for a Scientist to validate chemical assays. Requires a PhD in Analytical Chemistry. Used to be filled at our Lab in the US. Outsourced to our Lab in India. Now we have a position in the US for that same PhD chemist to review the reports from India at 80% of the salary. We hire 3 PhD chemists in India to run and write reports and 1 PhD chemist in US to review the reports. That is the state of the job market!
Is it hard to find jobs in the U.S., or is it hard to find jobs in the U.S. that compensate at the PhD level? I see a lot of jobs that ask for this or that degree but pay very little.
