News You Can Use | Issue 03 |
What We’ve Been Reading
It’s almost that time of year again..
Yep. Soon the latest batch of new grads will be exiting their institutions and hitting the job market. Many will become disillusioned as they struggle to be hired into positions where they get to use the talents they’ve spent years accumulating.
It’s frustrating to face the daunting prospect of employment when “entry-level” jobs are posted with requirements more suited for people with 5+ years of experience. How to get relevant experience?
We’ve been reading how nowadays, one may not need a college degree to land a great job and have a successful career. This HBR article has an interesting take on this HERE
For the few that are lucky enough to be hired, they are often placed into a system that is designed to support the lowest common denominator – exactly the type of person that the employer DIDN’T hire (see our blog post on this subject HERE).
So what’s the solution?
- Employers need to be realistic in their expectations of “entry-level” workers – despite the grades they got in school (or maybe even BECAUSE of them) they are going to need both additional training AND job experience before they are fully capable. So… stop looking for unicorns and recognize that the “ready for work” worker is a myth. Even if you hire experienced workers away from a competitor – you’re still going to need to re-train them to fit your particular environment.
This means:
- carefully gauging the competencies and the capacities of new hires as part of the recruiting process, and then fitting them into the organization where they’ll be most likely to thrive (HINT: we have tools to help)
- making sure that the on-boarding process is individualized to build on strengths and shore up weaknesses
- committing to proper on-going mentoring and support until they get their feet under them.
- New grads need to recognize that the things people learn in school don’t necessarily translate to the working world. Recognize that you’re going to need to learn – sometimes an awful lot – before you can begin to generate sufficient value to make your wage or salary an acceptable investment for your employer. Think about the multiple on your pay that you generate in value for your employer, and then look for ways to grow that value. It takes time – don’t expect to be running at full speed before you’ve really learned to walk. SEE JESS’S POST ABOUT HER JOURNEY HERE
- Educators (profs, teachers, and their institutions) need to be thinking not only of knowledge and learning, but also about how the various things being taught can fit (be applied) in the economy. Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programs are a good place to start, but only if the things that students do during placements are relevant to and augment the learning taking place in the class. Intentionality is key – otherwise WIL is just a ‘box checking’ exercise and the value – for the student, the institution and the employer – is just coincidental.
We have also been reading about possible emerging trends for this year within the work force, and we’ve come to understand that some of the key points for this year are:
- Decline in the hybrid work model
- Proactive Candidate Engagement
- Recruiting Automation
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Employer Branding
- Data-centric recruiting
- Gen Z in the Workforce
- Preparing Workforce for AI and Automation
The article that Recruiter Flow has an interesting take on this year’s various emerging trends and shifts in the recruitment landscape anticipated for the year 2024 HERE.
There’s a wealth of talent available in Canada. Some of it is new grads, a lot more of it is new Canadians with skills that simply aren’t being recognized.
Fixing this falls on those who will benefit – employers. And… we’d love to help you along that journey.
Get in touch with us!
Contact Jeff Griffiths
New Services and Events
The Lead Now Manager Development Program
The newly designed Lead Now manager training program is now available. The program focuses on 8 Manager personal and professional competencies and skills that includes the following:
- Mastering and maintaining a Manager Mindset
- Conducting conversations and meetings
- Prioritizing & delegating
- Creating accountability,
- Navigating change,
- Influence
- Engaging and developing others
- Providing feedback and managing conflict
The program can be presented in different ways including a 4 day program experience or a staggered modular program presented over 4 weeks containing the following
The program is designed with an emphasis on assisting new role managers to develop critical personal and professional competencies to lead their teams to sustained high performance. It is also an excellent program that proves to be valuable for preparing technical experts and professionals as successors for their leadership careers.
For more information, please contact Dirk Volschenk
Invent the Future Together Program
We are pleased to announce an exciting new program to enable organizations, communities, and community-based organizations to move forward in fascinating new ways collaborating to co-create a compelling shared future. Today in nearly every aspect of personal, professional, community, public and political life we notice how polarization is having a restraining impact on the ability to move forward creating and working together to create a better future.
Coming soon: Small to medium size CEO Assessment and Development Center.
We are excited to announce that we are working on an Assessment and Development Center to assist post startup CEOs to discover and hone their current CEO competencies.
TMA Talent Assessment and Career planning Resources
Many of the studies in 2023 and new predictions about talent management challenges for 2024 show the same trend – employees increasingly are looking for new, more challenging, and meaningful jobs. This trend will drive higher turnover, and employers will lose their competitive ability as they lose critical skills. Employee discontent with their jobs is evidence that traditional career maps and development practices are no longer adequate.
For organizations to recruit and retain the talent they need to prosper, it’s clear that change is needed. Emerging research suggests that employers who design their recruiting processes to ensure alignment between jobs and the natural talents of their employees will create more engaged, productive, workplaces. If they then develop those same employees in an intentional manner that leverages these natural talents, they can reduce time to competency and further increase productivity and engagement – today’s worker wants to be valued, developed, and take part in work that is meaningful and satisfying. When employers can create this sort of talent-first organization, they create better value for their customers, now and into the future.
Workforce Strategies has searched the global marketplace for tools and resources that assist people to understand and use their drives, talents, and competencies to make the best possible career decisions – and we are pleased to announce that we are now offering the TMA Method to our clients. This is an online resource which allows individual employees and their managers to gain access to a detailed assessment of talents and tendencies, but also to a portal that facilitates on-going development. It drives the sorts of talent-based conversations that improves fit between people and roles, and results in more effective organizations.
TMA is available for individual subscriptions, or can be licensed to larger organizations: click here to get in touch with Dirk Volschenk to learn more about how TMA can drive talent transformation and improve the performance of your organizational performance.
Cool Stuff We’re Involved With
Ideas we’re pursuing…
Over the next few months we’ll be going deeper in our research on the linkages between organizational structure, competency, talent processes and leadership behaviour – a collision of ideas that we think will reveal some new insights and approaches that will add value for our clients. Stay tuned – we’ll be “thinking out loud” about this stuff in a series of articles and blog posts. We welcome feedback, whether you think we’re right or you think we’re wrong – and are eager to hear your experienced around the challenges of creating a truly competency-based organization. Get in touch jeff@workforcestrat.com
“In my work at PetroLMI, having the help of these competency masterminds was vital. They are leading with ideas and concepts that will positively enhance the Canadian workforce of the future. As a client, working with them was like having a world-class mentor at my fingertips.”
Heather DeBoer
ENFORM/PetroLMISign up for updates!
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