ExecMOJO

Talent Horizon

There’s trouble on the talent horizon and it comes in a lot of different flavors:

 

• According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, in 2010 over 10M jobs in the United States will go unfilled – in 2022 it will be 30M jobs

• College graduation rates are down to 54% and 75% of new jobs will require a college degree

• Making the wild assumption that Baby Boomers (44 – 62 years old) will leave the workforce when they are retirement eligible (is that at 55 or 65?) – there aren’t enough Gen X (28 – 43 years old) to replace them (78M Boomers versus 40M Gen Xers). Gen Y (7 – 27 years old) is big (70M), but still lacks the experience (hello…most haven’t even graduated) to make an immediate impact

• The average time in a company for Gen X is four years; for Gen Y it’s more like two and while the Boomers have been pretty loyal in the past, but the technology market hasn’t exactly rewarded them for that loyalty.

• According to an AARP survey of Boomers - 31% of mature workers became responsible for a dependent parent; 23% had an adult child move back home; and 16% were providing child care or day care for grandchild.  50 to 80 hour work weeks, while tolerated by Boomers and some Gen Xers, won’t be tolerated by Gen Y and won’t be of interest to Boomers as they ‘mature’ in their careers and many take on the care of family members. So, since everyone knows that a 40 hour work week for technology professionals is a joke – who’s going to be doing all the work?

 

There are a lot more questions than answers, but we’ll explore each of these challenges and some potential solutions in future blogs.

Sue Wyman

Want Top Talent?

The employment climate in the technology sector has changed dramatically in the past eighteen months.  There has been a shift from a client driven market to a candidate driven market.  Clients don’t want to believe that, but it’s true and we don’t see that climate changing in our lifetime.

 

The top candidates we talk to have multiple offers and are often counter-offered by their current companies. Some of the counter-offers we’ve seen in the past twelve months have been killer.   The myth of anyone (headhunter or employer) being able to control the decision making process of a great candidate is just that…a myth.  The candidate decides what’s best for them …not what’s best for the potential employer and certainly not what’s best for the headhunter.  Everyone involved needs to have a clear picture of the needs of the employer and the needs of the candidate. Being on top of what’s in everybody’s heads is paramount.

 

Employers who want to land great people need to be on their toes … companies spend untold dollars on corporate brand and then muck up their employer brand in the interview process by being unfocused, slow, and often times rude.  If candidates perceive that they are treated poorly in the interview process, can they really expect to be treated better when they sign up?  Probably not. 

 

Sue Wyman