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The Leadership Agenda
Four forces your workforce strategy can’t ignore
Bhushan Sethi
Given what we are seeing in today's labour market, and the great resignation, my colleagues and I have started to analyze this, and started to say, "To what extent are these permanent trends? Are these things we've seen before?"
And we started analyzing this and what we did, we developed a framework, and we basically said there are four key drivers now, that are influencing today's talent markets. Those factors are specialization, scarcity, humanity, and rivalry.
It's relevant for every organization to understand how these four factors influence how you compete in today's talent markets.
Specialization, to what extent are jobs now specialized because of technology, whether that's because we've automated work, or whether, because of technology, we need deep expertise and specialism in topics like cyber-security. Or if technology has significantly changed a role.
When I think about scarcity, there is a talent shortage. There's a talent shortage in many, many industries. There's also demographic challenges. We see aging populations in different parts of the world. Really understanding where am I going to get my future skills, and my future workforce from is incredibly important.
When I think about humanity, being an employee today, isn't just about going in, and executing your transactions, and your work, and going home. There was a big role, now, for employers to actually provide the all-round employee experience, to say, "How do I not only provide you a meaningful work experience and provide the right culture, the right ability, the right opportunity, the environment for you to thrive, but also what is my purpose? What are the values? How do we treat people? How do we treat people in good times, and bad times?"
And finally, rivalry. When I think about how you compete for talent, in today's market, are you competing on financial, or are you competing on every other aspect? What is your value proposition? Why would people choose to work in your industry, or with your company?
How does this all fit into the big picture on business strategy? We know the workforce is a key enabler of growth. We know that not having access to the right workforce and skills is a big risk in executing growth. And so, as we think about these factors, they are incredibly important to every organization. As you are transforming a business model, as you're looking to accelerate a digital transformation, as you're looking to take out costs in a responsible way, as you're looking to execute on your strategic initiatives.
