The Employment Puzzle Enters a New Age

By: Bruce King
Date: 9/1/2007

The challenge of addressing the complexities of recruiting an effective workforce has become more challenging in recent years. Over the last decade many businesses were able to address the issue of job fit by simply doing an end run around it due to the availability of workers. Now the labor force has begun to shrink and employers are beginning to experience not only fewer available workers but a shortage of qualified candidates. 70 million baby boomers are retiring or will shift to a more independent career while businesses and government step up the competition for the 45 million available workers. Now there is an increased need to consider the employment culture of these new workers as the X and Y generation begins to display a much different picture than did their father's workforce. Our new world economy is finding it critical that we be more competitive with businesses that we have been insulated from in the past. It is apparent that business will not only need to be more productive but rely on new means of efficiency to insure that business continue to prosper. Technology can only go so far in providing the needed savings and the most obvious target for taking a bite out of the cost pie is labor. In order to realize these new economies, workers will now need to match their jobs more accurately in the future. The newest tools for screening and selection have been available for several years and are only now being viewed with importance as the need for more productive employees becomes imperative. Measuring the needs of each job description is the first step in duplicating the results of a firm's best current workers. This process creates a pattern that can be followed which will lead to employees which are similar to those who have performed well in the past. Reviewing work experience and training history provides yet another critical piece of the labor puzzle. Corporate culture is quickly becoming a challenging factor as the newest workers bring new life values into the picture. These workers are predicted to be the highest maintenance workforce this country has ever seen and recent studies have found them to be independent, self motivated, less team oriented and resistant to constructive criticism. They will demand ongoing personal development to fuel their career advancement and will display limited company loyalty. The biggest factor in employee retention will be training and advancement of these employees as they scale the corporate ladder with frequent career changes. The new formula for finding, screening, hiring, training and retaining good employees will continue to evolve but will now need to start by using leading edge job fit technology and effective screening best practices.

An ever increasing number of employers are finding success and confidence in 6th generation screening surveys that are more accurate and easier to implement than older first and second generation personality tests. These leading edge surveys can now provide job benchmarking and applicant screening at a minimal cost while taking much of the guesswork out of the hiring process. The counterproductive behavioral survey can identifies potential dependability, hostility, substance abuse, honesty, computer abuse and sexual harassment issues that can reduce liability exposure from employee actions. Background research has become critical for businesses due to the legal liability which employees may cause their company due to even minor inappropriate actions. Researching a candidates criminal history, driving record, credit report and social security number will identify past actions that could come back to haunt a new employer. Business motivation surveys scales are being used to increase productivity and they fit hand in glove with training initiatives. Self development systems offer a wide range of training modules which are business centered and can be taken online and off the company clock. These programs are credited with increasing employee effectiveness in specific job related areas while helping with employee retention. Specific tools are now targeting the selection and development of middle and upper level managers where performance and retention have become the most costly to fast growing firms. It may be beneficial to keep in mind as you move forward that only your employees can unlock the full potential of your business and only good information will unleash the full potential of those employees.

Bruce King has aligned Professional Development Resources with the pioneers of today's most advanced vocational tools in order to answer many of the enduring questions relating to job fit and employee development. The newest human asset management technology has taken much of the guesswork out of screening and hiring employees while adding performance based leadership to the equation. Mr. King assists employers in realizing that employees will contribute to the company's bottom line only when they know their strengths and understand where and how these assets need to be applied in the workplace.