Unnecessary gap in the labor market?
Many things are changing in our environment, which affects workplaces and management.
People live longer and stay in better health for longer. There is rapid technological development, globalization, and increased pressure on environmental issues.
People’s expectations of work and workplaces, and how they want to use their time are also changing. There is an increased demand by workers for autonomy, flexibility, a family-friendly lifestyle, well-being, and overall prosperity.
We need to keep these changes in mind when it comes to preparing workplaces for the future.
Here I’m going to mention examples related to training and recruitment, and what we should keep in mind in that respect so that we don’t create an unnecessary gap, ourselves, in the labor market. Where at the same time organizations are having a hard time recruiting, hiring, and attaining talent, and at the same time, there are groups of people who want to work but do not get a job.
It is not good if we create this gap in the labor market, due to either insufficient employability of individuals — or prejudices and outdated ideas of managers and workplaces.
Training
We can prevent, or reduce the talent shortage by ensuring the employability of everyone who wants to work.
It needs to be a collaborative project between workplaces and the workers themselves.
We need to maintain and increase employability through regular and appropriate training. This way, we can reduce the risk of talent shortages at the same time as unemployment increases, due to the insufficient employability of individuals.
Workplaces need to invest time and resources in training, and in fact, training and knowledge acquisition should be a defined part of all jobs today.
Individuals themselves also need to be aware of maintaining their own employability. The value of various educational degrees is falling faster than ever before. Individuals need to constantly gather new knowledge and be up to date on the latest in their field. They need to read, learn and maintain their knowledge or expertise, and employability.
Part of workplace training and change management is about adaptability, which is necessary for change and preparing for the future.
Recruitment and Diversity
The fact that we have individuals who have employability, ability, and willingness to work, but do not get a job is another thing we need to look at.
Are companies themselves to some degree creating what is called a shortage of talent?
Are overly narrow definitions, biases, and inflexibility, when it comes to defining a desirable workforce or top performers preventing organizations from hiring people who want to work? If so that will create a gap that will be costly for us.
Let’s take two examples, physical ability, and age.
- Physical ability
People with physical limitations are often overlooked, even though they otherwise have employability, education, knowledge, ability, and willingness to work. In jobs where cognitive ability is more important than physical ability, the latter should not be an influencing factor in hiring. We have talents that we could utilize so much better.
I recently chaired a conference for The Icelandic Disability Alliance, and there it became even more clear to me than before, that the labor market or the organizations are often not ready for people who do not fit into the same mold as the majority.
How can it be that while there is a shortage of talent, persons with physical limitations but full mental capacity, good education, and knowledge, do not get knowledge jobs, jobs that do not need certain physical capacity but only mental capacity?
- Age
Another example is when people doing recruiting and hiring think there is some relation between competence, flexibility, creativity, etc. with people´s age. That connection is not supported by research. Plus individuals are different, so it is quite strange to put everyone of the same age in the same ability category.
You should look at what the person has been studying and doing recently, maybe in the last 2–5 years, rather than what year the person was born.
The long tenure of a younger person in the same job and at the same workplace can reduce e.g. creativity more than a higher age of a person who has been keeping him- or herself on the toes, constantly learning, reading, and trying new things and proving themselves in various jobs.
In my opinion, we should stop ignoring or looking past individuals based on preconceived notions, stereotypes, misconceptions, our own biases, and prejudices, or other things.
We may need to review management methods, and evaluation methods, increase flexibility and rethink many things, but I think we all benefit from it.
If we are dealing with what we call talent shortage, let´s not add to that shortage with our own prejudices and inflexibility.
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Herdis Pala is an experienced leader, with 20+ years in management positions, there of 13 years in C-Suite positions. Her responsibilities have mainly been within HR but also in Operations, Marketing, Service, Facilities Management, and more.
She is also a highly appreciated Speaker, Lecturer at Universities, Corporate Trainer, Executive Coach, and Management Consultant.
- Her most requested speaking topics are:
- Future of Work, Workplaces, Workforce, and Labor Market
- Management for the future
- How to future-proof the organization, the managers, and the workforce
- Workplace Culture — importance and how to nudge it
- Well-being, as a helpful tool in challenging labor market and preparing for future successes
- Employee Experience and Employee Journey
- 360° Success, in work and life, based on the principles of Self-Leadership
- How to Be Somebody´s “Best Manager I´ve Ever Had”
- How to Be a Better Manager — and Have a Better Life, At The Same Time.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
