Observation
Good people have never been
harder to recruit!
William Alistair Turner was born in the early hours of Saturday 19th June and we became grandparents! Julie and I went out to celebrate at our local restaurant which is under new ownership. Despite good food and one of the best sites on the South East coast, we won’t be rushing back. Thankfully our spirits couldn’t be dampened but a combination of design ( what is the difference between eclectic and confused? ) and poor service, certainly challenged our enthusiasm. One server (probably the only one over 16) explained to us that they were really struggling to recruit experienced staff.
Last week this message was reinforced when I had dinner with a bunch of my CEO friends. The overwhelming consensus was that their single biggest common challenge is recruitment, with horror stories about 20, 30 and 40% base salary increases and losing key staff almost as quickly as they can recruit them. Their view was that this is being driven by the accelerated digital environment, resulting in demand not just for developers but for any role impacted by the changing digital environment, which, let’s face it, is now virtually every role. The impact is supercharged when combined with the tidal wave of investment money coming into the market driving up the cost of talented (and not so talented) recruits plus the reality of enhanced flexible working beginning to kick in. The Edinburgh based CEO was experiencing London companies with London salaries now recruiting in Scotland but not requiring relocation. Before the conversation enthusiastically went on to the possibility of England playing Hungary instead of Germany, which at that moment amazingly seemed to be the case (though as it turns out we need not have worried), the conclusion was that there are no quick fixes. Addressing the recruitment challenge needs both focus and long term systemic solutions.
Recently I came across a great illustration of how this can work. One of my clients is on the Exec of a FTSE 100 company and is responsible for the leadership of thousands of people. It is well publicised that their industry suffers from a significant diversity challenge. To address this challenge, he has quietly gone about building an academy. Each year this solution now produces hundreds of highly qualified individuals, with an almost equal gender split and a profile that reflects the ethnicity of their local regions. What’s even more impressive is that within 3 years the productivity of those graduating from the academy matches colleagues who already have decades of experience and the business model is such that, at the moment, it is very difficult for competitors to poach them.
Of course, this solution is specific to a particular context, but I suspect the approach of thinking long term, of having the consistent backing of senior leaders and the investment of serious time and money will all be necessary to address a challenge which won’t go away over night!
Challenge
‘This isn’t a return to the office plan, this
is a once in a generation opportunity
to redefine the way the business works!’
Is this hyperbole or in reality the biggest leadership challenge the majority of leaders face?
Personally I’m in the latter camp, partly influenced by the number of my coaching conversations which end up with existential questions around the business, almost irrespective of where they start You can’t solve for hybrid meetings without knowing what meeting and organisational rhythms you want and that requires you to be clear on the structure and role of your teams and to do that that requires you to be clear on what you are trying to achieve and understand the purpose and vision for the organisation, which almost certainly needs to be better described in the context of a radically changing world.
You could say this is always the nature of the leadership challenge and yet I believe it is more fundamental than that as we are in the biggest period of change that has occurred in my working life. Here are just three reasons why:
The accelerated digital agenda : both customer behaviour and organisational capability have been catapulted forward such that we often hear that digital progress has taken weeks rather than the years that were planned for
The acceptance of remote working : provides, I think, the biggest single opportunity to create a genuinely diverse workforce and in doing so compete for levels of talent previously seen as unattainable
Increased social awareness : whether you agree with the sentiments or not, few businesses can afford to ignore the changing customer and employee concerns around social justice and the environment.
Practical Action
Act like a great artist,
‘paint by numbers’ will not solve this!
For many years I have used the metaphor which compares great leaders to great artists and sadly reflects that much leadership behaviour and development is much more akin to ‘paint by numbers than great art’.
Great Art is about: | Painting by numbers is about: |
- Inspiration - Organic development - Being on a journey that is both frustrating and exciting but rarely completed - A process which is absorbing and hard work - Stretching capabilities - Having a unique view. | - Following a formula - Linear development - Being solely focused on completion - A process that is predictable and hard work - Sticking with existing capabilities and knowledge - Producing a copy. |
Resulting in: A unique creation with real value now and into the future. | Resulting in: A bland copy which has little current and no lasting value. |
If, like me, you believe this is a once in a generation opportunity, then I’d encourage you to think about your leadership, avoiding a knee jerk ‘painting by numbers’ approach and creating the time, environment, resources and discipline to be a great leader.
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