Management fads come and go and even the most “credentialed” management gurus latch onto some of them. One of those fads is the idea of having a “bossless” workplace. There are companies that tout that as their modus operandi. For example, the online retailer Zappos, the gaming company Valve, and Elon Musk’s little car company Tesla. Does the bossless model really work?
There is no blueprint for teams because every team is different, and every individual member of the team is different. Both teams and individuals have goals, challenges, levels of expertise, and experiences. These differences can be the catalyst for chaos. While we are finally learning how diversity of ideas and opinions is a good idea, are we equipped at handling the chaos that can bring?
Hiring the best talent has and will always be a challenge for any company, small, medium, or large. Organizations must have good talent to grow, beat the competition, and produce the best products and services. This will be the case no matter how much AI you weave into the mix. So, what’s the solution to the same old new hiring challenges?
Recently, I went into a bank to deposit money into some CDs. The woman who helped me was older and quite efficient. I just assumed she had been with the bank for many years. When I asked her how long she had been with the bank, she said, I’ve only been here about six months. She explained that she had been with a bigger bank that was purchased by an even bigger bank and management laid off all the women over 55 years of age. But wait, there’s more!
Ford is laying off 7000 workers. The media has lost 2,700 workers to layoffs.
According to Ars Technica when AT&T purchased Time Warner, layoffs occurred in 11 states due to “geographic rationalization [whatever THAT is] and employee surplus”. An inside source at CNN shared with me that in Atlanta, most of the layoffs were people 55 and older. I guess there was a need for “age rationalization” as well.
Once I had a boss whose favorite saying was, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” She was especially fond of saying it when people were complaining about their jobs, the pay, or having success escape them for some unknown reason. As with most all success, it’s mostly always a matter of getting out of our own way. Nowhere is this truer than in our careers. One reason this is the case is that we so often feel we have no control of our careers or events that happen in an organization that seem to affect our careers or at least the next steps. Let’s see how you can get out of your own way and take control of our career.
Most of the time, it seems, HR and CEOS are like oil and water. They can’t find the right mix of what the CEO needs to run the organization and the information HR can provide toward those goals. HR has information at its fingertips and when turning that information into concise metrics can provide real time strategic direction for the CEO.
Hiring Metrics: Hiring and recruiting metrics may include how many employees are on board currently, how many people you have or will be hiring this year, the number of terminations, and the number of promotions. Yawn, so what?
Any of these three topics might fill volumes of books. Indeed, there are volumes of information about all of them today, especially finding good talent. Technology is part of the problem and part of the solution. According to several sources, America is one of the leading countries in the advancement of technology. Microsoft suggests that the United Kingdom leads the way in how schools use technology. Technology, without the talent to use it, is useless. Therefore, if education is not keeping up, there may be a lag in finding that talent. In addition, even though technology has certainly been around for a while, a number of older Americans are not keeping up with technology. That can put a dent in the talent pool. Another issue is the fact that younger people have no loyalty to one company and the talent pool becomes unsustainable. How can technology be the culprit but also the solution?
The role of CIO (Chief Information Officer) has been around for decades. However, the role often suffers from an identity crisis. At its conception, the role was to serve IT or information systems and data processing. However, changes for this role over the years are dramatic. For example, according to Balance Careers.com, CIOs must keep up with constantly changing technology, but now skill requirements might include: