DataDome Blog

We do not have workers with enough training or skills to replace experienced retiring workers. The race to retain top talent in key positions has begun. Here are just a few of the available statistics.

• The shortage of available skilled workers is likely to exceed 10 million by 2010.
• One-fifth of this country’’s large established companies will be losing 40% or more of their top-level talent in the next five years. The replacement pool of 35-44 year-olds will decline by 15% during the same period.
• Within the next 10 years, 18 million jobs will require individuals with baccalaureate degrees. At current graduation levels, the Employment Policy Foundation predicts a shortfall of 6 million. Job growth in these occupations is projected to increase 42% by 2010.
• In 1950, over 60% of all manufacturing jobs required unskilled labor. Today less than 15% of all manufacturing jobs are unskilled.
• In 1973, blue-collar workers represented over 60% of the workforce. Very shortly, just 10% of the workforce will be blue-collar.
• The Hudson Institute estimates that by 2006, only 20% of our workers will have the skills to do 60% of the jobs.
• 3 out of every 4 Fortune 5000 companies listed in 1970 are no longer on the list. 1 out of 3 firms who went public since 1988 are now out of business.

One thing that will become more and more important is attracting and retaining top talent. High-performing companies have nearly half the turnover as low-performing companies.

What can you do to put your company into high performance mode? First, you have to hire top people, then you have to find or create the best work environments and positions for key people. Finally, you have to retain that talent.

It sounds very simple, and yet many companies miss out on the most effective strategies for accomplishing all three. We can help with all
of your organizational optimizations. We can target the best tools from the wide variety available and implement processes to maintain your edge, retain your talent, communicate more effectively, and invigorate the corporate culture with trust and shared vision. Call us at 404-814-0739 or visit http://www.datadome.com.

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One of the most critical times in the development of a business is that final moment the entrepreneur chooses to go to the next level – to build an organization. Many of the energies that were so beneficial initially – pioneering, big-picture, risk-taker, forging ahead no matter the obstacles, doing anything and everything it takes to make it go – may now require other supplemental energies in creating a vital team.

Stepping back and adjusting focus is quite a different pace than forging ahead full steam. Your pioneering ways may have produced some new and unique products or services, but there are times to absorb, fine tune, and adjust. Interviewing, training, and developing relationships takes time and effort.

So the key is defining who you need, finding them, hiring, them and keeping them.

Creating wealth is developing the ability to recruit the right people, maintain the right work environment to keep your team focused, and constantly communicate and motivate each member of your team. But there are pitfalls everywhere.

So often, when first expanding, the entrepreneur wants to find someone as energetic, dynamic, willing and risk-taking as they are. So in effect, they are duplicating their strengths and at the same time, duplicating their weaknesses. It may be a natural tendency to hire people like yourself – you communicate easier, you tend to motivate similarly. You are hiring with instinct, not your mind, and it is usually not smart. Your needs are not satisfied by duplicating yourself, but by complementing yourself – allowing you to use your strengths and compensating for your weaknesses. Bernard Marcus & Arthur Blank, Hewlett-Packard, Don Keough and Roberto Goizueta – different styles bringing different strengths to the company.

The key is to define each position on your new team. Strategic planning includes determining your needs and finding the right people to fill them. Finding people with the technical skills is relatively easy: resume, references, etc. The soft skills are a different matter, and actually more important.

We have come a long way in the past few years in having helpful tools to objectively analyze a position, job or situation in a user-friendly manner. Combine that with one of the many available tools that objectively evaluate soft skills and you can eliminate most of turnover.

Match the soft skills of the person with the soft skills appropriate for the
job. You can go a step further and motivate each new member of your team by identifying their passions in life; their values, and making sure that between their work and time away from work, they can fulfill those passions.

It takes time to find the right people, more time to train them, and even more time to listen, adjust and motivate them; but, the rewards are unparalleled. So often the new entrepreneur takes too long to realize turnover is not good, control tactics work only in the short term, and performance and productivity are greatly enhanced only with a focus on people as the number one resource of the company.

(originally published in Competitive Edge! Magazine as “Can Entrepeneurs Let Go? When Why How?”)

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How does the fit between the personality of a salesperson and the sales work environment affect the bottom line? We can offer the following insights from our experience.

Behavioral Style Preferences – First of all, if the natural behaviors of the salesperson’s style are not conducive to selling your product, for your company and to your clientele, he/she would have to change and adapt on a daily basis. A salesperson that has to become “somebody they aren’t” in order to successfully sell will not thrive. It’s draining and stressful and usually a short-lived position.

Motivational Needs and Values – If what is important to someone in terms of values isn’t being addressed at the job, then motivation will certainly be lacking. Values are the relative priority of categories (such as the economic, theoretical, regulatory, aesthetic), expressed through concrete situations such as the work environment, compensation & benefits, and so on. In sales, a lack of motivation is disastrous. Certain values also affect selling situations: Salespeople with a high “Social” value cannot enthusiastically sell a product unless they believe it will genuinely help benefit their customer. Those with a high “Theoretical” value have a substantial advantage selling more complicated products and applications – they thrive on constantly learning more and applying the true solution (a negative factor if they’re selling boring widgets).

Sales Skills and Knowledge – If a salesperson lacks knowledge of certain parts of the selling process, whether through lack of experience or poor strategies learned, they will loose sales and waste time. However, they only need to learn corrective action once (hopefully). This is the easiest “weakness” to correct, especially if the individual enjoys the behaviors you desire and is motivated.

TTI Personal Talent Skills Inventory- Focus and Awareness – Often there are things going on in the salesperson’s life that temporarily interfere with productivity. He or she may not be focused or see things clearly (whether externally or internally). A lack in specific attribute areas necessary for success in the position will create barriers to goal of top performance. These are not addressed in assessment tools that measure only behavioral or motivational insights. We have on-line instruments that identify each of the areas separately, for identification and developmental purposes.

Call us for a complimentary consultation on your current hiring, development or retention needs at 404-814-0739.

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