Can't Find Good People?

Every service company I speak with is concerned about their ability to find good, quality workers. In an environment where the competition for talent is fierce, which companies are going to be most successful? What's the recipe for winning?

Let's start with the basic myth. When I'm training foremen and supervisors, I'll often ask them if today's young people have a poorer work ethic than their generation had. Almost unanimously they say "yes!" 

They're shocked when I tell them every generation believes this and every generation is wrong. I heard the "young people today don't want to work" thing when I was a helper on construction sites in the 1970s. Engineers building the Taj Mahal in the 1640s were saying it, as were stone masons building the pyramids 4,000 years ago.

What is true is that some individuals have a stronger work ethic than others (in every generation). In periods of relatively low unemployment, we run across more candidates with lower motivation and weaker work-ethic than periods of higher unemployment rates. 

What is also true is that work ethic and motivation is not all genetic. Work ethic can be learned and motivation can be tapped. Which leads us back to the question, which companies are going to win in this economy?

The service companies that are going to win are not the companies that invest in finding that secret supply of excellent workers that no one else can find. The companies that win are going to be the ones that find ways to be successful with less than ideal candidates.

The service companies that are going to win aren't simply complaining about the current talent pool, they're building systems that help a candidate who isn't an exact fit to have a reasonable chance at becoming successful. They're building on-boarding, training and feedback systems as well as mentoring programs and career paths to keep people who aren't natural-born stars to build a skill set, become engaged and remain on-track.

The service companies that are going to win aren't going to simply outspend everyone else on talent. If your culture sucks (read: your supervisors and foremen treat people like they're disposable), it doesn't matter how much money you throw at compensation, you'll eventually lose to the company that knows how to build a culture that workers embrace. If you can get $16 of value out of a $13 employee, you're going to handily outperform the company that's having to spend $23 to get that same $16 of value. 

The service companies that are going to win will say "thanks" and "well done" a lot. The service companies that are going to struggle are going to generally ignore good performance as something that's expected and spend their energy berating poor performance.

The service companies that are going to win are going to be employers of choice who build their total rewards programs around what their workers really want versus what they'd prefer to give them. (Think: maybe an afternoon off with pay rather than a gift card?).

The service companies that are going to win are going to win with less than ideal candidates. If your organization is determined to find plug-and-play, immediately productive workers that don't need to be trained or managed, you're going to spend a lot of time recruiting.