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New Trends in Talent Creation
June 08, 2009
By Edward E. Gordon
This is a test. It's not going to be easy to pass. Go to a store, any store, and try to find some consumer products made in America, not China.
Now travel around America. We don't make things like we used to. There are many cities that have become living museums to diminished or dying industries. Cities that were once known for products such as steel (Pittsburgh), meat packing (Chicago), cars and trucks (Detroit), aerospace (Los Angeles), or tires (Akron) have seen these industries diminish or completely vanish. Often their leading industry today is tourism.
Yet there is also another story of businesses, small, medium-sized, and giant multinationals, who have the inner vision to invest in themselves and the people with whom they work. They are. America's models for the future.
1. Whistle while you work
One such entity is a manufacturer in a little gray factory on the northern edge of Columbus, OH. Here they make a tiny product with roots extending back to ancient China—the whistle. At this site the American Whistle Corporation makes more than a million metal whistles each year. It is "the one and only" metal whistle maker left in the United States.
American Whistle offers a variety of finishes—brass, bronze, even 24-karat gold—though most are just nickel-plated. A growing public safety market combined with sports has helped increase whistle sales.
Logos are engraved on whistles for universities, hospitals, companies, and police departments. There's even an Alcatraz Island special edition prison guard whistle. Some are souvenirs, most are inexpensive safety devices ($3 or $4)—"that only have to work once to be worth it," says Jennifer Valentine, American Whistle marketing director.
How has the company survived cheaper foreign competition? "High quality whistles are made to exacting professional standards that deliver a consistent high frequency, rich demanding alarm that commands attention," says Ray Giesse, the CEO and owner of American Whistle.
The whistle plant is a unique, one-of-a-kind facility. Manufacturing, which includes custom engraving, is done by 39-ton presses, robotic tools, state-of-the-art soldering tables, and 10 highly trained people.
"We've been giving it our best, and so far we've been successful," he says.
Since 1988 when Giesse and his partner bought the business, they have made continuous product improvements and marketing innovations. Giesse remains confident about the future of his small business but, "We don’t take anything for granted."
The survival of American Whistle and other such companies has been largely ignored by most business surveys. Yet these are the businesses that employ most Americans. Their success forms the backbone of the United States economy. If you attend a local chamber of commerce meeting, they are there. Listen to how they grow and thrive: They train small cadres of highly skilled workers to handle the software and advanced engineering needed to run complex technology. They pay well to encourage motivation and long-term loyalty.
2. Knowledge technologists—who are they?
There is a building consensus among economists that economic growth from 2010 to 2020 will hinge upon building knowledge economies. For the U.S. economy to thrive, this will mean concentrating on producing high-value services and products. This new knowledge economy relies heavily on many kinds of knowledge workers including teachers, doctors, lawyers, and engineers.
But according to Peter Drucker, the most striking growth will be in, "knowledge technologists." These are software designers, industrial and manufacturing technicians, computer technicians, or medical technologists of all kinds.
In the 20th century, semi-skilled and unskilled workers in manufacturing were the backbone of the social and political forces that helped to create the American middle class. In a 21st-century "Cyber-Mental Age," it will be the knowledge technologists in both services and industrial/manufacturing who are likely to become the dominant social and political forces shaping U.S. culture and its ultra high-tech economy.
3. Training—the new perspective
Global business leaders are investing more on training and development to grow this knowledge workforce. Since 1990 U.S. business investment rose almost 30 percent to over $56 billion in 2008.
Employers embracing this new perspective do so to provide their employees with lifelong learning opportunities. Employees commit to acquiring three sets of skills.
•Technical career skills specific to a job.
•IT skills that use technology to create innovations and increase business advantage.
•Personal behavior and management skills for a high-performance work culture.
Of course, the range of skills and proficiency levels are dependent upon the nature of each person's job and career expectations. But every individual will require a strong liberal arts/thinking skills foundation to complement these special career and specific job skills.
What is the major goal of this business perspective shift? To unlock employees' potential for innovation by teaching them how-to-learn throughout their careers rather than simply hoping that they will take the initiative to learn on their own.
"The skills gap affecting many industries…means companies are no longer simply paying lip-service to the slogan, 'People are our most important asset'," says Pat Galagan, an executive editor at the American Society for Training and Development .
Managing talent has become an issue of strategic importance for most businesses. Talent creation will soon become a vital activity to ensure companies can fill key positions to survive and thrive. This includes re-training and re-educating the current workforce to fill open positions. Seventy percent of the workers who will be on the job in 2020 are today's employees. Motivating more people to engage in high-quality, lifelong learning is not just a nice option, it is now a business operational necessity.
Training and development culture is changing, says Martyn Sloman at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
"The way in which these skills are delivered is shifting from a traditional top-down instructional model, (college class-room education), to a more decentralized approach that puts greater emphasis on learning at work," he says.
In the end, talent creation is all about changing people's perspective on what they do at work and how they do it.
4. Talent creation 101
How can U.S. business best invest over $50 billion annually in employee-sponsored workforce training and development? Research shows that employer training and development is most effective when it occurs in the context of a work environment. It generally can achieve high rates of financial return if enough time is used to achieve effective skills development that raises worker performance and productivity.
This applies equally to learning programs for executives, first-line supervisors, production/office staff, and entry-level workers. Strategic public-private partnerships for low income or various types of challenged workers are also most effective when they are workplace-based and offer the trainee immediate on-the-job applications of what is being learned.
New trends in talent creation are spreading across United States businesses.
"More companies today have decided to grow their future leaders internally, rather than recruiting from outside their organizations," says Annie Stevens, managing partner for ClearRock, a Boston-based outplacement and executive coaching firm. "And they are making opportunities for employees to develop in their careers further down the organizational ladder and sooner in their careers."
In a Fortune Magazine 2008 survey of the "100 Best Companies to Work For," Plante & Moran, America's 12th-largest CPA/business consulting firm was ranked 44th. Bill Herman, a Managing Partner, says that the firm promotes a culture in which people "are given training, mentoring, and the personal flexibility they need to grow."
The training programs have raised morale, reduced turnover, and enhanced teamwork. This has led to improvements in client relations and the firm's bottom line, allowing for additional investments in talent development.
"We average a 12 percent turnover rate, against 25-30 in our industry. Clients like to see the same faces turning up to do their audit each year," says Richard Brehler, Plante & Moran's director of training and development.
A May 2009 Manpower report, "The Global Talent Crunch," based on a survey of 33 nations found that "despite global recession and the weakest employment outlook in decades, employers are nonetheless facing a scarcity of talent in critical areas." Many businesses, like those cited here, are continuing to invest in training and education for their key employees to bolster long-term sustainability. This will allow businesses to make a strong recovery once the current recession ends.
Edward E. Gordon is the author of "Winning the Global Talent Showdown," and the president of Imperial Consulting in Chicago. He is a researcher on the future of jobs and talent creation. He can be contacted at www.imperialcorp.com.
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