Reinke Faces Life

METHODOLOGY ***
STRATEGY demographic tidal wave
TACTICS ***
TECHNOLOGY ***
=======================

THIS WAS TRUE IN 2004; IT’S STILL TRUE TODAY

Dear fellow turkey,

RIDING THE RETIREMENT WAVE
Bill Ayers
President & CEO
Tel: 212.889.7788
bill.ayers@ayers.com

This coming New Year’s Day will mark more than the beginning of another year. On January 1, the baby boom generation—somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 million people born between 1946 and 1964—will begin to turn 60. On New Year’s Day of 2011, what FORTUNE magazine calls “the biggest retirement wave in U.S. history” will officially begin. It will most certainly transform the employment landscape. In 2015, we’ll reach the point at which the 65+ age group begins to swell more quickly than the 20-to-64 age group, draining the traditional labor pool.

Have you given thought to what this fast-approaching demographic tidal wave will mean to your organization?

<<The heck with them, what will it mean to me?>>

Big issues/big questions

The most obvious implication is the potential shortage of employees. Are you up-to-date on the demographics of your company? Do your retirement policies encourage or discourage early retirement? Do you know who’s going to be leaving, in what numbers, and when? Are you going to have a trickle or a flood?

Even more important is the potential for a brain drain as valuable skills, experience, marketplace know-how, and institutional knowledge flow out the door with retiring workers. Human capital and organizational knowledge are two of your company’s greatest assets. Have you assessed what you’re at risk for? What key talent, skills, and competencies you’re going to need to replace and how you’re going to do that—through internal development, recruiting, or a combination of the two? Do you have mechanisms in place to institutionalize critical knowledge?

Many organizations will be particularly vulnerable at the top. We at Ayers are concerned about this because although many companies pay lip service to succession planning, too few are actually engaging in it. Have you identified tomorrow’s managers and leaders? How far down the bench? What are you doing to prepare them?

A study conducted by Age Wave, The Concours Group and Harris Interactive reveals some important issues with regard to your future managers and leaders. It shows that younger employees are the least satisfied, committed and engaged members of the workforce. Mid-career employees—those who haven’t been downsized out of organizations—are struggling with frustration. It’s the employees who are nearing retirement, the boomers, who are the most satisfied, loyal and engaged members of the workforce. How do you develop the kind of engagement that will motivate younger workers to be as loyal and productive as the generation they’re expected to replace?

Redefining the labor pool; reinventing retirement

Along with investing in the development of younger workers, perhaps the best strategy in preparing for the retirement wave is redefining the labor pool. It’s already clear that the baby boom—a generation that is the most educated in history and that will have more years during which to use that education—intends to approach its retirement years in a nontraditional way. Many of us are going to reinvent ourselves, tackle new responsibilities, and try things we didn’t have a chance to try in our previous careers.

Nearly 80 percent of boomers participating in a study by Age Wave and Merrill Lynch say they intend to keep working after 65: 42 percent want to cycle between work and leisure; 16 percent want to work part-time; 13 percent want to start a business; and 6 percent want to continue full-time work. According to a BusinessWeek analysis, increased productivity and participation in the workforce among older Americans could add nine percent to GDP by 2045, which translates to more than $3 trillion annually in 2005 dollars.

Enlightened employers have begun finding ways to tap this valuable labor pool, including

* Flexible schedules—such as part-time and on-call work—and work locations
* New benefits, such as elder-care referral services and career-long training
* Special projects
* Opportunities to mentor or conduct research.

Given the demographic trends, the strategy of keeping older employees will result in a workforce that is heavy on the higher and lower ends of the age spectrum. This will raise other issues you need to begin considering. How will you manage across generations and meet the very different needs of the two groups?

Diversity plays a role in this discussion of rethinking the labor pool as well. As the traditional pool drains, competition for all qualified candidates—regardless of gender, race, or background—will increase. What are you doing to attract and retain women and minorities?

The threshold of a new era

We are on the threshold of an era in which the old paradigm—hire and invest in the young/stop investing in and push out the old—will no longer be viable. Riding the baby boom retirement wave will require a rethinking of HR practices—everything from recruitment to retention and development to diversity.

It’s time to strategize about how your organization can take advantage of the human and intellectual capital it has now and create or recruit the resources it will need going forward. It’s time to create the programs that will help you hold onto those approaching retirement age and develop the talent in the ranks behind them.

###

In your marketing and selling, you need to understand that there are structural discontinuities that you can exploit to your advantage.

FWIW YMMV FAIWWYPFI,
Fjohn
yet another fellow turkey
just bigger and dumber

FROM AN MLPF CHALLENGE

***Begin Quote***

>What Makes A Resume “GREAT”? Can You Prove It?

In my world of turkeys, and I’m a big old fat one myself, a resume’s ONLY purpose is to cause a conversation to happen.

I teach my baby turkeys to measure response rates. We all “know” finding a job is a “numbers game”. I particularly like the number forty as a sample size. I urge my students to gather up 40 “targets” create two resumes (A & B) and two different cover letters (Y & Z). Then create four batches of AY, AZ, BY, and BZ. Send them out. And measure the response rate.

It helps them to focus on the sales management process.

It often shows them dramatically that a simple resume works better than a complex one. I tried to convince one good soul that an 11 page resume was a turnoff. It wasn’t until he saw the results when stacked up against the one pager that I wrote for him — breaking my rule against violating the Prime Directive — Thou shalt not interfere with a developing planet — and the results were devastating. His 11 pages go ZERO response. No Surprise To Me. My one page got 50%. He “updated” his thinking and was “in” within 8 weeks. (Humans can be soooo stubborn when they think they are right!)

So IMHO a great resume is one that provides a measurable response.

It has NOTHING to do with what is on the RESUME; it has everything to do with the response it causes.

Sorry, the Silver Bullet store is out of them, but they have plenty of cans of “Hard Work” left. :-)

***End Quote***

Comments?

METHODOLOGY your resume may allow id theft
STRATEGY ***
TACTICS ***
TECHNOLOGY ***
=======================

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/careers/articles/0,15114,1096761,00.html

CAREERS
Job Offer or Identity-Theft Scam?
By Anne Fisher

It seemed a terrific opportunity. Laid off from a senior marketing job, Tom (not his real name), an MBA with 22 years’ experience, spent several months look-ing for a new position. Then he got a phone call from someone who said he was the human resources director of a large, well-known insurance company. The HR guy said he was impressed with the résumé Tom had posted on a popular Internet job site and was eager to meet as soon as possible, since Tom was the ideal candidate for a new marketing job the company was creating.

Just one tiny detail: “He told me that since they were anxious to fill the position quickly, they wanted to save some time by starting a routine background check right away,” Tom says.

“He e-mailed me a very detailed form to complete and return.” Tom complied, filling in the blanks for Social Security number, date of birth, mother’s maiden name, even a bank account number. After a few days of vainly trying to get back in touch with the HR director, Tom began to feel uneasy. Then he tried to use one of his credit cards and discovered that not only was the account maxed out, but several new accounts had been opened in his name and squeezed dry. His identity had been stolen, and it has taken him almost a year to straighten out the mess—all the while kicking himself for having fallen for the scam.

{Extraneous Deleted}

###

Seekers beware. Not everyone seeking to scam you is from Nigeria!

# # # # #

METHODOLOGY taxonomy

Dear fellow turkey,

Perhaps, we need to impose on the powers that be to open up another subgroup for the discussion of the “soft” stuff — Methods, Procedures, Processes, Strategies, Tactics, Data, and Tools.

For example, I had one “deer in the headlight” fellow wander into me, who had just been “nuked”, and was totally unprepared (Is there any other kind on un-prepar-ed-ness?). So I pointed out that he didn’t have to start spending lots of money that he didn’t have. The township library had a computer and high speed internet access.

When people have their own computer, there’s a lot of Open Source (Free!) Software and “stuff” available. No need to buy Microsoft Office like your last employer did for 300$ when there is OpenOffice that is very close. Outlook versus Thunderbird.

And, all those internet services like Plaxo, Linkedin, Cardscan, and such.

Then when they need direction there are a lot of templates and advisors that can help them. I’m a fan of Lucht’s workbook.

FWIW, your mileage may vary, all free advice is just that,
Fjohn
yet another fellow turkey
just bigger and dumber

METHODOLOGY: STOP before you go

Tim Gallwey introduces the idea of taking a STOP in his book The Inner Game of Work. STOP stands for Step back, Think, Organize your thoughts, Proceed. There are short and long stops and we will be taking both of these on our Work / Life Balance Journey. Bob Tschannen-Moran reflected on Tim Gallwey’s STOP by saying, “It is the STOP before the journey that enables us to go with confidence”.

Sometimes ideas just make sense!