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Greetings
I recently completed an article for Oil Week magazine. A great Calgary coaching client referred us to them. The article, entitled The new corporate exodus why managers are leaving and what to do about it appears in the January issue - out mid December. When they called to ask me to write the article, they said: "It's the topic at the top of minds of CEOs here."
Talent, is a simple demand and supply equation.The less of it there is, the more expensive it becomes. I am always surprised when talking to organizations about the inequality of money spent on recruitment strategies vs retention strategies. The benefits of retention are many; knowledge and relationship preservation being number one on my list. These are the "one-two punch" of sustainability and unique advantage for any business.
My prediction for the next five years:
There will be a movement away from the current strategy of "management by quarter" to management of the long term improvement, development and retention of talent as the number one corporate asset - people.
Cheers
Gord
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The Demographic TImebomb
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 Yup. That's what they called it in a recent (Oct 31, 07) article in the National Post
If you have not given much thought to figuring out how you are going to manage the baby-boomer retirement, there is at least some comfort in knowing you are not alone. In the article by Debbie Kelley, she quotes Michael Smyer, Dean of the Graduate School at Boston College. "26% of the 600 companies surveyed have done nothing about planning for the future of their older workers." Only
a handful of companies have a dedicated approach that promotes their
organizations as employers of choice for workers 50 and older. The majority of the remaining companies have started a variety of initiatives that lead to increased flexibility and choice for individuals - a key to successful relationships with the older work force.
"To turn an aging workforce into a competitive advantage and not a vulnerability, businesses should plan for the succession of older workers and determine how knowledge can be transferred to younger workers." Smyer goes on to say, "link it to your core business strategy. Use the assets of an aging workforce to accomplish your goals. To keep a full talent pool, older workers must be retained and re-engaged in the workforce. Better organizations are asking how ready they are and are moving from awareness and assessment to looking at response options and taking action."
How do you start? By setting up a forum for workers to openly discuss their feelings, needs and goals for the future. Best-Half participants come away with a sense of clarity and commitment for the future that translates into improved engagement and a sense of commitment to making the future the best it can be. By discussing issues such as succession and knowledge transfer, strategies and plans can be put into place well in advance of valuable employees leaving organizations.
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A recent profile that was done for the Kolbe Corp. Newsletter. Thanks to Jerry Cobb for the interview!!
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Gordon
Neufeld
MO: 3 3 9 6
Job Title/Company: Inventor/The Best- Half Process
Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Certified since: February, 2006
Kolbe Expertise: Helping clients understand and leverage their natural
instincts to make intelligent choices in retirement planning. "The
Best-Half is a workshop and coaching process that helps people at any stage of
their career make sense of where they're going in the second, or 'best,' half
of their life, and what they need to get there. Every client starts by taking a
Kolbe A Index and that helps them set up a plan for how the client is going to
approach reinvention (we call it "reinvention" instead of
retirement). So for instance, if we have someone who's an initiating Fact
Finder, they're going to want to ask a lot of questions and collect a lot of
information as they create their plan. If the client is an insistent Quick
Start, they may just want to take action and get things going. We also help
couples. Kolbe is invaluable in managing the dynamic between two people with
different MOs as they plan together for reinvention."
Latest Kolbe Success Story: Guiding a couple with different MOs to
common ground in their reinvention planning process. "The woman's MO was 6
3 8 3. She was retiring a couple of years before her partner, whose Kolbe A
Index result identified him as preventive in Quick Start. They were a
relatively new couple as well. She thought she was approaching her reinvention
very methodically, while he was concerned about her apparent lack of planning,
noting that she hadn't taken the time to put things down on paper. The
challenge was to keep the woman moving forward while keeping her partner
informed on how that process was going. We used his Fact Finder/Implementor
talents to build models and spreadsheets based on her ideas, which helped him
feel much more comfortable about the transition. The woman has now officially
retired and it's turned out to be a great process for both of them because they
each gained an understanding of how the other approaches planning."
Greatest Kolbe Moment: Having his two children take the Kolbe A Index.
"My wife (6 3 8 3) and I discovered that our daughter's MO is 7 7 2 2.
Both my wife and I are initiating Quick Starts, so seeing our daughter's result
really helped us understand how she takes action. It also helped her in making
career choices. Our son is a 2 2 8 7, and for him Kolbe has been very helpful
in figuring out which college courses to take. He now takes more lab courses
than straight lecture courses. This summer he had a job in a flower shop, which
fit perfectly with his MO because he had to do all sorts of different things,
from driving the truck, to working the retail counter, to unpacking
shipments."
Advice for Fellow Certified Consultants: "Many consultants are
going to be working with clients approaching retirement and I think the most
important thing they can do is involve the partner in any kind of coaching.
Retirement is not a singular event."
Relaxation/Rejuvenation Activities: Working on his antique car, a 1961 MGA ("I'm a 6 in
Implentor"); playing guitar; driving. "With a Natural Advantage™ of
Pioneer, I'm up for any project, so I'll take on all sorts of things I have no
idea how to do."
Recommended Reading: The 4-Hour Workweek:
Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss; Made
to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, by Chip Heath and Dan
Heath.
"In Planning for My Own 'Best Half,' I'm Using My MO to try lots of
things and plan some big projects like writing another book and spending more
time at the cottage. "It's having an opportunity to have a dialogue with
your partner and to be able to put your plans and ideas into action. But being
that I'm a 9 in Quick Start and my wife's an 8, and we both prevent in Follow
Thru, sometimes we improvise rather than follow a set plan. And that's OK
too!"
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