Who is worth $40 an hour?
Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 06:00AM Two interesting news items caught my eye this week, and somehow they seem to be related:
In The New Untouchables (New York Times, October 20, 2009), Tom Friedman writes:
This problem [American's debt and the jobless economic recovery] will be reversed only when the decline in worker competitiveness reverses — when we create enough new jobs and educated workers that are worth, say, $40-an-hour compared with the global alternatives. If we don’t, there’s no telling how “jobless” this recovery will be.
A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn’t there. But those who have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables.
In Younger workers want more than a paycheck. Minneapolis Star Tribune, October 21, 2009, Jackie Crosby writes:
They want to work when it's convenient to their lives -- not punch in at some 9-to-5 job and be stuck sitting in a cubicle. They relish a challenge more than a paycheck, and resent it when bosses look over their shoulders or fail to reward them for a job well done.
For this, the 120 million members of Generations X and Y have been called self-centered, spoiled, slackers and lacking in motivation. But in the coming decade, 40 percent of America's baby boom workforce will be eligible for retirement. And ready or not, employers are going to have to reckon with the workplace desires of the next generation of workers -- and customers-- if they hope to survive.
...
"Talent sometimes comes through experience from old people like me, but sometimes talent comes from that 18- or 25-year-old," said Pamela Ostrom of Creative Process Consulting in Brooklyn Park. She works with Fortune 500s and mom-and-pops to make businesses work more effectively. "Companies are going to fall down if they don't understand how to recruit younger talent. Even in a poor economy, where there might be 100,000 people looking for jobs, there may be only be five people who can do the job you need. Maybe the job is so technologically forward that the only people who understand it are Gen X."
At the seminar, called "Rock Stars @ Work," companies talked about tactics that seem to be working. Cargill has created a "talent development program" in which young workers rotate through various jobs for their first year, and all employees are encouraged to move horizontally into other divisions to keep learning about the business.
At Best Buy, about one-sixth of workers are 16 to 19 years old, said Tim Showalter-Loch, a community relations manager. Keeping them loyal to the company and its products is vital, he said. A Web-based initiative called "@15" gives teens in that age group a chance to invest money in social causes of their choosing. Best Buy's "Results Only Work Environment" helps give young workers flexibility to work from any location that works for them -- so long as they get their jobs done.
OK, we have a work force that needs talented workers and talented workers that need work that is more than a paycheck. This all about building, hiring and rewarding those who demonstrate "expert thinking."
Wouldn't you think businesses and the politicians who are supposed to represent them would lobby harder for schools that encourage problem-solving, creativity, and communications - not just basic reading, writing and math demonstrated by testing?
And wouldn't those same folks want schools with excellent libraries and technology to help make this happen?
Oh, and I still think most organizations are still more frightened of "creative" expert thinkers than see the value in them.
