Failing businesses owe multiple debts

It’s unfortunate, but not unexpected news that retail giant BHS has had to call in the administrators – an all too common trend among time served retailers. Of those who haven’t crumbled like C&A or Woolworths, many (WHSmith for example) have been close. Understandably, a common pressure placed on businesses to perform is that of its shareholders. They’ve made a financial investment which failure will see them lose, and conversely if the business is successful they may make significant gains. But what about other types of investments made in businesses – of time, of careers, of people? Retail workers don’t deserve to be mistreated, as has been the case in the past, or to be tainted with the mark of failed enterprise. They certainly do deserve our sympathy.

Have you got the skills? #TagTeamBlog2

Here it is folks, the second Tag Team/Co-blog from myself and my “spiritual partner in HR”, the one and only Mr Perry Timms (@PerryTimms). This time we’re discussing skills and to resolve the UK conundrum of skills being viewed as a social and economic panacea (a point raised by Keep & Mayhew back in 2010).

Who started the War for Talent?

I’m not the first to decry the use of the phrase “War for Talent” (see for example this blog by Workable). While I’m sure nobody wishes to downplay the true horror and suffering that is war through the use of such a metaphor, it is rather an apt one for the current recruitment market. I’m referring not only to the blatant mistreatment of undervalued candidates, but the lengths that the “top” organisations will go to in meeting their objectives of hiring only the best talent.

Want a great career? Choose HR.

There are not many people who, prior to entering the workplace, dream about a career in Human Resources, or in fact even know what that would entail. I had never thought about it myself until the chance opportunity to obtain a post-graduate qualification in HR while someone else was on maternity leave.

HR Wanderlust

This morning an email popped into my Inbox with the title, “Who Else Has Wanderlust?”. Fair dues to the marketers and the online activity monitoring software, it’s actually something I’ve been thinking about lately. It started with my Etsy obsession (which fits rather neatly with my shopping obsession), and the cute little necklace shown in the photo, which has been sitting in my favourite items ever since I opened my account a few years ago.

The Collaboration Clique

At this year’s #CIPD14 conference I highlighted that I heard the word collaboration being dropped throughout a range of different sessions. The word isn’t new – it comes from the Latin collaboratio meaning “work together” – yet the use of the term has increased sharply, particularly since the early 1980’s.

While their meanings are almost identical, collaboration has a much more cosy feel than it’s usurped forbear teamwork.

The Future of Work

When I tell you the future of work is about individuals, the automatic reaction is likely to be “it already is”. But it’s that thinking which is a fundamental stumbling block to all the hallmarks of today’s competitive advantage.

Compare these two employees.

The first is building their own silo, bigging themselves up as they climb their own career ladder, not caring who they take down on the way up. In exchange for a job for life they’ll give you their loyalty.

The second hops from experience to experience, soaking up learning, honing their skills and acting more entrepreneurial. The organisation needs to fit round their abilities rather than the other way round.

Which is more risky? And more importantly, which would you rather employ? If you answered the first then I’m afraid your company is in trouble.

Yes, the future of work is transient, but isn’t that the nature of work itself now? Whereas in the past employees might have jealously guarded their personal development they must in essence now collaborate and share that learning. The adversarial employee won’t survive.

To some extent it’s against human nature to work in this way. But the future doesn’t stop. The future is already here. It’s time to change.

Blog inspired by the #CIPD14 Keynote Speech by Rita Gunther McGrath

Skills versus Qualifications

I attended an interesting debate last week regarding UK skills policy – specifically how to ensure that young people leave school with the skills employers need. It was one of those things where you’re ready to give all the answers, but when you get there you realise everyone else already knows the answers too. Just nobody is doing anything about it.

And who can blame them? It’s a problem much bigger than any of us.

The setting for the debate was rather apt, given the subject. Beamish is an open air museum that recreates life in North East England 100 years ago. Travelling to the meeting location on an old fashioned tram, we passed the pit village where the school, moved brick by brick from nearby East Stanley, provides a model of education in the Victorian era.

In those days, manual jobs were as much a feature of children’s daily lives as they were in the classroom. Alongside the “3 R’s”, practical subjects such as woodwork, baking and needlework were taught in school. At home it was expected that children would undertake housework and chores on a daily basis from an early age. While school was already compulsory at that time, many left between age 12 and 14 to start work and earn money or help to run the family business.

Practical skills have all but disappeared from the modern curriculum. There is little time for them in a system focussed on only one outcome – not skills, but qualifications. We recognise, anecdotally at least that the traditionally academic route through university isn’t for everyone. Yet our culture continues in it’s attempt to force everyone into the same mould, inevitably leaving those who are unable to conform excluded and branded as failures.

While it is no doubt a good thing to open up the potential of a university place for everyone, to make it in essence compulsory is a mistake. The degree has unwittingly become the minimum entry criteria of employers who little understand the constantly changing education system.

The lack of alternatives (or the stigmatisation of alternatives) coupled with the removal of compulsory work experience and careers advice, on top of the requirement to stay in education longer means that many young people have no opportunity to find out what they are good at and little clue of what the world of work is actually like. Our teachers do an amazing job within those constraints, but they don’t understand the world of work either.

I could say that I don’t expect things to change with the general election approaching etcetera, but I’m not at all optimistic that things will ever change. Yes it’s all very well placing more emphasis on outcomes and destinations after education, but without more fundamental changes performance isn’t going to improve.

There isn’t a simple fix but ceasing to confuse qualifications with skills would be a good start.

Keep the debate going – let me know your thoughts below

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Last week I was lucky to spend a few hours with some very experienced and inspiring people. What I thought was going to be a boring training course blossomed into something very worthwhile indeed.

Looking for talent in the wrong places

The economy’s picking up. Apparently. One indicator of this is the jobs market. More employers are thinking about taking people on, more employees are thinking of changing jobs. This has led to an increased focus on ‘talent’. Employers want to recruit it, managers don’t want to lose it. We might like to think we have it (or at least try and demonstrate it through our application form). But what is talent?

Talent as a word has been misused in the corporate world. The dictionary talks about “natural ability”, which is akin to calling someone “gifted”. This focus on talent as something precious and rare means employers are looking for all the wrong things in all the wrong places.