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- Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs,
Too Few People
ISBN 1886939535
Important Keys to Competitive Advantage . . . and Survival!,
November 8, 2002
Reviewer: Donald Wayne Mitchell from a management consultant
in Boston
Many would argue that too much has been written and said about
the influence of Baby Boomers on the U.S. economy. Few are aware
that too little is said about the issues related to the subsequent
drop in births for Generation-Xers, who came after the Baby Boom
generation. What little you read is mainly defined in terms of
Baby Boomers. Who will pay for Baby Boomers' Social Security
payments?
- Impending Crisis is an
important work in describing an unprecedented and increasing
shortage of skilled people in the United States. While no one
can forecast the future with specific accuracy, demographics
are one of the areas where the fewest forecasting mistakes are
usually made. Clearly, young people cannot be expected to fill
all of the skilled jobs that will be available by 2010. Impending
Crisis goes on to show where the shortages will be the worst,
so you can estimate the potential impact on your business.
- So you can get a flavor
of what's coming, the authors look at the ugly details of the
shortages of healthcare workers that already wracking the healthcare
system. You can see the future through these examples.
- Other trends combine to
make the problem worse for employers. Employees plan to stay
for shorter and shorter periods of time, and companies can more
easily turn off their workers.
- The authors go on to point
out that becoming good at getting and keeping the top talent
can become a competitive advantage in such an environment, and
a necessity for staying in business . . . especially for small
companies.
- Impending Crisis goes
on to specifically recommend action steps to measure your effectiveness
in attracting and retaining employees, understand the costs of
turnover, improve what you are doing, and turn human resources
into a greater strength in a tough marketplace.
- The authors come from
two different consulting firms. Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia
are from The Herman Group, and are coauthors of the outstanding
book, How to Become an Employer of Choice. They know a lot about
the remedies. Tom Olivo is from Success Profiles, and brings
tremendous data resources about the causes that are generously
shared in this book. Combined, the three authors bring a wonderful
blend of quantitative, qualitative, process, and human resources
management experience and perspective.
- As someone who is very
interested in business model innovation, I was extremely impressed
to see that Impending Crisis shows how continuing business model
reinvention can be a critical element in handling the shortage
of skilled people. I highly recommend that you refer to Chapter
8: Change the Way You Function. I am grateful for the references
to the new book that I have coauthored, The Ultimate Competitive
Advantage, in that chapter.
- Most business books tell
you about something that is already old hat by the time the book
comes out . . . or describe a future issue that never turns out
to be important. Impending Crisis is a clear exception to those
problems. This book is state-of-the-art now, and can keep helpfully
informing people for many years to come. As a case in point,
I was speaking about these issues with a client who is the CFO
of a major hospital company earlier this year. He was very concerned,
and told me about what his company had been doing. The lessons
in this book would accelerate his firm's progress by many years,
and save it millions of dollars annually. I plan to send him
a copy.
- Human Resources is too
often an administrative function, rather than a strategic one.
Impending Crisis explains how to add strength to Human Resources
management and attract the proper support from the rest of the
company. I found Impending Crisis to be the best book I have
read for clearly laying out the pathway to improved Human Resources
management.
- If you only read one book
about Human Resources management in the next year, I strongly
encourage you to make it this one.
- Donald Mitchell
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