What Does the Workforce of the Future Look Like?

Organizations are changing in big ways. And while many people are looking for clues in the economy, Brexit, and the current administration, there’s another change — almost a revolution — quietly taking place right under our noses. That change is the massive shift in workplace demographics which will impact every industry.  

The future of work will look very different than it does today.

To remain strong and successful throughout the next years, organizational leaders need to get in front — and stay in front — of some very powerful trends.

To understand this massive transformation, we are going to discuss four, meta demographic trends:

1. Longevity
2. Women in business
3. Diversity in the workplace
4. Freelancing

Trend One: Longevity

Our workforce is aging. A US Baby Boomer, someone born between 1946-1964, turns 50 years old every 8.5 seconds. According to the US Census Bureau, 20% of the total U.S. population will be over the age 65 by 2029. The big question is: will Baby Boomers retire at age 65?

If they do retire, they will do it differently than in the past, using 4 phases:

• Pre–retirement: Five years before retiring, 37 percent of pre-retirees who want to work during retirement will have already taken some meaningful steps to prepare for their post-retirement career; this rises to 54 percent among those within two years of retirement.
• Career Intermission: Most pre-retirees do not seek to go directly from pre- retirement work to retirement work. They want a break to relax, recharge and retool. More than half (52 percent) of working retirees say they took a break when they first retired. These career intermissions average 2.5 years.
• Re-engagement: On average, this phase lasts nine years and includes a new balance of work and leisure. Compared to those in their pre- retirement careers, people working in these “Flex Careers” are nearly five times more likely to work part-time (83 percent vs. 17 percent) and three times more likely to be self-employed (32 percent vs. 11 percent).
• Leisure: In the fourth phase of retirement, people welcome the opportunity to rest, relax, socialize, travel and focus on other priorities. Working retirees expect health challenges (77 percent) or simply not enjoying work as much (61 percent) to be the most likely causes to permanently stop working.

Who is taking the place of retiring Baby Boomers?

As Baby Boomers leave, who’s coming in? Millennials, those people born between 1981 and 1996. Millennials care deeply about an organization’s mission, purpose, and values. The largest part of the US workforce, Millennials also bring along new challenges. According to a Deloitte survey:

• 58% of Millennials expect to leave their jobs in three years or less.
• 79% of Millennials would consider quitting a regular job and working for themselves in the future.
• 58% think the corporate world is outdated and want to carve their own path.

If this is what Millennials expect, how do organizations adapt accordingly?

Trend Two: Women in businesses

A US seismic shift occurred in the 1970s and ‘80s when, for the first time since before World War II, married women with young children began to make their way back into the workforce.

The role of women in the workforce is changing very quickly—and that’s the second major workforce trend to discuss. Women are more engaged at work (33%) compared to men (28%). Women hold as many college degrees as men and earn 50% more graduate degrees as men.

Yet big challenges remain. It is expected that it will take 475 years for women to reach equality in executive suites. Though women hold 53% of entry level jobs, they hold only 26% of senior management roles and only 3.1% of senior executive positions at Fortune 500 companies.

What do women want?

For women, work flexibility (83%) ranked as the most important job factor when evaluating job prospects. Work-life balance came second at 75% and salary was ranked third at 74%. Yet for many reasons they’re not getting what they want. Consequently, women are voting with their feet. The number of firms owned by minority women has grown 163% since 2007. There are more than 12.3 million women-owned firms, employing 9.2 million people and doing $1.8 trillion in sales.

If you’re not accommodating women in the workforce, you’re training your competition. Is that what you want to do?

Trend Three: Diversity in the workplace

The third demographic trend is diversity. According to Statistics Canada Agency, deaths in Canada are expected to outnumber births by 2030; immigration will soon be Canada’s only source of population growth. In another example, up to 30% of the UK’s population will be from ethnic minorities by 2050.

In the US, 95% of U.S. population growth is attributed to ethnic groups. In addition, demographers predict that the U.S. will be completely majority-minority by the 2040’s. What does that mean? Caucasians will then comprise 49.7 percent of the population in contrast to 24.6 percent for Hispanics, 13.1 percent for blacks, 7.9 percent for Asians, and 3.8 percent for multiracial populations.

The United States is transitioning from a nation whose majority population is white, or European-American, to a nation in which the majority of the population will soon be young people of color. This is already the case in many states around the U.S. including Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Washington DC.

In 2015, the percentage of people 25 and older who achieved a Bachelor’s degree or more was: Asian 53.9%; Non-Hispanic white 36.2%; White alone 32.8%; Black 22.5%; and Hispanic of any race 15.5%.

This indicates that in the future, we’ll have a more diverse workforce that may not have the same levels of education of our current workforce. How will that impact you?

Trend 4: Freelancing

Freelance workers work for themselves and bid for temporary jobs and projects with one or more employers. According to Forbes, currently, 57 million Americans (35% of the workforce) are considered Contingent, Temporary, Diversified, or Freelance Workers. This workforce contributes about $1 trillion annually to the economy through their freelance work.

There will be enormous growth as project needs will be fulfilled, which in turn will lead to the growth of technology and infrastructure.  Is your organization preparing for freelancers appropriately?

How do these trend impact you?

Technology is never constant and keeps evolving. The push for workplace flexibility will only accelerate in the future, as employees demand that workplaces fit their lifestyle needs.

Organizations will need to get in front of these demographic trends to remain strong and successful throughout the next decade. The future belongs to organizations that are willing to adjust to rapidly changing realities. These workforce trends are coming faster than you think. It’s clear that to survive, let alone thrive, you need to prepare for these four trends. Will you be ready? Click here if you’d like our cheat sheet of best practices to prepare for the future workforce.

Managers, we want to hear from you! Tell me about your experience with managing Baby Boomers vs. Millennials. What has worked and not worked for you in managing a diverse workforce? What has been the role of women leaders in your organizational growth? Are freelancers on the rise in your organization?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Five Tips to Manage Unmanageable Employees

There are many types of employees in the workforce:

1. The Rude-Nik: They happily supply their co-workers with hissy fits and bad moods at will.
2. The Egomaniac: Let’s just say these employees aren’t exactly “team players.”
3. The AWOL: They are the ones who at this very moment may be missing from the office despite a team project being due.

These are just a few of many personality types that Jezra Kaye and I help managers address with our book, Managing the Unmanageable: How to Motivate Even the Most Unruly Employee.

Today, I’d like to introduce someone equally difficult to manage—The Grumbler. Possibly you’ve even had to dodge a little grumbling today?

It’s hard to cope with The Grumbler in an office environment—or anywhere, really. They complain, complain, and complain until the entire team’s enthusiasm is as good as gone. It’s not just enthusiasm they squash. Good ideas don’t have much of a chance of survival with their constant negative feedback.

What can a manager do with this person? Jezra and I created a tool kit, which we call the “5C’s.” They are easy to remember and just might help when handling The Grumbler.

1. COMMIT OR QUIT: First, you need to commit or quit. Retention is a serious consideration when looking at the cost of rehire. It can cost two to three times The Grumbler’s salary to search for and hire a replacement. If you want to keep this employee, commit to taking the time to coach and salvage your Unmanageable Employee (UE). You may not like their behavior, but with the following steps, you could greatly improve your working relationship.
2. COMMUNICATE: To get started on the salvage, you must communicate with The Grumbler. This conversation should not involve grumbling! Having a straightforward conversation with your UE may not sound fun, but it is a valuable management tool. Employees and managers alike have assumptions about each other. Starting to tackle those assumptions with an honest conversation can go a long way towards building a more consistent team.
3. CLARIFY GOALS AND ROLES: Take the opportunity while talking to The Grumbler to clarify goals and roles. Does your employee know what is expected of him or her at work? They may think they do, and they may be totally wrong. Clarify those expectations and set goals for future expectations. Communicating the goals and roles of your employees gives them a tool for success.
4. COACH: Honest and productive conversations give your UE the chance to self-correct. However, an employee’s attitude greatly influences their performance, their impact on the team, and their responsiveness to being managed. Here’s a solution for attitude adjustment: Coaching. Coaching is an effective way to shift a UE’s inner attitude. The coaching for manager will play an effective role in this. Beyond benefiting your relationship with this employee, and the UE’s relationship with the team, it can greatly improve your UE’s career. We all want to have a positive impact on our employees, don’t we? Even The Grumbler has a career path that can be developed.
5. CREATE ACCOUNTABILITY: The truth is, even with communication, clear goals and coaching, bad habits are hard to break. Don’t give up. Instead, create accountability with your UE by developing a clear action plan. In this case, work with The Grumbler to create milestones and action items. An added benefit to this process is the opportunity to improve your management skills. You are more aware of what may, and may not, be happening, and can continue to communicate and coach your UE throughout the ongoing, clearly defined, process.

Managers, I want to hear from you! Tell me about your experience with those irritating grumblers. What has worked and not worked for you in managing them? How have they affected your team? Is grumbling contagious? Leave a comment below, send me a message, or tweet me.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Five Tips for Coaching Top Performers

Executive coaching programs helps effective managers become even stronger. The same can be said of Olympic coaches and the athletes they coach.

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review looked at various coaching strategies and strengths that have helped coaches produce winning athletes in intense situations. Thinking of employees as athletes, five keys to success are identified as:

1. Help your “athletes” understand and learn to use their talents and skills in the work environment. Allow them to be creative. When creativity is allowed, employees feel free to use their interest and skills to develop a better product. Take the time to build in space for creative uses of skills into different projects.
2. Build a strong, transparent relationship with your mentee, to establish an open line of communication with them. Honesty is key. Olympic athletes have usually had the same coach since they were youngsters; even if they adopt other coaches along the way, their original mentor and trainer is always there to support them on game-day.
3. For athletes, training is the most crucial part. They must be up to date on the latest rules, techniques and competitor training habits and performances. The workplace is similar. Push your employees to investigate new technologies, and encourage attendance at training sessions, industry-relevant conferences and membership organizations.
4. Athletes receive different types of support including financial, motivational, nutritional, and more. Help steer your employees in the right direction and make it easier for them to “win.” Steering may look like helping your employees find grants for departmental team-building activities or building relationships with cross-organizational teams. Steering may also look like hiring effective managers who will appoint appropriate project leaders.
5. I found the 5th point to be the most compelling: managing the environment for your employees. You know your organization and industry inside and out so give your employees the perspective needed to help them create innovative solutions they can carry with them to future leadership positions.

Have you seen this parallel between athletic coaches and workplace leadership? How did it impact your team and organization?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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A Guide to Developing, Managing, and Executing Effective Training Programs

Have you been tasked with developing an employee training program? Are you interested in identifying training costs and the criteria for an effective training program?

Read on as we provide answers to some of the most common training program questions, including a detailed overview and useful tips. Whether you’re conducting a training program yourself or simply learning more about the subject, we hope you find it helpful.

Table of Contents:

• What is a training program?
• What’s the purpose of a training program?
• What’s the difference between training program and workshops, webinars, facilitation and keynotes?
• What is a management development program and a leadership development program?
• How do I determine which topic is best for my organization?
• Do I need to hire an outsider to do the workshop or do I need to train myself?
• Is training better in person?
• What’s the ROI of an employee development program?
• What’s the 70/20/10 model?
• What should I expect when asking a vendor to help my organization?
• What are typical topics a vendor could provide?
• How far in advance do I need to plan?
• How do I know the vendor can provide what I need?
• How do I measure success?
• How can I learn more?

What is a training program?

A training program is designed to train employees in the specific skills they need to grow in their career. These programs are usually over a duration of time and based on organizational competencies. Since there are different employment skills needed throughout a career, the employee development programs will also vary to match the specific skill sets.

What’s the purpose of a training program?

The purpose of a training program is to serve as a guideline for employee development. When employees are empowered to grow and learn, they are more likely to remain with the employer.

What’s the difference between training program and workshops, webinars, facilitation and keynotes?

Workshops, webinars, facilitations and keynotes are all tools used within a training program. They are sometimes used as one-off events; usually, they are combined to create a diverse learning structure over time.

Below are general guidelines of what to expect for each tool:

• Workshops: half day to multiple days, in person, interactive, ranging from 20-50 people, with the objective to interactively learn information
• Facilitations: half day to multiple days, in person, interactive, ranging from 20-50 people, with the objective to bring group consensus and decisions amongst the participants
• Keynotes: 45-60 minutes, in person, minimal interaction, ranging from 50-2000 people, with the objective to share knowledge (often referred to as ‘Sage on a Stage’)
• Webinars: 60-120 minutes, online (with or without video), varying interactivity, ranging from 10-1000 people (depending on the platform), with the objective to interactively teach information to a remote audience

Download our summary guide here!

For example, if you are tasked to create a coaching employee training program, where all 500 employees know the basics of coaching and use coaching skills consistently, you could facilitate a half-day session with the HR team to create alignment with the coaching objectives and organizational mission. Once that is clarified, a 9-month developmental program could be devised that included one keynote for all employees to understand the macro concepts of coaching, followed by 10 workshops for 50 people to learn how to coach. Follow up webinars would be the next step, to help people reinforce the skills they learned in the coaching workshops. At the conclusion of the 9 months, all employees would have heard a macro keynote on the topic, been trained in the workshop and had time to reinforce the lessons learned through a webinar, creating coaching skills to be used consistently within the organization.

What is a management development program and a leadership development program?

Management development programs (MDP) and leadership development programs (LDP) are similar to the training program described above. The difference is the specificity of the audience (management or leadership team) and the identified topics needed to become an effective manager or leader. In addition, the cohort stays together throughout the entire time; for example, if an organization has 10 managers, that group of 10 managers will meet together in the workshop or webinar throughout the entire duration of the program. Finally, MDPs and LDPs often include a capstone exercise where small groups within the cohort need to develop a solution to an organizational problem, using the skills they learned. Watch the video here to learn more about our Performance Leadership Program.

How do I determine which topic is best for my organization?

For effective training, we must know what the employee needs. This need should also be aligned with the organizational vision and mission, which requires foundational work. And in order to do that work, competencies must first be established.

Sometimes referred to as ‘KSA’s, competencies are the things people need to know (knowledge), do (skills) and have (abilities) to be successful in a specific role. Competencies can be grouped into technical, foundational and leadership areas. They are defined by specific behaviors that describe what that competency would look like if someone was using it effectively. These behaviors are often laid out across a proficiency scale so the employee can clearly assess her current behaviors and understand what behaviors are needed for the next level.

Some examples of competencies are problem-solving, conflict management, technical skills and speaking up. While some competencies will be applied to every employee, others are role dependent. The CEO of a large organization likely won’t need to have specific technical competencies, and a coder on the tech team likely wouldn’t need to be competent in sales communication.

Once competencies are defined, the next thing to do is identify five clearly defined proficiency levels. For example, for problem-solving skills, level one might be, ‘asks questions and looks for information to identify and differentiate the symptoms and causes of every day, defined problems’. Level five might be, ‘anticipates problem areas and associated risk levels with objectivity; uses formal methodologies to forecast trends and define innovative strategies in response to the implications of options; and gains approval from senior leadership to solutions of multi-faceted problems’.

After competencies and proficiency levels are clearly defined, the next steps are:

1. Determine the expected proficiencies by job position.
2. Assess the employee’s competencies using a standardized process, on a regular basis. Competing an assessment will help the leader know which competencies to focus on for future leadership training.
3. Aggregate the identified competencies and assess which ones are best for the cohort in mind.
4. Develop a training program based on those competency topics.
5. Track progress using accountability measures in the leadership development training.

Read in depth about each step here.

Using this process will prevent your training program from failing. You’re developing training programs because you are invested in employee development. If you’re willing to make that investment, it’s worth doing the foundational work necessary to create effective training that elevates your employees.

Do I need to hire an outsider to do the workshop or do I need to train myself?

It depends. Do you have in-house talent and capacity to complete steps 1-5 above?  If you do, then build a plan and allocate resources to do the work. If you don’t, then an outside vendor may be what you need to complete the work.

Is training better in person?

Again, it depends. In person training programs might be best if the skill being developed needs to be verbally practiced with other people, such as coaching, giving feedback, or crucial conversations. However, small group sessions can be just as effective using video technology, avoiding travel costs.

What’s the ROI of an employee development program?

Simply put: a better prepared employee is a more productive employee. According to the Association of Talent Development (ATD), companies that invest in training employees see a 218% higher income per employee than companies that don’t.

We know that a manager cannot motivate an employee to improve; that has come from within the employee. However, managers can create the learning environment for employees to grow. How? The first step is to take an inventory of the current staff, using a consistent assessment tool such as a 360-degree assessment, with an objective lens to collect skills data. This full assessment will provide two sets of data in one assessment: strengths and areas to grow. This 360 view lets managers begin to leverage the strengths in their staff; it also shows the delta between the strengths and weaknesses, so you can create the best strategy to improve the team.

The next step is to understand how adults learn. The 70/20/10 model (pronounced – seventy, twenty, ten) for employee development is one effective tool to leverage the current talents of your staff and build stronger teams, which increases the organizational bottom line.

What’s the 70/20/10 model?

Before we explain how the 70/20/10 model can help you develop career goals, let’s look at three types of learning strategies: pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy. Pedagogy, known as “teach-centered”, is typically used where the student learns from one direction: teacher to student. Andragogy, known as “student-centered”, is when the student learns from two directions: teacher to student and student to student. Finally, heutagogy, known as “self-directed”, is how students learn from multi-directional perspectives: teacher to student, student to teacher, student to student, inside and outside of the learning environment; with heutagogy, the student sets goals and expectations, based on their experiences. The 70/20/10 model includes all three types of learning strategies.

Most of us immediately think about the costs of going to back to school to learn new things. The 70/20/10 model shows how you can learn something new, in many cases, without spending a dime. The model says that the best learning uses pedagogy, andragogy and heutagogy, where you spend 10% of your time learning from a teacher, 20% of your time learning through others and 70% of your time learning experientially. Click here to learn more about this model.

What should I expect when asking a vendor to help my organization?

At first, the vendor will likely ask for:

• Multiple conversations with the organizational point of contact, so the vendor can better understand the objectives and organizational culture.
• Up to three calls with an organizational employee or stakeholder, so the vendor can better understand the objectives and organizational culture.
• A conversation about material preparation (slide decks, handouts, other supplies)

What are typical topics a vendor could provide?

We provide keynotes and workshops on these topics:

Coaching

1. Coaching for Managerial Success
2.  Career Coaching
3.  Coaching Skills to Motivate your Team for Peak Performance

Communication

1. Crucial Conversations
2. Listening Skills
3. Providing Feedback
4. Presentation Skills
5. Facilitation Skills

Diversity and Inclusion

1. Unconscious Bias and You
2. Leading Diversity for Improved Performance
3. Engage Every Age

Human Capital Management

1. Workforce Transformation: Oversight of Human Capital Strategy
2. HR and People Analytics

Leadership

1. Influencing without Authority
2. Strength-based Leadership
3. Leadership Development for Supervisors
4. Organizational Polarity
5. Values Based Leadership
6. Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Women
7. Workforce of the Future: Preparing Leaders for the Workforce of the Future
8. Problem Solving: Thinking Differently to Solve Problems Faster
9. Managing Conflict

Other

1. Delegation
2. Emotional Intelligence: Improve Your Team’s EI to Improve the Bottom Line
3. Energy Management and Stress Reduction
4. Mentoring
5. Managing Constant Change
6. Prioritization for Success
7. Building the Teams of Tomorrow Today

How far in advance do I need to plan?

A brand new training program will likely take 1-2 months to develop, including clarifying objectives, identifying the cohort, developing curriculum, creating the communications and designing each workshop, webinar and other tools.

In general, training programs work best when employees are fully present, so August and December are not recommended training months. Often training programs run from September-June (skipping December) or January-July. However, be sure to avoid busy times for your organization such as January-April for tax accountants.

How do I know the vendor can provide what I need?

Training and development programs require specific skills, including Instructional Systems Design (ISD), so ask about the vendor’s ISD background.

In addition, ask for client references and be sure to call those references. Finally, ask for case studies that include specific measures of success.

How do I measure success?

The objective of an employee development program is to develop new skills and behaviors, which can be measured. Some common metrics include:

• Absence rate
• Cost per hire time to fill
• Turnover costs
• Vacancy rate
• Human capital return on investment (ROI)
• Training return on investment (ROI)

How can I learn more?

Check out our free summary paper on training and development here. Or contact us here.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

What The Heck Is Executive Coaching

“What the heck is executive coaching?” I get asked that question many times a day.

I admit that coaching is a nebulous term. When I say that I’m a certified coach, people ask if I coach sports teams. When I say that I actually coach work teams, people look surprised. ‘Why would a work team need coaching?’ they ask. Because work teams are just like sports teams:

• They are made up of different people who try to reach a team goal together.
• Each person on the team has two types of goals in mind: individual goals and team goals.
• Every team member has his/her own communication style, which may or may not work well with the others on the team.
• Although there is one official leader (the coach or captain), there are usually other team members who carry as much weight, if not more weight, than the official leader.

Similar to a sports team, thriving work teams need an ‘outsider’ to coach them to success, whether the whole team or just some of the team leaders. That’s what CHCI does. We coach teams and leaders to get from Point A to Point B, in the most effective way possible.

During the years, many people have asked for a practical book on coaching, so they can bring coaching skills to their own teams. That’s how Anne Loehr’s book, “A Manager’s Guide to Coaching” was created. Here is an excellent write up about one of the book topics: How to create effective coaching questions. Enjoy!

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.