Listen to Dr Graeme Codrington’s 25 minute interview on Sunday, 10 December 2006, on SAFm’s Media programme - right click here to download it (MP3 file, 4Mb). This is a podcast of the article posted on this blog a few days ago - read it here.
Monthly Archive for December, 2006
5 Steps to fulfilling work that fuels your passion, suits your personality and fills your pocket. By Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. ISBN 0-02-864228-7
The 5 steps of the Rewire process - a formula we have used successfully with our clients - are as follows:
- Seeing the opportunity: Retiring is a going from and rewiring is a going to.
- Identifying your “drivers�
- Linking the drivers to your activities.
- Creating your rewired vision.
- Developing your action plan.
The real workforce challenge for the future is not a shortage of workers but an abundance of older workers who would like to keep working. Don’t Retire, Rewire offers practical advice to help employers engage those workers in new ways and to help older workers understand the arrangements that best meet their needs.
I enjoyed this book. It was practical and helps a person to plot direction and create a new and exciting future.
A Study carried out by SAICE (2004) revealed that there is a shortage of qualified civil engineering professionals in municipalities. The study further found that there are many student technicians who are unable to obtain experiential training or employment after graduating because there is insufficient capacity to manage and train young professionals.
The ENERGYS program ( Engineers now ensuring roll-out by growing young skills) was conceived to start to address these challenges. The South African Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE) and the South African Black Technical and Allied Careers Organization ( SABTACO) have teamed up to manage this programme. The programme will deploy senior engineers paired with students and graduates in local government to assist with unblocking the bottlenecks and to offer a comprehensive training environment for students and graduates alike.
In the pilot phase of this project there are forty three seniors, forty five graduates and eighty five students deployed across more than seventy municipalities. Many seniors have expressed their concern at the limited understanding that their students and graduates display in many engineering principles and have taken it upon themselves to become teachers and lecturers. We have discovered a valuable latent talent in our seniors, which must be harnessed to the full.
In a new book published in 2005 (through SAICE) called Numbers and Needs, ( ISBN 0-620-35092-X) the author Allyson Lawless states that “because there are many vacancies in state organizations, it is recommended that posts should be filled by teams consisting of a recently retired senior and two or three young graduates. The senior should be tasked with training the graduates as well as initiating and managing the many projects for which there is currently no capacity.� Retired professionals should be harnessed to assist with workplace training to develop the rapidly transforming pool of graduates.
This project will become a beacon of hope for many other professions that are struggling with the lack of skills in the workplace. With 2010 looming we need to stand together and learn from each other and build a brighter future.
The first Baby Boomers will turn sixty this year and they will do what no other generation has done before them: Re-tyre.
There are a number of factors that are already causing futurists to look at the effects of this upcoming change. Many predict that it will bring about a societal change of Tsunami-like proportions. In America, 70 million Boomers will retire over the next twenty years. One of the factors that have changed the Boomer world is medical science. Many more people are living much longer. The generation behind the Boomers, the Xers, are not as large in number as their predecessors. In the States there are approximately 46 million in Generation X – 35% less than the Boomers.
These low numbers are causing much concern amongst actuaries who are trying to balance the pension fund cash flows of major corporations. Many Boomers have spent most of their work life at one company thus their pension fund has been the main focus of their retirement funding. As corporations have merged and been bought out, people have been retrenched or shifted. Many may have been retrenched early or will be surprised in the near future by such a change. These employment concerns have seen the Boomer generation looking at their future through new eyes. Watching their parents and older peers’ mode of retirement has also had a dramatic impact on their perception of the retirement life stage.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between competitors in almost every industry in the world. New innovations are quickly copied and improvements in quality, service and price are easily matched. In this globalised world, you can no longer differentiate yourself simply on the basis of your product or service. What you do is becoming increasingly less and less important, and who you are is growing in significance.
If who you are is who you hire, then the ability to attract and retain talented staff (and customers) is increasingly becoming one of the most important capabilities of every company in every industry. Human resource management has therefore never been more strategic than it is now.
Employer brand
Companies spend a lot of time, effort and money raising the profile and acceptance of their brands. They focus on developing the market for what they sell. But very few companies allocate significant resources to developtheir “employer brand”. This is the perception of their company held by current and potential staff members. It directly impacts the company’s ability to attract and retain talented staff.
Younger generations are becoming increasingly discerning as they job hunt, looking beyond salary, basic conditions of employment and the obvious perks. They are asking questions about culture and the “heart” of an organisation they want to work for. There are a few key litmus tests that seem to be applying in analyzing a companys employer quotient.
To attract talent in South Africa in the next five years, the following five items need to be at the focal point of HR and senior leaderships radar screens (in addition to everything else that needs to be done):
Continue reading ‘The Five Most Important People Trends of the Next Five Years’
I have just read this article from Time Magazine. Read it here.
As technology improves so do the gadgets that will assist people to live life. Read this list to see what awaits the AGING BOOMERS in the future.
Free agency is now 21 years old! This might not sound important, but spotting trends and learning from history is absolutely critical for future success.
In 1975, Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally won a court case against the reserve clause that had dominated baseball employment contracts for half a century. Basically, the clause meant the players were owned by their team and could not leave a team and play for someone else, unless they were traded or sold. The reserve clause had first been tested on January 16, 1970 by Curt Flood, when he filed a lawsuit claiming that the reserve clause violated the antitrust act and should be eliminated. Flood was one of the most talented and gifted baseball players of the 1960s, and retired soon after losing his court case against the Commissioner of baseball.
In 1976, 21 years ago, free agency was born. Players were free to move when and where they want to, as long as the market wanted them. They could charge whatever they wanted, as long as they could find someone to pay them. Their value was directly related to their talent. Other sports quickly followed suit, and by the end of the century most sports around the world were fully professional and in search of the top talent in their code.
