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A few weeks ago we ran an event in the library of the Charlotte Street Hotel (a very nice London venue) wherein we asked a few “Critical Friends” to respond to our thoughts on an emerging idea we are calling Resiliance and on which Sabine and Victoria have previously blogged. The drivers behind the idea were the realisation that firstly, in their haste to inject new blood and ideas at the expense of older staff organisations are increasingly losing the embedded memory that is such a core part of an organisation’s make up. Secondly, that the younger people coming into organisations have a very different career portfolio mentality that senior staff find hard to come to terms with. Finally, though organisations spend significant amounts on cultural “stuff” (Cultural Assets) such as buildings / paintings / sponsorship / brand / artifacts / corporate social responsibility, few seem to realise any incremental benefit from consolidating these activities.
What struck me after the Charlotte St gathering was how changed aspirations are driven by economic reality – many young people get hired on short term contracts and are often at the front of the queue when the brown envelopes are handed out. They cannot afford mortgages in the South East anyway and have to move from one rented property to another. Their’s is a transient mentality, the concept of joining an organisation for life is alien and moreover they see little to bind them to an organisation if its not improving their cv or speaks directly to them.
Eight months later and I am in conversation with a Director of a Swiss based financial services organisation who has just been hiring new staff. The interview process is being reversed: many applicants want to know (not unreasonably} what they are going to be doing on a week by week basis when they join. The old adage of you will be moved around the organisation to get a good overview no longer works! Applicants want straight answers and well thought through programmes. To many organisations that’s a real challenge – they don’t have succession planning in the first place and usually want to plug a gap. They would also be aghast to learn that how the organisation sees itself in society and thinks about the environment are also benchmarks that applicants are now applying before entrusting any organisation with a part of their career.
Many years ago when knowledge management was in its infancy Buckman Labs of the US came up with a concept wherein they would give their employees guaranteed employment: it was an intelligent attempt to provide a comfort factor for employees in a period of uncertainty and create a loyal and driven workforce willing to share what it knew. As time evolved so did the commitment and it became a contract of employability i.e. the employee will be trained well enough to be able to work anywhere! In a way they had foreseen the changing environment and were setting out to become the employer of choice for the new band of workers.
We are seeing a different, more self assured, questioning and empowered albeit transient workforce whose loyalty to one organisation is no longer taken for granted. Where their peers are often virtual, part of an industry, a line of work or even a social networking site; where many have no long term career aspirations other than to not be doing this when I am 40! They are willing to put in long hours now in the expectation that in the future they will be elsewhere. I sense there is a desire to be part of something of stature, that has substance and history, is challenging, represents their set of values and plays an active role in the environment in which it operates. A place that they can identify with emotionally as well as fiscally.
Journals trumpet “Employee Engagement” as a panacea for solving these challenges; consultancies promote their cultural indicator tools as a way of providing insight. Managers are having to recognise a different approach is required to leadership – one where the individual and an idea / set of values are driving forces, one where their vision is apparant in the way they act and talk.
Yet few if any organisations consider one potential solution might be to take a portfolio approach to the management of their cultural assets and create an environment that meets the aspirations of the evolving workforce. Perhaps they should?
