Tought Leader Stop Whining and Accept the Real
Problem…You STN EXPO keynote speaker shares the truth about employee culture and its effect on organizational health
WRITTEN BY DON HARKEY
“These damn millennials are truly tough to work with.” “There just aren’t enough good candidates out there.”
“The schools aren’t doing a good job of teaching kids soft skills.” “People job hop too much these days.” “What happened to loyalty?”
“The internet is destroying our ability to having meaningful conversations.”
S
top it, already. As a consultant, I hear the above statements from business leaders who are struggling to attract and retain good people. Each statement has some kernel of truth in it, but none offer solutions. I recently attended a workforce development discussion on the lack of “soft skills,” or the intangible attributes that lead people to be successful at work, as the biggest threat to today’s workforce. Tese business leaders were asking the local schools to teach soft skill classes in fifth-grade classrooms. Fifth grade? It seems to me that waiting for the next generation to learn new skills is a bit of a long play that will fail to solve your immediate need to attract and retain better talent. Te truth is that there are millennials out there who will work incredibly hard for you. Te truth is that, according to a 2016 Gallup poll, 51 percent of the entire American workforce is looking for a new job. Te truth is that businesses don’t do a good job of teaching soft skills, either. Te truth is that people leave their jobs more frequently because their employers don’t provide a work environment where the employee can thrive. Te truth is that employees can be fiercely loyal when companies provide them with opportunities for work-life balance. Te truth is that technology is creating a generation of people who can crank out an incredible volume of work. If you are a business leader who is struggling to attract and retain talent, you have a simple choice to make. Do you blame other people or do you blame yourself? Te real change isn’t just the new generation of workers, but how employees and employers find each other. When I graduated from college in 1997, I applied for multiple job opportuni- ties with several companies. Te only information I had about most of these companies was the posted job description and the public reputation of the company. If the company was smaller, I had almost no information. I knew very little about my potential employers and selected the job based on the description, salary and benefits along with my interview experience.
36 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2017
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