Perfect Labor Storm 2.0

Pressure building to fill demand for underwater welders

Underwater welding is one of the specialty skills that puts commercial divers in high demand for construction work along the Gulf Coast and at other locations.

Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Ivan in 2004, much of the task of subsea hurricane cleanup and rebuilding falls onto the shoulders of commercial divers. Twenty-four hours a day, at depths ranging from a few feet up to 1,000 feet below the surface of the ocean, divers are inspecting, welding, cutting metal, and assisting with installations of new and repaired equipment.

Right now there's a worldwide shortage of commercial divers, due in large part to massive cleanup and reconstruction efforts taking place in the Gulf of Mexico after the recent hurricanes and the race for higher production.

Before the hurricanes, about 1,000 divers were working in the Gulf of Mexico. Now the figure is closer to 1,500. Even with the additions, however, competition for new divers remains fierce. Since last year, dive companies say they have been trying to reel in more fresh dive school graduates, ex-military and even retired divers. They say they are offering everything from signing bonuses to tuition-reimbursement plans.

Dive companies say average pay has risen about 25 percent since 2005. In their first year out of school, divers can make up to $1,800 a week when on the job. Experienced divers, meanwhile, can earn $1,000 a day and up to $200,000 in annual pay.

But it's not easy work. Assignments can keep divers away from home for weeks or months at a time. There are stringent physical requirements and long apprenticeship programs before landing the most coveted diving jobs. And then there's the challenge of living in a pressurized tank at the end of your shift, where the main form of entertainment is television. It takes a special person to live in these conditions.

Read more at http://www.supplylink.com/article/commercial-divers.php

Fire protection engineers in high demand and short supply

Fire protection engineers are in high demand and short supply, according to a survey just released by the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SPFE). The survey reinforces the expanding workforce trend known as the Perfect Labor Storm, where semi-skilled and skilled jobs are going unfilled due to a lack of qualified workers.

According to the SPFE survey, the demand for life-saving fire protection engineers is rising, and now exceeds the supply of qualified personnel. An overwhelming majority SPFE members currently have difficulty recruiting enough qualified engineers. Surveys indicate that this imbalance in demand will continue for at least five more years.

What is a fire protection engineer? According to the Society of Fire Protection Engineers, a fire protection engineer uses science and engineering principles to protect people, homes, workplaces, the economy and the environment from the devastating effects of fires. Fire protection engineers analyze how buildings are used, how fires start and grow, and how fires affect people and property. They use the latest technologies to design systems to control fires, alert people to danger, and provide means for escape. Fire protection engineers also work closely with other professionals, including engineers of other disciplines, architects, state and local building officials, and local fire departments to build fire safe communities.

Fire protection engineers work in a wide range of industries and organizations, including private consulting firms, large corporations, fire departments, local building code officials, insurance firms, federal, state and local government agencies and architectural and design firms. Frequently, fire protection engineers assist architects, builders and fire departments in the design and construction of new facilities.

A Human Energy Crisis?

A few days ago I was asked an interesting question by a reporter from a well-respected business journal:

In this buyer's market for talent, are companies asking for too much at too low a price?

I don’t know if she’ll include my response but I’m fairly confident that many candidates and employers may not agree with me.  Nevertheless, the struggles that both candidates and employers are experiencing are real – candidates lack the skills that employers need, and employers aren’t willing to pay up.  Like consumers cutting back on travel by refusing to pay over $4 per gallon for fuel, many employers are refusing to pay up for skilled workers during this human energy crisis.  Are these employers cutting their nose off to spite their face?  Or are employees trying to offload their inefficient and ineffective work habits onto employers who are finally saying, in the words of Howard Beale in the movie Network (1976), “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore”? 

There is a new paradigm and both employers and candidates are struggling to function in it.

From the candidate side, many of the skills that once delivered differentiation and value are now commodities.  In other words, what once made an employee a top performer may barely keep them in the game today.   This is a tough pill to swallow.  Despite years of hard work and loyalty, many employees lack the skills needed for today’s jobs. They are therefore overpaid or requesting salaries above their competence. 

On the other hand, employers too are completely misreading the market.  Many have not grasped the depth and breadth of the skilled worker shortage. They look at the economic downturn as an opportunity to pick up cheap labor.  But unlike any other economic downturn, many of the people who are unemployed in today’s market just lack the essential skills. The gap between the required skill sets and availablility of skilled workers is widening. This scarcity has raised the salaries for skilled labor. In many industries and for key positions, the skilled candidate is winning.

What do you think?  Are employers being too demanding and cheap or are employees finally being forced to prove their worth (and by that I mean that loyalty and long hours doesn’t necessarily equate to productivity and profitability?

And by the way, having just re-read Howard Beale’s rant in its entirety, it is amazing how much time has passed since 1976 when the movie was released but how little has changed (except the part about the Russian):

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.

10 Hardest Jobs to Fill in 2008

Despite rising unemployment and a slowing economy, many employers are still finding it hard to find enough skilled workers to fill certain positions. 

The 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill, as reported by U.S. employers for 2008, are:
    1.  Engineers
    2.  Machinists/Machine Operators (10)*
    3.  Skilled Trades
    4.  Technicians (4)
    5.  Sales Representatives (1)
    6.  Accounting & Finance Staff (8)
    7.  Mechanics (3)
    8.  Laborers (9)
    9.  IT Staff
    10. Production Operators

    *  Rank in 2007 Top 10 Hardest Jobs to Fill
Source: Manpower

The Dumbest Generation

My column about The Dumbest Generation in this week's newsletter The Total View generated quite a response. (I also had posted it to this blog too.) One in particular came from a very upset 23 year-old. I won't share the entire message but let it suffice to say, this Gen Y is not dumb. In fact he's incredibly bright, well-educated... and opinionated - all characteristics of another segment of Gen Y cohorts. Here's just a few thoughts on his mind:

Just some thoughts from a dumb kid, though. I mean, what could I possibly know? I've got six instant messenger windows open as I type this, and I have been responding to each incoming query in quick succession without losing a beat with this e-mail. I haven't had my first sip of coffee yet so I can barely keep my eyes open (generation of addicts, anyone?), and I'm staying awake largely by keeping myself distracted with the pretty blinking digital dalliances around me. I've also had four back-and-fourth text message conversations going on, and I managed to check five other e-mail accounts before completing this message, on the second computer monitor set up to my right, with a quick tapping of shortcuts at the top of my keyboard. What insights could I possibly have, here or in the workforce?

Unfortunately the gap between the dumbest and smartest seems to be widening. And if hearsay and observations from employers have any value, then the dumb may be outnumbering the smart - and this young man is the rare exception (which proves my point about a shortage of skilled young workers.) Giving all due respect to this generation, much of the blame lies on us Baby Boomers.  Our educational system is a mess with less than 7 out of every 10 ninth-grade students finishing high school.

Considering all the strong emotion about these new entrants into the workforce,I felt the column was worth re-posting to the blog in the hopes of collecting and sharing the comments.

The generation that is most comfortable with digital technology, which gives them unprecedented access to all of the world's knowledge, knows less than the previous generation that lacked this advantage. In other words, the generations whose thumbs do most of their talking can't express themselves beyond the level of a text message. Could the vast majority of people under the age of 30 be so clueless?

Regrettably the answer is yes.  According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 74 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds did not know that Condolezza Rice was the U.S. Secretary of State.  Six times more of these young adults were more likely to identify the latest winner of American Idol than the Speaker of the House of Representatives.   Another 60 percent did not know the Civil War took place in the second half of the 19th century.

This is a generation who grew up reading blogs instead of books. They read updates about friends on MySpace instead of reading current events in newspapers.  They know more about World of Warcraft than they do about World War II.

The result is that just one-third of high school seniors graduated with the ability to read proficiently.  Just one-fourth could write a basic paragraph.

The problem is that many young adults are using technology to communicate rather than to learn.  In effect by using shorthand texting, they are reinforcing their own illiteracy every time they send and receive a text message. 

What's this mean for employers:

In a world of scarce talent, employers will need to transform themselves to make effective use of a generation that isn't ready to contribute to the traditional workplace.  As a result, companies will have to invest in training programs that offer a crash course in the basic skills these workers lack. These programs will need to be tailored so that they are relevant to the actual work the employee will perform.

The small percentage of well-educated, high achieving college students will have their choice of employers and competition for them will be fierce. While this isn't new news, what's different this time around is that the gap between the-best-and-the-brightest and the average graduate is much wider. Because the return on investment is so much greater for these star performers, employers can be certain that the competition for talent will only be getting more intense.

Source: Trends E-Magazine, July 2008

What do you think? A colleague of mine responded to me with these questions.  Before answering...stop and think.  The correct answers may not be that simple.

Is this another sign of a generational gap where jobs have to be redesigned to meet the skills/interests of younger people? 

Do the older generations have to learn new languages? 

Are we looking for the wrong things when we expect coherent writing and high school reading abilities?

Does it make any difference if people in their 20s don't know history or current events?

Will the Gen Y's (or Millennials) legacy become known as the dumbest generation? What's been your experience as an employer, a parent, a GenY?  I'm looking forward to hearing from you.  Invite others to participate, too.

Accounting and finance professionals still in short supply

Even though the economy is tanking and unemployment is rising, finding qualified accounting and finance professionals is more difficult for the second year in a row, according to a recent survey by Robert Half International.

Fifty six percent of finance and human resource managers surveyed reported shortages in those fields.
A greater number of those surveyed -- 73 percent versus 46 percent in 2007 -- said they're concerned about losing top performers to other opportunities.

More than 4,000 finance and human resources managers in 20 countries participated in the survey.
The survey also found that an average of three candidates are interviewed for these positions, compared to only two interviews per position last year.

The Dumbest Generation?

The generation that is most comfortable with digital technology, which gives them unprecedented access to all of the world's knowledge, knows less than the previous generation that lacked this advantage. In other words, the generations whose thumbs do most of their talking can't express themselves beyond the level of a text message. Could the vast majority of people under the age of 30 (Gen Y and the youngest Gen Xers) be so clueless?

Regrettably the answer is yes.  According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 74 percent of 18 to 29 year-olds did not know that Condolezza Rice was the U.S. Secretary of State.  Six times more of these young adults were more likely to identify the latest winner of American Idol than the Speaker of the House of Representatives.   Another 60 percent did not know the Civil War took place in the second half of the 19th century.

This is a generation who grew up reading blogs instead of books. They read updates about friends on MySpace instead of reading current events in newspapers.  They know more about World of Warcraft than they do about World War II.

The result is that just one-third of high school seniors graduated with the ability to read proficiently.  Just one-fourth could write a basic paragraph.

The problem is that many young adults are using technology to communicate rather than to learn.  In effect by using shorthand texting, they are reinforcing their own illiteracy every time they send and receive a text message. 

What's this mean for employers:

1. In a world of scarce talent, employers will need to transform themselves to make effective use of a generation that isn't ready to contribute to the traditional workplace.  As a result, companies will have to invest in training programs that offer a crash course in the basic skills these workers lack. These programs will need to be tailored so that they are relevant to the actual work the employee will perform.

2. The small percentage of well-educated, high achieving college students will have their choice of employers and competition for them will be fierce. While this isn't new news, what's different this time around is that the gap between the-best-and-the-brightest and the average graduate is much wider. Because the return on investment is so much greater for these star performers, employers can be certain that the competition for talent will only be getting more intense.

Source: Trends E-Magazine, July 2008

Read more about the Silent Epidemic of high school dropouts.
http://www.super-solutions.com/Highdropoutratesareasilentepidemic.asp

Free Generation IQ Quiz

With four generations co-mingling in the workplace, dozens of potential clashpoints exist. Myths and misplaced stereotypes abound. At times these multi-generational co-workers seem to be worlds apart in their attitudes and values. As a result, conflicts between the generations are distracting co-workers and diverting the attention of managers.  What is the truth about the generations? How accurate are your perceptions?

Success Performance Solutions just released its first Generation IQ Quiz.  It's free! It's easy. It's fast. Click here to take the Generation IQ Quiz...and watch for future announcements for more quizes to test your knowledge about the Generations, workforce trends, interview do's and don'ts, and more.

Enterprise of the Future

A new report just released by IBM titled Enterprise of the Future cites "in 2008 eight out of ten CEOs are expecting substantial or very substantial change."

This rising challenge may be difficult for companies to meet.  CEOs rate their ability to manage change 22 percent lower than their expected need for it – a change gap that has nearly tripled since 2006.  The number reporting limited or no success has risen by 60 percent.

CEOs are most concerned about the impact of external forces: market factors, people skills and technology.  CEOs rated insufficient talent as the top barrier to integration.  “We are making acquisitions for the people, not the assets,” says one CEO in the financial industry.

This is consistent with 2007 CEO Conference Board report that finding qualified managerial talent and top management succession ranked in the top 10 CEO challenges, right after execution.

The report states that "the successful organization sees change within the business as a permanent state.  The leader of the successful organization defines and manages change as robust programs." It highlighted a few differences between the top performing companies and those that fell short:

• Financial outperformers anticipate more change, and manage it better.
• Instead of merely responding to trends, outperformers shape and lead them.
• Outperformers surprise customers with innovations
• Outperformers disrupt the basis of competition.
• Outperformers go beyond philanthropy and compliance; they show a genuine concern in all actions and decisions.
• Outperformers connect everyone to the customer from the warehouse to the C-suite.
• Outperformers recognize the value of the information it collects and actively mines it for insights and fast feedback cycles.
• Outperformers create first-of-a-kind products, services and experiences that were never asked for – but are precisely what customers desire.

No clear answer for nuclear industry's succession plans

The utility industry is in crisis mode due to its rapidly aging workforce.  Utilities are trying to replace a workforce that could shrink by half through retirements over the next decade. 

The Nuclear Energy Institute did a survey of the nuclear workforce in 2007. The nuclear workforce age distribution has two peaks. The highest peak occurs for workers between the ages of 45 and 65. A smaller peak exists for workers between the ages of 20 and 32.  In between there is a valley of workers between the ages of 32 and 45, the prime ages for workers to move up into management roles.

What this means is that as the boomers retire and the Gen Xers move up the career ladder, the utility industry will hear a big sucking sound creating a huge void in the workforce. Between 2007 and 2012 about 35 percent or 19,600 current nuclear utility workers will be eligible to retire. Over the same five-year period it is projected that an additional 11 percent or 6,300 workers will leave the workforce due to attrition.

The unique demands of utility work, which include the basics of electronics, math, hydraulics, engineering, working outdoors in all kinds of weather, and climbing poles and towers (often exceeding 200 feet) presents a daunting challenge to even the most gifted recruiters. At risk, in addition to helping solve the world’s energy needs is security. The U.S. and other developed countries count on nuclear engineers in shaping the military have and defense structures contributions to national security.

The problem facing the utility and in particular the nuclear industry isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact efforts to recruit more young workers aren’t even a reasonable solution: not many universities in the world offer degree programs in nuclear engineering.   That makes this shortage much more threatening than what occurred with technology workers during the dot-com boom in the late 1990s. Back then, the shortage of computer science graduates was localized to the United States while India and China were pumping out computer scientists, feeding the world’s appetite. 

Today, the world’s educational and training institutions do not have the capacity or resources to keep up with the current demand much less projected future demand.  New degree programs will not be able to start up quickly because of a shortage of qualified faculty and the cost of the infrastructure required to start a program.