Hey everyone,
I briefly switched publishing platforms last winter. I didn’t love it (and you didn’t either) but I’m proud of those posts.
August is a wild month for my family and me, so now is a great time to republish some of those posts while I get a little R&R.
I hope you enjoy it!
Ben
☠️RIP Good Times (A Rant)☠️
Since World War II, corporate America has enjoyed an abundance of talent. That’s all changing. In this post, we’ll discuss what’s happening and its consequences.
The Decline of Supply
For the first time in its 250-year history, the U.S. working-age population isn’t growing.
Paradoxically, the number of prime-age workers (25-54) IS growing, but many are starting new businesses. Instead of working for someone else, they are now your competitors for talent. New business formation numbers continue to reach record highs, so these entrepreneurs are making the labor shortage worse.
But that’s not all. Thanks to COVID and the pandemic lockdowns, workers 55 and over have opted for early retirement, while immigration has declined. These two factors add up to an additional deficient of four million workers.
Simply put, the number of organizations that need talent (demand) is going up at the same time that workers (supply) are going down, and neither trend is likely to reverse anytime soon.
If demographics are destiny, then what economist Marianne Wanamaker calls the “perpetual labor shortage” will last for decades.
Managing the Shortage
The big “so what” here is that bargaining power is swinging back towards the worker and, to survive, companies will have to improve how they lead.
Bad Management’s good ole’ days of boring job descriptions, drawn-out interview processes, subjective hiring and goal setting, nonexistent development, indifferent exploitation of information asymmetry, subjective performance evaluations, and little to no wage growth are coming to an end.
And why are they ending? Because talented workers want them too! Workers are realizing they don’t have to tolerate incompetent management practices. They can work for better leaders or, if they can’t find that person, they can become their own boss. The irony is rich - maybe if all those crappy managers were team players, adaptable, and hustled, the Great Reshuffle wouldn’t be a problem?
Some executives and leaders will complain about how hard it is to find people. A few have legitimate gripes - but the vast majority of businesses, particularly those that compete directly with companies who recognize that they’re working in a new world, are already resisting the change and playing the victim card. They’re wasting their energy. Adaptation is the only choice.
Your role in the new world
Make no mistake, leaders are responsible to recognize and manage this change. As a hiring manager, you may feel discouraged or beaten down. But the labor market doesn’t care about your feelings. Recruiting good people is a sales game now, and what you're selling is how you lead. The power has shifted.
I’ll discuss how to adjust to this new paradigm more around here. In the meantime, please understand that the decades-long abundance of talent has ended. It’s now up to you to adapt.
RIP good times for bad managers.