Beginning in 2010, baby boomers will be retiring in vast numbers, subsequently leaving tremendous gaps in the workforce. In fact, every level of the job spectrum will be affected, especially in key leadership positions. A company’s recruiting apparatus must prepare itself to enter the war for talent, to draw and retain employees from four generations who are working alongside each other for the first time in American history.

A combination of demographics and economic and technological change has meant shorter job tenures across the board. The average tenure for baby boomers in 1980 was fifteen years. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average job tenure is currently only four years. The average worker could change jobs as many as six times, and that number will only grow for younger workers just now entering the job market.

Generation X and younger generations demand more from their employers: time to work, and time to explore personal preoccupations. Additionally, the prediction is that there will be 11.5 million more jobs than workers by 2010, a statistic that means competition will only heat up for talent as the crisis grows.

Respondents to a recent study conducted by Equation Research and sponsored by Birkman International and Stanton Chase International indicated that their organization’s top needs for facing the future include:

Identifying potential leaders and developing them: 67%
Employee retention: 54%
Career management: 51%
Attracting new leadership or management: 48%
Executive coaching: 47%
Team building: 46%
Hiring and selection decisions: 45%

A company must first and foremost differentiate itself from the competition as a place to work. One can think of this as creating an “employer brand”, a way to create value by telling a better story than the competition and therefore attracting higher quality talent.

Identifying Leaders
The most efficient way to identify leaders who will attract talent is to use personality assessment protocols that take into account factors like emotional intelligence and transformational capacity. Companies in the study mentioned above indicate that the most important personality characteristics to measure when identifying future leaders include the ability to be strategic and future-oriented, the ability to inspire and be emotionally positive, and the ability to be resourceful and adaptable.

While companies across the board in both the U.S. and Canada acknowledge the necessity for implementing a strategic plan to find and develop leaders, according to our study only a minority of companies have actually put in place a plan to do so. Only 18% of U.S. companies have put in place a talent acquisition plan, with 31% saying they have one planned but not implemented, and 51% having done neither.

If emotional intelligence is defined as the ability of a person to marshal their emotions to the service of their intellect and to integrate their intuition to make the strongest decisions possible, then testing for emotional intelligence is of paramount importance when finding leaders.

A leader who can both inspire and transform while leading stands a much greater chance of having an impact on the direction of an organization, and in telling an organization’s story in order to attract talented members of the up-and-coming generation. All other things being equal – and they often are – talented people want to work for somebody who they feel understands them and can empathize with their fears and frustrations.

This capacity is not a mystery, a product of luck, or an accident. It can be tested for and developed with the right tools, such as behavioral personality assessment.

Retaining Employees
According to companies surveyed, the biggest challenges to retaining employees in the new marketplace are maintaining competitive compensation, providing clarity about advancement opportunities, and keeping long-standing employees challenged and interested. If you throw in the approaching retirement age of baby boomers, the situation can seem dire.

A successful retention strategy ought to have several facets:

1. It should engage trusted advisers at the top levels of an enterprise in order to ensure that plans to attract and retain talent from all age groups are implemented in a routine and ongoing manner.
2. It should rapidly find its most solid leaders within the organization and seek to move them into greater positions of power.
3. It should utilize scientific personality assessment to coach and transform talent into the next generation’s leaders.

The talent shortage can be an opportunity for those who are ready for it: an opportunity to expand business, explore new recruiting methods, and secure valuable human capital before rampant talent scarcity puts huge holes in the best laid plans.

With these strategies in place, a company stands a much better chance for securing and retaining talent in the competitive workplace of the future. As the crisis continues to manifest in more ways, and the situation becomes more apparent to business interests across the board, the companies who have prepared ahead of time will be growing and thriving as the competition flounders and shrinks.

About the Author:
Taking over for her father, Dr. Roger Birkman, in 2001, Sharon Birkman Fink is President and CEO of Birkman International, Inc. providing a unique assessment tool that accurately measures internal needs, behaviors, occupational preferences and organizational strengths. She can be reached at 713-623-2760 or sfink@birkman.com.

For a copy of the white paper cited above and entitled: “Business Implications of the War for Talent 2008: How the New Reality is Impacting Organizations Throughout North America and What To Do About It", authored by Birkman International and Stanton Chase International, go to : www.stantonchase.com

About Birkman:
The Birkman Method ® has been in use for over 50 years and has been used by over 2 million people and 5,000 organizations worldwide, including corporations, not-for-profit organizations, governmental agencies, and individuals in their hiring, retention, motivational and organizational development activities. The assessment accurately measures social behaviors, underlying expectations of interpersonal and task actions, potential stress reactions to unmet expectations, occupational preferences and organizational strengths. For more information: www.birkman.com or 1-800-215-2760.