The Talent is leaving....The Talent is leaving....really, where is it going?

The echoing cry from Paul Severe is typically heard throughout the land, whenever we experience a recessionary cycle.  The Talent is
leaving...the talent is leaving...  Oddly enough most companies don't seem to pay attention.  Recently, Forbes posted an article that stated
65% of employees were planning on leaving their employer.  This morning I received an article posting from Human Resource Executive
Online news, "Top Performers begin their flight; here is an excerpt from the article.

"HR leaders knew this day would eventually arrive.

A recent survey by Right Management validated the predictions of many: That once the economy began to gain some footing, high-
performing employees would quickly bolt for greener pastures.

In an online study of 558 business leaders and HR professionals, the Philadelphia-based talent and career-management firm found that 54
percent of organizations involuntarily lost high-performing workers during the first half of the year. In contrast, 28 percent of the
organizations reported they retained most of their talent.

The remaining organizations reported they had lost some high-performing talent, but had been able to replace them.”—David Shultze

The article continues to discuss how the more savvy companies have invested in an offensive and defensive strategy, careful not to thin the
herd too much, keeping a balance.

Now, every time we go through a recessionary cycle, albeit this one was a tad different, we hear the rallying cry of the talent is going to exit. 
Here’s the question that I have for all those individuals that have been kind enough to provide us with this information, where do you think
they are going to go, where do they think they are going to go?

What we’ve neglected to realize is that the “job” which was a bi-product of the industrial revolution, is disappearing.  According to the Bureau
of Labor, Both the number of unemployed persons, at 14.6 million, and the unemployment rate, at 9.5 percent, were unchanged in July.

In July, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 6.6 million. These individuals made
up 44.9 percent of unemployed persons. The long-term unemployment number to me is quite compelling; I don’t believe that many of those
positions will return.  It should have become abundantly apparent that we are no longer competing for business domestically we are and have
been in a global market.

Let’s get back to the issue of the talent pandemic.  Baby Boomers (75M) were scheduled to start a mass exodus from the workforce in 2012,
the recession has changed much of that, and many boomers will need to continue to work for several more years.  The generation behind
them, GenX (45M) is waiting for the boomers to leave and make room, guess what, that’s not going to happen, at least not in the very near
future.

Employees may be interested in leaving their employer, but where will they go, and, even if they decide to go, will it be any different for
them.  Now, let’s take a closer look at the number of individuals that are preparing to leave, the numbers range from 50-65%.  That’s a
significant and perhaps a staggering number.  But wait, are all those individuals talented employees, I don’t think so.  I’d bet that the majority
is average or mediocre performers.  In essence, having the employees leave is probably good for the company; it saves them the trouble of
managing the mediocre performance out.

The other issue to deal with is this notion of talent mass. From my perspective, the number of talented individuals in any industry has been
overstated.  If we had as much talent as we believe we do, why isn’t that reflected in our business results?  The truth of the matter is, we are
and will continue to face a talent shortage.  It’s predicted in the next 5 years that we will be 50M short of the talent we require to continue to
operate our business.

Finally, if there is one thing I’ve learned about recession cycles and data it’s, we never learn, and we certainly don’t seem to care.  We could
print the same articles every five years for the next 100 and very little would change.  We believe that companies are concerned about losing
talent or engaging their employees, it’s just not true.  You can’t argue that they don’t know how, the information has always been available for
the longest time.  I’m not certain what the answer is, but what I do know is that crying wolf isn’t going to motivate corporate leaders to
change their approach.  I believe that companies have become comfortable with whom they are and aren’t really interested in changing and
until then Chicken Little, no one cares if the sky is falling.

John Prpich

Owner/Employee