We All Know the Talent System is Broken

We as employers have the jobs. Ergo, we have the solution.

Nothing like starting the blog process off with a crazy idea!!  But we all know it.  We know the talent system is broken!  The first clue is that very few of us think about the people we hire as part of a talent system.  We see them as individuals.  They meet an organizational need when they first show up to be part of our enterprises and that is how we start our relationships with them.  Some of those end up working out fantastically, others are fantastic failures, and a lot of them are somewhere in between.  But most of us do not think about talent (people) strategically or systematically.  

Regardless. We still have the jobs.  Why is this important?  Because as employers we are the value creators in our economy.  Every job we create adds value somehow or we would not create it.  What many of us do not have is a career progression for people.  Either we have not thought about it, or we do not have the scale or size to legitimately provide positively challenging employment for people over the long arc of a career.  However, we do have the capacity to address this problem.  

So, we operate our businesses in an ecosystem of businesses, all of which hire people with similar skills.  In fact, people come to work for us from other employers all the time and they leave us to go to work for other employers all the time.  Most of the time these transitions can be disruptive to the business and the individuals involved.  I guess the question we need to ask is:  Does it need to be this way?  Is this turbulence in the talent system unavoidable?  Is it a sunk cost of doing business?  In the vocabulary of the lean manufacturing folks: is this waste in the system acceptable?  

I would argue it is not.  In my book The SOURCE I demonstrated that as employers we can come together to provide resources and education for the people who work for us.  Might we also be able to work together to create a talent pipeline between employers that would allow people to see multiple future possibilities?  I think we can.  We are tremendous problem solvers, and if solving this problem creates real value in the talent system, there is good reason to pursue it.

Cheers!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark Peters is the Chief Executive Officer of Butterball Farms, Inc., which was nationally recognized as one of The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For(R) from 2018 to 2020 and is America's leading producer of culinary butter and margarine. Recognized by numerous companies from Ernst and Young to McDonalds for his leadership, Peters is an engaging speaker and storyteller who has addressed TEDx and other audiences. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Recognized by numerous companies from Ernst & Young to McDonalds for his leadership, Peters is an engaging speaker and storyteller who has addressed TED-x and other audiences. He lives in Grand Rapids with his daughter and dog and is an avid diver, boater, biker, and skier.

You may also contact Mark at Leadership Speakers Bureau to schedule him for speaking or leadership engagements.