Newsletter #8 (October 21, 2024)
Skills-based careers, numbers game in the trades, AI fluff, SHRM misbehaving, Spotify says it hires adults, and more
Welcome to Newsletter #8, my twice-monthly, long-form newsletter where I write about all things HR and L&D, the business world, and/or other interesting current events.
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1. Skills-based careers, with skills-based learning and hiring, are absolutely the future.
I’ve written previously about skills-based learning in past newsletters, discussed in presentations and talked about it on the Learning & Development Podcast. I truly believe decentralizing and decoupling roles from a traditional hierarchical view is necessary for companies to thrive in the future.
While past career paths often moved along in a linear fashion, the truth is so many careers of the past 20 years become what I call just a bowl of spaghetti: an amalgam of skills and past roles that just don’t neatly fit into a particular role. This scenario can confound recruiters and executives alike who, when hiring or analyzing existing workforce or prospective employees for placement into a new role, can often struggle making a decision (or worse, making a wrong one).
While an organization should complete several steps in their skills-based journey before entering skills-based hiring, companies like JPMorganChase are not wrong when they say it is the future. Delta Airlines recently joined the ranks, making several announcements and media talking about how they are shifting their organization to focusing on skills. College degrees still have their value (depending on who you ask, I suppose), but suffice to say there will always be roles in which extensive education and experience will both be needed.
Someday I’ll probably write a much longer missive on skills-based and skills-first organizations, and why it is so critical to begin making this shift if you have not, but for now, continue monitoring your own organization and see what tweaks you can make in your strategy to do so. You will not regret it.
2. Recruiting for the skilled trades can be difficult, but there may (or may not?) be hope on the horizon from the next generation.
Depending on whichever latest research article you read (examples: here, here, and here), Gen Z may or may not be the savior coming to reinforce the skilled trades labor shortage. And don’t be mistaken, there is (or definitely will be) a labor shortage in the trades.
For whatever the reason(s), it is mostly a numbers game. The demographics are working against the trades, with the average age of the trades workforce being closer to retirement than not. According to McKinsey research from April of this year, this numbers game shows a lot of job movement with essentially the same labor pool, meaning without significant labor influx into the pool, trades employers are basically fighting over the same people (as shown below).
More must be done to enhance the career prospects of trades careers. The reality that there is significant job security in these jobs and the likelihood of AI significantly impacting these roles anytime soon is very low are just two levers which should be pulled to bring in the next generation. Without people in the trades, America – and the world – stop.
3. Were SHRM and ZipRecruiter misbehaving?
This is utterly fascinating from an HR practitioner’s point of view, I have to say, coming from SHRM. The preeminent HR body, or at least the one that tries to position itself as such, is not immune from allegations of wrongdoing. This case will be one to watch.
This one, filed by Indeed, accuses ZipRecruiter of being naughty and misleading people into thinking Indeed was the one acting like a fool in the marketplace. I find it ironic, really, that Indeed has the gall to accuse other recruiting companies like ZipRecruiter (in this case) of misleading the public. Indeed’s revenue model results in significant job sponsorship costs and while it can deliver a tidal wave of ‘applicants’, the quality is seriously lacking. Sifting through 100 applicants to find 5 quality candidates is mind-numbing, inefficient, and ridiculous all at the same time. Seriously, Indeed?
4. Spotify had something very interesting to say about Amazon and Dell’s return-to-office (RTO) announcements.
As a nice contrast to what Amazon and Dell said about portions of their workforce, Spotify’s HR chief had some appropriate comments regarding its own workforce. In particular, and I’ll quote Katarina Berg here directly, “work is not a place you come to, it's something you do", as well as, “you can't spend a lot of time hiring grown-ups and then treat them like children.”
Bravo, Katarina. While again I fully support each company making the best decision for their own workplace, Katarina’s comments are spot-on.
5. OK, I’ve left AI alone for a few newsletters, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity this time.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I can see the potential value and opportunity in the future in using generative AI in the corporate setting. There are truly functions which can be made much more efficient and gain tremendous speed in output by using AI, but there are others where it is just not what it is being made out to be.
Indeed’s recent FutureWorks consortium highlighted this dilemma in this presentation. Their research backs up what is becoming more of a realization: AI cannot truly do anything by itself autonomously…..yet. It (AI) still needs a human behind the wheel to get it to do what we want it to do.
Don’t believe me? The Wall Street Journal also highlighted this realization a few weeks ago. While AI programs like ChatGPT have decent adoption rates, widespread adoption still remains far off, as does the rampant efficiency gains being sold like snake oil from seemingly everyone. Pump the brakes on the hype, let’s just wait a bit before we decide the future is here. It’s coming, but maybe not quite here yet.
6. More corporate layoffs and a not-unexpected-bankruptcy. Barf.
Walgreens will close over 1,000 stores, and PPG paints, Boeing, International Paper, as well as Portland State University all announced job cuts recently, with John Deere announcing more cuts in Iowa and Illinois. And a long-time staple in the hardware business, True Value, called it quits via bankruptcy after 70 years in operation, though it is selling to Do It Best.
I am finding it difficult to balance the growing list of job cuts – which I think sometimes is just a case of FOMO between executives rather than true efficiency needs – and the high job numbers the US continues to report. I remain hopeful this trend continues to just be what it seems on the surface (efficiency and lean-ing of companies since the COVID boosted era) rather than a weakening economy.
Thankfully, the International Longshoreman’s Association strike was short-lived, or the impacts of that could have exacerbated economic pain into other industries.
7. Home Depot told its corporate employees to go work in a store.
I know this has its share of detractors but I truly believe this is a good idea if properly executed. Having corporate employees walk a mile in store employee’s shoes, seeing the impact (or lack thereof) from their corporate work, and ensuring what is being done aligns with the needs of the business is good business. I understand there are those who will struggle with these concepts, thinking such work may be beneath them or not needed with how they do their jobs. The reality of doing work that is not directly tethered to the overall goals of the company, though, is what can distract from the mission, cause unintended consequences, result in inefficient spend, and have people working on projects which do not make good business sense. Good on you, Home Depot.
8. Like many other careers, HR can be a thankless job.
Just ask this Amazon HR manager and the now-former chief HR executive for Apple, Carol Surface.
HR management is somewhat unique in a corporate hierarchy in a sense that not only do you have your own team to manage, you help guide other managers to lead their own teams.
Much has been written in recent months about burnout in HR being a real thing. While that is true, HR Is not any different or immune from the same things which affect other roles in any other company. The impact on the person though is where the difference can be felt.
While Carol Surface’s departure is likely a result of broader leadership changes at Apple, one cannot help but wonder if the stresses of both the role for the organization and her own organization were similar as that HR leader. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
9. LinkedIn Lunatics of the Newsletter: not a lunatic at all.
I quite enjoyed this one, actually. The world misses Chris Farley.
10. Those damn New York Yankees are going to the World Series.
For the first time in 15 years, the NY Yankees are going to the World Series. After the Astros improbably course-corrected their season to make the playoffs, hope was eternal that the run of the Yankees not making the Fall Classic would continue. But here we are. Even though the Astros won’t be there this year, I am fan of the team that can take down the Yankees in the World Series.
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That’s it for now. I’ll be back in two weeks!
© October 2024 Brandon Caldwell, all rights reserved. Hyperlinks are used frequently for proper credit to source material on respective websites, news articles, social media or other sources. While it can be a useful tool, no ChatGPT or other generative AI was used in the production of this newsletter. Opinions are mine and do not reflect the opinion or policy of others including employers past or present.