June 14, 2010 — I attended a conference this week and am still wrapped around the comment that sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo and other professional networking venues know more about a company's employees than the companies themselves. Think about it. The success of these professional networking sites reflect the fact that today our culture is one where people's affiliation is primarily directed towards their profession and, at best, is secondarily oriented towards their organization. The implications are profound.
Today people are taking it as a given that they must own their own development rather than entrusting it to their company. Indeed, they are willing to invest the time and confidence in a third party to post their personal information. For decades companies have been struggling to get a handle on their human capital talent profiles, most with little success. Today these conventional efforts are rendered largely obsolete. After all, unless employees own and commit to maintaining their data, it's a fool's errand to try and do it for them. Further, as we described the other day, companies today "own" as little as half of their human capital, choosing to contract for an increasing share of their talent needs.
Seems a perfect storm is in progress that will confound many organization's efforts to re-engage their workforces. The residual of the great recession has frayed or ripped away the bonds of confidence between companies and their people. Add to this the popularization of professional networking and the long-predicted free-agent nation is no longer an abstraction but a reality that companies will have to adapt to and enlightened employees have already embrace as the key to their personal employment security of the new age.
Kerry, what do you think? Will companies be able to adapt? Is this a big a deal as I think it is?
Well yes and no. Certainly the "work for the same company for 35 years and get your gold watch for retirement" days are over for most. The fact that employees are working for on average many more companies during their careers than in the past is the product of several factors. One reason is that the defined benefit pension handcuffs keeping employees at the same organization are all but gone. Another reason is that we live in a time where everything is "now!" Want more pay? Change companies. Want new stock options that aren't underwater? Change companies. Not getting the assignments you feel you deserve? Change companies. In addition, technology has made the process of getting your name out on the street a snap. Professional networking sites allow you to post tons of information without the stigma of looking like your trying to find another job. And these sites provide plenty of good recruiting-related information including job histories, education and training, interests and even references and recommendations.
It seems that the employer-employee deal has been forever changed. While you can argue that employees are less loyal to organizations, you can also argue that organizations are less loyal to employees. And at least at the last few organizations I have worked at, a key message to employees is that they themselves have to take the primary responsibility to manage their careers. It's more likely that organizations only have the resources or appetite to assist their A-players with career development while the rest have to fend for themselves.
On the positive side, it's much easier these days for staffing and recruiting departments to tap in to the free agent market. You can be a pessimist focusing on the fact that it's easier for your employees to jump ship, or you can be an optimist and focus on the fact that there are more ways than ever to find good employees at other companies to jump into your ship. Helping them take the leap in, while keeping your key shipmates from jumping out, is where total rewards comes into play.
So bottom line, Jim, is that I think organizations will be able to adapt. They don't have much of a choice.
Shawn M Miller Compensation Professional Member Since: 3/1/2000 Comments: 10
Enjoyable discussion..I particularly am drawn to Kerry's point, "organizations only have the resources or appetite to assist their A-players with career development while the rest have to fend for themselves" This has been my observation, with the rising popularity of pay for performance schemes and as pay and development budgets have been cut into the bone. I'm curious what will happen when organizations start losing their seasoned "B" players...anyone else have thoughts on this?
June 14, 2010 — I attended a conference this week and am still wrapped around the comment that sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo and other professional networking venues know more about a company's employees than the companies themselves. Think about it. The success of these professional networking sites reflect the fact that today our culture is one where people's affiliation is primarily directed towards their profession and, at best, is secondarily oriented towards their organization. The implications are profound. 
Well yes and no. Certainly the "work for the same company for 35 years and get your gold watch for retirement" days are over for most. The fact that employees are working for on average many more companies during their careers than in the past is the product of several factors. One reason is that the defined benefit pension handcuffs keeping employees at the same organization are all but gone. Another reason is that we live in a time where everything is "now!" Want more pay? Change companies. Want new stock options that aren't underwater? Change companies. Not getting the assignments you feel you deserve? Change companies. In addition, technology has made the process of getting your name out on the street a snap. Professional networking sites allow you to post tons of information without the stigma of looking like your trying to find another job. And these sites provide plenty of good recruiting-related information including job histories, education and training, interests and even references and recommendations.
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