Tony Zeiss - Get em While Theyre Hot: How to Attract, Develop, and Retain Peak Performers in the Coming Labor Shortage

WORDS OF PRAISE FOR
GET EM WHILE THEYRE HOT
by Dr. Tony Zeiss

All organizations, including public colleges and businesses, need to act now to ensure their long-term viability. Get em While Theyre Hot is a wise investment in the future of your organization. Reading it is the first step to take to prepare for the future.

Dr. George R. Boggs
President and CEO, American Association of Community Colleges

In the competitive climate today, owners and CEOs of automobile dealerships, NASCAR teams, or any other business, fully realize the importance of attracting skilled and loyal employees. Get em While Theyre Hot is a great resource that will provide a competitive advantage to any organization!

Rick Hendrick, CEO, Hendrick Automotive Group

Get em While Theyre Hot illuminates a serious challenge faced by all organizations. Astute leaders will welcome this visionary book!

Ken Thompson, CEO, Wacovia Bank

Tony Zeiss rightly warns of a looming challenge to all organizations, including the cities of this great nation. My colleagues across the country should read Get emWhile Theyre Hot.

Honorable Pat McCrory, Mayor, Charlotte, North Carolina

This energetic and timely work will help organizations compete in attracting, developing, and retaining skilled employees as millions of Baby Boomers retire. Those of us who lead large businesses must be proactive, just like the book, Get emWhile Theyre Hot.

Dr. Ruth Shaw, CEO, Duke Power

The Belk organization is strategically positioning itself for the coming war for talent. Zeiss's book is a timely resource for any organization that hopes to succeed in this competitive climate.

Tim Belk, CEO, Belk Stores Services

Im pleased that a respected educator like Tony Zeiss has written a practical guide for Americas businesses to reference during the anticipated labor and skills shortage. As he points out, creating and keeping a skilled labor force requires strategic effort from business, education, and government!

Representative Sue Myrick
U. S. Congress, 9th District, N.C.

People the world over perform well in the workplace and develop organizational loyalty by being treated well, trusted, and encouraged to grow professionally. Tony Zeisss new book provides a splendid model for creating high-performance and loyal employees. His advice can help any organization create a stronger workforce!

Ambassador Mark W. Erwin, CEO, Erwin Capital
Former Ambassador to Mauritius

Getem While Theyre Hot is exactly what business leaders and human resources professionals need to prepare for tomorrows labor-force challenges. As a national consultant on management and labor relations, I'll be advising my clients to read this book!

Jim Bavis, President, Bavis Consulting Group
Former Corporate Vice President Employee Relations, Sprint Inc.

When you are in the highly competitive soft drink business, every advantage helps. Getem While Theyre Hot will provide you with just such an advantage. The ability to attract and retain top-performing employees in a tightening labor market is becoming critical for success.

Dale Halton, President and CEO, Pepsi Cola Bottling,
Charolotte, NC

GET em
WHILE
THEY RE
HOT!

How to Attract, Develop,
and Retain Peak Performers
in the Coming Labor Shortage

DR. TONY ZEISS

This book is dedicated to my friend and mentor,
the late J. William Bill Disher. He served as CEO and
Board Chair of Lance, Incorporated, and as Chairman
of the Board of Trustees for Central Piedmont
Community College, 1993-2004.

Copyright 2005 by Tony Zeiss

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

ISBN: 0-7852-0865-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zeiss, Anthony.
Get 'em while they're hot!: how to attract, develop, and retain peak performers in the coming labor shortage/Tony Zeiss.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-7852-0865-8 (hardcover)
1. EmployeesRecruiting. 2. Employee retention. 3. Personnel management. I. Title.
HF5549.5.R44Z45 2004
658.3'1dc22

2004024378

Printed in the United States of America

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 QWM 08 07 06 05

CONTENTS

Where will your organization be in twenty years? Will it be stable? How about in ten years? Will it still be competitive in five? Will it even exist a year from now?

How confident are you in your workforce? Are employees skills and qualifications up to speed with todays ever-changing technology? Are they gaining new skills, or have their skills become obsolete?

If you are at the head of an organization, here are some sobering statistics to consider about todays labor force.

The U.S. Department of Labors Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2011, our economy will need 10 million more workers than will be available.

Futurist Rick Smyre predicts that 40 to 60 percent of the jobs that will be needed in 2015 dont exist today.

Business Week writer Samuel Palmisano cited an IBM study predicting that 42 industries will create 13 million jobs in the next two years and more than 95 million jobs over the next decade.

At most community colleges, nearly 70 percent of recent high-school graduates require remedial math or English before they can take college-level courses.

Only 20 percent of American jobs require a bachelors degree or higher, yet 75 percent require technical skills training beyond high school.

Only about 50 percent of all university freshmen graduate with a degree.

According to the Associated Press, of 1,000 who applied for manufacturing jobs at Siemens, only 35 had the skills to be hired.

In spite of these statistics, I have seen thousands of distraught people move from being almost penniless into financial success by gaining new skills and credentials in more promising occupations. These astonishing-but-true labor-market realities must be dealt with quickly and strategically by every organization. Read this book to position your organization for success!

Chapter 1
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.
author unknown

America is about to experience the greatest labor shortage in its history. At the same time, todays skilled workersalready too few in numberare more independent and mobile than ever. Unless your organization prepares for this impending national crisis, it will cease to exist. If CEOs dont give increased attention to the business of human resources, their plans will be useless. In turn, if HR personnel fail to understand their organizations business strategy and fail to connect it to their hiring and workforce development plans, their efforts, too, will be counterproductive.

The survivors of the looming labor shortage will be those who strategically position themselves to meet their future human resource needs. This book is designed to help you prepare for and succeed in attracting, developing, and retaining peak performers throughout the forthcoming tight labor market.

THE BARE FACTS

Before we can strategize a response to this approaching labor-force threat, we must clearly understand what we are facing.