Adopt a “Whole Career” Strategic Hiring Model

一个完整的职业生涯模式是一种招聘和人力资源规划策略，侧重于降低忠诚度和保留级别当中表现最出色的员工。而不是专注于雇用了最优秀的人，它针对他们计划在其整个职业生涯从几个不同点重新雇用。

If you are a recruiting leader, I would like to introduce you to a concept that many are not familiar with, which is whole career employment. The premise of this hiring and workforce planning model is that instead of the traditional expectation that employees will work at a firm continuously from their hire date until they retire, leaders need to plan for the eventuality when top employees may come and go from your firm several times throughout their whole career. This new model is necessary because it fits both the changing loyalty levels and expectations of workers and the evolving way that work is done. The average tenure of the American worker at a single firm is just over four years and Americans may hold between 5 and

10 jobs throughout their career. This process of hiring, losing and bringing back employees requires a hiring model that is more flexible and sophisticated than most firms currently have. A whole career model is a hiring and workforce planning strategy that focuses on the reduced loyalty and retention levels among top performing employees. Instead of focusing on hiring a top person only one single time, it plans on targeting them for rehire at several different points throughout their entire career. Smart firms will plan to recruit and hire the very best back into regular or contingent jobs at points in their career when we need them and when they are willing and able to work for us in some capacity. The goal is to get as much high-quality work from top performers whenever they are available throughout their career. Lifelong Employment Is Coming to an End This new approach obviously runs counter to the traditional expectation of lifelong employment, which is a concept that goes back decades. Under lifelong employment, the goal is to retain new hires until they retire. In contrast, under the whole career approach, lifelong retention is not expected, and smart firms plan to take advantage of this reduced loyalty and interest in staying at a firm more than a few years at a time. The goal of this new employment strategy is not to own employees but instead to get as much as they are willing to give during the many different phases of their career. It s a powerful model and it s well worth exploring. Top Drivers Making a Shift to the Whole Career Model Necessary There are eight factors that are forcing firms to shift away from a lifelong employee model. Group #1 factors that will reduce a firm s need for long-term employees at a single location Labor output levels and labor-cost flexibility will be needed even in well-managed firms, the labor, work, and staffing needs will continue to shift rapidly (both up and down) as a result of the volatile VUCA business environment. That means that there will be a continuous change in the needed skills and the number and type of workers that firms will need. In fact, firms will begin to challenge the very desirability of having a large percentage of long-term employees in a world where skills rapidly become obsolete and where entire job families are eliminated on a regular basis as products and components become obsolete due to new technologies. Instead, firms will need an agile and nimble workforce that can grow, shrink, and change skills rapidly. And that nimbleness can only be obtained if workers are more frequently released when entering business periods where their skills or output are not needed. Shifting global work will reduce long-term work options in a global business environment, offshoring will accelerate as firms continually move work closer to its customers, into new low-wage areas and away from increasing wage areas. Routinely shifting work between countries to take advantage of wage arbitrage means that firms will often not be able to retain workers long term in their current location. However, some of these released workers may eventually be able to return to work at their original firm when remote work options become more widely available. The shifting economics of outsourcing impacts employee levels over time, outsourcing will periodically shift between being economically feasible and later becoming too expensive. When outsourcing is reduced, more former employees will be brought back and when it increases, more employees will be released. Established businesses will periodically shrink the volatility in the industry positions of firms that is caused by continuous innovation and global competition will likely continue. When firms like Kodak, Xerox, and Sears move from top to bottom industry positions, their workforce needs will also shift. And as a result, many established firms in the top industry positions will go through cycles of large-scale shrinkage, only years later to expand their workforce again after reorganization. Technology replaces employees as technology options increase (hardware and software) many jobs will simply go away as they are replaced with technology. If former employees reskill themselves in the technology area, some may be able to return to manage the new installed technologies. Group #2 factors that will reduce an employee s interest in long-term employment at a single firm Diminished employee loyalty is becoming the norm many individuals have lost their loyalty to corporations because of the way they and coworkers have been treated lately. Others, especially those from the new generation, simply have no desire to stay at any large firm for more than a few years, because they desire change, diversity, and they want to be able to explore multiple career opportunities and options. Life disruptions impact careers and force job changes not only is the business world highly volatile, but private and family lives are also increasingly volatile. There are currently an increasing number of disruptive events in an employee s private and family lives that will disrupt their careers. These disruptive events include a high divorce and remarry rate, an increasing interest in entrepreneurship and working for not-for-profits, as well as individuals taking off work to start a family (as well as individuals returning to work after their family matures). In addition, the loss of houses to foreclosure, finishing online degrees, moving kids to better school districts, and the loss of a spouse s job will add even more disruptive events. Combined these disruptions create a family and life situation that is continually in flux, and many of these disruptions that will force them to change jobs. As more employees quit because of these disruptions that are outside of your control, it will simply not be possible to continue operating under the lifelong employment model. Applying and finding jobs become easier because of the Internet, social media, and the growth of employee referral programs, it is now increasingly easy for employees to find and apply for a new job. Essentially this means that a single trigger including a better opportunity offer, a mistake by their manager, or a suddenly damaged employer brand could result in the loss of an employee in a time frame of as short of a month. Implementing the Whole Career Employment Planning Model If you are going to consider adopting this model, there are

11 key components of the whole career employment planning model to consider. A focus on top performers it may not be economically feasible to manage and plan for every individual under the whole career model. As a result, a superior approach is to focus whole career planning on top performers, individuals with important contacts, and individuals with key skills. Plan for employees not intending to