A business case for building a career resilient workforce

Most people remember fondly the days when companies used to offer lifetime employment and long service awards that spanned over 25, 30, 35, 40 years and above. All the Generation X employees who worked for these companies were assured of at least a measure of job security in exchange of adequate performance and loyalty exhibition.

As organisations adjust to market demands today’s business environment is characterised by fixed term or short-term contracts and that old covenant is now null. The turn of events on the labour market have inevitably brought in a new dimension to managerial roles and responsibilities- to focus not much on employee employment but on employee employability. Most of the Generation X and all the millennials found themselves having to forget about clinging to one job, one company and one career path. Organisational leaders and most of their employees have all been caught -up in this cul- de- sac.

Inevitably, new roles and responsibilities are needed by managers to build a workforce that has the competitive skills required to find work when they need it wherever they can find it. Building new covenants that enhance an individual’s employability inside and outside the organisation becomes a prerequisite. Leaders need not only focus on creating lean structures and reorganising but also on building a mutual relationship based on trust and caring. While it is increasingly becoming the employee‘s responsibility to manage their own career, it is the role of the company leadership to provide employees with the tools, the enabling environment and opportunities for assessing and developing their skills.

Creating a career resilient workforce that is not only dedicated to continuous learning but employees who are ready to reinvent themselves to keep pace with change is now required. It is evidently becoming a leadership role to keep this communication with employee open on business trends so that that they can respond quickly and flexibly to changing business needs. The new leadership role becomes that of empowering employees to assess, hone and redirect and expand their skills so that they stay competitive on the global job market. To a very large extent, the developmental sector leadership has done a lot in empowering employees to make informed decisions about their careers. Most employees in the development sector actually multitask and have opportunities to operate on the global market.

While the new leadership role is changing to incorporate the proposed, the message to both employers and employees of the 21st Century is to change attitudes and values of loyalty and betrayal and start seeing issues broadly. When employees jump the ship, leaders need not see it as betrayal. Equally when employees are retrenched or downsized, it’s not betrayal either on the part of the employers. Employees must be educated that the usual view of career path must change and has changed. In the past employees would stick to one company and rising in one speciality area.

The need for multiskilling and movement across functional boundaries cannot be over emphasised. In our local context the job market has shrinked drastically and as such switching back and forth between regular duties and special projects only becomes the survival strategy of today.

On the part of the employees they need to realise that the child to parent relationship does not exist anymore in organisations. Rather there is an evident need to foster adult to adult relationships where each adult is made aware of their roles and responsibility. Ordinarily employees get frustrated these days when they find that they lack the skills needed to get another job. Also, when employers break the old covenant and offer nothing, they also get frustrated because as the labour force we have been encultured to think that loyalty is the way to go.

The equation to create career resilient workshop requires balancing by both sides. It not entirely a leadership role but both parties have a role to play. Employees should also know that it is their duty to continually develop themselves in other skills so as to ensure relevance. While training becomes the ideal, it is also made possible if management are receptive to lateral transfer that allow employees to be exposed to other jobs and acquire skills that will assist them to adjust to career changes.

There is now a growing need to manage these changing aspirations and demands carefully. Some sceptical managers may ask the impact of such moves to the bottom line. There are real risks that need to be managed. In this age of mobility, organisations face even greater dangers if they do not commit themselves to developing self-reliant workers.

We will agree that the world is a different place and so is the workplace. But is it only technology that is affecting the world of work? Government policies, demographics, economics, market trends etc. all demand adoption to an agile career mindset. Projections indicate that 85% of jobs that will exist in 2030 have not yet been invented. Understanding factors affecting the workplace will help to create a career resilient workforce.

Emmanuel Jinda is the Managing Consultant of PROSERVE Consulting Group, a leading supplier of Professional Human Resources and Management services locally, regionally and internationally. He can be contacted at Tel: 263 773004143 or 263 242 772778 or visit our website at www.proservehr.com