The Top Two Things Top Talent Wants Now

Are you ready for the coming jobs war?

There are two types of futurist predictions, uncertain trends and certain trends (data-driven trends). Demographics is one of those "certain trends" as it is easily tracked, although often over-looked.

The latest workforce trends are pointing to a looming crisis as the number of Baby Boomers leaving the workforce in the next five years will be staggering.

Here's the rub. Did you know that there will be only one Gen Xer for every two Baby Boomers who retire in the next five years? That's two leaders out and only one potential to replace them.  That leaves us with some big questions:

• How will you replace the critical leadership positions in your organization?
• How will you keep and develop your critical manager levels in your organization?
• How will you win the war for top talent?

The good news is that there is a way to tip the odds in your favor so you have a competitive advantage in recruiting and retaining top talent.

The bad news is that you have to start now and it takes some work.

Here are the top two things top talent wants now and will give you the advantage:

1. They want to "see" the career path in your organization; and
2. They want to know how you will help them acquire new skills to advance in their careers.

These two things are the "what" and "how" for all levels of top talent and will help you win the jobs war and support your leadership succession. Turns out this is also the key for attracting the newest generation to your workplace, the millennials.

Here is what our research over the past decade, working with hundreds of leading organizations, has shown us:

Start with "what". We have created a "model" career path for CPAs in finance and accounting we call the Bounce. It follows the career of an entry level accountant as they acquire the Technical Proficiencies required by the Profession. It coincides nicely with the 10,000 hour "mastery" concepts of Malcolm Gladwell (from his book "Outliers"). Then the career trajectory needs to change direction as the Professional needs to add Leadership Proficiencies as they manage people and projects and take on a role that is more external (customer/client) facing. 

This is what we mean by the Bounce.

We call this change in direction or turning point, the Bounce. It is the critical pivot point where the career trajectory changes course as they learn to master the new skills needed for success.

Take a look at this short video that describes the Bounce.

Start with the Bounce as a career ladder that you can customize for your job roles and levels. This gives you a tool to communicate the career path in your organization. We find many accounting HR and learning professionals love the emphasis on technical proficiency on the left side of the bounce as a prerequisite for moving to the leadership side as many new professionals would like to skip that and go right to partner or CFO role.

Next work on the "how". Create a curriculum based on the critical competencies for the job levels that support the strategic plan and goals of your organization. These can then be mapped to each level in the bounce and then used to communicate to your talent that you have the learning plans that support their career development and most importantly the strategic initiatives of your organization. We have researched the top five competencies needed for leadership proficiency in the CPA Profession and have a complete blended curriculum to support these. There is more information here Download Guide-to-Bounce-Final.

Our research has shown that leading organizations are also using a blended approach to offering training to their teams and using technology to track their learning. 

The Bounce can become a powerful recruitment and retention tool as a recent PWC report, Managing Tomorrow's People, found that "training and development is the most highly-valued employee benefit, three times as desirable as cash bonuses"

Our learning team has worked with some of the largest CPA firms and Fortune 500 teams to create and manage learning that supports the development of these critical Leadership proficiencies for their top talent.

Make the turn and get a bigger bounce with our Leadership Academy

Check out our on-demand e-learning portfolio of leadership programs (click on "GO" button for browse catalog) and our full library of Leadership Proficiencies available in multiple formats (keynote, on-site, webcasts, on-demand).

Contact us if you want to bring the Bounce to your organization!