Simple Truths Ignite Reads: Winning the War for Talent Preview

CMYK

market and reveals how your organization can adapt in order to

recruit, retain, and develop your employees. Starting with creating

a sales-minded HR team, Czarnik lays out the foundation for making your company the one people want to work for. He then identifies the primary reasons great employees leave and how

you can prevent that from happening at your company. Finally, you’ll get an actionable plan to keep your employees invested in their growth.

From small business owners to global corporations, Winning the

War for Talent is a step-by-step guide for building and keeping the best team possible!

Business • August 2020 • Hardcover • 152 pages • 5 x 7 • $16.99 U.S. • 978-1-7282-1380-4 marketing@sourcebooks.com • sales@sourcebooks.com • sourcebooks.com • (630) 961-3900

simpletruths.com

WinningTheWarForTalent_CVR.indd 1

CHRIS CZARNIK

ADVANCE READER’S COPY • NOT FOR SALE

WINNING THE WAR FOR TALENT

Winning the War for Talent addresses the challenges of today’s job

ON SALE AUGUST 2020

COMPETITION FOR TOP TALENT IS A BATTLE. WIN THE WAR.

CHRIS CZARNIK

WINNING TALENT THE WAR FOR

R ECRUI T, R E TA IN, A ND DE V EL OP THE TALENT YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE ON SALE

AUGUST 2020

A D VA N C E R E A D E R ’ S C O P Y • N OT F O R S A L E

2/28/20 9:15 AM

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No work of this magnitude is achieved alone. Thanks go out to the many people in my life who have contributed their wisdom and experience to this book: Copyright © 2020 by Chris Czarnik Cover and internal design © 2020 by Sourcebooks Cover design by Ploy Siripant Cover/internal images © XX Sourcebooks, the colophon, and Simple Truths are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—­except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—­w ithout permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.—­From a Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee of Publishers and Associations All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

Published by Simple Truths, an imprint of Sourcebooks P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-­4410 (630) 961-­3900 sourcebooks.com Originally published as Winning the War for Talent in 2018 in the United States

by Career [RE]Search Group. This edition issued based on the paperback edition published in 2019 in the United States by Simple Truths, an imprint of Sourcebooks.

★★★ To Dr. Susan May, president of Fox Valley Technical College, who believed in my work before anyone knew I existed.

★★★ To the best managers I have ever had in my career. You all showed me what real leadership looks like: Tim Allen, Patti Jorgensen, Bruce Weiland, Bill Guilbeault, and Roger Johnson.

★★★ To the thousands of job seekers who have trusted me with their search. Your stories are the true authors of this work.

Printed and bound in China.

OGP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 4

Where Did All the People Go, and When

Change What You Are Interviewing For

Are They Coming Back?

65

vii

CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 1 Farmers and Hunters of Talent

Engage and Retain Great Talent

79

1

CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 2 Create a Sales-­Minded HR Department

From What to Why: Creating SMEs

97

21

CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 3

Developing the Next Generation of Leaders

111

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

125

Why Aren’t Your Employees Recruiting for You?

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• INTRODUCTION • Where Did All the People Go, and When Are They Coming Back?

The shortage of workers in the United States is being treated like some type of surprise. However, anybody paying attention wouldn’t be surprised.

This shortage has been a mathematical certainty for more than three decades. While there have been fluctuations in employment over that period, this “silver tsunami” was always coming. Most companies and organizations didn’t plan for this changing demographic because they chose not to look. In many cases, the focus

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Where Did All the People Go, and When Are They Coming Back?

on the next quarter’s profits overshadowed the looming

activities and retirement), whole industries were born

hiring crisis that has been inevitable since the 1960s.

to service them.

The math works like this.

In terms of employees, this group created an almost endless supply of labor. For the better part

The Baby Boomers

of the last forty years, there was no question about having people available to fill positions. “If you post

There are somewhere around 74.9 million people in

the job, they will come” was the battle cry of HR man-

the generation referred to as the baby boomers. This

agers. The trouble is that not many organizations

generation consists of people who were born between

planned on what to do when the baby boomers moved

1945 and 1964. Much discussion has been made about

into retirement and left the market.

the economic impact of this generation, as their movement through every phase of life has shaped the economy of this country. Whether it was the sale of diapers

Generation X

(which led to the creation of disposable diapers,

The generation that came immediately following the

thank goodness), the proliferation of automobiles (in

baby boomers is referred to as Generation X. This typ-

their teens), the housing boom (as new parents), the

ically refers to those born between 1965 and 1982.

unprecedented growth of the workforce (including

For many social and economic reasons, this genera-

many women joining the workforce for the first time),

tion is a good deal smaller than the baby boomers. With

and even the explosion of the motor home industry

approximately sixty-­ five million people in Generation

(as this giant generation headed toward more leisure

X, there were ten million fewer people born during the

viii

ix

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Where Did All the People Go, and When Are They Coming Back?

The Millennial Generation The generation after Generation X is referred to as the millennials, which describes those born between 1982 and 1996. This generation is actually slightly larger than the baby boomer generation and has approximately seventy-­six million people in it. While this generation has been much maligned in the media, it is actually the most tech-­savvy and forward-­thinking generation to date. The size of this generation can fill the shoes left open by the baby boomers in time, but they require a much different workplace than their forefathers. same number of years as during the baby boom. Let’s just sit with that for a moment. There are ten million

immediately preceding it. So as wonderful as it is that the

The False Hope of the Great Recession

labor market and number of jobs in America expanded

If you do the math with the overlay of these genera-

dramatically during the baby boomer years, the sucking

tions, you might come up with an interesting question.

sound that you hear every time you post a new job today

“Shouldn’t this shortage have started to show itself a

is the vacuum created by sixty-­five million people trying

decade ago?” Why, yes. Yes, it should have.

fewer people in Generation X than in the generation

to fill the jobs of seventy-­five million people. x

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Except for the one event that could have hidden xi

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Where Did All the People Go, and When Are They Coming Back?

it from those who were actually looking—­the Great

Between 2007 and 2012, not only wasn’t there a

Recession. The math (when these population differ-

labor shortage, there were more people looking for

ences should have started showing up in the labor

work than jobs needing to be filled. Each job opening

market) says that we should have begun to see these

was met with literally hundreds of applicants. HR man-

changes sometime around 2007, sixty-­t wo years (the

agers were blessed with their choice of the best and

normal retirement age of the oldest baby boomers)

brightest for each opening.

after 1945. People who study demographics were already shouting from the rooftops in the early 2000s that the shortage was coming. Until the world econ-

Someone Needs to Pay the Piper

omy fell off a cliff.

In response to the Great Recession, a college’s vision-

The Great Recession artificially decreased the

ary president hired me to create a program to teach

number of jobs needed in America at almost the

proactive job searching to displaced midcareer pro-

exact same time the demographers were having U.S.

fessionals who were affected by the economic down-

businesses bracing for impact. The shortage never

turn. Over the next ten years, I trained more than two

materialized. In fact, due to the massive tempo-

thousand of these people to do a research-­based job

rary decrease in the number of jobs in America, it

search I created called Human Search Engine. During

appeared to business leaders that this shortage was

this time, I spent every day in the middle of the battle

really a hoax that was never going to come to frui-

for employment with people who had lost their family-­

tion. Many of them decried the warnings that were

sustaining jobs through no fault of their own. My job

being sent out as false fear.

day and night for a decade was to help those who

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Where Did All the People Go, and When Are They Coming Back?

had lost their jobs and were now in fear of losing their

get back to applicants a year earlier were now literally

houses. I became one of the nation’s experts on the job

receiving no applicants for their job postings.

search, even to the point of my process being adopted by the Employee Assistance program in Congress.

The shortage of workers that had been predicted for so many years was finally a reality. Most employ-

Somewhere around 2012, a funny thing happened.

ers had no idea how to react to this because they had

The number of people coming to my classes started

never experienced it before. That is the purpose of this

to go down. At one point in 2009, I had two full classes

book—­to bring you new ideas of how to recruit, retain,

of forty desperate job seekers, each hoping for a new

and develop talent in your organization. To show you

opportunity. By 2011, I had to cut the number of classes

new ways to engage potential employees and to

down to one, as there just weren’t that many people

become an employer of choice. To demonstrate that

looking anymore. The number of people coming to the

finding and retaining talent requires many of the same

class gradually declined over the next three years.

skills and actions that you already do in your organiza-

In 2015, I had the opportunity to become the man-

tion to market your products and services. To give you

ager of the Employment Connections department that

a head start over every other employer in your area.

served our college’s graduates in finding employment.

To ensure that your organization will have all of the

By the end of 2015, a shift was absolutely noticeable.

talent it needs to grow and thrive in the next decade

No longer were we besieged by job seekers looking

and beyond.

for work. Now almost every call I received was from an employer who was having trouble finding people for their jobs! The same employers who would not xiv

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1 Farmers and Hunters of Talent If you are struggling to find enough people or the right people to staff your organization, your initial response might be to walk down to your HR area and give them a nudge. Some of the worst business managers and owners will pressure their HR staff to “do better, whatever it takes.” These businesses are going to struggle for the next decade. Why? Because almost everyone in the business world has grown up in a world where finding talent was as easy as posting a job. “If you post it, they will come” has been the answer.

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When that doesn’t work, some managers will go

Farmers and Hunters of Talent

▶ UNABLE: Lacks the physical or mental capacity to

immediately to offering more money to attract talent.

achieve the desired outcome. They want to complete

That lever has worked for them in the past. However,

the task but physically cannot without additional

when that doesn’t work either, most business owners

resources. The needed resources may be training,

have fired every bullet in their clip and are out of ideas.

tools, or technical knowledge.

This leads to additional stated or implied pressure on

▶ UNWILLING: Physically and mentally capable of

HR to “step it up or else.” The fact is if HR knew what to

completing the task but lacks the proper motiva-

do, they would have done it already. These HR people

tion. Pushback or lack of understanding of the task’s

have no more idea of how to find talent than the boss

importance is the limiting factor.

who is pressuring them. What then?

Consider the ramifications of classifying every task that is not completed into one of these two catego-

Willing and Able

ries. Whether it is a child not cleaning their room or a

In every book I write, I capitalize two words every

scientist not curing the common cold, this clarification

time I use them: WILLING and ABLE. The reason is

simplifies every issue of this type. The way I see it,

that I believe that anytime someone does not achieve

anytime someone says they can’t do anything (includ-

what you ask of them, you have to ask them and your-

ing yourself), figuring out if they are UNWILLING

self if they were UNWILLING or UNABLE to accom-

or UNABLE to complete the task is the critical first

plish the task.

step. The reason is that once you have this answer, you can determine how to proceed. Does the person 2

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Farmers and Hunters of Talent

(again, look in the mirror, my friend) lack resources or

applications is that the people looking for jobs have no

motivation?

idea that you have jobs available. There are really two

This is critical for managers, as we often mistake

separate problems here.

UNABLE for UNWILLING and think that people are testing our authority. As my good friend and mentor

1. The people you are trying to reach have no idea that

once mused, “Almost never does someone do some-

your company exists.

thing to purposely challenge your authority. It is either

If you are an HR manager or business owner, you are

that they didn’t understand you, don’t know how, or

likely completely consumed by your organization. You

thought they had a better way. Your job as a manager

spend most of your waking moments thinking about

is to find out which of these is true.” Those words have

your business. That focus is exactly why you might be

stayed with me for almost thirty years.

making the mistake of thinking that people know your

The central question to this entire concept is this:

business exists. The idea that people don’t know that

Are people UNWILLING or UNABLE to come to

your business exists is an affront to the thousands of

work for your organization?

hours that you have spent building and growing your organization. Because you know it so well, everyone

UNABLE vs. UNWILLING

must know it that well. That is just not true. Unless you are an employer of five hundred people or more, 90

After working with more than three thousand job

percent of the people in your geographic area have

seekers over the past fifteen years, I can say that the

never heard of your organization, let alone what you

number one reason why your company is not receiving

stand for.

4

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In my town, there are about 80,000 people. Add in the surrounding communities, and the population grows

Farmers and Hunters of Talent

realize that, according to Reference USA, there are 34,588 hiring organizations within thirty miles of Appleton.

to about 250,000. I have lived in this community my

Despite it being my job to know what’s out there, I

entire life (fifty-­five years). My work both as a job search

could only name about one in one hundred of the orga-

expert and as the career services manager of the largest

nizations in my city. If that is true for me, what do you

technical college in the area makes me one of the area’s

think is true for the average job seeker? If they do not

experts on what companies exist in our region.

see your company name in the newspaper, in online

If you gave me a pen and paper, I could write the

ads, or on a hiring site, they very likely have no idea

names of about two hundred businesses in our area with-

that you exist. And there is no way that they can come

out using online resources. That’s not too bad until you

to work for your organization unless they know it exists.

6

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CMYK

market and reveals how your organization can adapt in order to

recruit, retain, and develop your employees. Starting with creating

a sales-minded HR team, Czarnik lays out the foundation for making your company the one people want to work for. He then identifies the primary reasons great employees leave and how

you can prevent that from happening at your company. Finally, you’ll get an actionable plan to keep your employees invested in their growth.

From small business owners to global corporations, Winning the

War for Talent is a step-by-step guide for building and keeping the best team possible!

Business • August 2020 • Hardcover • 152 pages • 5 x 7 • $16.99 U.S. • 978-1-7282-1380-4 marketing@sourcebooks.com • sales@sourcebooks.com • sourcebooks.com • (630) 961-3900

simpletruths.com

WinningTheWarForTalent_CVR.indd 1

CHRIS CZARNIK

ADVANCE READER’S COPY • NOT FOR SALE

WINNING THE WAR FOR TALENT

Winning the War for Talent addresses the challenges of today’s job

ON SALE AUGUST 2020

COMPETITION FOR TOP TALENT IS A BATTLE. WIN THE WAR.

CHRIS CZARNIK

WINNING TALENT THE WAR FOR

R ECRUI T, R E TA IN, A ND DE V EL OP THE TALENT YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE ON SALE

AUGUST 2020

A D VA N C E R E A D E R ’ S C O P Y • N OT F O R S A L E

2/28/20 9:15 AM