It may be a little too early to start talking about recovery, but then again, it may not. There are a lot of positive signs out there, not the least of which comes from Adecco, the international staffing firm that connects something like 700,000 business professionals with client companies each day.
I spoke recently with Rich Thompson, vice president of training and development for Adecco North America. According to Thompson, business may not be officially in recovery yet, but “the hemorrhaging has stopped.” Adecco, he said, has weathered the storm without great sacrifices.
“Adecco North America still believes in the importance of developing talent and we still continue to invest in it,” Thompson said. “We’ve not had any cuts. Now a lot of the interviews I do have to do with what’s going to happen on the back side of this.”
Much of Thompson’s focus has been on pondering that point. Turnover is slowing at client companies, but Thompson believes the shuffling will continue, as organizations across all industries make sure they’re ready to bring their A game by having their A talent in place.
That puts the ball, figuratively, back in Thompson’s possession. His role at Adecco is to make sure those business professionals they place are ready to for Super Bowl-level performance.
Bringing the A game is something Thompson knows about. As a former Green Bay Packer, Thompson is now playing on a new field, and there’s more at stake now than a game ball or conference ranking.
“There are a lot of companies just not thinking beyond today,” Thompson said. He should know: Adecco works with something like 150,000 companies globally, giving it a peek into a lot of workplaces. He’s seeing a lot of companies still in what he calls reactive mode. “From a talent management perspective, it’s going to be an interesting time for companies like that.”
But reaction is a large part of what Adecco does: Reacting to needs, to shortages, to solutions. Adecco has launched some advanced-level training programs to help strengthen some of the deficiencies left by the economic challenges.
That fits with Thompson’s philosophy, of minimizing impact by preparing people with needed skills and abilities.
“I just genuinely believe that success breeds happiness. No matter what generation it is, we all want to be appreciated and more than anything else w
e all want to be successful,” he said. “I think for the most part, success breeds happiness and happy people don’t leave. Short-term happiness comes from compensation, from benefits, from flexibility. Mid-term happiness comes from leadership, the person you work for. I think long-term happiness comes from your ability to be successful.”
Thompson thinks that’s going to be an important life lesson when the smoke of recession completely clears away. When businesses, and business people, are back to boom times and we once again see those workforce shortages we’d all heard so much about, talent retention will again be a major business need.
“Keeping people is not going to be about money,” Thompson said. “Compensation is such a short-term benefit. The smart organizations, being forward-thinking and looking to when times are hot again, are the ones that are focusing mostly on talent development.”
Thompson is making sure that’s not just rhetoric at Adecco. The company is investing not just in its staff, but in the general available talent pool, the associates ready for placement. Those associates have ongoing access to a large library of training materials.
“They are our product,” Thompson said. “They need to be equally as skilled and happy as anybody else.”
Still, Thompson isn’t wearing rose-colored glasses here. It’s being realistic to admit that the struggle isn’t over.
“This is like Stage 1 positive,” he said. “We aren’t declining as much as we were before. A lot of companies we provide workforce solutions to are very optimistic. That feels good. Again, we’re not out in the clear, but things seem much more optimistic now than they did a few months ago.”
Part of that “Stage 1 positive” is optimism, but another part is preparation. Getting your talent ready for better days will place a company in a nice position when the dust does settle.
“I understand you have to keep the boat afloat today before you worry about where you’re going,” Thompson said. “But there’s a potential for a massive reshuffling of the talent pool and the key is how do you keep the A talent. Everyone’s going to reshuffle. Can you reshuffle and upgrade, or are you going to be the one stuck with the Cs?”
