Guest Letter: Then and Now

The next 10 years will require everything we have learned about human capital…and a whole lot more.

By Joni Thomas Doolin, Guest Columnist -- Chain Leader, 4/1/2006

Possibly the best business essay of 2005 was published in Fast Company. Titled “Change or Die,” it posed the question, if a doctor told you that you had to make tough changes in how you think and act, knowing that if you didn’t you would die, would you do it? The scientifically supported answer was probably not. In fact, the statistical odds were 9-1 that you would not make the changes necessary to save your own life.

Small wonder it’s difficult for leaders to facilitate change in our businesses. Most people don’t like change, and that reality is roadblock No. 1 to success in the new-economy workplace.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Labor Shortage
There is not a demographer or an economist in the country who would dispute that we have an impending shortage of skilled workers. The early warning signs are quickly being replaced by real anxiety in the recruiting department.

While it may not have registered yet in the executive suite, the favorable labor market is definitely over. This is where the reluctance to change starts to trip up otherwise savvy business leaders. Continuing to use the past as a predictor of the future guarantees failure in 2006 and beyond.

Innovation is imperative. It is time to start thinking about our employees in the same way we do our guests, in terms of the value proposition we deliver to them. That means creating a total rewards environment including competitive wages and benefits, as well as a chance to contribute, learn something new and be a part of something worthwhile.

Our last tight labor market did not include factors like terrorism, globalization, rapid economic shifts, wartime politics, crazy corporate governance swings and a succession of major natural disasters. The age-wave freight train has accelerated, taking baby boomers out of the labor market faster than they can be replaced. It is more difficult to forecast than ever before, and our leaders are required to be alert, flexible, courageous, informed and able to guide their organizations through the minefields of change.

Looking Ahead
The companies profiled in this special “Best Places To Work” issue are examples of leaders who are doing exactly that—facilitating targeted, customized and well-executed strategies that deliver on that all-important employment proposition.

Many of them were among the 260 leading chain-restaurant executives who gathered last November to celebrate the 10th anniversary of People Report. These companies have made significant progress in improving employee and management retention, increasing composite diversity, creating total reward packages of enhanced compensation and benefits offerings, involving their employees in their communities and investing in the development of the next generation of leaders. Although it was fun to walk down memory lane and remember a time when human-capital benchmarks did not even exist, the group chose to focus not on the past, but rather the strategies for staying ahead of the competition in the future.

That meeting and this issue bring to mind Norman Brinker, a leader known for innovation. He often says, “Winners like to be measured.” The winners in today’s workplace understand that those measurements are the foundation for the future.

• Editorial: Don’t Give This to HR
• Guest Letter: Then and Now
• Recruiting: Bring a Friend, Says Rib Crib
• Recruiting: Morton’s Mission Critical Hiring Incentives
• Training: Standard Practice at The Palm
• Training: Ivar's Inside Track
• Retention: Room to Grow at Runza
• Retention: Healthy Competition at Main Street
• Retention: LongHorn Offers a Profitable Partnership
• Retention: All-Inclusive at Sea Island
• Retention: Fleming's Survey Says...
• Retention: Goodwill Is as Goodwill Does
• Compensation: Human Capital
• Compensation: STAR Treatment at Brinker
• Compensation: Donatos’ Benefits Focus on Quality of Life
• Compensation: Coffee Perks by the Hour