Thought Leader: Competitive Advantage
Companies that define their employee brands will win and keep the best workers.
By Joni Doolin, Guest Columnist -- Chain Leader, 5/1/2007
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This is the fourth time Chain Leader and People Report have collaborated on identifying the Best Places to Work. In this one-on-one, People Report founder and CEO Joni Thomas Doolin shares insights on the state—and the future—of the industry’s human capital.
Has the workplace changed in these four short years?
There is no doubt about it. The changes that we have forecasted year after year are hitting us now, making attracting and retaining good employees more important than ever. We have even started to use the analogy of a tsunami—fast and dramatic shifts in the availability of workers, increased competition in and outside the industry for top talent and declining skill levels of those who are available.
What are the big contributing factors?
Close to zero growth of native-born workers in the X and Y Generations (15- to 44-year-olds). This age group represents 90 percent of our traditional management work force. That scenario won’t improve until after 2010. The pool of younger workers is growing at a slightly faster clip, but foodservice growth is outpacing their entry, retail and health care want the same workers, and the job participation rate of teenagers is at a low that we haven’t seen since the early ’60s. Throw in evolving immigration policies, and we are facing not just a labor shortage but a labor "outage."
What are the best companies doing to respond?
Creating workplaces that cut through the clutter of want ads and revolving doors, and instead create a value proposition for employees that links directly to the brand and guest experience. Companies that can define their employee brands as clearly as they do consumer brands are going to get more chances at bat with both potential and existing employees.
What practices really matter when it comes to both people and profits?
There is no silver bullet or one-size-fits-all solution. Employee branding has to be as unique and enticing as the decor and menu. After studying the service sector for more than a decade, we see some key differentiating strategies: a diverse and inclusive workplace, strategic philanthropy, innovative training and development, technology platforms that make employees’ jobs easier, and perhaps most important, a total rewards portfolio that lets employees balance their lives and work.
People Report has correctly predicted and helped prepare the industry for human-capital issues for the past 10 years. What’s in your crystal ball for the future?
As this labor market continues to constrict, the great employers have no choice but to mimic the great marketers. Just as people don’t buy what they need, they buy what they want, today’s employees don’t work where they have to, they are working where they want to. We not only have to outmaneuver our direct competitors, but we have to stay ahead of other industries. Education and health care are now the fastest growing industries in the country. If our schools and hospitals start to fail, it is likely that the government and citizen leaders will step in to help. We will be on our own.
Any last words of insight for our readers?
I have been repeating some wisdom lately from Roy Spence, the marketing genius who helped Herb Kelleher put Southwest Airlines on the map. He advises that anyone who wants to run a successful business has to first figure out its purpose, the difference it is trying to make in the marketplace and the world: "The tie-breaker is always purpose." A best place to work has to be built on purpose.
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