Comments on: The New War for Talent http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/ Recruiting intelligence. Recruiting community. Wed, 08 Oct 2008 03:16:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: The Gathering Storm: Immigration Policy for Skilled Workers Needs a Major Overhaul : ERE.net http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-5441 The Gathering Storm: Immigration Policy for Skilled Workers Needs a Major Overhaul : ERE.net Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:46:27 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-5441 [...] article on increasing competition for talent from the European Union and other countries. The Blue Card program created by the EU is explicitly targeted at skilled workers, unlike the Green Card, which [...] [...] article on increasing competition for talent from the European Union and other countries. The Blue Card program created by the EU is explicitly targeted at skilled workers, unlike the Green Card, which [...]

]]> By: Art Maurice http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3772 Art Maurice Mon, 19 May 2008 04:25:00 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3772 The question is how do you define ?Talent?? If talent is anyone who can work, then you are right. The retiring of the baby boomers won?t have any effect. When I look for talent I look for someone with a Masters degree or better with at least five years of experience and who can code embedded Linux device drivers. Actually I?m already in a war for this talent because it?s very hard to find someone with this talent in the US. Most of my hires are via work visas. You?re example of government employees doesn?t apply. I know many people who have retired from their job only to take a government job and you know why. They wanted the retirement benefits. I?m sure you know that government employees have their own pension and they can still get social security. 60 Minutes did an expos? on it some years ago and let?s not even discuss politicians. The next ten years is going to be interesting and I agree with you that some baby boomers will still be in the workforce either by choice or necessity. For me, if I can retire at 60, I?m out. I mean recruiting is fun and I like helping people with their careers, but I?d rather be traveling or doing special interest projects at home. I don?t mind working five or maybe ten hours a week helping the community or consulting with a company but not 40 hours. With advances in modern medicine I think most of us will make it to the ripe old age of 100. I hope none of us has to work that long. There?s a lot of money in recruiting and with the right planning and investments I hope that most of us can retire early and tell stories of how we landed that perfect candidate. The question is how do you define ?Talent?? If talent is anyone who can work, then you are right. The retiring of the baby boomers won?t have any effect. When I look for talent I look for someone with a Masters degree or better with at least five years of experience and who can code embedded Linux device drivers. Actually I?m already in a war for this talent because it?s very hard to find someone with this talent in the US. Most of my hires are via work visas.

You?re example of government employees doesn?t apply. I know many people who have retired from their job only to take a government job and you know why. They wanted the retirement benefits. I?m sure you know that government employees have their own pension and they can still get social security. 60 Minutes did an expos? on it some years ago and let?s not even discuss politicians.

The next ten years is going to be interesting and I agree with you that some baby boomers will still be in the workforce either by choice or necessity. For me, if I can retire at 60, I?m out. I mean recruiting is fun and I like helping people with their careers, but I?d rather be traveling or doing special interest projects at home. I don?t mind working five or maybe ten hours a week helping the community or consulting with a company but not 40 hours.

With advances in modern medicine I think most of us will make it to the ripe old age of 100. I hope none of us has to work that long. There?s a lot of money in recruiting and with the right planning and investments I hope that most of us can retire early and tell stories of how we landed that perfect candidate.

]]> By: Keith Halperin http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3771 Keith Halperin Mon, 19 May 2008 03:48:00 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3771 IMHO, the often-used term 'War for Talent' is misleading if not completely incorrect. I believe there will be such a 'war' when you start seeing compensation increases for many types of positions (including recruiters) and levels of employees similar to those of the Dot.com Boom of the late '90s. As a character in a movie of the '90s said: 'Show me the money!' Cheers, IMHO, the often-used term ‘War for Talent’ is misleading if not completely incorrect. I believe there will be such a ‘war’ when you start seeing compensation increases for many types of positions (including recruiters) and levels of employees similar to those of the Dot.com Boom of the late ’90s. As a character in a movie of the ’90s said: ‘Show me the money!’

Cheers,

]]> By: Norm Petereit http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3770 Norm Petereit Fri, 16 May 2008 12:45:00 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3770 The question is how many of the baby boomers that will retire will actually exit the workforce? Yes they will retire but its likely many will still be working and want work. For example, many government employees retire and come back to similar government jobs as consultants because they have the job experience. Just look at retired politicians becoming lobyists or commentators. How do you count this? Is this actually a new job created in the country or just a transfer of experienced services? I am 63 and I don't believe the boomers will not exit the work force in any great numbers. As we live longer we find that we need to work longer. Some will actually retire and exit the workplace but many won't or won't be able to exit or will stay because they enjoy working and being productive. I see these experienced very productive boomers as a rich source of experienced talent that will be ready, available and want good paying jobs not just a jobs at a big box mart. Statistics can be spun a lot of ways but my experience tells me we won't have an employment shortage and we probably will have an excess of available highly mobile talent that will want work in america. 9 of 10 workers are now trained educated service based workers that are in good health and not ready to exit the workforce. What I see will happen is companies will figure how to use this talent because this talent base isn't looking for healthcare or retirement benefits. Many will work as independent consultants in direct competition with offshore personnel. The question is how many of the baby boomers that will retire will actually exit the workforce? Yes they will retire but its likely many will still be working and want work.

For example, many government employees retire and come back to similar government jobs as consultants because they have the job experience. Just look at retired politicians becoming lobyists or commentators. How do you count this? Is this actually a new job created in the country or just a transfer of experienced services?

I am 63 and I don’t believe the boomers will not exit the work force in any great numbers. As we live longer we find that we need to work longer. Some will actually retire and exit the workplace but many won’t or won’t be able to exit or will stay because they enjoy working and being productive.

I see these experienced very productive boomers as a rich source of experienced talent that will be ready, available and want good paying jobs not just a jobs at a big box mart.

Statistics can be spun a lot of ways but my experience tells me we won’t have an employment shortage and we probably will have an excess of available highly mobile talent that will want work in america. 9 of 10 workers are now trained educated service based workers that are in good health and not ready to exit the workforce.

What I see will happen is companies will figure how to use this talent because this talent base isn’t looking for healthcare or retirement benefits. Many will work as independent consultants in direct competition with offshore personnel.

]]> By: Art Maurice http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3769 Art Maurice Thu, 15 May 2008 03:50:00 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3769 Good point Norm and I agree, right now there doesn't seem to be any job creation so where's the personnel shortage coming from. But there are two sides to this coin. One side as you mentioned is job creation which currently is very low and that relates to the low US GNP growth rate. But we won't stay low forever. I'm not staying we're going to have the phenomenal hiring of the 90's but going over 2% GNP growth should return and with that job creation. The other side of the coin is job replacement. I can't find the article, and I believe it was from ERE, that talked about the deluge of retirements about to come from the baby boomers. I used the facts given in one of my Toastmaster speeches so I remember that it stated, 'Starting in 2011, 70 million baby boomers will retire over the next 7 years.' So on average 10 million replacement jobs per year for seven years. Now I know what you said in your message and you're right. Not all these jobs are going to stay in the US. So let's say that out of 70 million jobs only 30 million stay in the US. That's still a lot more (almost double) the jobs produced in the boon of the 90's. So I think the war on talent, while I agree with you that it's not here yet, is a very real problem looming in the near future. Keeping that in mind, what should we be doing now to best capitalize on this upcoming opportunity? Cheers, Good point Norm and I agree, right now there doesn’t seem to be any job creation so where’s the personnel shortage coming from. But there are two sides to this coin. One side as you mentioned is job creation which currently is very low and that relates to the low US GNP growth rate. But we won’t stay low forever. I’m not staying we’re going to have the phenomenal hiring of the 90’s but going over 2% GNP growth should return and with that job creation.

The other side of the coin is job replacement. I can’t find the article, and I believe it was from ERE, that talked about the deluge of retirements about to come from the baby boomers. I used the facts given in one of my Toastmaster speeches so I remember that it stated, ‘Starting in 2011, 70 million baby boomers will retire over the next 7 years.’ So on average 10 million replacement jobs per year for seven years.

Now I know what you said in your message and you’re right. Not all these jobs are going to stay in the US. So let’s say that out of 70 million jobs only 30 million stay in the US. That’s still a lot more (almost double) the jobs produced in the boon of the 90’s. So I think the war on talent, while I agree with you that it’s not here yet, is a very real problem looming in the near future. Keeping that in mind, what should we be doing now to best capitalize on this upcoming opportunity?

Cheers,

]]> By: Norm Petereit http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3768 Norm Petereit Wed, 14 May 2008 12:23:00 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3768 As a recruiter I receive daily email lists of H1B and L1 bench personnel from many offshore firms that have offices in the USA. The daily list usually numbers into the 1000's of engineers sitting on the bench. There doesn't seem to be any lack of USA consulting bench personnel. These skilled workers are here in the USA and ready to go to work and many of these candidates will consider full time positions after 6 months on contract. These are really skilled workers with SAP, Oracle Application, JAVA, and .Net skills. What I find hard to believe is that this great shortage of personnel is coming and we all need to be ready. I don't see this shortage I only see the current surplus situtation with the USA Fortune 1000 companies moving work of all kinds offshore. The fortune 1000 is not creating NET NEW JOBS in the USA. There is no new Y2K event that will require thousands of new IT workers. In fact in the USA we have not created any net new IT jobs in years with IT employment holding steay since 2003. For example,if you need a petroleum engineer I see a shortage but again that is because the Large US Oil Companies for years were outsourcing a lot of its jobs and most new investment was offshore so many students stopped going into petroleum engineering because they saw what happened to their fathers USA JOBS in petroleum engineering since 1983. Maybe Europe's new blue card will open up their labor markets but I don't think the workers in Europe will welcome the competition and the effect it will have on lowering wages. Globalization is just starting to hit the speed bumps as the promised reality has not materialized for the middle class of industrialized nations. As a recruiter I receive daily email lists of H1B and L1 bench personnel from many offshore firms that have offices in the USA. The daily list usually numbers into the 1000’s of engineers sitting on the bench. There doesn’t seem to be any lack of USA consulting bench personnel. These skilled workers are here in the USA and ready to go to work and many of these candidates will consider full time positions after 6 months on contract. These are really skilled workers with SAP, Oracle Application, JAVA, and .Net skills.

What I find hard to believe is that this great shortage of personnel is coming and we all need to be ready. I don’t see this shortage I only see the current surplus situtation with the USA Fortune 1000 companies moving work of all kinds offshore. The fortune 1000 is not creating NET NEW JOBS in the USA.

There is no new Y2K event that will require thousands of new IT workers. In fact in the USA we have not created any net new IT jobs in years with IT employment holding steay since 2003.

For example,if you need a petroleum engineer I see a shortage but again that is because the Large US Oil Companies for years were outsourcing a lot of its jobs and most new investment was offshore so many students stopped going into petroleum engineering because they saw what happened to their fathers USA JOBS in petroleum engineering since 1983.

Maybe Europe’s new blue card will open up their labor markets but I don’t think the workers in Europe will welcome the competition and the effect it will have on lowering wages.

Globalization is just starting to hit the speed bumps as the promised reality has not materialized for the middle class of industrialized nations.

]]> By: Nancy Daves http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3767 Nancy Daves Tue, 13 May 2008 08:52:00 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3767 It was inevitable that Europe implement a plan to maintain their talent pool within the borders. We in the US do not realize how fortunate we are that we attract the talent that we need from across the waters. We will have to review the success of the Blue Card as it applies to our talent pool from our neighbors from our contiguous borders. An open mind to change always helps, i.e., looking at pros and cons re tactical and strategic plans. It was inevitable that Europe implement a plan to maintain their talent pool within the borders. We in the US do not realize how fortunate we are that we attract the talent that we need from across the waters. We will have to review the success of the Blue Card as it applies to our talent pool from our neighbors from our contiguous borders. An open mind to change always helps, i.e., looking at pros and cons re tactical and strategic plans.

]]> By: Jonathan Hefferlin http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3766 Jonathan Hefferlin Tue, 13 May 2008 06:41:00 +0000 http://www.ere.net/2008/05/13/the-new-war-for-talent/#comment-3766 With the possibly 2 billion unskilled (incl. unemployed & underemployed) around the world, I am assuming the 55% of those migrating to Europe is a % of those who migrate? If 1 million unskilled workers come to the US (5%), could it possibly be 11 million a year going to Europe? As usual, great article! Jon With the possibly 2 billion unskilled (incl. unemployed & underemployed) around the world, I am assuming the 55% of those migrating to Europe is a % of those who migrate?

If 1 million unskilled workers come to the US (5%), could it possibly be 11 million a year going to Europe?

As usual, great article! Jon

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