People
Issue No. 21 - February/March 2005
Save me - I can’t find skilled people
by Bill Anschutz
The cry from large and small business is getting louder: "I cannot find the skilled people to enable me to run my business".
Well well; whose problem is that?
First of all, let me acknowledge that many people and organizations of goodwill have tried to develop constructive, cost effective solutions and that there are many facets to the issue.
However the cold reality is that if the solutions have not solved the problem, there is no alternative to paying the price and training the people you need for your own future. Business has to be able to respond to the environment with immediate action.
Finger-pointing and blame-shifting are academic.
Few in business and enterprise would have failed to notice that over the years, the large companies and government departments and enterprises that once trained people, have been "downsizing" and "outsourcing".
"Outsourcing" means that they no longer employ and train their own technicians or skilled people, if they can avoid it. They "buy in" the services, wherever possible. In so doing they avoid the cost of training and have successfully reduced their cost base.
The community has learned the game of cost shifting — shifting the cost from their business to someone else's, but also shifting the cost from short to long term.
The better use of just-in-time resources makes sense, but this can be a dangerous game and there is no insurance against unpredicted variations.
The critical danger lies in being able to assess and manage the real and unidentified costs in business, then manage for both long and short term.
Somehow we have been brainwashed to believe that cost reduction equals cutting salary cost and head count.
Look around at any business or enterprise and guess at the cost of poor judgement by senior executives, poor and outdated machinery, systems and processes. What is the cost of staff turnover resulting from bullying, incompetent or un...
