Leaders everywhere are overseeing a major shift in the job market right now. According to US Labor statistics, as of December 2020, the global talent shortage amounted to 40 million skilled workers worldwide. If this trend continues, by 2030, companies worldwide risk losing $8.4 trillion in revenue because of the lack of skilled talent. Thus, “the Great Resignation” has the power to blindside companies; this trend is putting the most intense pressure on hiring managers, who now must reevaluate and adjust their hiring practices for speed and efficiency while improving engagement and curating an experience.
Ying Zheng, co-founder and president of AiFi, concludes, “We’re seeing a major shift in today’s job market, as companies that are bringing in new technologies also realize that their employees are looking for more meaningful work and career growth opportunities.” She continues, “In the retail landscape, autonomous technology, and hybrid integrations offer workers more opportunities to advance their technical knowledge while working with autonomous/frictionless platforms.” Traditional cashiers – for example – have a more comprehensive range of career choices, including e-commerce analyst, and back-end logistics manager, that oversees deliveries, POS systems, APP management, and store layouts. “This type of reskilling is opening the door for new job opportunities in the industry,” remarks Zheng.
So what can leaders do?
According to is Krister Ungerböck, the WSJ bestselling author of 22 Talk SHIFTs: Tools to Transform Leadership in Business, in Partnership, and in Life, leaders can lead several engagements to help improve matters. In brief, they need to focus on amplifying the positive feelings and minimizing employees’ bad feelings toward their jobs. A good manager will, for example, bolster their team members’ sense of autonomy—giving them ownership and authority over their work. As a leader, determine which decisions require your approval and which ones you might hand off to trusted team members. Reduce the number of status updates needed, if possible, and ask top performers what you might start or stop doing to increase their autonomy.
“Keep criticism to a minimum,” concludes Ungerböck. Instead of focusing the bulk of your feedback on employees’ mistakes and shortcomings, he suggests looking first for ways to encourage. This is because if a project fails, you can still acknowledge a person’s efforts or specific things they did well. “Make sure you offer at least as many positive comments to employees as critical ones—ideally, more,” he says. “Better still, find ways to sidestep the need to point out flaws by asking team members how they think they could improve a project or their approach to a given task.”
Ungerböck leaders can inspire employees. This can occur in two key ways. First, leaders can set inspiring goals for themselves and then begin taking steps to achieve those goals. Seeing a leader working toward something challenging helps employees see the potential within themselves. Second, people also feel inspired when their leader allows them to see how they fit within and contribute to the big-picture, positive effect their company has on the world. When you show people how their efforts are changing lives, you don’t just give them a reason to keep showing up to work; you stop them from looking elsewhere for a sense of purpose.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/2021/10/11/how-to-lead-through-the-global-talent-shortage/?sh=64230fda6518
