You would be hard-pushed not to feel truly inspired by Barack Obama’s presidential victory this week. His words were as statesman-like and dignified as they were emotive, impassioned and unifying – ‘We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America’. Exceptionally fine words – and words which drew unflattering comparisons on this side of the Atlantic with the eloquence (or lack thereof) displayed by many of our own senior politicians. And, yet, fine words that to an extent camouflaged some of Obama’s less glorious feats during his first term – a lack of engagement with business, the looming fiscal cliff, an increase in red tape, climate change retractions, a campaign that preferred attacking Romney than clarifying what the next four years would look like. However, his conduct, his words and his energy pointed to the renewed sense of hope which was to fore during his campaigning – the president, much like his country, is starting afresh.
And we could see this echoed in the words of Peter Cheese, the CIPD’s Chief Executive, earlier this week at the annual conference in the north west. Cheese spoke about a Human Resources profession that had lost its way and was facing a crisis of trust. He wants the CIPD and the broader HR community to play a truly strategic role in shaping and delivering the workforce of tomorrow. A workforce influenced by better management, a more trusted leadership and a greater sense of inclusivity. And a workforce comfortable with a ‘VUCA’ landscape – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. (Can anyone possibly think of a more ugly acronym?). Just as President Obama is reshaping and re-energising brand America, the HR profession faces a similar challenge. But a challenge that its own leadership is aware of, committed to addressing and happy to articulate.
This sense of volatility and uncertainty was brought home in a report earlier this month from the Home Office. In 2010, no less than 75,000 executives and middle managers left the UK to work abroad and make their own fresh start. The Home Office and the CBI ascribed this to the affects of the recession, a perceived high tax framework and a more liquid and mobile global workforce. As the UK struggles politically with the concept of talented individuals from abroad entering the country for employment purposes, then it can ill afford for 1,500 experienced professionals to be moving in the opposite direction. A national resourcing model predicated by low and falling recruitment and markedly unsuccessful retention does not appear to strike an ideal balance.
This was a concerning theme echoed across the City of London this month. UBS, in announcing that it would lighten its payroll to the tune of around 10,000 people over the next two years, got off to an immediate start by locking 100 or so traders out of the building as they came to work last Monday morning. Putting aside their fairly robust approach to de-layering, UBS are unlikely to be the only bank taking such steps. Whilst employment casualties are to be regretted, both investment banking and its competitor industry sectors face the need to refresh their messaging. For at the least the last two decades, fields such as engineering have struggled to stem the flow of talented graduates out of the sector and into banking and finance. London’s financial services sector now employs around 100,000 fewer people today than it did at its peak in 2007 (350,000 or so down to 250,000).
As great brands such as Rolls Royce, Jaguar Land Rover, BAE Systems, Network Rail and GKN continue to flourish, their growth, both domestically and internationally is heavily influenced by their ability to recruit and retain talented engineers. Now the siren voices of banking are perhaps less confident and less alluring than for a generation, engineering needs to find its own Obama moment. It needs to demonstrate similar levels of confidence, vision, courage and commitment – if the sort of talent flowing out of domestic banks is not to go the way of 75,000 experienced professionals and leave not simply a sector but also the country.
Not only does engineering need to demonstrate such behaviours and such direction – it needs, even if the profession will struggle to emulate Obama, to express, articulate and promote them.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 