Workforce Development - A Good Investment?

Did You Realize Your Cultural IQ Could Hijack Your Career?

You get anxious in unfamiliar situations. You can't stand not knowing what is coming next. You hate it when people keep you waiting.  You may have a career-threatening cultural IQ.  A new online assessment assesses a variety of skills and traits, including people's tolerance for uncertainty and their adaptability, empathy and cultural knowledge


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The Workforce Crisis is Real, and Creative Solutions Are Needed

In the view of Ed Gordon, author of The 2020 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis, the forthcoming IT workforce shortage is a legitimate worry. Millions of Americans who are unemployed do not have the right talent for the jobs that need to be filled, with many people earning college degrees that are not translating into decent employment.

There now are four million jobs empty, Gordon said, and half of them are highly skilled positions that require specialized technology training and education.

“The issue is that the labor market is out of sync with the realities of the global marketplace with the jobs we are creating and the jobs that are disappearing,” Gordon said. “This is a problem all over the U.S. and most of the developed world.”

Convergence of forces

Gordon said the situation is being exacerbated by specific social and economic forces converging at the same time. The most prominent is that technology is becoming more pervasive in every facet of life, and since technology is complex, people use it in ways that support or create new products and services.

If there is one mitigating circumstance regarding the IT worker shortage, it's that companies are loading up on technology and they want fewer workers to do more. The trend is offset somewhat by the increased efficiency enabled by technology, but that requires talented people. They must be highly literate, and they need specialized technology training.

“Only 25 percent of the workforce comfortably fits into that category, but 75 percent of the jobs we're creating demand it,” Gordon said.

Those other 75 percent, many of whom are high school dropouts, don't have the right talent mix. Some were trained in old technologies that now are obsolete and have gone away. Some have college degrees, but they are degrees in communication, finance, and marketing, where there already are far too many people for the number of available jobs.

At the same time, we have too many “techno peasants,” who Gordon characterized as people with low levels of literacy, plus no specialized career preparation, who are confined to low-wage jobs for the rest of their lives. Until last 20 years, there were fairly good-paying jobs, mostly in industrial settings, that did not require high levels of literacy. Those jobs since have gone by the wayside, and new technology requires higher levels of literacy, specialized skills, and career preparation.

With that in mind, Gordon believes society is divided into three groups.

1. Smart people with right talent who keep their skills up to date through networking, seminars, and simply reading books. These workers keep shifting. Most mature workers are not doing the exact same things they did when they were young, and so they had to update their knowledge and apply it in new ways. Given the increasing complexity of technology, this trend will continue to accelerate because people will need more education, not less.
   
2. Younger people who have been steered away from technology fields. In 2010, a tsunami of 79 million Baby Boomers will start to leave the workforce, and about 60 percent of the jobs that must be filled now are occupied by Baby Boomers that will need to be replaced. Many Boomers have the technical skills to keep the economy running, and they represent a larger cadre of people with more technical skills than the generations behind them, who were told that tech jobs weren't cool and don't pay enough. "They love technology - they eat it and breath it,” Gordon said, "but they don't want to design it, make it, repair it, or manage it. The sad part is we need a certain proportionality of these generations to become involved.
   
3. Imported models. American companies used globalization to get rid of low-pay, low-skill jobs that could be done elsewhere, especially India. In addition, U.S. companies have hired high-wage, high skill people they have not found in the United States, and they have imported foreign workers with H-1B visas to fill positions in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers. The challenge will be that the countries America is importing from are becoming richer as their own economies develop. These imported workers are being called home, especially as wages rise, where they can earn more money and be with their families.

Still more labor competition will come, Gordon said, when Europeans move production facilities to the United States because they can't find enough workers.

Exodus of Skilled Workers Leaves Germany in a Bind

German skilled workers are leaving in record numbers and fewer immigrants are arriving, resulting in skill shortages.  About 16% of German companies say they can't find qualified candidates for open positions, partly because of the flight of highly qualified workers.  The engineering sector alone boasts 22,000 openings, with architects and electrical engineers among the most sought after.  Read why...

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Want to be thrown into the "deep water" unexpectedly?

Nobody likes surprises, and the people you are grooming for future top opportunities are no different.  That's why it's extremely important to make sure that you have a "pre-departure cross-cultural training" program established when you are thinking about sending people to work overseas.

A pre-departure training program helps to ensure fewer difficulties when abroad. The program should cover such topics as: customs and norms of the country; working visas; risks and responsibilities of travel; health issues; emergency procedures; day-to-day living; strategies for adapting to an international environment; and ongoing communication with the program.

As part of the training, it is also important to provide participants with the tools necessary to recognize and to effectively deal with difficulties or traumatic events.

During the course of the training, the expat should be encouraged to take responsibility for their health and well being abroad.

Such a program should be carefully thought out and run for at least several days, and ensure that the expat and their trailing spouse does not get the impression that they're being "thrown into the deep water" and expected to learn how to swim by themselves.

What should such a program entail?

Obviously, there are many variations, but I'd suggest as a minimum:

• Visas, Passports, Travel Arrangements, Vaccinations, Insurance, Medical Exam, Basic Items to Bring, etc.
• Communication/Reporting expectations
• Accommodation provisions of the assignment
• Policies and Procedures (contracts, emergency form, liability waiver, etc)
• Intercultural communications to include
  • The Concept of Culture
  • Understanding Culture Shock
  • The Ways in which Values and Attitudes Affect Behavior
  • Communicating Across Cultures
  • Problem Solving scenarios
• An overview of the "Host Country"
  • Social, Political and Economic context
  • Cultural Context: Values and Attitudes
  • Day to Day Realities they'll likely encounter
• Managing Your Health Overseas is important too. 
  • Logistics and medical preparations
  • Maintaining their health overseas
  • Coping with stress and mental health while abroad
• Safety and Security Issues are a MUST
  • Tips on keeping safe
  • Sexual Harassment
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Emergency Procedures

Ideally, this orientation should be done by company managers who have been overseas and have been reassimilated into the company.  It will help the anxious manager/spouse to get the facts and experiences from someone who's "been there"

And while we're on the subject, don't underestimate the impact of the spouse in the "assignment satisfaction process"  (we'll get into this more deeply in another post in this space)

To deal proactively with spouse concerns, this training should also deal with helping him/her identify career orientation and aspirations, assess career “sabbatical” options and alternatives, review realistic relocation options and support needs, and establish informal communication links.

Putting these "up front" pieces in place will help to ensure that the persons international work assignment is a success.

Helping the parties understanding the risk reality in international assignments

According to a report done by Harvey & Weise in 1998, there is plenty of work left to be done before American companies can say that they're "global players."  (These folks know much about the subject, as well as their breakthrough research about ethical behavior by business executives.)

For one, their research points out that with globalization comes increases in international assignments. Yet the issues of mentoring in a global context have not received much management attention.  With all of the concern being given to the shrinking skilled workforce, perhaps it's time to better understand what's going on.

Researchers estimate that between 16 and 40 percent of American international workers fail to complete their assignments – a number that will escalate in the near future due to the increase in females and dual-career couples in international work.

Of those Americans who do complete their international assignments, 30 to 50 percent are considered ineffective or marginally effective by their companies.

Unsuccessful international workers and the resulting reduced effectiveness of the overseas assignments have considerable direct costs to companies (training, relocation, and housing expenses) as well as indirect costs (declining service levels and
lost foreign customers). 

The cost associated with a failed international assignment is estimated between US$100,000 and US$300,000, with a total cost per year for U.S.-based organizations of approximately US$2 billion.

Is that a big enough number to get your attention?

Dealing with "Culture Shock" when offered an international assignment

We've all experienced disorientation when we've traveled that results from being in strange, and unfamiliar settings.  By "culture shock", (one of the main reasons that expatriates cite for having difficulties on overseas assognments, I mean the profound sense of disorientation and discomfort that comes with extended travel or living in a foreign culture markedly different from one’s own.

You have discovered that your "tourist" sensibilities have been overtaken that you're going to be here for a while, in other words.

This is hardly a new phenomenon, and it was been widely studied and there is much written about it.  Here's a "Whitmans sampler" version...

First, there are "stages" of culture shock:

• Initial enthusiasm and euphoria
  • The individual experiences a holiday or 'honeymoon' period with their new surroundings. They feel very positive about the culture, are overwhelmed with impressions, find the new culture exotic and are fascinated, and are passive, meaning they have little experience of the culture
    
• Irritability and negativism
  • The individual now has some more face to face experience of the culture and starts to find things different, strange and frustrating.  They find the behavior of the people unusual and unpredictable, begin to dislike the culture and react negatively to the behavior, feel anxious, start to withdraw and begin to criticize, mock or show animosity to the people
• Gradual  adjustment and adaptation
  • The individual now has now developed a routine, feels more settled and is more confident in dealing with the new culture.  They understand and accept the behavior of the people, feel less isolated and have regained their sense of humor
• Integration and bi-culturalism
  • The individual now feels 'at home'.  They enjoy being in the culture, and function well in the culture.  They now prefer certain cultural traits of the new culture rather than their own and have adopted certain behaviors from the new culture

It is important to let individuals and families considering foreign assignments that this "cycle" is pretty predictable, and that they will survive it and come out of the experience with new rich perspectives and attitudes.

How important are Technical Competence in Overseas Assignments?

There are many variables affecting the nature and the degree of challenge of an overseas assignment. The fundamental question is: what factors, beyond technical competence, predict success in the global business environment?

In general, the global workplace requires the ability to operate comfortably and effectively within a broad spectrum of difference--human, cultural and environmental, all of which overlap naturally. While research has identified numerous attitudes, traits and skills that make up this broad ability or competence, here is a short and reasonably comprehensive list:

1. Action orientation (conscientiousness).
2. Flexibility.
3. Emotional stability.
4. Openness (open-mindedness).
5. Sociability (extraversion, agreeableness).
6. Cultural empathy (cultural sensitivity, cultural intelligence).

The successful global manager, whether expatriating, simply working in a multicultural environment or supporting a multicultural workforce, exhibits a complex global competence that comprises the following:

1. Knowledge of one’s own and other pertinent cultures
2. Recognition of specific differences between cultures
3. Understanding of how culture influences behavior in the workplace
4. Ability to empathize with, adapt to and/or manage differences, as expressed in business structures, systems and priorities, within multicultural work environments.

Over my years in the business, I have found that the basic "technical skills" are far and away less important than the ability to coexist and operate in an overseas post.