PLYMOUTH, MA…
Much has changed since your grandfather received a gold watch for retirement. From telecommuting to job sharing to virtual teams, the workplace has transformed. Baby Boomers are exiting the workforce and are taking 50 years of stability with them. Millennials have a completely different vision for where they work, how long they work, who they work with and what their career path will be.
How does the employer attract and retain the life’s blood of their company – people?
Nancy O’Keefe, MBA, MS–a thought leader, business consultant, executive coach, author and speaker—researched, analyzed and wrote the newly released book entitled “Fighting the Talent Battle: How to Update Your Arsenal and Win the War” to give employers a fighting chance.
Employee engagement is at an all-time low. A recent Gallup poll underscores that only 30 percent of workers are engaged. The study outlines that workers, regardless of age, education or gender, are not motivated or interested in their work. In response to this, people are abandoning corporate American and forging new ways of living with less – including movements for tiny houses, living off the grid and finding more satisfied lives than the 9 to 5 grind, or worse, the 9 – 9 grind.
We already see critical skills and hiring shortages in industries like technology and healthcare and it is only the beginning of the battle. The days of the employer having the upper hand and hiring advantage because the only alternative was entrepreneurship are coming to an end.
And there are no simple solutions. Fighting the battle for talent reaches well beyond a ping pong table in the break room and trendy snacks in the fridge. The new starting point is realizing that people are a company’s most important asset and that the company has to enhance and preserve that asset.
O’Keefe notes, “We are entering a new age, ‘The People Age’, and the companies that change their paradigms around employees and management will gain a strategic competitive advantage I call the Human Competitive Edge™.”
The book illustrates how current business models, hiring practices and many management methods were created more than 100 years ago around the Industrial Revolution for mass production, manufacturing-based businesses. Holding on to a 100-year-old paradigm is keeping us stuck in thinking that perpetuates a disengaged, unproductive and dissatisfied workforce that no longer serves organizations or their employees. The way to move business forward is to move people forward.
The new book reveals ways to create an uplifting workplace and how to motivate managers to motivate employees. “Fighting the Talent Battle: How to Update Your Arsenal and Win the War” takes a disruptive look at the talent dilemma and offers specific ideas and solutions that address the shift in the way we work, want to work and an environment in which everyone is rewarded.
Explored are corporate values, hiring practice, compensation, true diversity and inclusion and the high performance workplace.
Nancy O’Keefe, MBA, MS is a thought leader, business consultant, executive coach, author and speaker who has held senior positions in customer service, direct sales, software engineering, software implementation, project management, company operations, process improvement and outsourcing. As an entrepreneur, she has founded several successful businesses, including a $5 million process improvement and outsourcing business that was one of the first 50 employee virtual offices in existence. She is a certified Executive Coach from the College of Executive Coaching, holds an MBA from Babson College in Entrepreneurship and an MS in Quality Systems Management from Anna Maria College.
To obtain a copy of the book, visit Amazon.com. For more information about consulting services related to creating a more productive workplace, visit www.NancyOKeefeCoaching.com, or call (888) 307-3553.
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