Many industries are facing a looming leadership gap as seasoned employees retire and younger employees must assume increased responsibilities. \u00a0In some organizations, there will not be enough qualified people to fill the leadership jobs available. While Baby Boomers exit the workplace, younger generations have not yet acquired the knowledge and skills to move into leadership positions . This creates a skills gap that can be harmful to the future success of an organization.<\/p>\n
Making this problem worse is the fact that there is a higher turnover rate for younger employees since Gen Xers and Gen Ys often have greater job mobility. This is due to their varied, transferable skills that enable them to cross industries and mine opportunities locally, nationally and globally.<\/p>\n
If organizations do not engage future leaders, they could find themselves facing a variety of HR related issues.<\/p>\n
In order to attract and engage younger employees long enough to build a \u00a0future leadership team, it\u2019s important that organizations understand their current and potential employees who will inherit the senior roles that Baby Boomers and Traditionalists now occupy.<\/p>\n
From a leadership perspective, the differences between the generations in an organization can be both a positive and a negative when it comes to innovation, change management and collaboration. Organizations that are able \u00a0to recruit, retain and develop Gen Ys will be in a stronger position \u00a0to build their future leaders faster than their competition.<\/p>\n
Organizations that take the time to understand the expectations of the younger cohorts can begin to build programs, policies and practices that drive engagement levels and provide younger \u00a0employees with leadership opportunities earlier in their careers. \u00a0Building leadership bench strength requires providing leadership opportunities to younger employees in a calculated manner so that they develop and strengthen their skills over time.<\/p>\n
In a competitive marketplace, it\u2019s crucial that organizations be \u00a0perceived by talented Gen Ys as places they want to work. This means that organizations need to evaluate their current practices in order to determine \u00a0if they are recruiting in a manner that makes them a top employer of choice. They will also want to build a workplace culture that leverages the strengths of younger generations and engages them at work.<\/p>\n
Organizations that hope to retain Gen Ys will need to invest in learning and development in order to ensure that they remain with the organization long enough to become future leaders. They will also need to make efforts to provide younger employees with challenging work, mentorship opportunities, cross-functional projects and secondments to build skills and knowledge that they need to become leaders.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important that current leaders engage and support future leaders. \u00a0Leaders who currently hold decision making positions are needed to support the programs and efforts to build future leadership. Current leaders should actively participate in recruiting, succession planning and career develop initiatives that develop and engage future leaders. If current leaders are invested in developing their successors, the entire process of developing future leaders becomes much more successful for everyone involved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Race to Engage Future Leaders. What\u2019s the Hurry? Many industries are facing a looming leadership gap as seasoned employees retire and younger employees must assume increased responsibilities. \u00a0In some organizations, there will not be enough qualified people to fill … Continue reading