With rapid changes in technology, the business environment, and the dynamic nature of knowledge usability in the modern world, managing one’s career becomes increasingly difficult. Necessity dictates that employees not only change careers more often as their interests change and their knowledge becomes obsolete, but they need to retrain and re-educate more often as well. The costs and barriers for doing this are potentially immense as we look to understand the future of the workforce.
Consultants and project oriented types of employees have a relatively easier time transitioning from one thing to the next – in fact it’s a built in part of their jobs. By continuously being involved in shorter term projects with ever changing project teams and project goals, their learning in ongoing. However, for the rest of the employee base, these transitions are significantly more difficult.
As I wrote earlier in “About Stretchwork and Career Management” most of your career training should be on-the-job and not cost significant amounts of investment. Your best employees will have you doing most of this work for them as a part of your workforce management and employee engagement strategies. However, many employees will also pursue external learning programs, or they may want career changes that you as an employer simply cannot accommodate. Paul Strassmann writes about the costs of education over a lifetime and has these assumptions:
- Life expectancy of a graduating college student: 90 years+ (2005 – 2075);
- Expected work life starting at the age 20 = 60 years
- Half-life of a career due to obsolescence = 7 years (and decreasing)
- Number of educational “major model upgrades” over a career = 8
- Personal time/educational for a major upgrade = 1 person-year (1500 hrs)
- % of time in life-time education = 8/60 * 1 person-year = 13 %
- Life-time compensation ( in 2005 $s) = $65,000 * 60 = $3.9 million
- Cost of personal time for life-time education = $3.9 million x 0.13 = $507,0000
- Tuition for life-time education (State U, in 2005 $s) = $ 6,000 x 8 = $48,000 ((Strassmann, Paul, April 1, 2005. “The Challenge of Life-Time Education for an Aging Workforce.” Retrieved from http://www.strassmann.com on September 3, 2006.))
It’s quite apparent that most employees simply won’t be able to afford the $½M dollars needed to re-equip themselves over their careers. As such, these employees will feel stuck in careers they may no longer want, are unfulfilled by, and are no longer engaged in. I’m not so interested in the learning side (as Strassmann is) as the HR side.
I believe that HR and especially talent and learning organizations have a responsibility to the employee to assist them with career progressions wherever it may lead – even if it’s to exit the organization eventually. There are always short term gains to supporting an employee’s desire for career growth:
- Short term increases in engagement because you’ve proved to be an ally.
- Potential long term retention as you make the employee more available to possibilities within the organization as their vision adapts and adjusts to current realities
- Establishment of the employer brand – the reinforcement that you’re an organization where people get developed.
Our (HR’s) commitment to career progression for our employees not only signifies our dedication to them, but it also gives us the opportunity to help shape it to our own advantage. Whether it’s long term retention that we wouldn’t otherwise have had, or influencing the employee’s future by presenting the right “interesting” opportunities that keep them around, talent is going to be at a shortage where these strategies become increasingly important. Making sure we have the technology, process and commitment to execute on it will be one of the ingredients that determine the success of future talent strategies within our organizations.
9 responses to “Educating for a Lifetime”
systematicHR – Human Resources Strategy and Technology » Educating for a Lifetime
Educating for a Lifetime I believe that HR and especially talent and learning organizations have a responsibility to the employee to assist them with career progressions wherever it may lead – even if it’s to exit the organization eventually. … [
digress… If a worker doesn’t have the skills to reinvent themselves, the reinvention front often means additional education. To this end, I stumbled across the following analysis of future costs of a lifetime education by Paul Strassman (hat tip to SystematicHR for including it in a recent entry) 1. Life expectancy of a graduating college student: 90 years+ (2005 – 2075); 2. Expected work life starting at the age 20 = 60 years 3. Half-life of a career due to obsolescence = 7 years (and decreasing)
two or three directions in college – take any job that interests them – or one that has nothing to do with their major – switch jobs frequently – and then – who knows? More like a series of sprints – sometimes in different directions. I was reading a post from systematicHR on how the cost of keeping yourself educated within your field is such a huge expense. They referenced some numbers I found interesting… Life expectancy of a graduating college student: 90 years+
a ser una necesidad básica. Estamos condenados a “aprender a aprender”. ¿No quieres aprender a utilizar el ordenador? Pues vete olvidando de la fotografía, porque el negativo quedó condenado lo quieras o no por los píxeles. Un interesanteartículode Systematich HR evalúa los enormes costes de aprendizaje necesarios en una típica vida laboral actual. Considerando los años en activo y un paso promedio por 8 etapas profesionales que requieran un aprendizaje intensivo de
Most HR Talent technologies around today are ridgid and reactive. These systems typically support the capture of competencies per job and measure that against what the employee has ~ a gap is identified and a plan is then developed for the employee to “fill the gap”. Whilst this does serve a purpose, in my view it has a relatively small impact in talent retention and preparing the business for future requirements. What we need is technology that will support a continuous changing environment.
If ever there was a clear business case for a high quality liberal arts degree — like mine in English Literature with a minor in math/science from UPenn (and never mind the year) — you’ve just made it. Educating for lifetime is what a liberal education is about, along with critical thinking, pattern recognition, verbal and written communications, inductive and deductive reasoning, etc. I am grateful every day that I didn’t start my professional life with a vocational degree but rather with a solid intellectual foundation and all the tools I would ever need for lifetime learning. Forty years later, I’m very able to keep up and even contribute to the latest developments in HRM and the HRM delivery system, and I’m not sure that would be the case if I couldn’t draw upon a deep well of learning.
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