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Sharon Youngblood

P.O. Box 41236
Tucson, AZ 85717
520.795.7498
520.795.7556 (FAX)
Contact Sharon

Performance Miner™ Newsletter

June 2005

Performance Miner^™ is our registered trademark. You are encouraged to share the contents with others with appropriate attribution. Please use the TM whenever the phrase "Performance Miner" is used in connection with this newsletter or our workshops.

Performance Miner^™ is in three sections this month:

In this issue:

1. Lack of Time & Sloppiness – By-products of Staff Shortages
2. Life Business™ Tips
3. Little Things Department

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1. Lack of Time & Sloppiness – By-Products of Staff Shortages

Nothing creates more havoc in a business than not having time to do the job right. Mistakes are made, sloppiness increases, money is lost and judgment is comprised. I speak from deep personal experience. Many of my clients businesses’ are on fire with employees doing the work of two to three people. The outlook is that the shortage of qualified employees is going to get worse.
The population is aging with all the challenges that brings and at the same time, the birth rate is dropping leaving employers without the people they need to grow their businesses. Professional jobs requiring specialized skills and training, are already reaching crisis shortages. Employers are scrambling to get the workers they need.

In this scenario, employees move from firm to firm rapidly. Rather than hiring a job-hopper being an answer to a companies’ challenges, skilled professionals changing jobs just gives the illusion of solving the problem. What is really happening is that companies are being further weakened in productivity and profitability because of the musical chair job-hopping. The net gain of employees available is zero as they change positions with one another. Unfortunately, productivity dips negative because of the learning curve required at each job hop.

It is no longer reasonable to see “looking for good people” as the primary solution to staff shortages. Firms must keep recruiting but the reality is, a labor pool growing to meet industry needs is just not there.

In Japan, according to the Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2005, desperate companies recently reached into a labor pool they had not previously considered and advertised for skilled employees over 60 – the response surprised them - they had over 100 applicants who were willing to work weekends for half the pay of regular employees.

Although in the U.S., half pay goes against our values, the creativity of the Japanese is laudable. They are trying new solutions. Those firms who do not get creative and try new solutions may find their growth severely limited over the next few years. Here are some of the things any forward-looking conscious company should be thinking about given the REALITIES of current and upcoming staff shortages:

• Focus on growing profits rather than growing numbers. It costs less to improve operations than to increase revenue and/or hire new employees. Too many firms throw away profit through sloppy processes, weak leadership, poor communication, etc.

• Doing everything they can to encourage minority and women to enter and remain in their field
  Considering “older” employees

• Have the discipline not to expand until, well, the business they have functions well

• Turn a creative eye on their employees and realize that retention – not just picnics and perks but a total Southwest Airlines style answer - will be the hallmark of success in the next five to ten years

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2.  Life Business™ Tips

• Just as a good painting or design leaves a little white space, leave yourself some room between activities. Pushing things one right after another leaves you exhausted and if something goes wrong, and it always does, you melt down.
• If you want to beat the airport hassle, try to travel with the airlines that issue online boarding passes. If you have your boarding pass, and carry your luggage on your only limiting factor is the security check line. Travel Tip #2: Always make your own travel arrangements or if your corporation won’t allow it get on extremely good terms with the person who does make your plans. Otherwise, you are in for an uncomfortable trip.
• You can make reservations for almost anything online. That includes the movies, the theatre and increasingly restaurants. The small fee you pay is worth not standing in line.
• Keep in touch with siblings and aunts and uncles as well as your immediate family. Send cards, short notes, and inexpensive gifts. As the years roll on these are the people who will be there with you and being part of a clan is one of life’s comforts when the going gets stressful.
• Whenever you deal with an arrogant personality, use the Aikido principle of turning their energy back on them. Concentrate on listening to them while breathing deeply and pausing as long as you need to before responding. Often in the pause the person (who thrives on confrontation) will retreat.

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3.  The Department of Little Things Mean A Lot:

The quality of life in Norway is inspiring – very little crime, clean neighborhoods, beautiful city streets and fabulous transportation. Sure, it is a homogeneous country and the North Sea oil wells do not hurt prosperity but I am old enough to remember when there were linens on the backs of seats of on-time trains and buses in the U.S., cities were clean and people did not lock their doors. America enjoyed respect and our currency had some value.

We can’t go back but I believe we can take action in the present.

When Giuliani started cleaning up New York City, he focused on the little things believing that if we disregard little things, we inevitably will progress to disregarding the big things. It seems to me that this philosophy needs application from sea to shining sea and I need to start with my own actions. If we all quit watching reality TV and got into reality, we could make a difference.

The first step is to pay attention to what you are doing and to see what you contribute. For example, as I walk my dog it is easy to pick up the occasional discarded piece of paper on the street. In a business situation, I can refuse to rehash the past other than to learn from it. I can focus on solving problems in the present. Once we determine to make a positive difference, we notice hundreds of contributions we can make just by focusing and acting on what is happening NOW in our neighborhood, our place of work and our community. As always, comments to say@youngbloodconsulting.com.

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See Sharon:

Due to summer days, Sharon will not be speaking publicly (much) until the fall of 2005. Watch for the fall schedule in August. This is it for the summer:

• Orlando, Florida
• San Francisco, California
• San Jose, California

Contact say@youngbloodconsulting.com for details.

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If you would like to read Youngblood’s Best Practices Column, go to www.azbiz.com – enter Best Practices in the Articles Search Box. Additional free articles on www.youngbloodconsulting.com. New articles added often.

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Performance Miner^™ is an electronic newsletter discussing making the most of your work and life. Contact us for further information: say@youngbloodconsulting.com.

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