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Managingthe changed landscape of

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During and after the recession inengineering of the late 1980s and early1990s, it became increasingly popular totake the contracting route to employment.Today, the West is steadily returning to the‘journeyman’ model of the Middle Ages in

a bid to cut costs and keep workers on their toes. In theMiddle Ages, skilled workers were paid a daily rate; ‘journee’was French for ‘day’, hence the name.

The 21st century journeyman can earn between 25% and33% more than they would as members of staff and canquite enjoy life outside the corporation. Sure, they may notbenefit from an annual four to six weeks holiday, but theyare ‘free agents’ to such a degree that they often movebetween several competitive companies, increasing theirfees when they can get away with doing so and not needingto abide by any company regulations.

Engineering Management | June/July 2005

However, problems arise when they start to clash withthe company they work for – either because their sense ofindependence of spirit or thought doesn’t fit in with thecorporate culture or they might have expectations that aredifficult for the company to fulfil. This article looks at howto turn these potential threats into a positive businessadvantage.

SELF EMPLOYMENTSome of these journeymen, or contractors as we would callthem, took the self employment route because they weremade redundant, while others have walked away from thecorporate desk to seek the challenges found in working forthemselves.

During the recession, reduced staff numbers lookedbeneficial to the employer. The flexible workforce hadarrived and employers could take full advantage of it. But

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subsequent growth in the engineering sector, combined withthe poor number of graduates with engineering degrees inthe UK, is leading to a concentration of skills in the selfemployed that is not advantageous to organisations. This isbecause while flexibility in the jobs market has allowedbusinesses to become more agile, it has also created thethreat of in-house depletion of skills and talent. Businessesstill need staff working for the long-term good of thecompany to create and sustain a competitive edge.

So why isn’t business doing more about this? Onecomplicating factor is the old style of managing still foundin many engineering firms where top down hierarchicalstructures survive. In these companies there is often atendency to appoint people with technical skills and manyyears of loyal service behind them to the Board or highermanagement levels. These people may not necessarily makethe best managers.

Planning ahead for future growth need not be difficult.The key to success is to get the right fit between key in-houseand external workers, and be prepared to change the mix ascircumstances change. The way ahead is via a strategybased around flexible working, talent and careermanagement, and staff retention.

CHANGING TIMESChange has been forced on to engineering management byincreased globalisation and competition, pressure fromshareholders for a better return on investment and theneed to improve business performance. As describedabove, some management methods in engineering are notwell equipped to handle change, which typically involvesdelayering, redundancies and greater use of the flexibleworking model.

Quietly, though, a counter-movement has been evolving– not to resist change, but to find and develop new ways ofworking and to adapt to changing circumstances. In thissituation, there may be a split between employee andemployer that is not always to the employer’s advantage.

Some enlightened employers have begun to see how theycan retain and/or retrain key staff, while others, sometimesin pursuit of short term profit, are happy to take the shortterm view and let them go.

One result for the affected staff is the attraction of selfemployed consulting. Having found work externally, thesecontractors are less than enthusiastic about re-joining whenasked to.

In a sense, then, the impetus and centre of power hasswung away slightly from the business. Organisations arebeginning to realise that not all staff want to work for themas employees. Clearly, there are dynamics at play that are notalways foreseen when the job axe falls. These dynamics canbe to the advantage of the contractor and the disadvantageof the business, unless it sees them as an opportunity.

However, organisations do need to make peopleredundant from time to time and it is incumbent upon themto help the affected employees in the jobs marketplace.Outplacement provides positive and practical support toaffected individuals while also providing a solid internal andexternal message, with direct positive impact on theemployer brand. �

Martyn Smith revealshow to turn threatsfrom within intobusiness advantage

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TWO STEP PROCESS Organisations may need to work closely with contractors ifthey are to meet their business plans on schedule. There aretwo steps that management can take:1 Encourage the head of HR to work with the principal

business leaders in the business to achieve five or six keyobjectives, such as broadening product offerings,identifying target markets, restructuring and othersimilar ‘big picture’ actions. In many instances, this stepshould be taken with the help of a facilitator.

2 Ensure these objectives are met. As skills and talent willbe a key route to objective compliance, make certain theyare in place – and in the right mix to optimise results.Talent/skills mapping and matching will highlight wherehigh performers are in the organisation (or, indeed,outside it, in the contractor) and where there aredevelopment needs.Care must be taken that the people are a good ‘fit’ with the

organisation’s culture and needs. Many organisations havea wide range of people types and might be unaware of thepros (or, more likely, cons) of having too many of one type.At one extreme there is the single combat warrior, otherwiseknown as the trouble-shooter, with a reputation for makingsweeping (and sometimes potentially damaging) changes.

At the other extreme are those who seek consensus forevery situation and thereby slow down change to a crawl ora stop. With little or no impetus, the organisation can find itis going nowhere while not understanding why.

BEST OF BOTH The better balanced contractors are at neither of theseextremes; they should be beneficial to an organisation,providing skill and talent to quickly meet new plans, forexample.Thejourneymanwhoisideal for most organisationalsituations will be someone who can work in teams, get up tospeed quickly, be goal focused and ‘user friendly’ and is ablequickly to build relationships in the organisation.

Fig 1 (top left): In thisorganisation, theyounger and middle-aged employees havemuch less talent thanthe older members ofstaff

Fig 2 (left): A comparisonof people with the keyskills of commercialacumen and leadingothers in three UK citiesshows that Leeds is thebest place to recruittalent

Above par

On par

Below

Younger Middle Older

Talent map of company

Above par

On par

Below

Key

Commerical acumen

Leading others

Talent map of individuals fromdifferent cities

Leeds London Birmingham

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As part of step 2, HR management should look atmapping people’s job competencies and the competenciesthat organisations need to meet their plans or improve theexisting business performance and then match the two.Skills gap analysis will highlight where there are gaps andhow they can be closed. Career management may also needto be addressed in order to ensure that key staff can beretained or attracted to work for the organisation.

Talent management is another subset of step 2. It canhelp to ensure that individuals’ goals and the business goalsare optimally met, allowing individuals to make the bestcontribution at any stage in the business cycle. Whencombined with succession planning, talent managementensures that individuals can be prepared for futureleadership roles.

Talent mapping can allow a quick appraisal of theexisting talent situation in an organisation. In the fictionalexamples shown in figs 1 and 2, for example, attributesrelated to age and geographic location talent give a snapshotthat could be very useful in resolving problems and planningfor succession.

In fig 1 we clearly see that staff in the younger andmiddle age bands in this organisation have markedly lesstalent than older staff while fig 2 shows that there is moretalent in Leeds than in London and Birmingham. Acompany that is keen on seeing a better talent balance anda higher performance would benefit from this type ofinsight.

Management can use the fluidity of the jobs, talent andskills market to achieve business goals. If a static workforceis in place, management may conclude that it will not beappropriate to those goals and the culture of the emergentbusiness, and that change should be undertaken. However,while its opposite – a flexible workforce – has its attractions,there are threats in that skills and talent may be lost orremain on the outside. Appropriate management of thoseresources can turn the threats to advantage.

The flexible working landscape does need to be managed.A degree of sophistication, such as that found in skills/talentmapping and matching, and in talent and careermanagement, can help shape a workforce that optimallysupports the business, comes with a better culture fit, andbetter equips it for the future.

The intelligent approach to the problems associated withstaff development or retention and business change, and byusing too many contractors on high rates with skills that itwould be nice to have in-house, greatly reduces the risksassociated with managing the changed landscape of flexibleworking. �

Martyn Smith has 15 years’ experience in HR consultancyspecialising in career and talent management and employerbranding. He is a director of HDA Ltd.