Michael Cupps is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at ActiveOps PLC.
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By now, most people have gained about as much familiarity with “quiet quitting” as they eventually did with the Great Resignation or the burnout epidemic—labor-force problems that were eventually woven into the 2020s’ zeitgeist, and consequently became household terms. Whether you agree with the experts who assert that quiet quitting is the only healthy response to increasingly unreasonable workplace expectations, or conversely, argue that it’s a detrimental trend that leads to dysfunctional retention and impedes the well-being of more engaged employees, one thing is certain: Quiet quitting leaves more work incomplete, without the hours or skills to complete it.
Now is a time for managers and company heads to think differently, and explore options for filling these gaps, rather than pushing current employees to spread themselves too thin to cover additional tasks, outsourcing work across the globe or simply failing to deliver to customers. Forward-thinking organizations should, instead, take the time to understand a few basic data points—how much time they need to complete the work they have, and how much time they have from their employees to do it—and then build the labor capacity they need accordingly, by investing in local communities and creating task-specific training programs.
Even small organizations, with the increased complexity post-COVID of hybrid, flexible and often geographically spread resource pools, struggle to correctly utilize these data and plan based on their implications. The result is inefficient processes and gaps in productivity. But with the coming recession, it becomes all the more important for savvy managers to do more with the resources and talent they have, or the talent they can thriftily create through targeted initiatives.
Utilizing Diverse Pools Of Talent
Ever more employers are taking initiatives to prioritize DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in their hiring, promotion and pay practices. While many companies are making great strides in eliminating roadblocks for members of traditionally marginalized groups, ageism persists as a prevalent and often-overlooked bias in hiring practices (despite efforts by the EEOC to mitigate age-based discrimination). This is particularly counterproductive in a period when many retired people are seeking to re-enter the workforce, due to both relaxing concerns about COVID-19 (particularly with the added benefit of flexible work arrangements) and difficulty living on a fixed income in a period of inflation.
Veterans, who may be medically retired from active duty service but possess a host of specialized skills, are another group employers can leverage to fill gaps in hours and skills during a period of chronic labor shortage. Yet, governmental programs to reintegrate them into the civilian workforce remain few and far between, and with variable results. Company heads would do well to consider this under-utilized labor pool, particularly when trying to fill hours of complex casework.
In an ideal situation, operations management arms of companies and DEI programs would operate in tandem, based on data-driven insights, and make a plan for measured outputs of labor: “Department A has 50 hours of this type of specialized work that need to be filled by a person with these skills; let’s source that labor from our diverse pool of workers.” Companies that can map their operational needs in advance will be well-positioned to utilize a pool of part-time or semi-retired workers, filling their gaps in service or production days, weeks or months ahead of time.
“Swarming” And Creating The Talent You Need
Forward-thinking companies are making deliberate and concerted investments in their local communities to get a better-educated workforce—facilitating development of the very skills they will need for their sophisticated operations. Some household name banks are creating training programs with bespoke curricula so that they can grow crops of employees with exactly the skills needed to complete their complex casework, all in their local communities.
One technique emerging in the back-office operations marketplace: swarming. Much like bees in a hive, who work collaboratively to solve problems and share information, swarms facilitate the sharing of knowledge, skills and human capital by connecting them all together, enabling a network of people who learn and teach each other content and complex processes. Swarm centers within companies’ constituent communities can provide a valuable nexus of skills and workers at the point of need, ready to plug and play into gaps in that company’s productivity.
The Importance Of “Shopping Local” For Talent
When companies are desperate to fill a gap in skills or hours, particularly in complex casework that is on a tight time restriction, outsourcing work overseas can be tempting. But taking that shortcut elides a valuable opportunity: to forecast their needs, grow the skills they need, and thus resolve potential gaps in hours or skills in a long-term and sustainable way. Creating a pool of correctly skilled workers locally, pulling from motivated retirees, veterans and other community members who are eager to learn and put to use specialized skills, creates a pipeline to fill future shortages—whether due to resignations, quiet quitting or any of the other litany of social and economic conditions that contribute to unmet demand for talent.
When operations meet DEI—by investing in the local community through training programs, swarm centers, and robust engagement and recruitment among nontraditional and underrepresented groups—the resulting connection doesn’t just create a business advantage. It also supports a more ethical, socially responsible business presence and a set of community initiatives that yield valuable and lasting social impact.
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