Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent

Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent By Ken Dychtwald, Tamara J. Erickson, and Robert Morison (Harvard Business School Press, April 2006, $29.95)

A recent hot topic is the babyboomer retirement panic. Throw in fatalistic numbers regarding the lack of qualified replacements to take their place, and you have the ideal setting for Workforce Crisis. Ken Dychtwald (author of Age Wave) and his coauthors serve up some real-world examples of the problem and suggest solutions that may not stretch the minds of some organizations but are nevertheless are a bit out of the box.

The authors say that learning can help companies mitigate the labor crisis in two ways. First, learning opportunities attract and retain star talent who want to enhance their employability. second, companies that grow their own expertise safeguard their labor and skill supplies.

What may be most useful in the book are lists of "actions to take" with mid-career workers, young workers, or other groups to keep them on the job, engaged, and happy. And, in this age of book groups, the authors offer their own discussion topics to keep readers engaged and interested in sharing the lessons they learned in this book. Check out the topics under "Enhancing Learning and Development." Item number 3 resonates with me: "How well-and consistently-do you meet employees' needs and expectations for learning and development?"

- Rex Davenport

Copyright American Society for Training and Development May 2006
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