FEATURE ARTICLE
January 2005

ICDC Global Issues Forum
by Robin Wortley Hammond

The Global Issues Forum at the recent ICDC conference offered bountiful food for thought on everything from the role of career counselors today to the changing landscape of world economies. Panelists represented labor, industry, psychology, career and organizational development, and even agriculture.

Organizational Consultant and Career Counselor Ron Elsdon gave a dynamic presentation in which he pointed out some startling statistics. Up to 70% of Americans are apathetic and disengaged in their work, according to a Gallup study (cited in Training magazine, October 2004). Ron described (from the same source) how Corinne Maier became a counterculture heroine in France after writing the book, Bonjour Paress (hello laziness), advocating the active disengagement or calculated loafing, meaning that people are just earning a paycheck and not feeling any sense of connection, contribution, or motivation other than self-preservation. That is a sad state of affairs in what is otherwise being deemed a recovering economy. And the implications for the role of career counselors are enormous. Ron described affiliation (a two-way relationship) rather than retention (a one-way relationship dictated by the organization), as needed in the future, where individuals and organizations view the work relationship with a spirit of partnership and the passion associated with volunteerism (which is not to say they should be underpaid). A key role of career counselors, he said, can be one of bridging the worlds between organizations and individuals.

Ron also pointed out that we’ve gone from a four-year degree to a "40-year" degree, in which life-long learning is a permanent change rather than a passing trend. We owe it to ourselves and our clients to understand this change and learn to see it as full of possibilities for continuous improvement in not only professional but also individual development.

In tune with "possibilities" thinking, author and speaker H.B. Gelatt also had some mind-sparking things to say. He talked about sustainability and an "innernet" revolution, and outlined his take on how to "4C the future":

• Contemplation – "reflective seeing," or mindfulness and learning to "think about what you’re thinking about while you are thinking about it."
  
• Creativity – "imaginative seeing," or openmindedness. There is nothing more dangerous than an idea, when it’s the only one you have.
  
• Connectedness – "holistic seeing," or whole-system awareness.
• Collaboration – "inclusive seeing," or relationships orientation.

H.B. also talked about strategies for creating practical solutions in terms of beliefs (there’s nothing more practical than the way you see things) and behavior (changing the way you see things changes the way you do things – and in fact changes the things you do).

David Lee, of Sierra Pacific Publishing, talked about sheer strategy tactics that job seekers should be taking when they are in job or career transition. While he cited dismal statistics in terms of the state’s economy (4.5 million job hunters in California and job creation of only 32K), he was optimistic about how we as career counselors can help our clients. Lee reminded us that jobs don’t come to us anymore, we have to go and find them. Then he noted parallels between market-driven companies and what he calls market-driven individuals – those who not only use active networking (as we have long recommended for our clients in transition), but who also take the time to research potential or emerging job opportunities, companies and their regional status in business development, and even local economies as a whole.

Lee’s concept of networking is inclusive of all these activities, and he likens this more thorough process to how a company might complete market research before positioning a new product or service. Lee believes individuals can learn to do this for themselves and harness the power of a "market driven approach," as opposed to mere networking in the traditional sense of making lots of connections with lots of people.

Below are some of the questions posed by the Global Forum audience to the panel as a whole as well as to individual panelists, along with responses.

1. Where is the career development field headed (new trends and developments)?
   Ron Elsdon: Our focus traditionally has been on private practice and the educational sector. While these will remain cornerstones of the career development field, we have opportunities to reach out to the organizational world where most of our clients spend their work lives, and we have a responsibility to adopt an advocacy role for those who are disadvantaged in a society that is currently magnifying rather than diminishing economic disadvantage.
   
   
2. What’s your view of outsourcing?
   David Lee: Outsourcing will continue to have a major impact on employment for years to come. Together with technology and temporary workers, outsourcing will be one of the chief factors that restructure the workplace.
   
   Why? Because outsourcing is no longer confined to only back-office and low-tech manufacturing. It has moved into the front-office, highly skilled areas, high-tech production, and advanced R&D. Now, besides record-keeping, collections, billing, and customer service duties, work such as animation, graphic design, film production, chip manufacturing, and even stem cell research are being outsourced and off-shored.
   
   With the corporate sector, and even the government sector, laser-fixed on cost reduction, there appears no end in sight to what can be outsourced.
   
   In this regard and more than ever, career management and the job search needs to be conducted with a market-driven business mindset to achieve a competitive advantage, which is the essential theme of my book, The Go-Getters: Market Driven to Career Success.
   
   
3. Economists and business experts (like Peter Drucker) contend that more jobs are being created here in the U.S. than those that are outsourced. Is this true, what kind of jobs are they, and how can we prepare our clients to market themselves for them?
   Elsdon: On the surface it would appear that jobs moving overseas are a loss to the U.S. workforce. Indeed in the short term, in certain sectors this is true. And if we view the global economy as a pie of fixed size we might conclude that we must protect our slice of the pie at all costs. I would suggest however that this is a dangerously parochial view that ignores the view of a vibrant world economy as a pie of increasing size, from which we can all benefit. In this view, the movement of jobs overseas stimulates local overseas economies that desperately need such stimulus, and ultimately provides enhanced markets for U.S. goods and services. This certainly doesn’t minimize the disruption caused by job migration. Our challenge is one of seeking the long-term global economic growth that is in all of our interests, while addressing the disruption that accompanies global industry restructuring.
   
   
4. Today’s colleges are still educating students in the same way as they did for the last 30 years. However, there are industries such as biotechnology, fuel cell technology, etc. that need people but people/students are not directed to that next level. This country seems to want to stay stagnant and complain about outsourcing or say that there are no jobs out there when there are. How do you think we can implement activities that will give our clients a real and practical view of the world?
   Lee: This only tells me that many university presidents, deans of student and academic affairs, and directors of career centers can do more.
   
   Many seem satisfied with the status quo with regard to career planning for students: a) making available career planning guides and resources; b) arranging a few guest speakers each semester; c) arranging a few career fairs each year; d) utilizing the alumni where possible; and e) being a conduit for internships. This has been the standard "menu" of universities for years and is totally geared towards "finding the first job" for students. Many centers sometimes overly rely on alumni for job placement. While indeed useful, this doesn't necessarily foster good career planning.
   
   While this "menu" may have worked well in the past, there continues to be a large number of graduating students that are unprepared for today's working world given the quickly evolving market brought on by outsourcing, technology, and temporary contract workers.
   
   For example, it is likely that all graduating students will be laid off at least once in their life. But few universities offer training sessions on "bouncing back" from being laid off. The logic "this is a subject that doesn't concern students" doesn't hold water. Is a macro-economics class any more interesting?
   
   Also for example, career centers can do more to tap the corporate/academic relationships of individual academic departments; they can work more closely with student organizations, they can lobby the administration for a mandatory career planning course for all students before graduation, they can instill a mindset in students to treat their careers with a business approach (especially for non-business students), and they can help students think in terms of lifelong career planning (not just finding the first job).
   
   Directors of career centers can be more innovative and market-driven, while university administrators can facilitate more support, resources, funding, and cooperation.
   
   In my conversations with career department heads, many do not seem to welcome new ideas and are totally content with the status quo, seemingly unaware of the radical changes that are occurring in the workplace. Many have a complacent attitude which in the end is detrimental to the students.
   
   Most college career centers, however, work very hard and do an excellent job with the limited budgets they have and try to learn as much as possible.
   
   
5. I was struck by the statistic that 70% of the workforce in the U.S. is disengaged. I thought that as a population we were working ourselves to death, putting in more hours per week than ever before. Does this mean that we are doing so in a disengaged state?
   Elsdon: Yes, I remember the vision presented in the 70s of growing leisure time and a shortened workweek. We have actually seen the opposite with families in the U.S. spending more time at work than in the 70s. Recent surveys suggest that the degree of emotional commitment to organizations, or engagement has declined significantly while we continue to spend more time at work.
   
   
6. How do you foster environments of "affiliation" between organizations and employees in today’s corporate climate of short-term employment tenure and outsourcing?
   Elsdon: This is, at its core, a leadership question central to the values of an organization. During the past three years, where many sectors of the economy have operated with more available people than jobs, some organizations have chosen to view building long-term employee relationships as peripheral to their business. Others however, such as Southwest Airlines, have taken a position that strong employee affiliation is central to their business success. Emphasizing the influence of strong affiliation, on enabling people to move closer to their full potential and productivity, and on increasing the likelihood that talented people will stay with the organization provides a link between less tangible workforce development issues and a strong business case.
   
   
7. Where can we find the data that supports the claim that the more marketable and the more companies develop employees (and offer options), the greater the odds that they will stay?
   Elsdon: One good example is a study conducted with Sun Microsystems several years ago. It is described in my book, Affiliation in the Workplace, and in a paper on my website (www.elsdon.com/creating1.htm).
   
   
8. What direct actions have you seen in organizations toward enhancing employee career development that you recommend and that seem to work?
   Elsdon: Providing a combination of group activities that enable people to interact and build an understanding of their own attributes, coupled with individual interaction with career counselors to address sensitive personal aspirations and the use of online resources to simplify the delivery of information and assessments.
   
   
9. What strategies or techniques can independent career consultants use to seek out engagements or training opportunities with corporations (organizational development)?
   Elsdon: It is essential to speak the language of business, to speak of organizational outcomes as well as individual interventions and to help those in organizations understand how career consultants can influence tangible business issues.
   Lee: Corporations understand value and cost - the value of retaining good employees who may otherwise leave the company for greener pastures, and the cost to replace them; the value of maximizing the careers of good achievers, and the opportunity cost if they aren't able to rise to their maximum level; and the value of improving the performance of underachieving employees through better career management, and the cost to lay them off.
   
   If independent career consultants are able to provide services to help companies meet these goals, more engagements or training opportunities, I think, can be won.
   
   
10. What product lines can consultants offer to job hunters and organizations that will be useful for coming trends?
    Lee: I'm not sure. But for job hunters, the number-one goal I think is to "find" interesting employment, not just to "decide" which career to pursue. Career consultants should thus focus on the job search techniques that give job hunters a competitive advantage, in addition to resumes, interviews, and self-assessment.
    
    
11. If networking is not the way to go with job search, how do job seekers actually make connections with employers?
    Lee: Networking will continue to be the most effective means of job searching. However, networking may not work for everyone in every situation. To augment a networking strategy, a direct approach is extremely useful.
    
    Employees or students can target, in advance, companies where they would like to work. Through an internship, mentoring program, business association, industry trade show, or informal business gathering, employees or students can meet potential employers, and their staff, in advance of applying for a job.
    
    Of course, some people may need to approach a company "cold." While many people are adverse to this kind of approach, if they can reason that the targeted company has increasing business activity and needs to increase headcount, a cold-call approach might be worthwhile. Another way to look at this - by not waiting for a classified ad to be posted in the newspapers or online, the competition from other job hunters will be substantially less.
    
    Job hunters should realize that while uncomfortable, a cold-call approach demonstrates many positive characteristics needed to be a successful employee - market intelligence, research, resourcefulness, decisiveness, proactive behavior, and follow-up.