The United States labor market is in a state of transformation, with major shifts taking place in demographics, technology, and the nature of work. Demographically, the workforce is aging, with more people over the age of 75 continuing to work and younger generations entering the workforce with different skills and expectations. Automation, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies are changing the way we work, while remote work and telecommuting are becoming more prevalent than ever before. Finally, the nature of work itself is evolving. As more tasks lend themselves to automation and support from artificial intelligence, more emphasis is placed on workforce creativity, problem solving, and collaboration.  

Leaders across the health ecosystem are faced with the challenge of adapting to these changes while continuing to deliver high-quality patient care. This said, there is one thing that we predict won’t change, and that’s the importance of focusing on developing and retaining an organization’s greatest asset: their workforce. After all, committed team members who possess knowledge, skills, and experience are the ones who will best navigate uncertainty and drive innovation. 

At The Leadership Development Group, we believe there’s no time like the present to build agile, resilient leaders and teams that can thrive in the new normal. In this blog, we share three ways for Human Resources (HR) leaders to optimize their workforce for today.

1. Grow Your Own: Identify and develop top talent from within your organization. 
2. Retain and Gain: Invest in your employees’ future to protect the organization’s future. 
3. Prioritize Yourself: Focus on your own leadership development to best steward others. 

Every organization is unique and each role within it carries a unique set of skills and behaviors that, when demonstrated, lead to success. Before implementing random leadership development programs, we recommend first defining what qualities successful leaders need to possess. Consider what characteristics are required to be successful within your organization, either on a macro and cultural level or at a job-specific level.  

Success profiles, which outline the skills, behaviors, and experiences necessary to succeed in a particular role or function, are rooted in the organization’s strategic goals, cultural values, and desired outcomes. These profiles create the basis from which key talent can be identified and developed.  

With success profiles, HR leaders have a set of criteria to determine which leaders have the capacity for growth. A talent review process can help organizations identify current employees who may be able to fill key leadership roles and determine where gaps in the leadership pipeline may exist.

Once the talent review has been conducted, HR leaders can then consider what meaningful development should look like. At TLD Group, our clients have had great success implementing various leadership development solutions, including executive coaching, team development, and action learning to grow and develop high potentials. 

Best-in-class organizations use leadership development to optimize their current workforce and as a strategic way to keep employees interested, learning, and engaged for years to come. According to the 2022 LinkedIn Global Talents Trend Report, employees who make an internal move are more likely to stay at their organization longer than those who stay in the same role. Additionally, as the healthcare labor market becomes increasingly competitive, more organizations will vie for the same pool of skilled employees. Creating a strategic approach to retain top performers is critical to remaining competitive. 

Given the demographic realities of an aging workforce coupled with the influx of younger workers, HR leaders must have their eye on developing a diverse, inclusive leadership pipeline. Leadership development programs can help by building diverse cohorts of learners — both tenured and new — who learn together and build skills to effectively manage across generations, build collaborative teams, and promote diversity and inclusion.  

In our March “Making The Case” blog, we examined how one TLD Group client invested in a diverse talent development leadership academy to create a diverse pipeline of leaders within their organization. Bottom line: The more that this organization invested in its employees, the higher its retention rate of high performers.   

Prioritize your own leadership development to best steward others. What challenges do you regularly find yourself facing when it comes to stewarding your organization through dynamic change? As a leader, your behaviors and actions set the tone for the organization. By investing in your own leadership development, you are modeling a commitment to personal and professional growth that encourages others to do the same.

Have you considered investing in executive coaching for yourself? Times like these, in which the entire organization is experiencing massive change and transformation are stressful for organizations, challenging for leaders, and especially difficult for HR leaders who are called upon to help navigate the tumult. Executive coaching can help by developing resilience and creating coping strategies to navigate change and uncertainty, which are particularly important in the current labor market. 

For HR leaders specifically, the ability to develop and adapt to the changing labor market is of utmost importance.  Afterall,  adaptation plays an important role in helping the organization stay competitive and thrive. Coaching, which is customized to an individual's unique strengths and weaknesses, can enable you to become a more confident, capable change agent who can execute critical organizational and human resources strategies. 

Optimize your workforce, even as the labor market changes. 

Let TLD Group help you find ways to optimize your greatest asset - your workforce. Contact us today to learn about enhancing your and your workforce’s leadership skills.