The other day I was chatting with a program director of a Technical College. As the subject shifted to challenges his school was facing, the conversation turned to expectations of the local businesses.
“One question that keeps popping up is ‘Where are the good employees?’”. He went on to describe examples where businesses are wanting the best/brightest people familiar with the latest/greatest, but cannot find anyone who fits that description for the price they want to pay. He also mentioned that there is a workforce at the ready, but their skill sets are not an exact match, so organizations do not consider them because they don’t want to expend the resources to bring them up to speed.
The problem is that his stories echoed what I had been hearing for other sources for the past several months. Organizations whining and moaning that good employees are hard to come by at the same time good employees are whining and moaning that good employers are hard to come by.
It reminded me of something I saw a while back. There once was a sign at a favorite bar & grille I frequented on the road (the watering hole was torn down a few years ago to make way for a highway expansion). Anyway, the sign above the restaurant entrance said:
“If our standards don’t meet your standards, kindly lower your standards.”
Mind you, the food was tasty and the service delightful – it was a fun place to eat with a good “value for price paid.” OK, the sign was a joke, but the memory of it came back to me as I listened to my friend’s challenges.
Now, there is a difference between standards and expectations, but they both play a part in our day-to-day behaviors – the reactions to the world around us at that moment. For the most part, our standards drive our initial expectations.
For example, I am a “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead – Get in, Get done, Get out.” kind of guy. But if I need to work with someone who has a more cautious or a more calculated approach to a project, I may have to adjust my expectations of how the task will be completed. My own standards will not change (I still want to get it done), but my expectations may have to be adjusted (level of detail, amount of coaching, etc.) to accommodate the reality of the situation.
The same thing is true in these turbulent waters we find ourselves in regarding available and “hirable” employees. We can keep our standards high – looking for the best/brightest, but we may have to adjust our expectations – yes, some resources may have to be expended to bring that employee fully on board. But the return on the investment will probably be better in the long run.
If we don’t adjust, we will continue to waste time looking for people who do not exist.
