This week’s issue explores how two important groups —Moms and Boomers— can help close the growing professional skills gap. And in other news this week new hires are ghosting employers, Apple faces backlash for return to office policy, an Apple executive quits instead of returning to the office, and the argument for location-based salaries falls apart.
Leading Off — Can Moms and Boomers Solve the Growing Skills Gap Problem?
Yesterday was Mother’s Day here in the US and many other countries around the world. I hope all moms, including my mother and wife, had a wonderful day.
Yesterday’s Mother’s Day celebration is a great opportunity to highlight how technology companies, HR teams, and recruiters continue to ignore two talented groups of professionals because they want a different way of working. Moms (and sometimes Dads) with small children and the growing number of retiring Baby Boomers.
(Side note: Everyone has different needs. This is not meant to lump all moms and boomers in the same bucket. Instead, it’s intended to shed light on a trend impacting some moms (maybe a few dads) and many boomers.)
Last week, the Department of Labor reported 11.5 million job openings in March. In that same month, a record 4.5 million people quit their jobs. In last week’s newsletter, we noted that C-Suite executives have already admitted the number of bad hires is growing. The reality is technology companies are trying to fill traditional full-time roles with people that don’t exist.
Many talented professionals, including moms and boomers, still want to use their skills to add value to organizations, just not under the existing antiquated all or nothing employment models.
This new reality impacts professionals at every level. My ophthalmologist recently quit her practice. She had just returned from maternity leave but wanted to spend more time with her family. Rather than keeping her on a day or two each week, or a few half days, her practice wanted her there full time or not at all and that didn’t work for her. (I no longer see anyone in this practice.)
Why it Matters
Diversity is key to a company’s success. According to a recent Mckinsey report, companies with a higher percentage of female executives are more likely to outperform companies with fewer female executives.
Also, while the “Great Resignation” gets the headlines, The Great Retirement has an equally significant impact. Boomers, who still represent 25% of the US workforce, have the most experience and have enjoyed senior leadership and executive-level positions in companies.
While Covid certainly contributed to the rapid increase of Boomers leaving the workforce, a recent survey found that 75% of the respondents said they are planning to retire early. The effects of the pandemic made older people reflect on what is important to them. A larger percentage have realized that they’ll be happier and live a more fulfilling life by leaving their traditional jobs.
With a pronounced and growing professional skills gap, the industry has overwhelmingly decided it is better to try and fill rolls with less than ideal full time candidates than it is to tap into the skills and talents of a growing number of professionals actively deciding to work differently.
The Rise of Distributed Professionals as a Service
As evident by the growing skills gap, it’s time for the business model of professional work to change. The current model is stale and no longer fits the needs of many professionals making a conscious choice to make their skills and talent available to a range of companies on-demand rather than working full-time at a single company. Internal teams working in traditional models will be significantly smaller in this new model. Organizations will tap into the growing pool of on-demand professionals to support internal teams on both strategy and execution.
Moms and Boomers not wanting traditional employment are perfect for this model. They have the skills tech companies need, can easily integrate into existing teams, and can masterfully apply their skills to deliver results instantly.
While I am not a mom or a Boomer, I work with several companies for as little as five or six hours a week. These companies have very specific needs that match my specific area of expertise. And because of this expertise, I'm able to deliver results in a fraction of the time a traditional, expensive full-time employee could.
Imaging the possibilities of tapping into the brainpower for a few hours every week of talented professionals HR teams are currently ignoring.
To be successful, organizations must consider integrating distributed professionals into their workforce. Right now, under existing employment models, too much work isn’t getting done. That can change with Distributed Professionals as a Service.
In other news this week
Mac Rumors - Apple’s Director of Machine Learning Resigns Dut to Return to Office Work - Apple's director of machine learning, Ian Goodfellow, has resigned from his role a little over four years after he joined the company after previously being one of Google's top AI employees, according to The Verge's Zoë Schiffer. Goodfellow reportedly broke the news to staff in an email, saying his resignation is in part due to Apple's plan to return to in-person work, which required employees to work from the office at least one day per week by April 11, at least two days per week by May 2, and at least three days per week by May 23. "I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team," Goodfellow said in the email.
Wall Street Journal - Hiring Is Hard Enough. Now New Workers Are Vanishing Before They Even Start - The practice, often called ghosting, isn’t new. In the tight labor market that preceded the pandemic, employers reported that some staffers quit without giving notice or just stopped showing up for their shifts. The practice picked up its own shorthand: “no call, no show.” What is different now, employers said, is that more people are vanishing before even starting a job.
Wired - The Argument for Location-based Salaries is Falling Apart - Amid an increasingly intense fight for talent, several companies have taken steps to become location-agnostic. In 2020, Reddit abolished geographic pay zones for US employees, instead tying salary ranges to high-cost areas like New York and San Francisco, irrespective of where someone lives. In the autumn of 2021, online real-estate marketplace Zillow announced it would no longer cut pay for staff who move from its key operating areas, and the cloud software business Okta announced a similar approach in March.
CNET - Apple Employees Criticize Return-to-Work Plan, Call for More Flexibility - A group of Apple employees is demanding more flexibility from the tech giant ahead of its planned return to office work later this month. In an open letter, the group, calling itself Apple Together, said the company's plan for many employees to be in the office three fixed days a week offers "almost no flexibility at all" and could be damaging to diversity. "The Hybrid Working Pilot is not an increase in flexibility, it is a smokescreen and often a step back in flexibility for many of our teams."