LVEDC Director of Talent Supply Karianne Gelinas

Each week, Karianne Gelinas, Director of Talent Supply with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), will provide an update or additional information from its ongoing initiative to identify talent supply and demand issues in the region and create a strategy that results in a broader, ongoing understanding of the Lehigh Valley workforce. (See past updates.)

Employers in the Lehigh Valley and elsewhere know that understanding the workforce of today and tomorrow and supporting their interests will win the battle for talent.

Today and tomorrow’s talent seek some common attributes from their employers:

1. Feeling of a contribution to a greater purpose
2. Ability to offer input into and participate in decision-making
3. Recognition for accomplishments

The World Economic Forum has additional insights, as can be found in their article “How can we build a workforce for our digital future?” An excerpt from that article can be found below:

“Today’s employees still value security, predictability and status, but the form those attributes take is changing. Security becomes less about lifelong employment and more about lifelong employability, achieved through constant acquisition of new and relevant skills. Employees are not giving up predictability, but their timelines are shortening and their willingness to experiment in different roles and functions is growing.

“They do still value status in the form of fair compensation, benefits and rewards for out-performance. But in today’s flatter organizations, that status often comes in the form of roles of increasing responsibility and impact, rather than a march through a hierarchy of job titles.

“These changes create a new set of challenges and opportunities for employers. A renewed emphasis on development will likely entail investments in training, apprenticeship and cross-functional rotations. Employers will benefit from creating strong, clear links between employees’ work and the purpose it serves.

“New systems reflecting these changes will need to be developed. Pay, for example, was historically keyed to factors such as revenue growth and profitability targets, based on what both an individual and team had accomplished. Now different metrics must capture an individual’s contribution to a cross-functional group, or, in some cases, to non-quantifiable goals that span the entire company.”

Click here to read more about LVEDC’s ongoing talent supply initiative. Click here to see previous talent supply initiative updates.