WHERE ARE THE NEXT-GENERATION LEADERS?

Generational forces are challenging effective ownership/leadership transitions.

Over the next decade or so, we can expect a 15 percent decline in 35 to 44-year-olds, while at the same time, the population of firm principals is rapidly shrinking.

True too, the psychological contract is changing. Today’s employees (called Generation X and Millennials) haven’t the loyalty that their veteran grandparents had. They value opportunity, and seek it elsewhere if that’s where it is.

Finally, our industry is facing a shortage of new recruits. A 2009 survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) found that 85 percent of young people between 8 and 17 weren’t interested in engineering as a career, and their parents weren’t encouraging it. On top of that, a 2009 Georgetown/Rutgers study found that the “top quintile SAT/ACT and GPA performers appear to have been dropping out of the [science/engineering] pipeline … [a decline that] seems to have come on quite suddenly in the mid-to-late 1990s.”

The solution is in careful recruitment, starting at the college level, and careful cultivation of in-house employees.

Where to find those recruits?  Here are some resources you can tap for new people:

n  Referrals from existing employees

n  Former employees

n  College placement offices

n  Online job boards (e.g., LinkedIn)

n  Advertising in national and local publications

n  Co‑op programs

n  Referrals from past employees

n  Contingency fee employment agencies

n  Retainer-type executive search firms

n  Outplacement companies

n  Referrals from suppliers

n  Referrals from friends and relatives

n  Promotion from within your firm

Where did you find your most recent star talent?  Let us know!