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Many forces are dramatically altering the workplace. The result is that employers are increasingly changing the model of worker engagement. Project-based employment is becoming the norm in more situations. I term this the “Hollywood model,” where a team of individuals is hired to accomplish a task, be it making a movie or developing and launching a new product. Workers are chosen for their particular skills, utilized, and then released to seek their next job.

Challenges Facing Employers

Until recently, the Hollywood model has not been the norm in other industries. Thus, employers must now have a new mindset and develop practices to find and attract the talent they need for what may be limited engagements. Challenges include:

• Identifying employees most desirable for the next team.
• Further developing the talents of these employees for application on the next project.
• Mixing training with production.
• Developing management skills for shorter time horizons.
• Making teams productive when new members are more often new to one another.

In short, how will you make your workplace attractive enough to keep your best talent for the next engagement?

Challenges Facing Employees

Workers have multiple challenges as well. They have to be much more committed to their own career management, a term we like to call “career entrepreneurship.” Workers need to look ahead to where they want to be and try to ensure they have the opportunities to develop the skills and experiences needed to move to the next job and the job after that.

Employees need to assess their own abilities to handle gaps between positions, conduct searches for new assignments, and entice current employers to invest in them and help them rapidly develop.

In this new normal, life-long learning is a must.

The Hollywood Model Redux

How you are planning to meet the challenges as an employer or an employee? I invite you to post a comment and share your ideas on how you and others can move forward in the successful adoption of the Hollywood model.

The future is now!

Continuing last week’s topic, Dr. White discusses how changing demographics are affecting the workplace from different angles. For example, millennials are working to fill a talent void created by retiring baby-boomers, who must pass on their valuable workplace knowledge to the new generation. Clearly, employers need to plan for the successful transfer of responsibilities between generations.

As people juggle multiple careers and more college-educated women than men join the workforce, companies must develop strategies to retain and attract this talent. Employer strategies will need to communicate their flexible work arrangements.