Here [in the United States,] the story is about getting a just-in-time workforce, finding the precise workers we need just at the time we need them but letting them go when our needs change and then replacing them with new ones. Its a plug n play approach to the workforce, and its not working that well…
The weak link in that approach is that with the focus on outside hiring to get skills, few employers are providing development opportunities. Why bother developing when we can get the skills on the outside? US large companies have been filling 66 percent of their vacancies from the outside, in contrast to a generation ago where 90 percent were filled from within. Because one companys outside hire of an experienced candidate is another companys retention problem, employers rightly look around and wonder whether investments in their employees will pay off. These patterns reinforce each other: less development leads to a greater need to hire skills from the outside, and doing so reduces the need to develop internally; it also creates spillover problems for other employers for whom turnover reduces the ability to finance training.
