More management work from soup to nuts even- if you know only soup making best- seems to be the signal from the US job market. For example, companies are not willing to pay separately for project management when they outsource IT and similarly in-house the workfrorce from R&D to Marketing and Sales,Supply Chain and Engineering are supposed to self manage, what with the middle managers let go in the recession. Never mind that the work-force has been restructered in 65% of organizations to reduce headcount according to Exhibit 6 of the McKinsey Report. Reducing headcount or employees in the US is simply to cut cost. What mechanisms did companies use ? These measures were:
- More work to existing folks ( 54%) ………#
- Automation of tasks (44%)…….#
- Increase in part-time/contractual for peak work (44%)….#
- Re-designed processes(43%)
- Off-Shore/Outsourcing (24%)………#
- Other (4%)
- Don't know (2%)
Just ask around and you'll know that the additional work (1 above) being put on existing folks is really more of the remaining ones in the list above. That is make sure that automation works, manage the part-timers and the outsourced work (marked …..# above).
And the trouble is that these managerial tasks can be handled either by folks who have the skills or know the organization for years. The latter are the baby boomers who will retire large scale around 2020 by which time there will be a shortage of replacements and unemployment might actually come down to 5%.The big value the baby boomers bring today is the knowledge of the organization to try and integrate the part-time/contract workers and the outsourced work.
The good news for blog readers is that management skills will be in high demand – so if you specialize in say social media marketing or on the PLM or Supply Chain module in an ERP system but also are able to understand the connection between your speciality and production,supply chain,HR and finance – for your particular industry -you will do great. Much better than someone who knows social media marketing or is good with particular modules of ERP systems but does'nt "get" the other connections.