What HR Professionals Can Learn from Athletes About Closing the Workforce Readiness Gap

If you are a die-hard fantasy football player constructing lineups for Sundays, an impulsively awaiting baseball playoffs, or just the cold winter sports enthusiast or basketball junky-we as sports fans have the unique position of watching the cream of the crop do their thing in real time. Sports as a platform focuses on one of our celebrations of achievement in the most active and taxing spheres with the examples of achievements both in victory, in failure, and in lifelong dedication and consistent correspondence to prepare for developing a specific aptitude or abilities.

For businesses there are also moments of achievement that come from definiteness and skill to the required level – even if it doesn’t involve hoisting a trophy over one’s head in front of thousands of spectators. These are personal and professional triumphs wherein one is a result of not leaving something to dig in and building out a skill which is as good as having to work hard for. But if you opt for it alone, it is good for a certain percentage — the rest of us require a personal trainer and an entourage to get over the line.

There has never been a greater requirement for skills – and the drive to bridge the gap of the have and the have-nots is widening into an abyss. In this environment, what HR practitioners are doing to manage the changing workforce can be compared to the way trainers train athletes to undertake their sport. While the need to get agile and be agile may be different for the HR team in comparison to an NFL team, the goal is still essentially the same.

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The technology aspect continues to improve at an alarming rate, the markets are volatile. Thus, there appears to be a schedule mismatch in workers’ capability to sustain growth and stable productivity – an emerging workforce readiness deficiency. What organizations require to close the gap and develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with the complexity of challenges is a workforce agility approach that re-emphasizes that when people are at their best, organizations are at their best. The HR leaders need to borrow heavily from sports to engineer an agile shift process while attempting to close the workforce readiness shortfall in the corporations.

Converting on Fourth Down: Promoting Continual Improvement Environments

Everybody that has interest in football has been a victim of complaining when his or her team takes a fourth down. As for the individual players on the field however, they have practiced for this sort of thing, have a plan set for each possibility and are willing to do all they can to make sure that drive keeps on going. The same is true for talent management – business drivers are evolving and the cadence of technology advancement continues to quicken. To sum it up, there exists a major deficiency in the readiness of the workforce to embrace change and we must strive to prepare employees to live and work in a market that operates within this ever-changing environment!

Every top performer understands that success loves challenges – ask Spetar-Theriau, the ITU Paratriathlon World Champion three times, Paralympic four-time participant. Melissa, a soldier who deployed in Iraq in 2004 was the first American woman soldier to suffer a limb amputation in active combat after an improvised explosive device struck the Humvee she was in. Thanks to her courage she received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. However, hoping to improve, she did not get discouraged and proceeded to participate in many more Paralympic triathlon events. Not only that, but Melissa’s perseverance easily teaches all of us how one can succeed by staying flexible and leading through various shades of life.

Developing a mindset of adaptability though isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach – HR teams must know their players and give them the tools and encouragement they need to foster those skills. Personalized learning will make employees more confident in their roles and will allow them to continually build on their current skills and learn new skills they may need for the future. Learning programs specific to each employee will help them supercharge their career growth, making them more invested in upskilling.

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