Practices for Engaging the 21st Century Workforce: Challenges of Talent Management in a Changing Workplace

Yesterday’s engagement techniques don’t work anymore. Here’s what does:

• A realistic, comprehensive model for engaging today’s radically different workforces
• Develop more adaptable organizational structures and more multidimensional HR systems
• New case studies: IBM, Ernst & Young, Google, SAS, Whole Foods, American Express, Colgate-Palmolive, and more
• For every workforce management strategist, executive, and practitioner

Employee engagement is more crucial than ever. But everything else has changed. “New normal” businesses aren’t just lean: They border on anorexic. Old workplace social contracts are being ripped up and reinvented. Companies and employees both have radically new expectations. “Black swan” events happen constantly, making adaptability the new holy grail. To engage people now, you need new frameworks, strategies, and tactics. This book delivers them.

Drawing on cutting-edge case studies and research, Dr. William G. Castellano clarifies the real drivers, conditions, and behaviors of engagement and helps you tightly link your programs to the outcomes you want. You’ll learn how to transcend “one size fits all” HR practices to engage a workforce that’s diverse in every respect: from age and culture to motivation and goals.

Whatever your HR management role, this guide will help you transform engagement from “theory” and “hope” to what it can and should be: a key source of competitive advantage.

Today’s workforces, companies, and business environments have changed in fundamental ways. There’s a “new normal”: Whatever happens to the economy, companies will stay lean and rely heavily on contingent workforces. Engagement is more crucial than ever, but old approaches to achieving it no longer work. In this book, Bill Castellano presents a comprehensive, innovative model of engagement that responds to today’s new realities and helps you anticipate tomorrow’s.

Drawing on more than 30 years as a pioneering HR practitioner and researcher, Castellano identifies what really drives engagement now and specifies the achievable strategic outcomes of engagement. Through powerful new research and case studies, he shows how to engage today’s multidimensional and changing workforce, in an environment that’s as complex as today’s workers.

You’ll learn how to develop adaptable organizational structures and management systems tailored to the needs of today’s workforces: systems that strengthen engagement and deliver the business performance benefits they promise.

• THE 21st CENTURY WORKFORCE AND THE “NEW NORMAL”

  Recognizing the implications of today’s radically new talent management challenges

• BUILDING A NEW FRAMEWORK FOR ENGAGING TODAY’S EMPLOYEES

  Linking your practices with the real drivers, conditions, and outcomes of engagement

• ADAPTING TO HANDLE CHAOS AND “BLACK SWANS”

  Achieving the numerical and functional flexibility you need to manage nonstop change

• SELECTING OPTIMAL TACTICS FROM YOUR COMPLETE ENGAGEMENT TOOLKIT

  Identifying the engagement investments most likely to succeed in your organization

Strengthen workforce and employee engagement in today's "new normal" organizational environment Today's workforces, today's companies, and today's business environments have all changed radically: even if the economy improves, companies will stay lean, and continue to rely heavily on contingent workforces. Engagement is more crucial than ever, but old approaches to achieving it simply no longer work. In Practices for Engaging the 21st Century Workforce , Bill Castellano presents a comprehensive, innovative model of engagement that responds to today's new realities, and helps you anticipate tomorrow's. Drawing on 25+ years as a pioneering HR innovator, practitioner, and researcher, Castellano offers a crystal-clear definition of engagement, identifies its real drivers, and specifies achievable strategic outcomes of engagement. He presents powerful new research on how to engage today's multidimensional and changing workforce, in an environment that's as complex as today's workers are. You'll learn how to develop adaptable organizational structures and multidimensional HR management systems tailored to the needs of today's workforces: systems that not only strengthen engagement but also deliver the business performance benefits promised by greater engagement. Throughout, Castellano supports his insights with profiles and case studies from many of the world's leading organizations, including IBM, Ernst & Young, Google, SAS, Whole Foods, American Express, Colgate-Palmolive, and ARDEC (US Military R&D Center). An indispensable resource for every HR leader, strategist, practitioner, and student.

Strengthen workforce and employee engagement in today’s “new normal” organizational environment! Today’s workforces, today’s companies, and today’s business environments have all changed radically: even if the economy improves, companies will stay lean, and continue to rely heavily on contingent workforces. Engagement is more crucial than ever, but old approaches to achieving it simply no longer work. In Practices for Engaging the 21st Century Workforce , Bill Castellano presents a comprehensive, innovative model of engagement that responds to today’s new realities, and helps you anticipate tomorrow’s. Drawing on 25+ years as a pioneering HR innovator, practitioner, and researcher, Castellano offers a crystal-clear definition of engagement, identifies its real drivers, and specifies achievable strategic outcomes of engagement. He presents powerful new research on how to engage today’s multidimensional and changing workforce, in an environment that’s as complex as today’s workers are. You’ll learn how to develop adaptable organizational structures and multidimensional HR management systems tailored to the needs of today’s workforces: systems that not only strengthen engagement but also deliver the business performance benefits promised by greater engagement. Throughout, Castellano supports his insights with profiles and case studies from many of the world’s leading organizations, including IBM, Ernst & Young, Google, SAS, Whole Foods, American Express, Colgate-Palmolive, and ARDEC (US Military R&D Center). An indispensable resource for every HR leader, strategist, practitioner, and student.

Dr. William G. Castellano is the Executive Director of the Joint Center for Management Development, a Clinical Associate Professor at the Rutgers Business School and School of Management and Labor Relations, and the former Director of the Center for HR Strategy and HRM Undergraduate Programs. His research, teaching, and consulting activities are focused on the effective management of contract human capital and strategic alliances, employee engagement, and aligning business and Human Resource (HR) strategies to enhance organizational effectiveness. Bill has more than 30 years of experience working in corporate Fortune 50, entrepreneurial, and research environments. Before joining Rutgers University, he was a Managing Partner at an executive search firm and a Chief Marketing Officer at a national HR outsourcing company. He also held senior HR management positions at Merrill Lynch and Manufacturers Hanover Trust where he was involved with HR strategies and practices that supported both individual business groups and the global enterprise. Bill is an accomplished researcher publishing his work in practitioner and academic journals and is a frequent speaker at national HR and business conferences.

Part I: The 21st Century Workforce and the New Normal

Chapter 1: Welcome to the New Normal     1

Chapter 2: The 21st Century Workforce     39

Chapter 3: Challenges of Talent Management in the New Normal     59

Part II: The Need for Engagement and Adaptability in the New Normal

Chapter 4: The Imperative of Employee Engagement for Competitive Success in the 21st Century     93

Chapter 5: Leveraging What We Know: An Employee Engagement Framework     115

Chapter 6: The Increasing Need for Organizational Adaptability     143

Part III: Engaging the 21st Century Worker

Chapter 7: Practices to Create Employee Engagement in the New Normal     161

Chapter 8: Conclusion: Achieving Success in the New Normal     215

Bibliography     257

Index     283