The Coming Crisis of the Changing Workforce

Tamara J. Erickson

The lines are crossing - beginning this year, and continuing throughout this decade, demand for talent will outstrip availability. Demographic forces, including the aging population and younger workers' shifting expectations for work, are dramatically reshaping the workforce. What should corporations do today to insure they have the talent they'll need for tomorrow? Key management challenges include anticipating workforce changes, attracting and retaining young workers, reengaging and retaining mid-career workers, retaining and leveraging mature workers, implementing flexible work arrangements, implementing flexible learning, and implementing flexible compensation and benefits.

Tamara is an expert on the changing workforce and innovative ways to shift the relationship between individuals and organizations, and, in so doing, powerfully enhance workforce productivity. She is President of The Concours Institute, the research and education arm of The Concours Group, a professional services firm supporting senior executives through the blend of leading-edge intellectual capital and pragmatic business results, and an Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of the firm.

Tamara and her co-authors are the recipients of the 2004 McKinsey Prize for the award-winning Harvard Business Review article, "It's Time to Retire Retirement", March 2004. A second Harvard Business Review article, "Managing Middlescence", appeared in the March 2006 issue. She is co-author of the book Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent published by Harvard Business School Press in 2006 and was a lead contributor to two multi-year research initiatives: Demography is De$tiny, exploring the implications of current demographic changes on human resource practices, and The New Employee/Employer Equation, developing new and powerful approaches to increasing employee engagement through segmentation. She is also a respected authority on technology and its implications for business and coauthor of the book Third Generation R&D: Managing the Link to Corporate Strategy, a widely accepted guide to making technology investments and managing innovative organizations, published in 1991.

Tamara has extensive experience in corporate strategy and organizational effectiveness and oversees both the human capital practice and intellectual capital development at The Concours Group. She is a member of the Board of Directors of PerkinElmer, Inc., a Fortune 500 company competing in advanced technology markets, a member of the Audit and Governance Committees, and a former member of the Board of Allergan, Inc. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago and a MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration where she was the recipient of the James Thomas Chirurg Fellowship.

About the Concours Group
The Concours Group works with senior executives of over 300 of the Global 1000 to master critical issues in management and to turn human capital and technological potential into business value. In partnership with client executives, we formulate, launch, and accelerate new business strategies. We provide provocative insights, new ideas, and critical expertise to enhance performance. Our work is fast-cycle, centered on business outcomes, and driven to decision and action. Our ambition is to solve our clients' most important and complex business problems.

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