During low unemployment, companies that plan to grow by simply adding employees will find that shallow labor pools won’t readily support them. Companies that plan to select, develop, and retain employees way they’ve always done it could create a competitive disadvantage they might never overcome.

Low unemployment in a booming economy means increased competition for a diminishing number of available applicants. Whether employers like it or not, they will be forced to change their approach to staffing their businesses if they want to keep up, much less move ahead, in these competitive times.

Whenever I find myself struggling to figure out a problem, I begin to look for models of success established by others who have been involved in situations similar to mine. For those of you wondering what heck you’re going to do to meet staffing challenges of near future, I suspect that you might get a few good ideas from a somewhat unlikely source . . . a professional sports team. For example, lets take a look at pro baseball teams and how they operate. They:

·Get rid of people who can’t do job. ·Train and develop those who can do job. ·Support those who are doing job. ·Look externally for other people when they don’t have resources internally to do job.

For example, let's take a look at a starting second baseman on a major league team. Suppose he gets sidelined because of an injury. His organization would have substitute players trained, developed, and ready to play. His organization would also have a whole system of minor league players, at different skill levels, preparing for opportunity to do his job.

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