Industry Case Analysis

In the telecom industry, as we starting to see more rapid advances in the technology we use to allow communication. The industry has changed from the early telephone days consisting of switch boards to now involving communication methods using applications as well as group text messaging, video face timing and others. To keep up with these improvements the majority of the work force has shifted from people that laid the foundation for the earlier less technical industry to people that can take it to the next levels which are needed to compete. The new generation of people bring a level of higher education, more technical skill sets and more of a familiarity due to growing up in a more advanced technical time period.

Question: There are a lot of managers and directors that have been with the company and have worked their way up the ladder for 20 and 30 years to where they are now. They usually started when they were 18-20 out of high school. Now that they are in their late 40s and early 50s so there is a bottle neck of opportunities for promotion with the younger generation which drives us away from these companies taking our skill sets with us to either startups or different companies with less congestion. How can these telecom companies combat this trend of the younger, more technical workers from leaving due to lack of opportunities in advancement? Given that the newer generation and the education/skill sets are needed to lead the innovations to compete and stay viable with in the industry, what can actual managers and directors do in the meanwhile? What is a short term fix and a long term fix?

Problem:

The problem at hand is that in this industry in particular, technology is always changing. As the technology changes, the employers remain the same with the same skillets at hand, which doesn’t offer any opportunity for new creative thinkers that know the new technology. A company with a lot of old timers doesn’t give much opportunity for the younger generation to grow and share their skills.

Symptoms:

1. A high turnover of the young employees

2. Loss of opportunity for the company to gain the skills and growth from the tech savvy employees