Hiring and retention of employees are difficult for demographic reasons, I’ve argued in a series of articles on Forbes. But a management expert offers a different perspective: “The issue is not about people, it is really about owners and leaders, managers being cops instead of coaches.” That’s the view of Rudy Miick, shared from an email with his permission.

The demographic issue is captured in this image, showing that the growth of the working-age population in the current decade, from 2020 to 2030, will be the lowest since the Civil War. Note the contrast with the huge increases from 1970 through 2010, when the baby boomers were entering their working years and the children of boomers entered their working years. At that time we also had women choosing to work. After World War II about one-third of adult women worked. By 1999 the proportion was up to 60 percent. This was an era of labor abundance. With many applicants for every open job, managers could be sloppy or even downright rude. Now, however, old management practices don’t work because of the demographics.

The poor management theory also has good basis. Miick argues for only hiring A+ workers, but also emphasizes that to do so the manager needs to know what an A+ worker is. If we don’t define excellence, he writes, we won’t get it. These ideas are not “tight labor market” principles; they will help any business in any economic environment. An abundant labor force enables managers to hire and retain workers easily, but just hiring what Miick calls a “pulse” won’t provide great value to the customer nor low cost to the employer.

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Read the full article here.