Agility at work matters more than efficiency, author says

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on August 12, 2010 at 6:00 AM, updated August 12, 2010 at 9:19 PM
Benko.jpgCathleen Benko, vice chairman and chief talent officer for Deloitte LLP.

Cathleen Benko learned about the dynamics of the workplace as a teenager, juggling cold cuts, bagels and salads at a deli in Clifton.

"You learn business lessons no matter where you go and what you do," she said. "What I learned from working young is that you have a reputation that is formed that goes with you, and you are in control of that brand. Your personal brand can be an asset or a liability."

Benko, who grew up in Nutley and has lived in New Jersey for 27 years, is a vice chairman and chief talent officer for Deloitte LLP in San Francisco, one of the world’s largest professional services organizations.

An 18-year veteran of Deloitte, she is responsible for devising strategies to attract and develop highly skilled employees. She created a program that allows employees to dial up or dial down their responsibilities to fit their personal and professional goals.

She is the co-author of "The Corporate Lattice," a book about how the dynamics of the work force and workplace are changing the way careers are built. Benko, 52, attended Ramapo College and Harvard Business School. She spoke to Your Business, while on vacation at the Shore, about trends in careers and the workplace.

Q. You cited statistics in your book that 60 percent of all new jobs next decade will require skills that only one-fifth of current workers possess. What kind of skills?

A. The pace of change is so much faster than it used to be. Companies used to scale up for efficiency. How do we make a widget in less time with fewer defects? It was very regimented.

When you look at the business world today, efficiency matters for sure, but agility matters more. For example, if you look at the tech sector, the kinds of jobs that are there now – such as web-based technologies — didn’t exist that long ago. People are writing their own web pages, as an example.

Q. What about education levels?

A. If you think back to the ’60s, about 60 percent of the workers had a college education. Today, it’s 85 percent. So, college itself is becoming a have-to-have. What you need to look for is acquiring transferable skills and experiences.

The skills you have today are not the skills you will need in the future. You have to make sure you are acquiring new skills so you don’t get complacent and can continue to grow. If you stall, you will find one day that you are not marketable.

Q. Can you give an example of growing job fields?

A. Certainly, heavy tech. Engineering skills, particularly in the computer science area. Cyber-security is a lucrative field and continues to grow. Along with that, the whole area of accounting forensics.

Q. You also have talked about the mass customization that’s going on with products, such as iTunes, iPhones or M&Ms with a personal message. How is that phenomenon shaping the kinds of jobs that will be required in the future?

A. If you look at what’s going on in the service side with credit card billing cycles, you can pick your billing date. If you look at postage stamps, you can put your dog’s face on a postage stamp. You will pay a little bit more, but it’s your postage stamp — your way. That notion of greater customization is also penetrating on the workplace side.

Q. How so?

A. The whole notion of how and where work gets done is changing. There was a study done recently that said for people who have to go into the office on a regular basis, they became less productive at hour 38. For people who work from home or work remotely, the floor of where the productivity drops off is more like 56 hours.

Some of that is people who would have spent their time commuting who are putting it into their work. It’s just a more flexible environment.

Q. Is there still a corporate ladder?

A. We think we are all climbing this corporate ladder and gunning to get to the next level. But if you look at individuals, you will find a very different story. It’s a collaboration between the individual and the employer to figure out whatever stage they are in, whether they have young children or older children or are hungry to take on more responsibility. So, there are more ways to measure success today.

Q. The economy is stuck in a jobless recovery. What can you tell people about the job market right now?

A. If you break it down, if you look at certain areas, there is a shortage of critical talent. That means people who possess the right skills for a certain job. We argue that unemployment is part of an economic cycle but it masks the underlying issues.

If you do the math, there are more people exiting the work force than entering it. On a relative basis, we are doing better than Japan, South Korea and even China, Germany, Italy and Russia. People are having fewer kids.

Joseph R. Perone: (973) 392-4262 or

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