Business leaders across East Tennessee regularly discuss the challenges of recruiting and retaining talented employees. Whether the conversation is taking place with a local auto repair shop, an accounting firm, a local government office, or a small business break room, the theme is often the same: finding good people has become increasingly difficult.
For years, many employers have approached the problem from a similar perspective. They defined a personnel need, created a position, defined the hours, established the expectations, and then searched for someone who fits the role. While that model can work, I have begun to wonder if many organizations are asking the wrong question.
Instead of asking, “How do we find people who fit our business?” Perhaps the better question to ask is, “How do we structure our business around the talented people we want to attract?”
This realization came from an unexpected place.
Recently, I was recruiting a qualified consultant to join my organization. She was an experienced professional with excellent credentials and specialized expertise. Coincidentally, she was also expecting a child and was due within a few weeks. As I considered how to integrate her into our team, I recognized a challenge that many employers face.
Traditional employment structures often force talented individuals to choose between their professional ambitions and their family’s immediate needs.
At roughly the same time, two of my senior associates became increasingly focused on spending time with their grandchildren. Their availability revolved around family responsibilities just as much as the younger consultants’ schedules would soon revolve around newborn children. What struck me was that I was observing the same workforce challenge from the opposite ends of the career spectrum. On one side were younger professionals with valuable skills who needed flexibility to raise families. On the other side, experienced professionals with decades of wisdom who wanted meaningful work but also wanted time with grandchildren. In both cases, traditional work schedules created barriers that had little to do with talent, capability, or commitment.
The experience led me to reconsider how work is structured.
Rather than hiring one individual to fill a full-time role, I began exploring a model that distributes responsibilities across multiple part-time contributors. That is the same model that I use to provide professional consulting services to my clients. I work as a fractional leader. I serve a variety of clients, none on a full-time basis, helping them with very targeted expertise, when and how they need my expertise. I work for them when they need me and how they need me. With this structure, several professionals can share client responsibilities, collaborate through technology, and contribute during hours that align with their personal commitments.
To support this approach, I have invested heavily in collaboration tools and communication platforms. Processes were designed so work could move smoothly between team members. Client expectations were adjusted to embrace a team- based delivery model rather than dependence on a single individual.
The result is a workforce structure that bends around people’s lives instead of requiring people to bend around the business.
What has surprised me most is that this concept is not entirely new.
In another business operation I manage, as a fractional leader, labor shortages years ago forced us to rethink staffing models. We replaced several full-time positions with a larger group of part-time retirees. Conventional wisdom suggested this approach would complicate operations. Instead, we discovered lower turnover, stronger customer service, and a deeper pool of available labor.
The lesson was simple: talent often exists in places where competitors are not looking. Today, I believe that the same principle applies to professional services and knowledge-based work. Many organizations are competing aggressively for the same segment of the labor market: professionals seeking traditional full-time careers with traditional schedules. Meanwhile, highly capable individuals on the “sunrise” of their careers, when they are raising children, and those in the “sunset” of their careers, when retirement becomes an option, are frequently overlooked.
That may be a strategic mistake.
The future workforce will likely demand greater flexibility than ever before. Technology has made collaboration easier. Remote work has become commonplace. Employees increasingly prioritize quality of life, family time, and personal flexibility alongside compensation. Organizations that ignore these realities may find themselves competing in an increasingly crowded talent marketplace.
Organizations willing to adapt, however, may discover an entirely different labor pool waiting to contribute.
I am not suggesting that every position can be part-time, remote, or shared among
multiple workers. Every industry faces unique operational realities. However, leaders should challenge themselves to reexamine old assumptions about when, where, and how work must be performed. Some of the best employees, consultants, and leaders available today are not unemployed, unqualified, or uninterested.
They are simply waiting for an opportunity that fits their season of life. The employers who recognize that reality first may gain a powerful competitive
advantage in attracting, developing, and retaining talent for years to come.
Footnote: Kind thanks and credit to article co-collaborator Erin Stevens, Vice-
President, TN Business + Family Forum, Tennesseans for Quality Early Education
