HPU Human Capital Expert Johnny C. Taylor Jr. Mentors Students
HIGH POINT, N.C., Oct. 9, 2024 – Johnny C. Taylor Jr., president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), recently visited High Point University’s campus to mentor students as HPU’s Human Capital Expert in Residence.
Taylor leads one of the world’s largest human resources trade associations with nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries. His career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer, HR executive and CEO for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
While speaking to a management organizational behavior class during his visit to HPU on Oct. 2, Taylor compared HR officers to those who select athletic talent and build the best teams.
“In a knowledge-based economy, the companies that win will have the right talent, an engaged talent and the smartest talent,” Taylor said. “The companies that lose won’t. It’s just that simple.”
Trends, Forecast and the Role of AI
While on campus, Taylor spoke with leadership classes about human capital trends and forecasts, with freshman business fellows about career growth and with business students about artificial intelligence (AI) and human intelligence (HI). He also shared lunch with students, spoke with leaders of local private schools and met with students selected to participate in HPU in the City, a career and professional development program that allows students to network with company executives in major metropolitan areas.
“We essentially keep our fingers on the pulse of what hiring managers are looking for,” Taylor said of SHRM. “We are increasingly appreciating how important higher education is to us. In some ways, we employers, companies, government, nonprofits and the military are consumers of the product that is created by the PK-16 system. That’s why this is so important for me to come to college campuses across the world to say these are the issues that are keeping employers up at night. These are the issues that are on the minds of businesses, especially in the context of AI.”
Taylor asked students to consider how long they have known about AI. In the two years since ChatGPT was introduced, some people are excited about its promise for health care advances and social, health and education equity. Others are afraid AI will displace people’s jobs. Taylor encouraged everyone to embrace the AI journey, saying AI + HI = ROI, or return on investment.
Taylor outlined the following essential skills for workers to remain competitive as AI continues to transform the business world:
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Creativity and innovation
- Emotional intelligence and communication
- Technical skills
- Adaptability and lifelong learning
Trends Impact Workforce
Corporate America can no longer predict what the world will be like in 10 years or more because of the current environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, Taylor said. He said nine out of the top 10 Fortune 500 companies since 1955 are gone or have merged or been contracted. Since 2000, 52% of companies in the Fortune 500 have vanished. Taylor predicted another half of them will be merged, acquired or bankrupt in the next decade.
“We still have 8 million open jobs in America that we can’t fill. Twenty-five percent of our employees come in the door and leave within a year,” Taylor said. “That is amazing turnover. It’s not sustainable. It’s not something we’ve ever seen as a society, and we’re now having to adjust to a people scarcity.”
Taylor, who estimated he spends about 70% of his time traveling to meet with business and political leaders, told students about American employers’ need for young people to replenish the aging workforce.
“Another concern: Americans stopped having children in meaningful numbers in the year 2000,” Taylor said. “By 2020 during COVID, people had even fewer children because no one wanted to go to a hospital. We saw a 4% drop in the U.S. birth rate during that year alone. We have a legitimate people problem, and AI is a necessity. That’s why trillions of dollars are going into this. Employers are scrambling, saying we have ultra-low employment and it’s not going away anytime soon.”
One reason Taylor teaches students to be creative thinkers and problem solvers is because many of the jobs they are preparing for will go away over the next 5-7 years. There will be a new set of future jobs, he said. He advised students to take advantage of the resources HPU offers as The Premier Life Skills University.
For example, when showing up for an interview, Taylor suggested students should dress appropriately as a professional, show respect and communicate in ways that suit the company’s culture.
He advised students to do these three things as they enter the workforce:
- Have a growth mindset and a willingness to try new things.
- Be collaborative and work as a team with people who think differently and have different values.
- Be a creative problem-solver.
Keeping an open mindset and recognizing opportunities to always grow and learn from others was the biggest takeaway from Taylor’s presentations, said Tomiwa Bello, a junior finance major from Bowie, Maryland.
“Even if it’s something that may oppose your values, being able to sit in that room and have those conversations can open doors and opportunities,” Bello said. “Having that mindset moving forward allows me to make lateral moves to create and grow a network that will not only help me but those who are behind me.”
Shelby Caruso, a junior international business and French major from Washington, D.C. who plans to participate in the HPU in the City program, found it especially interesting when Taylor mentioned connections with other businesses and the U.S. Department of State.
“I would like more insight into how my major in international business can play a role in connecting with global business,” she said. “It’s interesting to see how businesses connect with their entities abroad and domestically.”