[j_baker]

"For about five years now, particularly after dinners that featured wine, human-resources executives have been telling me, "We've come to realize we don't really want most employees for the whole of their careers. We want their particular set of skills when we need them — but then things change so fast, we don't need that particular skill set any more." And many of these are companies famous for being good at H.R. "

Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but the solution would seem to be not hiring people based solely on short-term requirements. In other words, hire people that are good no matter what the requirements are.

But then again, this is HR departments we're talking about.