Competition is fierce among organizations struggling to find skilled workers. Job openings are at historic levels. This has been exacerbated by the large number of recent resignations as employees look for higher wages, enhanced benefits and more opportunity for career advancement.
A recent study found nearly three-quarters of Washington state organizations indicated they experienced labor shortages or had more trouble attracting talent in 2021 than in previous years. A little more than half of the organizations in the state said 2021 resignation rates were higher than past years and finding skilled workers was a major challenge.
Nationally, the unemployment rate hovers around 3.6%, with employers adding at least 400,000 jobs for 12 straight months. A recent Labor Department reported only 1.38 million Americans were collecting traditional unemployment benefits, the fewest since 1970. The labor market has added 6.5 million jobs in the past year and is on pace to return to pre-pandemic levels this summer. The biggest demands were concentrated in leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing.
The need to fill job-openings is critical to maintaining a prosperous business and sustainable economy. The economy now has, on average, two available jobs for every unemployed person. The highest such proportion on record. Finding and keeping skilled workers is crucial to business success, and employees are voicing their priorities.
Workers want more flexibility, more career opportunities, benefit and wage increases, and skilled-based training. The employee talent shortage is real and is expected to get worse. Traditional recruitment models of job fairs, seminars and employment advertising are not filling the skills-gaps and employment needs of businesses. Moreover, small businesses are often unable to compete in this highly competitive employee recruitment market. There is a need for employers to “look inside” as well as outside providing a key to uncovering untapped talent. With sound planning and training workers can move into well-fitting internal roles, while employers get better productivity and enhance worker loyalty.
Many organizations have yet to realize that they already have preferred access to a vibrant pool of diverse talent within their own organizations. Investing in worker-retention and training programs, grounded in skills-training and mentorships, with a clear path to advancement is critical for employee retention and organizational success.
Where do you start?
Value your employees. Most workers would prefer to remain with their current employer, given a reasonable chance for advancement. Prepare your employees to successfully compete for positions against the best and the brightest. Nearly all jobs should be competed internally and externally to find the best talent to fill the role. Give your employees access to the tools so anyone who seeks continuous improvement will succeed. Through giving employees cutting edge training, they develop subject matter mastery that provides self-confidence and fulfillment. Provide market-based benefit and compensation packages, but beat the market on training. It’s essential that employees who want to grow to be the best in their field know management values them – and wants them to stay.
Communicate the path to advancement opportunities. Make sure workers are aware the opportunity for advancement exists, provide mentorships, and invest in training for a well-laid-out career path. Employees can only plan or manage a career pathway if they are aware of opportunities for advancement and means are offered to pursue them. Workers need to be at least aware of what they could aspire to within the organization. They need to know what kind of performance standards and knowledge mastery lead to which career milestones.
Invest in the process of employee growth and continuous improvement. Investing in upskilling current, willing workers who already possess knowledge, experience, and a history of service may provide a stronger return on investment than making speculative bets on an influx of candidates based on their job applications.
Cultivate partnerships. Within each community, potential partnerships exist to support employee productivity and retention efforts. Community colleges, labor-based apprenticeships, not-for-profit and for-profit training initiatives are good examples. Online learning programs from around the world have gotten substantially better and become more acceptable as a result of covid19. These opportunities can meet employer training needs for upskilling and reskilling workers. Many companies offset these training costs with tuition assistance and further enhance employee loyalty and retention.
Organizations are discovering the best talent may be hiding in plain sight. An internal talent pool may already exist within the organization, one that is ready to remain with the company, one that is prepared to earn promotions, but only if the organization is ready to invest in them. Competition sharpens the sword, so compete all positions. But give your internal talent the competitive edge of training. Then reap the rewards of enhanced organizational performance and higher retention.
Gene Sharratt is a research associate with The Center for Educational Effectiveness and board chair for Education Northwest, a five-state (Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana) research consortium. He can be reached at gsharratt@wsu.edu or (509) 670-3222.
Steve Wright is the former Chelan County PUD general manager, where he served for eight years, part of a 40-year career in the power industry.
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