Signs, signs, everywhere a-signs?
When did it get to the point where businesses became littered with despairing ‘help wanted’ billboards and advertisements?
With all the inherent appeals, the ‘writing on the wall’ was foreseeable.
For years, experts have been warning of a looming wave of retirements as baby boomers exit the workforce en masse. The country’s labour force growth rate has been trending downward for more than 20 years. And now, this ‘grey wave’ that has been on the horizon for a while is crashing ashore.
According to a study by BDC, the labour shortage is ‘Here to Stay’.
So what can business leaders do about this worker scarcity?
Professional recruitment companies like HR Project Partners are bustling to help businesses fill their openings; offering creative solutions to secure the right talent.
While the art of recruitment is in high demand, it is equally important to ensure a strategy is in place to hold onto these employees. Employers are no longer in the driver’s seat. Employees have more choices and, as evident from the Signs of the Times, they can pick their place of preference.
One of Gallup’s biggest discoveries is that the leader alone accounts for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement… you must have engaged employees. If not, customer ratings will go down, profitability will decline, productivity will descend, turnover will go up, safety incidents will increase, shrinkage (theft) will surge, absenteeism will grow, and your product or service quality (defects) will expand. These KPI (key performance indicator) measurables will determine the fate of your employees and your business.
Leaders who know how to engage employees retain their employees.
With all the inherent and unique work environments that evolved since the pandemic, we also have to make sure leaders can adapt and flex to the modern-day workforce.
The commitment to recruitment and retention has a reasonable chance of gaining ground with imagination and innovation. It’s the leaders who have to build that strong foundation if we’re going to ever see equal footing between supply and demand.
Check out Avail’s training programs that will give leaders new tools and skills to connect with the modern-day workforce.
