I know, I know: your business is starving for workers.
Join the ever-growing list.
We are going through a unique time in this society, where unemployment numbers continue to drop, yet more and more positions are going unfilled at business. Locally, in midwest Ohio, unemployment numbers have recently dipped down to as low as 2.6% in Mercer county (a number that has only been seen a few times in the last 30 years), while neighboring Auglaize county has seen unemployment drop to as low as 3.2%.
Yet you can’t drive down the street in these small towns without seeing a “Help Wanted” sign in every other window building. But why is this happening?
The Only Thing “Lazy” In Your Argument About Other People’s Work Ethic Is Your Rationale and Thought Behind It
We don’t see unemployment numbers this low with communities full of lazy people, so let’s just go ahead and throw that theory out the window. I know it’s easy to say “nobody wants to work,” but if that was the case, the unemployment numbers wouldn’t continue to drop.
The fact of the matter is, people have options.
The pandemic was eye-opening for workers in several ways. First off was the realization and/or confirmation that most companies really don’t care about you as much as they say they do. This snowballed quickly into people all over the country either now having the opportunity to look into other options more than before, or being forced to look into other options–because let me tell you: fight or flight kicks in pretty quickly when you get tossed on the street by your job and aren’t sure how the bills will get paid next month.
And here’s what happened when people started thinking about other opportunities: they took them. Massively. A record 4.4 million new businesses were started in 2020 alone, which was over 50% higher than the yearly average from 2010 through 2019. Now we have millions of workers pursuing other employment options instead of the “typical 9 to 5” life, and honestly, can you really blame them?
How To Attract The Remaining Workers Seeking Jobs
What the labor force currently has now is a good mix of people actually understanding their worth, and not settling for anything less than they have to.
We often talk about a “seller’s market” when it comes to real estate. Well, right now, it’s a “worker’s market” when it comes to jobs, and the quicker that companies realize that, the better off they’re going to be when it comes to hiring people and keeping staff at adequate levels.
It’s time to look internally and evaluate why someone would want to work for your organization, and, more importantly, what’s going to make them want to stay. Currently, we’re seeing many businesses simply raising pay rates to get people in the door, but here’s the thing: a large portion of the younger generations don’t value pay as much as you may think they do. They value purpose.
Many businesses are simply looking for bodies to do a job, and if that is your organization’s philosophy, that’s perfectly fine–but don’t expect your hiring issues to go away any time soon. It’s much better, especially in the long run, to provide a work environment that fulfills people instead of draining them.
Hell, even Amazon–a company known for its turn and burn philosophy–is now putting a major focus on generating a sustainable workforce for the long term, and you should too. The days of blind loyalty from an employee to a company that simply issues his or her paycheck are gone, and with so many options available now, those workers will not stop searching until they find a reason to.
If your company is struggling to attract and retain workers, contact Jellison Group Ohio today for a free consultation on improving your organization’s leadership and culture, which will strengthen your entire workforce. Jellison Group Ohio is a Gallup Strengths certified organization committed to improving the situations of both people and businesses alike.
