University of Tennessee economics professor Marianne Wanamaker has a sobering message for anyone whose business depends on a large labor base: The United States is facing a potentially permanent labor shortage.
Speaking at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals’ (CSCMP) annual Edge conference in October, Wanamaker noted that the United States has seen extraordinary economic growth over the last three years but has not been able to grow its workforce at the same rate.
“The number of unemployed people is as low as it’s been in the last 22 years,” Wanamaker said, “and there are more job openings than there are unemployed people. So the idea that we’re going to solve our problem by just retraining unemployed people doesn’t hold water in today’s economy. That’s not our current situation. Instead, we don’t have enough bodies.”
The situation is not likely to improve anytime soon, as the country’s population growth rate is just 0.5%. Furthermore, Wanamaker says that currently, U.S. population growth is dependent on immigration, but only 6% of legal immigrants per year are currently employment-based (meaning they came here for work-related reasons).
So if your business is dependent on people to pick orders in your warehouse or DC, drive your trucks, or crunch your point-of-sale data, what do you do? Certainly, it makes sense to look into automation and artificial intelligence (AI). (Indeed, any moral concerns about whether a robot is going to steal someone’s job go out the window when you don’t have enough people to fill existing jobs.)
But technology is not the only answer. Another part of the solution might entail rethinking your hiring and retention practices. You have to realize that you are now competing for a constrained resource. So what can you do to make sure that people want to work for you?
While competitive pay will always matter, research increasingly shows that people also value work-life balance. What does that look like in practice? For many, it’s about flexible schedules and flexible working arrangements. Also speaking at CSCMP Edge, John Phillips, senior vice president of customer supply chain and go-to-market for PepsiCo Inc., said that companies need to come to terms with the fact that most employees are uninterested in returning to a fully in-office work environment. Rather than forcing staffers to come in five days a week, companies should pursue a hybrid option that is “purposeful” about in-office experiences, he said.
“The office can be a positive experience, if it’s purposeful time,” said Phillips. “If you’re dragging people back in to do Zoom calls in the corner, I’m telling you it’s not going to work over the long haul when it comes to retaining and attracting the best talent.”
By purposeful time, Phillips means things like collaborating on a project in a conference room, having one-on-ones with direct reports, or celebrating team wins.
But scheduling flexibility shouldn’t be limited to office jobs. It should be offered to frontline workers as well. To be sure, no one can pick products or drive a truck from their home office. But companies can take steps to give employees more control over their schedules. Pepsi, for example, is currently doing a test run with the app WorkJam that enables frontline workers to swap shifts.
“This is really what the future looks like for the frontline,” said Phillips. “They seek the same type of flexibility that we do as knowledge workers. They also have PTA meetings and kids’ games to go to as well as weddings and family events. Making that a whole lot easier—as opposed to having to [beg] your manager [for] time off—will really help with retention.”
Phillips truly believes that companies that offer this type of flexibility will be much more successful in filling these crucial frontline roles. The power dynamic has shifted, and workers are now in the driver’s seat with more clout than they’ve ever had in the past.Copyright ©2024. All Rights ReservedDesign, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing