How Does A Labor-Constrained Market Behave?
Like any change in paradigm, there is an initial period when businesses deny the problem. Some industrial employers are still operating in this state. Their management teams establish aggressive growth goals and continuously miss them. They confer with Production or Service, who tells them that they don’t have the capacity. Management puts intensifying pressure on Human Resources to get more of the people that they need. Human Resources is doing the best that they can with the tools available to them. Inevitably, limitation leads to frustration and executives and managers complain to fellow executives, associations and legislators about the problem.
Industrial Employers Have Had Enough!
More and more industrial companies are telling us that enough is enough. They tell us that these conditions are not sustainable for their long-term business growth. The result is cut-throat labor competition for all businesses. Think survival-of-the-fittest Hunger Games style! If companies are extremely successful, they can’t find enough new people to fuel their growth. If companies are losing ground to competitors, they are undoubtedly hemorrhaging employees.
Our Recommendations
Workforce solutions come in many shapes and sizes. Some are easy to implement and some require full commitment from the entire executive team. Here are a few ideas to consider:
- Don’t lower your standards – poor quality hiring destroys morale, reduces efficiency and increases injuries
- Keep your wages competitive – low wages signal to the market that you are a lame-duck employer
- Keep your benefits competitive – a lack of benefits also signals to the market that you a lame-duck employer
- Identify what is unique about your company and broadcast it – the biggest secret to retention is being special. Look within. Identify through your most passionate employees what they love about working for you and market those qualities to your candidates. People will work for and stay with a company they believe is unique and going places. Be that kind of company!
- Ask other industrial employers what they are doing to retain their people – if they are using ideas that fit your company, your culture and your business model, copy them.
A New Recruiting Model
Those are a few things that your company can do on your own. Another approach is one that our company, Xemplar Skilled Workforce Solutions, has developed on behalf of labor-constrained industrial companies over the past several years.
It’s called “skilled workforce recruiting.” The model targets a single type of company: industrial enterprises, and starts with two simple questions: “What if you could find the skilled personnel you need to take advantage of current market demand?” and “What if you could drastically reduce turnover within your core positions?”
Born out of the skilled labor shortage, our innovative and affordable tool kit is enabling exceptional-quality industrial companies to overcome the hiring challenge and get back to work.
If you would like to learn more about how our team is changing the hiring equation for high-performance industrial businesses, contact us today for a free consultation.
