The saying that we are in a new reality was one that many of us didn’t want to hear last year.
But it’s true and the quicker we see what is happening, the sooner we can adjust.
At the end of the year, I read the Monday Morning Memo from Roy H. Williams that talked about 3 realities we are facing today:
I’m not an expert on any of these, but I deal with them just like you do.
The first two are out of our individual hands, we are powerless as individuals to solve the increase in prices of goods and services because many of us we are needing to also raise the prices to pass along the costs that inflation has had on our goods and services. Covid, well that has turned into a political football that I’m not about to address, and like you, we have limited power to fix.
What Roy mentioned in his Monday Morning Memo was a concept that I’m going to pass along to you to solve the Employee Shortage reality of 2022.
The staffing shortage was entirely predictable. In the United States of America, the birthrate has been declining for decades.
“Statistics show the US birth rate has been steadily declining and is below the replacement rate. The latest birth rate for 2020 is 1.6, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. This means that, based on domestic births alone, the nation’s population would be declining. So far, immigration has prevented this, but there’s no assurance this will continue in the future…”
The specific idea that Roy Williams shares is for a company to offer free private daycare to employees on-site (or close to) the companies location where parents can drop off their young ones with the assurance that they will be taken care of while Mom and Dad are taking care of business.
That idea might actually work for some companies, but it’s not a universal solution right now.
So what is a universal solution?
I have a two part answer:
1st off, you need to become a company that people want to work for. In the past few years, the company I am with has undergone a specific plan to access our company culture and then improve it. The ideas come from those who are already here. We looked at those ideas, and found a few that could be implemented and then measured again and asked again. It’s an ongoing process at Federated Media.
We realize that not everyone who works for us is going to stay forever. Many will leave for many different reasons, but what we want to do is keep the best and hire others that will contribute both to our mission and also our company culture. As a result, I have coworkers who have been here for years, even decades, not because they have to work here, but because they want to.
Personally the real reason I left most of the jobs I had were due to something in the culture. The real people problem was not that we couldn’t hire enough, but we hired the wrong people at other places I worked. The answer to this for you and your company is to take that same evaluation and find out why people work for you and what can make it even better. That is what you need to promote in your recruitment messages and ads.
Here’s the 2nd part of my solution to the labor shortage: Change the number of employees you need to run your business.
The reality is there are less people available to be hired as I mentioned at the beginning and so your business model needs to change.
Business models have been evolving and the side effects of the pandemic shut-down just accelerated some of what was going on already. Several fast food restaurants closed their dining rooms and some are not planning on opening them up. Instead they have become drive-thru only establishments. I’ve seen this in my area for nearly two decades as multiple Pizza Huts created this style of restaurant. I’m sure there are others in your area that are undergoing a similar transformation. Plus ordering online has really taken off. Last year I went inside to place an order for chicken and was told that I had to either use the app or drive thru.
Grocery stores and other retailers are relying on self serve check out lanes more than ever. Now instead of a cashier ringing up one customer at a time, it’s common to see one employee overseeing 6 to 10 self serve checkouts.
I’ve got a third bonus tip for you that I almost forgot because I’ve been doing it for so long and our company has been doing it even longer, at least in the Fort Wayne division of Federated Media. Flexible work life is what we call it, but here’s how it really works…
The advertising salespeople do not have a dedicated workspace at our office. Instead, there are a couple of hours each week that they come to the office for meetings with their manager. Where are they the rest of the time? Working from home, client meetings, working from their favorite internet cafe a.k.a. coffee shop, who knows? They might be running their kid to the dentist during the middle of the day, or grabbing lunch with a friend.
This sounds like the Covid inspired Work From Home business model, but we’ve been doing it this way for many, many years. As a General Sales Manager, I have my own office at our Fort Wayne office that I work from nearly every day. But those on my sales team are given the freedom to do what works best for them. We have particular items that need done daily, weekly or monthly but the ultimate measure of their success is the revenue they are responsible for with their individual budgets. Their success is not measured with punches on a time clock.
Yes we have guidelines and Key Performance Indicators that when followed will create individual successes, but reporting to the office just because it’s always been that way, 5 days a week… We abandoned that years ago to focus on productivity. In other departments, there are similar flexible work arrangements too. This has become an important part of our culture.
By the way, I am always looking for qualified candidates to join my advertising sales team at WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana. We just hired a new team member and I have at least one more opening to fill. However, I’m going to keep that position open until I find the person that fits us best. Perhaps that is something you should do with your company too, be picky with who you hire to protect the culture you have in place.
And one last note, if you would like to learn more about the opening I have, here’s a link to the job posting. https://www.wowo.com/wanted-sales-hunter/
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