Executive Special: 5 Workforce Facts for Your C-Suite

I just looked at over 100 images of California wildfire damage and was nearly brought to tears. Real people like you and me just lost everything…but things can be replaced although helpless, desperate emotions leave impacts that stay forever. These neighbors of ours will never be the same.

It’s easy then to say these are not normal climate times. And the same can be said about everything related to employment including recruiting, hiring, paying, engaging, and retaining. Those of us on the firing line know it…but our executives and managers might not. This is your one-page guide to bring them into the real world of recruiting and retaining now, so their expectations are real and they develop more patience for your work.

• Fact #1: There were a record 10.1 million job openings in June, up from the then-record 9.5 million in May. The highest ever for one month.
• Fact #2: The U.S. hired a record 6.7 million workers in June. Again, the highest ever for one month. And yet unemployment somehow stands at 5.4%.
• Fact #3: Through June the U.S. is on track for 30% of its workforce voluntarily quitting their jobs this year, smashing all previous marks.
• Fact #4: The U.S. laid off or fired a record low 1.3 million workers in June.
• Fact #5: 2 million Americans who were working before the pandemic have deliberately stopped working.[i]

And here’s a sixth fact for those of you working in supermarkets and restaurants. Average pay in your industries now tops $15 per hour.[ii] Recently I wrote that Amazon sets the minimum wage but now the entire market does, across all industries. And aside from agriculture jobs, the government-specified minimum wage is a joke.

So we can’t find them, we can’t keep them, and because of this we won’t fire the worst of them. And engaging them at this point is an after-thought because we just need to get product out the door. Imagine explaining that to Lenny, a 57-year-old grey-faced manufacturing supervisor who got promoted for hard work but struggles to learn his employee’s names. When he loses a nameless employee, Lenny expects HR to find him another nameless employee. Fast.

Lenny’s probably also the guy who said young workers are home on their couches because “the government pays them not to work”. He’d be surprised to know the 25 states that ended unemployment insurance early saw zero impact, that no large groups of couch-sitters rushed back to work.[iii]

So while the dominant question is where to find workers, the greater one is why should your current workers stay? They can probably leave and make more money, regardless of what you pay them.

It’s time to think about all the Lennys. Or the Lories because gender doesn’t matter. Doing post-graduate work specifically on turnover gave me gifts in the form of knowledge based on solid academic research, one of which was the number one reason employees quit jobs is because they don’t trust their boss. This doesn’t mean lack of trust is the only reason employees quit but it is the primary one. When speaking at conferences, I ask the crowds to raise their hands if they’ve quit jobs because of pay and ten percent do. Then when I ask if they’ve quit jobs because they didn’t trust their bosses, half or more shoot their arms toward the sky…with feelings.

Recognizing fact #3 above, that more employees are quitting now than ever, take a look at quits by manager. I suspect Lenny will be on top. Let’s work together to train Lenny to conduct Stay Interviews with his team so he knows what each member of his team looks forward to when they commute to work, what they want to learn, and why they stay. And also, what they want Lenny to do better. I suspect they’d ask him to know and remember their names.

This is one of many solutions we use to help companies like yours cut turnover by 30% and more. Write me or connect with me if you want to learn more…DFinnegan@C-SuiteAnalytics.com.

[i] Facts 1-5 are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

[ii] https://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2021/08/08/For-first-time-average-pay-for-supermarket-and-restaurant-workers-tops-15-an-hour-economy-minimum-wage-pandemic-COVID-19/stories/202108080248

[iii] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/22/cuts-to-unemployment-benefits-didnt-get-people-back-to-work-study-finds.html