Bridging the Hiring & Retention Gap Interview Series Part 1 – The Great Resignation

This is an interview excerpt from a recent LinkedIn Live expert panel event, addressing the painful reality of the American worker and the current debacle of the hiring and retention gap. The Panel:

Anita Nygaard – President, CorHR, Stewart Stockdale – CEO, Rellevate, Neil Evans – Director – Apropos Communications, DBA "We Find Hidden Money"

Rather watch and listen to it?: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/nlevans_hiring-humanresources-employeeretention-activity-6866902825138577408-U8pt

Neil Evans (Moderator):

So let's just jump right into this. So speaking about underpinnings of the challenges we're seeing in today's workforce, Anita, I know you've gathered some highly insightful information for our attendees, and I think it would be a great way to kick off this conversation. How about sharing what you're seeing

Anita Nygaard:

Happy to do so, Neil, well, I'm sure you've all heard about the great resignation. What is this? Let's unpack that and look at some of the statistics. Well, we call it the great resignation because between April and August of this year, 2021, nearly 20 million workers called it quits. This is according to federal labor statistics data. There are certain industries that were hardest hit those include healthcare, retail, food services, travel and hospitality. This begs the question where did all of these folks go well, more than most of them switched employers that says a lot about the working conditions that were taking place during the pandemic. Now, some also took a break from the workforce for a variety of reasons. Very soon. We'll get into the top reasons why these folks decided they had to switch employers back to you

Neil Evans:

All right, great. So Stewart, how about some comments regarding it you have a ton of data yourself,

Stewart Stockdale:

You know, thanks Anita. And I completely agree, but, but I, I don't think it was just the pandemic. You have to go back even before the pandemic. Even when we launched Rellevate, it was really because what we saw in the market, , we had a very tight labor pool. If you remember, we had 3.5 unemployment a couple of years ago, and everybody thought the economy was just humming along. But the plight of the American worker has been there for a long time. People working two jobs, making very small salaries. Now the average household income in this country is $50,000. If you have 2.2 people in the family to support that, it's, doesn't go very far, 43%, 43 million workers earn less than $25,000, 57 million workers make between 24 and $75,000, and22% of households earning between 50 and $75,000 report difficulty meeting financial needs.

So the statistics go on and on and on. Clearly those frontline associates, people that were exposed to COVID rather go to other industries, right? It's no surprise that the people in healthcare, people in restaurants, people in bars, , are going to pick other, you know, more secure jobs, making more money, hopefully making more money, but it really is all about money. Number two is benefits. You know, we truly believe that people have to be valued. People have to, and, you know, we were talking to somebody a very large company. You would all recognize the name at a very, very senior level. And he says, and when we were talking about our products, then they said, we really now need to focus on the hourly employee, which is kind of a crime that this person said that, obviously they'll stay anonymous. but it really is. It really is. Now is the time for the American worker that middle, you know, hourly employee to really rise to the top because I think it was you, Anita told me that if you're building an army, you really have to have really good foot shoulders. And I think that that's true.

Neil Evans:

Great. Thank you so much. So to dig into our exploration a bit more, Anita, you spoke of the great resignation. Okay, this is very, very curious to me. What do you see? What's really fueling it. And is it fueled by the lack of engagement by many American workers from the HR point of view, or is this really a management issue? What's, what's your take on this?

Anita Nygaard:

Those are great questions. Neil. You've hit the nail on the head and Stewart also brought up some, some great points too. This wasn't just because of the pandemic things had been brewing for quite a while. The top documented reasons why people left their job during the, during the great resignation include these three; my employer or my manager really doesn't care about me. There weren't those strong relationships. That's the glue that helps employees feel like their employer or the manager has their back and is looking out for their best interests. The second top reason, my current job felt meaningless. There was just no future in it. So, as we've noticed, it's, it's still difficult to hire folks that hourly jobs in restaurants and hospitality. If we can't show them the value of where their job contributes to the overall goals or the future, they're not going to make other choices in this market. The third top reason; I don't feel connected to the company's purpose. I really didn't understand what is the overarching goal of the organization when employees don't have these connections, don't feel that their employer cares about them. Don't see what the future brings. It feels like just going through the motions, it's a job for an hourly rate and a paycheck. And if that's all it is, I'm going to make the best decision available in the marketplace.

Neil Evans:

Wow. That's some really, really deep and insightful view of things from the employee's perspective. Anita, thank you very much. Stewart, do you have anything that you can add to that? I mean, this is really, really, the, the crux of this whole thing, you know,

Stewart Stockdale:

Well, you know, I think it's, you know, I'm an operator, , and I, and I've always hired a lot of people and, and, and, and, and, and fired a lot of people. It, it really boils down to engagement you know, you have to have people that love what they're doing, and, and yes, people have to put food on the table. It's completely, you know, people work and sometimes they work two jobs. In my opinion, there's a huge disconnect still, you can't have the largest bank in the United States making trillions of dollars of profit, and then not be able to take care of their frontline associates they have to be making a living wage. And, you know, there's a lot of discussion about, you know, minimum wage and so forth. And I don't want to get into the politics of it.

All I know is that if you have a family making $25,000 a year, you're not going to make ends meet, you know, what? We were talking about Rellevate, and I was talking to two American bankers and I was giving them all the reasons why we were such a great product for middle and lower income Americans, and the response from the reporter was; isn't it, that people just have to make more money. And, and that's true, but it's, it's money that satisfies one need, benefits are another, but it's really about job satisfaction and engagement. And if, to, to Anita's point, if you can't really see what your role is there, other than maybe serving hamburgers or dispensing cash for a bank, and that's all you've got to look forward to, then you might as well go from job to job and, let the, the best job, you know, take, take toll that day. So I think it's times are changing. And I think that this hourly employee base is now going towards the top of the value chain within corporations, as it should be.

For impactful information on dealing with the hiring and retention gap, visit us at www.employeegap.com . There you can download Rellevate's, White Paper "The Painful Reality of the American Worker, written by Dr. William Rogers of Purdue University in an independent study. Or, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].