Where Have All The People Gone?

The May 2024 unemployment rate sat at just 4%, a staggeringly low number. A year earlier, according to the annual BLS Household Survey, the rate sat at just 3.7%. At the same time, 272,000 jobs were added in May, higher than the average gain over the past year. The US Chamber of Commerce recently reported a labor shortage that was severely impacting the education and health services sector along with the professional and business services sector. They made note that “Even if every unemployed worker were to fill an open job within their respective industry, there would still be millions of unfilled job positions”. The Chamber of Commerce also indicated that, according to their data, by 2030 the overall labor force participation will drop to just 60.4%. There are just too many statistics to add to one article. And this is just in the US. Korn Ferry did a study that went country by country finding that by 2030 “there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people”. I can tell you this, every single HR leader should be worried about these statistics. 2030 is just six years away!

Our only relief may be the exact thing so many of us are worried will take our jobs. Technology. This is quite a conundrum. Hence, this is the second of six drivers I’ve put together that I believe are impacting the relationship between humans and technology. We simply cannot continue to function the way that we function without technology. Think about the health services sector. Years ago, before we equipped our nurses with handheld computers, they spent massive amounts of time completing paperwork. Someone had to file the paperwork. And every time a patient would come and visit, or a bill had to be sent off to the insurance company, someone would have to pull the file and send it to the appropriate party for handling. Now it is all done on a computer that sits in the patient’s room or on a handheld device. It is automatically uploaded to the patient’s chart, and everyone involved has immediate access to the information necessary. The person that is responsible for the filing is no longer necessary and it is a good thing because we need that person to step in and do something else. The more we can incorporate technology, the seemingly more efficient we become, requiring fewer human workers. Soon may come the day we arrive at the doctor’s office just to check in at a kiosk. We will sit in a completely unmanned waiting room. We will receive a text with a room number and a barcode to scan to be let into the patient rooms. When we arrive at our room, a machine will take all of the necessary vitals, ask the questions a nurse would normally ask, and log everything the doctor may need to know. It is only then that a human doctor and nurse will show up to complete the visit. It sounds cold but if we don’t have enough people to do the work, what else are we left to do?

This, just like the other drivers, has a tinge of force associated with it. It doesn’t feel like we have many options and because of that the employees left working may feel like they are being forced into situations they don’t like. Forced to work with different types of technology that makes their jobs less fulfilling. On the flip side, they may love it. They may develop strong bonds with the new tech. Many things we use today we can’t imagine living without. Could it be the same feeling? The reality is, that there just are not going to be enough workers and at the end of the day something will have to give. Now is the time to explore what the options are for organizations that are primed to experience the impact of such a labor shortage. Healthcare and education seem to be at the top of almost every list. Can we imagine what the next ten years for these industries may look like and how organizations could address the necessary implementation of technology?

To keep this article short, let’s just look at the example I gave earlier. How could a doctor’s office navigate the path towards a scenario where half of their staff leaves and they are forced to implement technology to keep them in business? They could start with something as simple as succession planning. An organization should always know where its people stand as far as career progression goes. How long does someone have until they retire? Who intends on growing into other roles? Who likes where they are at? Who is influenced by outside factors like a spouse’s job? An organization can’t possibly know everything but the more that organization knows about their workforce the better off they will be for the future. The next thing to have a solid understanding of is turnover. If there is a 20% turnover rate for the organization, they can expect that each year, they will probably lose 20% of their people. Is there a job that is impacted the most by turnover? Maybe the receptionist? Maybe nurses? The people should always come first. Understanding people, learning how they operate, and knowing their motivations will help determine what type of systems an organization may need and how implementation may go.

Let’s say this group loses at least one of their two receptionists a year. Some go to nursing school and some leave for other reasons. As the organization starts to research technology they realize that there is a system that could allow just one receptionist to do the work of two. Here is where the winners are born. Bring the receptionists into the discussion. Let them sit in on the tech reviews, the pitches, and strategy discussions. Their insight is critical and their buy-in will make or break the entire effort.

After a year of testing, the organization has decided to move forward with a platform that will support just one receptionist. They know that one of the two has talked about wanting to go to nursing school and because they always need nurses, they offer to pay for the school. This organization has successfully implemented a technology that is supported by the current workforce and has retained an employee, helping to grow their career. Of course, not every situation will be as ideal. But it is clear that with a simple thought-out strategy, an organization can choreograph changes that can be quite daunting. It may take some time, but nothing worth having moves quickly.

The way we choose to address a labor shortage will have significant impacts on the relationships we build with the technology we use to keep our business alive. Companies of all sizes must start thinking about this now and how they plan to address the coming challenges.

Citations:

Ferguson, Stephanie, and Makinizi Hoover. “Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted Industries.” U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 13 Feb. 2024, www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage-the-most-impacted-industries.

Franzino, Michael, et al. “The $8.5 Trillion Talent Shortage.” Www.kornferry.com, 2018, www.kornferry.com/insights/this-week-in-leadership/talent-crunch-future-of-work.

“The New Solutions to Labor Shortage.” Www.mercer.com, www.mercer.com/insights/talent-and-transformation/attracting-and-retaining-talent/new-approaches-to-solving-the-labor-shortage/. Accessed 11 June 2024.