As we rebound from 2020’s challenges this summer, we’re expecting intense competition for these essential workers
Kathleen Quinn Votaw //May 25, 2021//
As we rebound from 2020’s challenges this summer, we’re expecting intense competition for these essential workers
Kathleen Quinn Votaw //May 25, 2021//
For decades, we’ve tended to treat hourly workers, those at the lower-skill, lower-pay end of our businesses, as expendable and “less than” as candidates and employees.
These people, as important to our business as any other, represent about 58 percent of the U.S. labor force according to the BLS. Because of their often customer-facing roles, they are instrumental in driving customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profits across industries, from manufacturing and healthcare to retail and hospitality.
As we rebound from 2020’s enormous challenges this summer and fall, we’re expecting intense competition for these essential workers.
Like all employees, they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect throughout the recruiting process.
Employers who show they value their hourly people by enhancing both their recruiting practices and working conditions will be the ones that win and retain these essential workers.
Hourly workers deserve a better candidate experience.
Many companies have established a comfort level in treating hourly job seekers with less consideration than salary-level candidates. Some of the indignities hourly candidates face in the application process are:
The experience you provide all candidates, both hourly and salaried, indicates to them how you’ll treat them as employees. When your process is respectful and personal, and communication frequent and thoughtful, candidates become excited about working for you over a competitor who hasn’t made a similar investment in recruiting hourly workers.
Keep the application process fast, flexible, and intuitive
Candidates for hourly jobs say that speed is one of their most important considerations in getting hired, even more important than pay for many of them. That means they won’t wait for you; they’ll move on to the next opportunity.
The challenge for employers is to dramatically speed up their recruiting process while maintaining a personal touch that attracts the best, right candidates. Here are ways you can do that:
An hourly-worker talent war is here. At any level in the worker hierarchy, there are only so many great people available. When every company is competing for them, you have to do something different to win and keep the best talent.
HR professionals in manufacturing and similar sectors tend to focus on the needs of salaried employees at the expense of hourly workers, using outdated recruiting tactics and management policies that no longer work.
If the candidates you want most aren’t choosing you, or if your turnover rates are higher than you want, you could be unwittingly setting up barriers that turn people off.
Look deep into your culture and recruiting practices and change anything that’s separating you from the talent you need to grow.