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Tag: workforce

Distiller speaks out on workforce issues

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Karen Hoskin, founder and CEO of craft rum standout Montanya Distillers in Crested Butte, knows the pain stemming from the “Great Resignation” firsthand. “It’s been rough,” she says. “It’s been the roughest in my 13 years of business.”

Hoskin recently wrote a story for Distiller magazine that looked at the labor shortage in hospitality. In her words: “The causes are much more complex than the headlines capture. On the surface, this might appear to be a problem of potential workers relaxing with their unemployment check and deciding not to return to these jobs.”

As enhanced unemployment benefits are gone while more than a million hospitality jobs remain unfilled across the country, Hoskin’s Distiller piece continues: “So what is the real story? There is not likely one single cause but maybe as many as 10, layered and interwoven.” 

The story is quick to point out that there have been more than 600,000 COVID-19 casualties, and an estimated 800,000 undocumented immigrants who (not that left the country) worked in hospitality that left the country. The savings rate has been sky-high, and more people opted to start their own business or otherwise pursue their dreams.

Hoskin says pay and benefits for Montanya’s roughly 40 full-time, year-round employees — all of whom are full-time and year-round, anomalies for a ski town — are far above the industry norm, and added IRAs, tuition reimbursement, and other perks. “It doesn’t matter,” she says. “I’ve had people receive two to three raises in the last six months and still resign.”

Montanya kept every employee on the payroll during the stay-at-home order in 2020, but an onslaught of business burned some employees out in the 20 months since. 

Hoskin has thought outside of the box to fill jobs. She’s paid security deposits, helped people move to Crested Butte, and even signed leases so she could include housing with the job offer. “We have a compounding factor here in Crested Butte, which is a housing crisis,” she notes. “A lot of people exited the cities to come live in the mountains because they could live anywhere and work from anywhere, and that gobbled up a lot of our housing here or drove the prices out of reach.”

Hoskin’s forecast? “I don’t think we’re going back,” she answers. “I think there’s a whole new paradigm.” 

She doesn’t see a singular silver bullet. “You can’t solve a problem unless you really, truly know what the problem is,” Hoskin says. “I think we’re at risk potentially of misdiagnosing some of the causes, and then finding some of the solutions that people are throwing out there are not necessarily going to solve the problem.”

Montanya’s sales jumped by 41% in 2020, and growth only accelerated in 2021. “I’ve needed a lot more help, but I’m also rethinking right now,” Hoskin says. “Because if I’m in a housing crisis and a pandemic situation where people are not psyched to work the same way, maybe I just need to rethink every way in which I am setting goals for the company.”  

The benefits of investing in workforce development

Like a tornado indiscriminately ripping through a town, the pandemic left some sectors of Colorado’s economy devastated and others untouched. The recovery seems to be following a similar path, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

While the state has regained 57% of the 375,000 jobs lost during the peak of the pandemic, positions in low-wage (and hard hit) industries like hospitality, retail and food service have been slow to return. The Opportunity Insights Economic Tracker, showed that as of February, high-wage employment in Colorado had grown by 6.6%, but low-wage employment ($27,000 and less) declined 16%.

If we want to address these disparities and rebuild the state’s economy in a more inclusive way, we’ll need to invest in workforce development. Enhancing the skills of our workforce will not only allow more of the state’s residents to get back to work, but will also make it easier for individuals to obtain jobs in higher-paying sectors.

Businesses can play a critical role in this effort by supporting community-wide workforce development initiatives and building internal programs designed to upskill employees and provide career pathways.

Here are a few strategies to consider:

Apprenticeships

A well-thought out workforce development strategy should not only close the skill gaps of current employees, but should also focus on building much-needed skills that might be lacking in the talent pipeline. Apprenticeships – which give students the opportunity for specialized, workplace experience, while taking courses – provide a great way for employers to equip potential recruits with specific skills to meet the organization’s needs and allow students to earn as they learn.

The first step is to identify an industry-specific or skills-specific apprenticeship program that addresses your particular skill gap. Industry associations can serve as a good source of information. The Colorado Workforce Development Council also offers a directory highlighting a wide array of options like CareerWise, which offers multi-year programs in such diverse areas as financial services and information technology. Some federally and state-funded programs offer tax credits or grants to offset the cost of wages provided to apprentices.

Community colleges and universities can also be good potential partners. Activate recently joined forces with Metropolitan State University to place rising seniors with Colorado Concern employers for year-long workplace learning experiences, supplemented with professional development training from our team. The goal is to transition students into full-time positions once they graduate.

If you don’t find a program that aligns with your goals, you can also start one of your own. Apprenticeship Evolution provides resources on how to create a registered apprenticeship model.

Career Pathways

Employees – especially those in lower-wage positions – often know little about how to advance within their organizations. A 2016 survey of more than 3,000 retail workers conducted by the economic advancement initiative Earn Dallas found that 34% didn’t know that career advancement opportunities were available at their companies.

Establishing and communicating career pathways for all employees is crucial in helping workers in entry-level jobs understand their options and what they need to do to move up the ladder. The process starts by ensuring that you have an effective onboarding process that sets employees up for success.

Clearly explain your policies on performance reviews, job postings and the process for promotions. Assigning a mentor who they don’t directly report to, but can help them navigate challenges and set goals, is also crucial, particularly for employees unfamiliar with working in a professional environment. Y

You may also consider offering job rotations after employees are well-established to allow them to experience new roles. These opportunities help you retain your best entry-level employees by giving them a pathway to move to higher-level positions in the company.

Training

Employees often need to expand their skills in order to advance. For workers who lack the resources to return to school, receiving on-the-job training is vital in helping them bridge the gap and grow their careers.

Amazon, for example, is spending $700 million to re-train workers across the company in high-demand areas like machine learning and cloud computing. The company reports that more than half of the employees who have taken advantage of the program so far are from underrepresented minority groups.

A number of companies have popped up to help companies supply education programming, including Denver-based Guild Education, which coordinates access to degree programs and industry certificates for Fortune 1000 companies.

For smaller firms, lower-cost solutions like Pluralsight, which offers online IT skills training and LinkedIn Learning, a division of the online job searching platform that provides online courses on a variety of subjects, might be a better fit. County workforce centers also offer funding for training and certifications that help workers advance to higher levels in your organization.

Don’t forget to factor soft skills into the equation. In our work, we often find that individuals looking to make the transition into long-term career roles struggle with things like communication and time management, which can interfere with their ability to advance.

Offering soft skills training will allow a bigger portion of your workforce to succeed in their career path.

Through workforce development, employers can help level the playing field and enable more of our state’s workers to achieve economic freedom. Increasing upskilling options and participating in apprenticeship program will not only provide you with a better trained, better performing workforce, but will help us achieve a more equitable state economy.

Helenhayes Hs Large Helen Young Hayes is founder and CEO or Activate Workforce Solutions, a talent acquisition agency that creates pathways to self-sufficiency through successful, sustained employment.

Expand your workforce through remote hiring

Getting the top talent and recruitment of highly qualified candidates for the right positions in the company is difficult. But what makes things tougher is when your company has to do that in the middle of some skilled labor shortage.

This is one of the challenges most companies are facing throughout the world these days. More than 80% of the companies are struggling to find the right employees with the right skills.

This concern for workforce skills shortage is worrying all organizations across the world and for good reasons.

Here are some ways to address skill shortages in your niche.

1. Training existing employees

When you are looking to make up for skill worker shortage several organizations have started offering training to the existing employees for making them suitable for filling the existing gaps. It may point to in-house training, where one of the knowledgeable employees can share his or her expertise with the others.

For instance, they can give ideas on building a brand for your company by using a logo maker. This is a terrific method for companies having great resources for raising their value without spending too much on cash and time.

There is another alternative that is outside training. Many companies offer their staff members incentives for returning to school to gather more education that is required. This can be a time-consuming and expensive alternative but may pay off in the longer run.

2. Use adaptability to apply the existing workforce skills in another way

Fortunately, there may be more direct solutions available than you think. Several organizations have discovered that they already are employing the people they require. It is just that they are being used ineffectively. Significantly, you maintain an open mind while evaluating the available skill sets and pay close attention to existing skills that may be used.

Take into account employees that may be able to apply the required skills in another manner.

For instance, someone with a good sales background can easily apply his or her capabilities to the marketing of content. They can nurture their creativity by making use of online tools such as video makers. The key to resolving your skill shortage might be lying right under your nose.

3. Re-evaluate the existing recruitment practices

As skill shortages become a serious problem, it may be the right time to re-evaluate how you are recruiting the newer employees.

Remote workforce hiring could be one of the better solutions available for this problem. You can hire the services of PEO companies to assist you in hiring remote workers. A global PEO service can be invaluable especially in the international expansion process of your organization.

You can also think about hiring candidates that have 80% of the right requirements and later train them to adapt to the requirement. Or you may consider hiring candidates with the requisite skill and lesser experience.

4. Partner with educational institutes close by

Although it is rare in recent times, a lot of companies partner with local educational institutes. It means you will have a fresh supply of skilled prospective workers. The school can help you get their graduates via job placement. You may also consider opening up the company doors for apprenticeships, internships, and co-op work placements. This may aid you in cultivating

another generation of skilled workers. Another great part of this is that you will be able to keep a close eye on the industry’s future.

5. Using contingency workers

Of course, one of the simplest ways of filling up the skill shortage is by hiring contingency workers. You can use consultants, freelancers, contractors, and so on. It allows you to fill huge gaps in the operations department very quickly and in a cost-efficient way.

These contingency workers are becoming exceedingly popular among several companies. Their availability, expertise, and flexibility permit them to work for any difficult constraints in the sense of budget, project, and time frames.

Make sure you first check your personal finance statistics and see the number of employees you can afford to hire.

The concerns regarding the workforce with skill shortage is something that is worrying several companies across the world and there is a good reason for it as well.

Organizations that are unable to fill the vacancies with properly skilled workers are going to be left with the stretched resources. It may end up in damaging implications both in short-term and in the long-term perspectives for your business.

Hiring remote workers has emerged as a great and quick alternative for these issues faced by these organizations.