TodayIf you think hiring is tough now, just wait, author says
Business author warns area leaders that someday their world will be drastically different
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Tracy Reeder and Laurie Brant of Embarq chat during the Chamber of Commerce breakfast meeting Tuesday. Karissa Zimmer/The Sentinel
When Ira Wolfe asked local business leaders Tuesday how many of them have had difficulty filling a key position, about half of them raised their hands.
Exactly, Wolfe said, and it’s going to get worse.
Then Wolfe, author of “The Perfect Labor Storm 2.0: Workforce Trends That Will Change the Way You Do Business,” told them why he’s predicting that.
The three basic reasons why the business world as we know it is ending, he said, are the aging population, lack of education and a different generation -- and there is no one solution to the problem.
“The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004,” Wolfe said, narrating a short slideshow designed to show just how different the new world is from the one we know. In the background, voices sang a cautionary Harold Melvin lyric: “The world won’t get no better if we just let it be.”
Baby Boomers are retiring, Wolfe said, older people are living longer and more actively than ever before, and there just aren’t enough younger people to replace them. Meanwhile, he said, more and more students are dropping out of school, and America’s functional literacy rate is alarmingly low just at a time when skilled labor is in higher demand.
But, he said, although those figures provide ample reason for contemplation, that doesn’t mean people should panic.
“There really will be enough people to get the job done,” because of increases in technology and efficiency, Wolfe said. The difference is that, unlike in the past, the power players in the new environment will be the workers, not the business owners.
“Employers are no longer in the driver’s seat,” he said. “The resource is people, and they have a choice.”
Then Wolfe -- who has spoken throughout North America since retiring from a career in dentistry and starting Success Performance Solutions -- explained his belief that matching the right people with the right jobs is vital to surviving in the new world. Too many people are hired without a clear understanding of what they are supposed to be doing, he said, and too many people accept jobs for which they have or can learn the right skills but do not possess the right personalities.
Afterward, Wolfe opened the floor for questions.
Yes, he said, nonprofit organizations face the same difficulties as businesses. Yes, it’s important to both define responsibilities and then back off and let people fill them.
Then a woman raised her hand. She understood, she said, but she thought he had overlooked the biggest problem that area employers face: A workforce that lacks a basic work ethic.
Well, Wolfe said, although it may appear that way, he thinks it more accurate to say that the younger population has a different work ethic. They’re generally willing to work, he said, but on different terms than their parents were -- and that will require employers to be ever more creative in structuring jobs that will attract workers.
More than 20 people attended the workshop, which was hosted by the Greater Carlisle Area Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Embarq.
Over breakfast, Carlisle Manpower branch manager Carol Lennon said that although she’s heard a lot about a shortage of skilled workers, that’s not the primary shortage she has seen here in Central Pennsylvania. Right now, she said, the biggest problem her company has is finding people to work in distribution, which has no specific training requirements.
Dawn Flower, director of marketing for Abel Personnel, said she has also seen a shortage of workers for distribution. But, she said, she is also troubled by the number of people who lack basic skills such as math -- fractions are a problem for many, she said -- and grammar.
“It’s just what he was talking about,” Flower said.
Omar Shute, executive director of the Cumberland County Economic Development -- who was not at the workshop -- echoed many of the same themes. The county has been experiencing both a general shortage of labor and a shortage of skilled labor, he said, but given the number of nearby educational institutions, he doesn’t think it can all be attributed to a lack of schooling.
“I think that everyone has to do a better job so we can retain our talent here,” Shute said, noting that quality-of-life issues can also play a role in helping workers decide which jobs to accept.
And, he said, he thinks businesses need to start realizing that hiring young workers may not mean people in their 30s, but new college graduates.
“Right now they are fine,” Shute said. “Yeah, it may be harder to find someone, but eventually we do find someone.”
But, he said, eventually the crisis is going to hit, and then if people haven’t prepared for the changing environment, it may be “a little too late.”
The worst-case scenario, Shute said, would be if the local shortage of workers got so bad that companies decided the county wasn’t a good place to recruit and started moving elsewhere.
Immigration also figures into the story, Shute said: “You have to get workers from somewhere.”
The situation may reach a point where America has to relax some of its immigration policies, he said.
“Right now, immigration is for unskilled labor -- I think that in the future, it may be for skilled labor,” Shute said.
Whatever the solution is, Shute said, it will be a corporate one.
“No one can do it alone,” he said. “Obviously we have to get kids that are prepared out of high school, especially so they can go for higher education.”
