“It’s the young people. They just don’t want to work. I can’t find anybody who wants to work.”
This has been a common refrain in many meetings I’ve attended recently.
It’s mostly the perspective from an older generation who remember having to compete for jobs when they were younger.
But here’s the truth: the people just aren’t there.
Workforce participation is about as high as it's ever been, and it's higher in Minnesota than most other areas in the US.
It’s a simple statistic. Fertility rates have declined drastically since the 1960s. Baby boomers are leaving the workforce and there aren’t enough workers to replace them.
Workforce growth is going to be almost nonexistent for the next 20 years.
When there are more jobs to fill than people available to fill them, employees have multiple opportunities to choose from. You’re not going to have people waiting in the wings. And they won’t be knocking on your door.
If you want to grow your workforce – or even just replace the folks who are retiring - you’re going to have to pull employees from other employers.
Welcome to the talent wars.
Winning the Talent Wars Isn’t Just About Offering Higher Pay or Better Perks
If you take that approach, your team members will leave you as soon as someone else offers more money.
Good talent management is about creating a compelling story, building an intentional and collaborative culture, and engaging employees with purpose. When people resonate with your culture, they won’t pay attention to the recruiter who calls up and says: “Hey, I can get you 10% more pay.”
It is so much more fun and satisfying to be a part of a passionate, successful team who are all pursuing a common meaningful goal.
Creating this kind of environment will require new strategies and tactics.
Here’s how to do that.
How to Be Better Than Your Competition at Recruiting and Hiring and Keeping Talented People
Build an Intentional Culture That Attracts and Retains Talent
Younger people want more than just a job. They want a meaningful, fun place to work, filled with people they want to work with.
So, you need to create an intentional culture that attracts the types of people that you want.
Start by developing a set of core values for your company.
Your values need to be more than words on a page. They need to be part of everything you do – from recruiting to performance management to succession planning.
For example, do you want to create a competitive culture? Or a collaborative one? If you value collaboration, but hire competitive people, things aren’t going to go well.
Create a Shared Vision
People want to know they’re part of something bigger than themselves. This is how you keep them engaged.
Create a compelling vision that gets people out of bed and into work every morning. Your team needs to understand why your organization exists and what difference they’re helping it make in the world.
Here’s a good example: One of my clients is a garbage hauler. Now, garbage collection isn’t glamorous. It means driving trucks, picking up smelly waste, and hauling it to landfills or incinerators. So, how do you find and retain people willing to do this kind of work?
The company’s biggest struggle was finding and keeping drivers. When we started working with them, they had a turnover rate above 100 percent, they were constantly short on drivers, and they had a workforce of 90 employees who were always under pressure to pick up the slack. Needless to say, they wanted to improve.
Instead of simply presenting the job as driving a garbage truck, the company reshaped the narrative. They developed a compelling story about how their work is essential to keeping their community clean. They highlighted how they dealt with waste in an environmentally sound way, contributing to the greater good.
Suddenly, driving a garbage truck wasn’t just about picking up trash – it was about making a difference. This reframed vision connected with employees on a deeper level, giving them meaning and purpose beyond the daily grind.
Recognize and Reward Culture-Building Behaviors
Top people want to know that they're making a difference. They want to work in a place that fits them, and they want to know what the expectations are, and they want to know whether or not they're meeting them.
It’s important to celebrate both team and individual successes.
But don’t just focus on results.
Recognize and reward employees for behaviors that reinforce your company culture and drive your vision forward.
This means making culture and vision part of your leadership performance management system.
All leaders – up to and including front-line supervisors – should clearly understand that their top priority is creating a work environment where people clearly understand the expectations of their role.
This includes what they should do to build and maintain your desired culture, how they help pull the organization toward its vision, and how they get the work done.
Get the Basics Right: Offer Flexibility and Competitive Compensation
You can’t abandon the basics. If your employees can’t make ends meet, the greatest culture in the world won’t keep them.
To stay competitive, offer perks that today’s workforce values most, like flexible work arrangements (including remote work where possible), creative benefits, and competitive salaries.
And here’s the good news: if you’re in the ballpark when it comes to salary and benefits, you don’t even have to be the best. You just have to be in the ballpark.
Passionate, Dedicated, Experienced People Will Always Beat their Lesser Competition
When you get those things right – vision, culture, and engagement – you'll be better than anybody that's competing against you.
And with the headwinds of demographics and changing workforce desires and loyalty, your organization’s survival depends on it.
If you’d like some support developing intentional culture and implementing a business operating system to support it, drop us a line. We’d love to help.
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