SKILLED TRADE TALENT DROUGHT? WHERE ARE THEY? By Megan Boyd
W hat made the talent drought? There is an ancient Arabian proverb that says; “All sunshine makes a desert.” We must admit the sunshine of a growing economy in recent years has helped improve our businesses. But its effect has also left us with a talent drought. Today, our flourishing trades businesses are competing for the same skilled trades employees. In our franchises, this is particularly true of skilled service professionals and specialists. Add to this growing demand for workers a shrinking supply, and you have a real shortage. We are in the midst of a cultural revolution. It began two decades ago when schools started swapping our shop classes for computer labs. 20 years ago, people aged 25-44 made up more than 60 percent of skilled trades workers. Now, that same age group makes up 47 percent. This is creasing a service gap that we must address. Danielle George, a professor of radio frequency engineering at the University of Manchester put it this way, “Under 40s expect everything to ‘just work’ and have no idea what to do when things go wrong.” Richard T. Curtain, Ph.D. at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research stated, “Young people grow up without developing the skills to fix things around the house.” This is why we are in the golden age of service, because Millennials can’t fix anything, their parents don’t want to any longer, the jobs cannot be outsourced, nor can they be done by a robot. It takes skilled trades people to fill the needed jobs. As this service gap has grown there have been a new breed of companies looking to fill the gap using new technologies. Companies like Handy, Home Advisor and Amazon have technology, but they don’t have what we have – the people. To win in the Golden Age of Service and seize of this opportunity, we need to think more ambitiously, embrace the reality of the service gap, and we must mobilize. We need to address the recruiting question. Where will we find the team members to partner with us while we take advantage of this need for our expertise? How do we attract, hire, and onboard more people? In terms of talent hunting, the old way of thinking has to do with running from fishing pole to fishing pole, checking to see if we have caught any good candidates. The lines we cast into the water included online posting, print or traditional advertising, enlisting aid from recruiters or agencies and finally, the old tried and true technique of asking for referrals. They are all good efforts, but it’s difficult to scale the efforts, keep track of them all successfully, and it does not meet the millennial of today where they are looking. Last year, we launched RAREtoolbox, to help you streamline these sources into one. Through August, we processed 70,521 applications through this program. We also offered resources such as retirement planning, 20 hours of online recruiting and retention training, payroll and insurance services and more. But as we continued to study the challenge we found we had to do more. That is why at Reunion 2017, we released RAREToolbox 2.0, focused on attracting candidates, hiring the right fits and onboarding them seamlessly. We have the new release of RAREToolbox 2.0 includes what is listed below. Employer of Choice Branding We hired the research, marketing, and branding agency who helped us launch Neighborly to listen and help us study what todays job seekers need
to hear to want to come and work for one of our brands. There were three distinct themes they found. 1. Best of the Best – I want to work for your company because it is the best of the best and I can belong to that group if I work here 2. Sell the Stage – Show me what it looks like to play on this stage if I work for your company 3. Be a Passport – If I work for your company I will level up in life and improve my life Why does it matter what potential candidates perceive? Successful companies thrive because they have successful recruiting identities. The Marine Core has never failed to meet their quote for recruits. That is because they sell on the “Best of the Best” theme where they show they are “The Few, the Proud, the Marines.” McDonalds sells on a “Be a passport” theme showing they are “America’s Best First Job,” where one will learn leadership development and could potentially franchise ownership. What does this tell us in connection with the three concepts above? Employees will want to work for us if we show them how we are the “Best of the Best,” if we “Sell the Stage” of our prestigious customer service systems and finally, if we demonstrate how being a part of our brands can “Be a Passport” to a better life for themselves and their families. As we studied each of our brands we learned a lot. Each brand has a specific identity. We heard from more than 1,200 respondents, conducted 15 hours of interviews and spent 8 weeks digging deep into the brand employer of choice identities. Using Dr. Reiss’s work from the book The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities we were able to align motivations with brand identities to help job seekers best understand our companies with which they are seeking employment. We discovered motivations and value propositions ranging from being a passport to a better life, honor, service, leadership, and a sense of power. Below is one example. Mr. Rooter® – I’m the best of the best; I have a passport to a better life; It’s where Master Electricians up their mastery, learning never stops, I can become part of a great culture. We will be sending you a video fully outlining and explaining you brand’s employer of choice branding from the motivation to the value proposition and through the response we must evoke from the job seeker to capture their interest. It will be important that you watch this video so you will understand the branding as well as live the promise in your recruiting and retention efforts.
40 PIPELINE® | EDITION 2 2017
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