I stopped at a big box electronics store to replace my television yesterday.
I had a special unit in mind and I did not see it on the floor. Nor did I see any of the usual sea of employees in their distinctive branded shirts.
It took quite some time to find help, but eventually I was able to ask someone who seemed to know what they were doing for help.
He immediatly recognized what I was looking for and told me they had the units but they were not on the floor. He went back into the back of the store and brought out several boxes of my choice. He left them on the forklift and went on to the next customer.
Everywhere I travel the realities of the labor shortage are apparent. This morning’s national news had two feature stories on the new realities of the labor force in this country.
Finding skilled and qualified people for any business, including service, is a new national challenge.
The reality is that a pool of qualified potential employees no longer exists.
The reasons are numerous, but the most important is the scarcity of available employees across all professions, closely followed by employees’ changing attitudes and values.
The sooner we wrap our heads around this new reality, the better prepared we will be to face the future.
Our approach to filling our staffing needs has to change.
Instead of recruiting workers, we need to focus on building our workers and workforce.
We need to find people with the soft skills and interests we know make up our most valued employees. Then we need to train, educate, and develop them to become our skilled employees.
Soft skills, emotional intelligence, and values are the foundation upon which everything else depends. Become skilled at figuring this out and put time and energy behind people who already have these attributes.
There are many tools to help with this process. At 6 Figure Trainers, we use the DISC model as our starting point. A word of caution, personality assessments are simply a starting point, and should not be considered cast in stone. People can and do change.
Once you have identified people with the desired soft skills, then you are ready to invest in a training program that builds your team.
Remember you get results if you take immediate action on your idea!
