Never has a balanced, global economy been shut down for a year. Then: rebooted with massive, blunt, stimulus and Build-Better funds. It will take months for the supply-and-demand for both products and labor to rebalance. And, then into what New Normal?
The “new jobs for April” forecast was a huge, over-forecasted miss by every “expert”. All we know now is that there is a record number of companies short of hourly workers.
What “Solutions” are Being Reported?
Employers with big numbers of hourly workers – Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco, McD;s, etc. – are mostly just raising hourly pay by 5 to almost 20%.
A seasonal, resort ice cream shop – with a great location – is hiring at $16/hour instead of $8 and assuming they can pass the wages on in higher prices. Your – business model, niche and time-horizon – should inform your labor solutions.
Some firms have added twists. Chipolte needs 20K new workers by June. They are: offering bounties to workers who bring in new-hire friends. And, selling a career path to become a $100K per year manager in 4 years. These moves hint at the “Good Jobs Strategy” that – Costco, Trader Joe’s and Southwest Airlines – have successfully invested in for years.
“Good Jobs Strategy?”
Is the title of a recommended book by Zeynep Ton. Read the best reviews. Buy it used for $2. The author crystallizes what LL Bean and FedEx discovered back in the late ‘70’s.
- Pay the most to screen and hire the best
- Expect the most by investing in cross-training
- Reduce costs for: turnover, supervisors and errors.
- Rally everyone to achieve with pride: service-excellence metrics tuned to best, target customers. Then, retain and win more best customers to grow sales and profits faster.
- Achieve 150 to 200% margin dollars per head for 130 to 150% of the going comp rate for the job niche (v industry averages)
- Repeat this virtuous cycle to hire more to service the growth.
And, your high-engagement culture will attract new, best-work-ethic prospective employees!
A Best Short and Long-Term Strategy for Distributors?
Most distributor locations are small with different tasks to be done. Not one task learned in minutes as in Amazon warehouses. Learn-n-earn, cross-training yielding high-pay and higher total productivity is the way to go. Now: solve both your near and longer-term labor objectives!
How Exactly?
Skim my “Core Renewal Roadmap” at merrifieldact2.com.