Opening Remarks

The challenge

Throughout my interactions across Indiana, more recently, across the US, or even a few years ago in rural Germany…workforce development lags dramatically. We don’t have the right tools, process, or volume of willing participants to upskill our people and match them to relevant opportunities.

• Not enough skilled labor (people) for the available jobs (Skilled Labor Shortage)

• Retirements will catch up to the aging workforce eventually (Average Age of Labor)

• About how we close the skills gap through education of future workers.

• The education, trades, training, and workforce development programs are often impressive

• Jobs and work don’t wait for people to get ready to work

When asked the question what is being done, But future trained workers aren’t prepared fast enough in high enough volume and I have yet to find great answers to this question from most leaders.

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Impact of skilled shortage

So what does this mean? What happens when positions go unfilled or there is a lack of confidence in being able to staff all positions with effective workers?

• Workers work more hours

• Quality goes down

• Positive outcomes take away jobs faster

• Revenue left on the table

• Ability to scale is reduced

• Labor-heavy industries lag in growth

• Prices up

Positives

• Automation

• Innovation

• Learning at expedited pace for existing workers

• Higher wages with high demand and low supply

• Increased meaningful work for labor

At least in the short term, these are a few positives.

Rather than try to spit a bunch of data and thoughts here, I thought I’d include a quick search that paints the picture-

how many skilled jobs unfilled in the us - Google Search

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Who I have noticed doing big things related to this space

Here are a few:

• Tech Point

• UpSmith

• Insignia Training

• Crane Ecosystem

• Regional Opportunity Initiatives

• Subaru of Indiana Automotive

• Ivy Tech

• Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership

• Vincennes University / Republic Airways Lift

  Indiana has a lot of positive initiatives like this and of course these kinds of programs exist in many places, but this got me thinking about incentives, the follow through required in order to truly move the needle, and some of these larger workforce questions. If the various parties involved don’t have the initiative or the incentives, change will never happen, until it’s forced to happen. What does that mean? Workforce transformation in the near term isn’t going to be driven by programs that push graduates into the workforce that takes years, or in some cases, I generations?

  What will move the needle in the short term is the pain, like we saw coming out of the pandemic, with a labor shortage in several key areas, such as transportation and logistics, supply chain, and all the stuff you heard about. Behaviors don’t change until they have to, and it takes a significant labor shortage to make that happen. It doesn’t appear as an overall economy that behaviors are changing, companies are changing, or behaviors are changing, until they need to.

  So the volume of company job openings doesn’t look that high, because a lot of times, jobs don’t get posted when companies don’t think they can fill them. At times, are the jobs posted are a fishing expedition, recruiting just in case, or looking for that perfect candidate in case it pops up?

  Yes - companies proactively recruit, post just in case, and prepare for the worst. Some, if they do have a true recruiting function, versus posting, will actually proactively recruit candidates for their pipeline, for when they need them, although I would imagine that’s the top 5% at best. Some companies share this in their postings, while many do not.

Business Case for Great Leadership

So what?

Workforce development will never be solved. It will appear better in the short term. It will appear to be good enough, but it never gets solved. Workforce development gets better as a result of pain, significant pain that is bad enough to drive a change in behavior, a look at new ideas, or look at a new way of doing things, not proactively, but reactively. So all these workforce programs are making significant strides with developing the workforce of tomorrow, and that is great meaningful work that is significant and driving true improvements in our economy. but if you need candidates today, it’s all about recruiting in some fashion - onshore, offshore, through services, etc.

You could train your current staff, you could train new hires, or you can recruit skilled candidates. I still feel the real unrealized opportunity is in building “farm teams” in a sense, by hiring entry level today, or even 1,2,3 years ago, while they’re in high school, or other programs like college or trade school, and space offering specific training to the job. The ground up approach where you can hire or develop skilled workers within the next 3/6/12/18 months depending on the skill set are still not robust enough. Some companies and entities are doing this, but there is still a big opportunity for growth, but it takes significant funding, sponsorship, or partnership.

Workforce development is an ongoing process, and while there is no quick and easy fix, it’s essential and a meaningful practice that allows our economies and ecosystems to thrive.

Consider thinking differently with your workforce strategy to develop solutions that transform the world to make it a better and more prosperous place.

Supporting Content - For More to the Story

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