As unemployment rates soar, how are businesses tackling the hiring problem?
It is common knowledge that unemployment rates are at an all-time high, but recruitment numbers in businesses all across America are very low. This has caused a huge problem among many business owners, both big and small. Many have put it down to benefits being too high, so working simply becomes an option, not a necessity. However, there are several reasons why they might be mistaken.
Why are hiring rates so low when unemployment rates are so high?
There are many reasons as to why unemployment rates are so high and hiring rates are so low but in particular, what is standing out is the fact that many feel as though they have been, and are still being, underpaid.
Due to the 20% rise in living costs since July 2009, the last time minimum wage in the USA increased, people are finding it harder and harder to live. By allowing themselves to work for this tiny sum of money, the people of America are only encouraging people to pay lower wages, just to see how low they will be willing to work for. Many have decided that enough is enough and will not work until their pay has increased.
What can businesses do?
Businesses can do a lot in these troubling times, some of which have become quite obvious. However, there are other ways that a business can help itself to cope with the shortage. Here are just some of the things that they can do to help with the shortage of workers.
Improve the safety and security of their workforce
Another concern of many workers is the pandemic. By making the environment safer, mainly by working very hard and trying to make sure that everyone who is working in the office is being tested for Covid and if not they are working from home to reduce the rate of infection, it can help encourage people to work for the business, or better yet, encourage workers to stay.
Having a good HR department works too, as then the workforce can feel like they have someone to talk to, as well as protecting the business and helping cope with the issues that the business might have to face as a community, such as bullying, harassment, and malicious employees.
Offer in-house training
Offering in-house training can help attract talent, especially if what is on offer is training in something like becoming a cloud professional that can help young workers set up a good career for themselves, such as AWS certification, which is a huge growth industry since more and more businesses are moving their files and projects over to the cloud.
By also offering training, a business that is struggling to hire the right people can open doors to those who are new to the sector, as then they will be fully trained on-site and not expected to know everything on day one. Yes, this does take investment from the start, but offering in-house training might be one of the perfect ways to get the workforce they need in the long term.
