There's a lot of talk about labor shortages right now. People seem surprised, yet we've been talking about it and predicting it for years. The tail end of the baby Boomer generation is reaching retirement age. The Covid lockdowns accelerated their exit. The fact is that we won't have that massive supply of workers ever again. And that doesn't even include the massive health care needs that will have to be staffed for the next 30-40 years while they reach their end of life. The result is that employers will be continuing to compete for fewer employees. Now automation will help with that - something that Andrew Yang didn't take into account when wringing his hands over the loss of jobs due to automation.
That also means that companies that rely on employees to provide goods and services will be forced to break out of the mentality that their employees are merely resources that are easily replaceable. They can't continue to act like it's a one-sided relationship where employees are there purely to help the company make it's quarterly earnings. It means they can't just hire and fire staff to make up for poor management planning and decisions. It means they can't expect to hire fully qualified workers without having to provide training and a path for entry level workers and employee growth.
Companies that don't change their way of thinking will not be able to provide goods and services at competitive prices and will likely go away as their competitors figure it out. Temporary salary and benefit hikes may help in the short term, but that eats into the cost for your business. It's going to take something different. The smart companies will recognize their employees are critical partners in providing their goods and services to meet their customer's needs. They will recognize that dollars will buy someone's physical presence and their labor, but their hearts and minds will come through recognizing and enabling that partnership. The engagement of hearts and minds only comes from volunteerism, and you must have an environment that inspires that.
That engagement comes from leadership. It's one of the things sorely lacking in the workplace today - maybe the majority of workplaces if the research is correct. The world has plenty of managers. What's missing is leaders. Leaders understand the idea of partnership and inspiring volunteerism at work. When one employee sees something out of place, and fixes it, even when it's not their job, it means that employee is motivated to meet the company's goals. When multiple employees see something out of place, and fix it even if it's not their job, that means there is a leader inspiring that mentality.
The short answer is that there is a labor shortage, and it’s likely to continue. Companies need to invest in real leadership to attract and keep quality workers in the marketplace. Otherwise, they’ll be in the trap of increasing their cost of services by constantly trying to bribe employees to join and stay.
