‘Help Wanted’: Signs of the Times
Scott Cameron
N
o company, no industry is immune to the current talent shortage. Virtually everywhere you go, whether it’s your local supermarket or your corporate headquarters, you see “Help Wanted” signs posted. They are, quite literally, the signs of the times.
Commercial real estate news website Bisnow recently indicated that the labor shortage impacts at least 70% of commercial real estate firms. That may very well be a lowball estimate. Whatever the number, the industrial sector can certainly be included. In this month’s accompanying feature, IAMC members share their views of this upheaval in top talent, and it’s certainly worth the read. It includes a prediction of how long the current imbalance will last, and our members’ views might surprise you.
It’s been called the Great Resignation, and indeed, Pew Research reports the nation’s “quit rate” hit a 20-year high last November. But it’s more accurately called the Great Reevaluation, as we watch potential candidates become more selective in their choice of jobs. Frankly, it’s a confidence I wish I had when I was hunting for my first job.
As often as not, today’s candidates are looking not just for a paycheck, but an alignment of values. It could be a commitment to ESG protocols or more diverse and inclusive hiring practices. They’re looking for a cultural fit and an awareness on the part of their potential employer that the company exists within a local and global community. Increasingly, candidates want to work where they, through their employer, can give back. They want their career to be more than just a job.
Another potential deal breaker is the option to work from home. In more and more cases, if a candidate cannot work from home, they move on. They want the option of remote working and the ability to explore a greater work/life balance. And with most of the chips on their side of the table right now, they are interviewing you as much as you are interviewing them to evaluate which firm checks the most boxes.
But I would be careful here to lay this new attitude solely at the doorstep of up-and-coming generations, Millennials or Gen Xers. Many of those contributing to the quit rate are Boomers, and yes, it seems that most are retiring. But many are looking to start writing their next chapter and doing so with a new purpose.
Marcus & Millichap underscored this purpose in its recent industrial forecast: “Another challenge facing the economy this year is a labor shortage. While employers created more than 6.6 million jobs in 2021 and should add about 3.7 million positions this year, personnel needs are still not met.” This is a clear reference to the mismatch between culture and expectation.
Of course, the knowledge sharing that takes place in IAMC’s Forums as well as our Cornerstone discussion board can open a greater dialogue about hiring challenges, corporate cultural positions and solutions to the hiring quagmire. But there are other avenues to explore as well. A recent white paper from BOMA International points to the importance of spreading your net wider. If you’re doing what you’ve always done — posting your job ads on Monster or Indeed, and letting it go at that — your message is just not getting out. Besides, you know what they say about doing things the same old way and expecting a different result.
Rather than “posting and praying,” try a little outreach to local colleges — and don’t forget the community colleges. Also, as one IAMC member suggested during a virtual Corporate-Only Roundtable we hosted recently, remember veterans’ groups and the job boards in neighborhood associations that cater to diversity.
Finding top talent now is a major challenge — for all of us. But these are different times, and a little outside-of-the-box thinking can reap new and better results. Yes, it will demand some research and time, but you can rise to the challenge. Along the way, you might also consider if your operation is a cultural fit for a new era of hiring. Only good can come of it.
Scott Cameron
Chair, IAMC Board of Directors
Corporate Culture and the Great Resignation
Matt Whitaker
T
he current global talent shortage is having its dire effect on all walks of life. We have all been impacted by it, whether it was longer-than-normal lines at your local pharmacy or the lack of attention at your favorite home-goods retailer. For sure, IAMC members are in the thick of it, with labor issues ranging from truck drivers to warehouse personnel.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics documents the hit commerce has sustained at the hands of the so-called “Great Resignation,” revealing in March of this year that the national “quit rate” was actually down. But before you get excited about a return to pre-COVID hiring normalcy, it was down only slightly from its November 2021 high. Then, the quit rate hovered at 4.5 million. In January, it slipped by a mere 200,000 to 4.3 million.
But why? What is taking place in corporate culture that brings us to this point? One major reason for the “Great Resignation” is the newfound interest potential employees have in a more flexible work situation. We all learned during the COVID-19 upheaval that there are positions out there that could offer us an improved work/life balance, through such increasingly popular protocols as hybrid working.
But flexibility in our daily work lives was not the only cause of the current lack of talent. Inc. magazine sees five primary drivers, including a failure on the part of employers to recognize talents and achievement, a toxic culture, job insecurity, and a poor response to COVID-19. The fifth driver is somewhat counter-intuitive: high levels of innovation. The report points to the peculiar tendency of people to quit more frequently in more innovative companies.
The result of all of this is a more confident and choosier candidate base, one that comes to a job interview with a list of must-haves. The growing awareness that we can pick and choose better working situations is why the “Great Resignation” has often been called, more accurately, the “Great Reevaluation.”
“Most people who are looking to leave want to get a bit of their life back,” says Matt Whittaker, managing director of Property Services for Bis Henderson Group in Northampton, UK, and commercial director for Bis Henderson Space. He points to such solutions as the above-mentioned hybrid work protocols, which were already a growing corporate trend prior to COVID-19.
The talent shortage could not come at a worse time for the industrial market, which “is really incredibly active,” says St. Louis-based Steve Kozarits, a Transwestern senior vice president. “There’s growth in every sector. All you have to do is drive through any industrial park and there will be ‘Help Wanted’ signs on every building.”
Charting a Cultural Shift
As BOMA International reported in a recent white paper, “Onboarding today is a very different consideration than it once was. That landscape has changed dramatically.” First of all, the report points out, there are not enough candidates to fill all of the open positions, putting jobseekers comfortably in the driver’s seat. “And those candidates look and operate much differently than one might remember.” In addition, “a new and more diverse population of talent is emerging, bringing with them expectations that severely challenge outdated perceptions.”
Which puts the hiring company squarely on the hotseat to provide an environment attractive to this new breed of jobseeker. It is a change that speaks not just to hiring practices but to the entire corporate culture.
“I want candidates to interview me as much as I interview them and show that they take an interest in where they’re going,” says Whittaker. “It’s not a one-way interview. It should be a robust discussion.” And those discussions can include such issues as the firm’s policy toward environmental, social and governance (ESG) protocols; its hiring policies, especially as they pertain to diversity, equity, and inclusion; and training, mentoring and advancement opportunities.
"There’s growth in every sector. All you have to do is drive through any industrial park and there will be ‘Help Wanted’ signs on every building."
— Steve Kozartis, Sr. Vice President, Transwestern
Clearly there is a lot of due diligence that has to take place for a hiring manager to have the right answers to those questions, and to the extent that the labor market informs locational decisions, that homework includes challenging preconceived truths. “Historical data on labor availability is worthless,” says Kozarits, frankly. “Things have changed so much.” He sees a great disconnect between the quantitative and qualitative data, “which can help my clients make informed decisions about the hiring base of a location.”
His solution is yet more due diligence, and he helps his client base dig a little deeper. “We first rely on site selectors and economic developers for that qualitative data,” he says. But it is not enough, and he recommends a deeper dive into local market conditions.
“Interview those companies that are in the markets you’re considering,” he says. “Have a conversation with local HR managers. What are they seeing? What’s a forklift driver making these days? How hard is it to attract and retain people?”
Raising the Industrial Profile
The hiring issue, in a way, goes deeper for this industry than the current lack of talent.
“People stumble into logistics,” Whittaker says. The industrial and logistics sector as a whole tends not to be a well-publicized career path. “We need to make this industry more attractive to new and young talent. They are, after all, our future. But there are very few secondary-level courses that promote this as a career path and teach logistics.”
He says his firm is trying to change that, and Bis Henderson is currently “working with local universities to develop degree courses in logistics.” Community colleges, veterans’ groups and local diversity associations are also potential sources of job candidates. Locating those sources is another layer of due diligence in your hiring process.
Which brings us back to the cultural alignment of the company and the candidate. “You have to get your culture right,” Whittaker states.
One of the issues is the traditional lack of amenities one might find in a distribution/warehouse space compared to a CBD office building, which creates the challenge to “make these places of work attractive to bring younger talent.” He says his firm is once again rising to the challenge. “There are small things you can do, such as putting walking lanes around the facilities and installing charging stations.”
How long will the supply/demand imbalance in the industrial job market last? Both Whittaker and Kozarits believe we are entering into uncharted territory. “The old ways are gone,” says Whittaker. The years of the COVID-19 pandemic have brought about huge changes, he says, from consumer expectation — which directly affects warehouse/distribution activity —
to how we view the places where we work.
“Cultural change is driving the agenda now,” he concludes.
