On occasion, you may need to hire a new team member. We always help our clients with hiring and “onboarding” new employees on our major consulting programs.
We have been hearing a lot about millennials not wanting to work, people don’t want to work, and it’s hard to find good employees.
I don’t buy it.
The offices with whom we work have been hiring great employees.
You must understand and appreciate the seismic changes that have been occurring in society. The workplace is not what it used to be.
The Assembly Line
I discuss this a great deal in my book, The Goal Driven Business.
The Industrial Age needed an industrial mindset for a workforce. As a worker, you were a cog on the assembly line. You checked out of your life when you punched in and checked back in when you punched out. Not much was required from you…except your brawn and obedience. It was a machine world and required mechanist minds and behavior. The employee worked just as hard so they wouldn’t get fired, and the employer would pay just as little so that the employee wouldn’t quit.
We have long since passed the Industrial Age, but our work culture hasn’t changed that much. The worker at the sandwich shop asks you what you want on your lunch sandwich, the cashier totals your groceries, and the therapy tech at the hospital follows their checklist.
But a reckoning has been on its way for some time.
And that time is now.
Many factors have culminated in today’s “hiring crisis.” It is a perfect wave, of sorts.
OK Boomers
But let’s first dismiss the judgments from the “OK Boomers. "(“OK boomer” is a catchphrase and Internet meme often used by Gen Z to dismiss or mock attitudes typically associated with baby boomers.” Wiki.)
Older generations have always viewed younger generations as flighty, fickle, and poorly motivated workers. I am one of the hardest workers I know, but my dad didn’t think so when I was stumbling around after college trying to find something to sink my teeth in.
While the youthful uncertainties of work may not have changed, there has still been a dramatic shift in our culture.
Financial Changes
Millennials are in debt the way no other generation ever considered. Today’s average college tuition is 31x more than it was in 1969. (1. Yahoo) Total student loan debt is 1.75 trillion. (For comparison, the U.S. Budget in 2020 was 6.6 trillion) with the average borrower owing $29,000.
We have been in an inflationary spiral, with housing leading the way. Generally, the cost of living is rising. The increase in the Consumer Price Index for March, 2022, is equivalent to an annualized rate of 15.4%, the largest 12-month increase in 40 years. (2)
So, finance is a factor—a big one.
Goals, Values, and Meaningful Work
In 2015 Gallup, surveyed over 80,000 working adults. The majority (51 percent) of employees were unengaged at work, while another 17 percent were actively disengaged, for a total of 68 percent not engaged. That means that nearly 2/3rds of the workforce were dissatisfied with their jobs and ready to make a change.(3)
COVID 19 sent a shockwave throughout the work-a-day world. It jarred employees out of their jobs and they were now free to pursue something more in line with their new values and purposes.
One office we work with recently hired a C.N.A. who had quit their prior employment because they did not want to get the COVID jab. They felt that the medical approach they were forced to follow was not aligned with their own values and goals. As a result, they took a new position at a chiropractic office we work with and now happily feels part of their new family.
Indeed, a hiring company, states:
“A work environment that possesses organizational culture is driven by purpose and clear expectations. This motivates and inspires employees to be more engaged in their work duties and interactions with others.”
One of the major processes we work with the business owners is helping them and their teams delineate their own values that they aspire to each day. Positive team culture can be better created and maintained by regularly reviewing these values.
One very competent employee we recently helped hire for an office was so impressed with the Core Values on the office website that she knew this was her place. She has since joined the team and is a high producer.
Emphasize Your Goals and Mission
Employees want security. They are not necessarily looking to become wealthy, at least in the short term. You may need to review your pay scale for your team and make gradual adjustments in these inflationary times.
But we all have intrinsic goals, which include our values, and these take precedence. Work these out for your business and nurture them often. Stay true to them. In promoting for new staff, communicate your values and just how rewarding it is to work with your practice.
Become Stronger to Withstand Future Reckonings
I anticipate more “reckonings” and seismic shifts in the not-too-distant future that your business will have to weather and overcome. The world is changing quickly. The stronger you are, the better your chances of surviving and thriving.
Read and apply my book, the Goal Driven Business.
You can also set up a no charge appointment to discuss how we can help strengthen your business and make it more profitable. Make an appointment for a no-charge call consultation here. LINK
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If your practice building efforts aren’t taking you to your goals,
there are reasons -- many of which are hidden from you.
Find out what they are and how to sail to your next level by getting and implementing my new book, The Goal Driven Business.
The Goal Driven Business By Edward Petty
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