• I’m sure you have heard the trending news by now……the United States is experiencing a labor shortage that is affecting many industries like manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, transportation and agriculture^[1].  This news has been reported in regional newspapers, business magazines as well as trade journals. These industries should sound very familiar to you as they are all very much in demand in most markets across the country.  What is causing this shortage?  What can employers do about the shortage? The cause is a result of several different factors like our nation’s aging population, low unemployment, people opting out of the workforce, working conditions, skills gaps and the school to job pipeline.  There is good news in many of these causative factors.  Employers across the country still have a lot of control with many of the factors leading to shortages, and they can grab the bull by the horns with robust workforce planning for their company.

  Workforce Planning Primer

  The Society for Human Resources Management advocates for all companies to practice the art of workforce planning^[2]. There is no specific formula for assisting with workforce planning because every company has very different needs, based on their culture, their strategic plan and their goals and objectives.  With this said, your company can develop a workforce plan that can assist in guiding your company to a robust workforce pipeline that will better position your company for accomplishing your goals and objectives. The steps in the planning process are very straightforward:

1.     Conduct a supply analysis.
2.     Conduct a demand analysis.
3.     Conduct a gap analysis.
4.     Formulate a solution (plan).

The purpose of the supply analysis is to ensure your company knows the regional and national suppliers of potential employees for your company. This analysis should look at the numbers available and skills and should also look at demographics to include generational representation. This analysis will help your company with projections for the future based upon retirements and resignations, and it can also assist in examining different types of workforce that can be tapped into (e.g. new graduates, upskilling of current employees, veterans, people with disabilities, older adults, reentered citizens, and new Americans). Through the examination and utilization of all of these categories, you can create a very resilient workforce for your company.

The demand analysis will help you to design your future workforce composition. This is where your strategic plan will come in handy to ensure you are recruiting your required skillsets in response to your new and expanded business.  This is the analysis where you are asking yourself about the skillsets and experience that you need in your company in all of your positions. You’ll want to review your job descriptions very closely to ensure they are accurate and offer your company ultimate flexibility. 

The gap analysis makes a comparison between what you said you need in your demand analysis and what is available through your supply analysis. 

Last but not least is your solution analysis.  Your solution should include how you plan to recruit to meet your needs, as well as plans for upskilling current employees and potentially tapping into new resources that maybe your company has never tapped into in the past.

Easy to find Labor Resource

One readily available resource in every market is students at all levels of education. High School through Graduate Students across the country are looking for work-based learning opportunities that will help them to discern their appropriate career choices. In Ohio, we are really lucky to have about 400K High School students in our State and close to 400K College and University students.  Imagine if we could keep the vast majority of these students in our State.  Our labor shortage in Ohio would be long gone! 

Cassie is President of The Strategic Ohio Council for Higher Education (SOCHE), a non-profit organization that specializes in assisting employers to recruit, train, employ, develop, and manage interns. After 59 years in business, SOCHE knows that today’s interns are tomorrow’s workforce!  If you’re looking for talent, let SOCHE help connect you with your next generation of workforce.  Reach out to soche@soche.org or www.soche.org.

^[1] https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage

^[2] https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/tools/toolkits/practicing-discipline-workforce-planning