By: Jim Becker, Vice President, RPO Client Services, KellyOCG
The demand for skilled trades professionals continues to grow faster than the supply. Automotive companies and chipmakers feel the strain, as do life sciences, energy, and all parts of manufacturing. Chances are, if you’ve tried to hire in the skilled trades recently, you’ve all experienced similar challenges.
The skills shortage poses a significant risk to business performance and strategic decision-making. Current trends and figures highlight the urgency:
- A projected deficit of 2.1 million skilled trade professionals in the U.S. by 2030 is raising alarms across sectors.
- 75% of energy market leaders acknowledge ongoing skilled worker shortages.
- The ratio of retirement to new entrants is challenging: For every five retiring tradespeople in the U.S., only two join the workforce.
First, you must have the right platform to analyze and interpret the data to deliver precise, predictive intelligence. That requires a technology ecosystem with the integration and analytics to deliver specific, predictive information.
Second, as the people making decisions, leadership and hiring managers need to understand and embrace the data-driven approach. As a solutions partner, training often proves to be the biggest value we provide, when our objectivity and expertise bring everyone on board with the decision-making process.
Our view:
There’s no substitute for industry experience, but experience alone isn’t enough.
Many technical challenges span multiple industries, so the demand for any given skill isn’t confined to one sector. For example, pipefitters and electricians are needed by pharmaceutical manufacturers, data centers, healthcare facilities, and auto manufacturing plants. Tech-savvy machine operators are essential to robotics across all manufacturing sectors.
Our clients depend on us for our broad capabilities, effective hiring strategies, and global reach. Seek a provider with the experience and strategic expertise to develop the right approaches to sustain hiring for critical skills.
Data makes the difference in workforce strategy decisions.
Skilled trades recruiting is much more effective when live market data and analytics guide decisions like defining jobs, choosing where to find talent, and selecting facility locations. We’ve helped clients benefit from that use of data, but those benefits depend on two factors:
- First, you must have the right platform to analyze and interpret the data to deliver precise, predictive intelligence. That requires a technology ecosystem with the integration and analytics to deliver specific, predictive information.
- Second, as the people making decisions, leadership and hiring managers need to understand and embrace the data-driven approach. As a solutions partner, training often proves to be the biggest value we provide, when our objectivity and expertise bring everyone on board with the decision-making process.
A data-driven workforce strategy can help arm business and TA leaders with the right information to diagnose and solve even the most difficult hiring challenges. More importantly, it can position a supply chain to support the launch of a new drug or determine what lies ahead when moving an equipment manufacturing facility. Don’t underestimate the strategic value of your workforce data. We can help make the most of it.
Get creative to broaden the candidate pool.
In the skilled trades, more talent is retiring every day than is entering. As a result, companies are rethinking how to attract, retain, and redeploy talent at all career stages.
Organizations can broaden their appeal to older workers by adjusting roles to be more flexible or extending work opportunities during retirement. Likewise, outreach and development programs targeting newer entrants, apprenticeships, career pathways, and upskilling strengthen access to new workers. Not only do organizations retain much-needed talent, but they also benefit greatly from the deep knowledge and experience those workers can pass on to a new generation.
Look for a true, trusted advisor.
Companies often fall into the pattern of determining the talent strategy first and then telling their outsourced solutions provider to execute, whether for permanent hires or extended workforce talent. Our most successful engagements happen when clients partner with us to guide them in balancing tactics to suit their industry, locations, and sought-after skills. These relationships deliver the practical expertise to help companies achieve the best business and talent outcomes.
