this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
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I miswrote that last sentence. I know people won't believe it, but it ISN'T about the pay. I KNOW we pay our people well. You just can't find qualified employees. There is zero work ethic in a group of people out there. Showing up on time and actually showing up at all? That's a foreign concept to some people. Basic skills - communicating with people, having basic understanding of how things are assembled or understanding how tools work.
This is especially bad when you can hire people in other countries to do the same work, pay them a fraction of US workers and you'll get far better production out of them with far less headaches. It's like WTF? We're trying to reshore some production and in essence people are saying "nah, we don't want it". These same people would be the first to complain when they hear some product is made overseas.
IDK your personal experience, but it's almost always the pay. Possibly you're just matching the pay other companies offer, and the industry doesn't pay much in the U.S. comparable to trades that require equal training, so there aren't many workers that go into that trade. Or, the labor market is extremely tight for that trade.
I was in a similar circumstance, and was able to find quality candidates by raising what we were offering considerably (+30-50% above regional average, according to sites like glassdoor). We were able to attract very good employees away from their previous employers this way. But, these were more "professional" jobs, and sounds like you're looking for "lower-skilled" technicians, which may have different subtleties. Another option is apprenticeship-like arrangements (on-the-job training + paying for technical school), depending on the industry/trade.
If people don't care to have work ethic, show up on time, etc, it's usually because they feel like they're being shafted, and have horrible, non-inspiring management, so they feel they owe the company nothing. If people feel like they're working for a company, instead of with a company that's helping them "self-actualize" or whatever, you get the "companies pay just enough so their workers don't quit, employees work just hard enough to not get fired," attitude.
I’ve had the opposite experience. We pay way beyond the highest end in our industry, gobs of extra bonuses, full benefits, profit sharing, transparent salaries, nearly unlimited vacation, 4 day work weeks, work from home with all their tech provided, and we still struggle to get people to just do the work.
We’ve tried folks that are local and folks that are all over the country and it’s basically the same issues. You get really talented people initially but some folks you still have to drag kicking and screaming just to do the work consistently. It’s not even just the young folks.
I explicitly pay high because I don’t want to micro manage people to just do the work. I don’t want money to be the primary motivator. Sure we have bonuses but everyone gets them if we meet the goals. It’s a team effort.
I don’t take benefits that I don’t also give my team. It feels like we get one decent worker out of every 10 that make it through the 90 day probationary period without a lot of coaching on time management. The work isn’t even difficult - it’s just work that is very consistent and detail oriented. Even when you outline the success up front for them, you can watch it start to slip in the folks that aren’t going to make it after 4-6 weeks. We have touch points every two weeks during the probationary period and even when you try and steer the ship back on track they falter if you don’t stay on top them.
It’s like a lot of people just aren’t adapted or disciplined to work from home where there isn’t militant structure, especially when we have SO much flexibility. They say they want all the freedom and benefits we offer but won’t make whatever changes they need to sustain it.
Like literally have had people break down at their 90 days crying because they SAY they want everything we offer, best job they’ve ever had, blah blah blah — but won’t just allocate the goddamned time to their daily hours and do the work. Some don’t even know why they don’t do it.
We had one guy who said it was like winning the mega millions but it was like the situation where the person doesn’t know how to manage the money and they spend their entire fortune in less than a year and are broke and worse off afterwards.
The folks who are successful at the job most have been with us for many years. A few have even left and come back.
I can see why some companies want people to work in an office, it would probably make the company much more successful and profitable. I personally hate that though. I’d rather not have a company that have to have a 9-5 office. I want to have the freedom and work flexibility to enjoy work life balance — and I want all of this for the team too. Some people just don’t want it enough for themselves I guess even when you hand it to them on a silver platter.
We just keep sifting to find the gems.
It’s maddening.
Hmm. I can see that if meetings only take place every 2 weeks. We have daily meetings (agile), and pretty granular task/issue tracking, which are even more important for remote workers, IMO.