Solving the Tennessee Talent Crisis

“The single biggest obstacle my business faces at this moment is our inability to find and keep talent.”

Sound familiar? If it doesn’t, you might be living under a rock, and I might as well start calling you Patrick Star.

I haven’t met one mid-market business owner or leader since moving to Nashville last year that hasn’t expressed this concern in some way, shape, or form. It seems like everyone already has a job, and the ones that are looking are either those with criminal records or those who lack any sense of competency whatsoever.

What’s interesting is that most of these leaders feel like they’re on an island, separated from the rest of the other companies around them. In reality, they are more likely to be sailing on a mega cruise ship. In other words, they’re surrounded by thousands of other passengers in the exact same boat.

However, this boat isn’t moving forward. It’s stuck on a slow path of uncertainty and indecision, because as companies struggle to figure out to how to find and keep talent to run their business, their growth becomes more and more limited.

One business owner told me last week:

“All I need is more people. If you can tell me how or where to look that I haven’t looked yet, I’m all ears. Once I can find more people, I’ll be able to buy more equipment and start fulfilling more orders. I have the cash, and demand is high. I simply can’t find people to hire, and can’t move forward until I do.”

There are limitless reasons and possibilities on why companies struggle to grow. Some don’t have the infrastructure or systems, others struggle to lead effective marketing and sales efforts to bring in more orders or quotes. Many can’t get their operations lined up in an efficient and optimal way, and end up going into debt because they borrow and try to cost-cut their way to profitability. Many spend way too much in overhead without knowing it and don’t understand how to prioritize products and customers.

But if there was one over-arching impediment in today’s environment, it may be the inability to find and retain the top talent needed to enable a business to keep up with the competitive expectations of twenty-first century customers.

If you are a business owner or leader, know this: You are not alone. Every single industry is seeing this same trend, especially in Nashville, a city with the lowest unemployment rate in the country according to several polls.

For most, this is the lowest unemployment they have seen and will see in their entire lifetime. At 2.5%-3.0% in Nashville at the beginning of 2018, and averaging about 4% across the US, this is a tricky business climate that presents challenges and impediments to growth that most business leaders have never experienced before.

It’s occurring for a variety of reasons. As an economy, business is booming and spending is high. Major industries are growing, like technology and healthcare. Millennials are migrating from traditional career selections. Baby Boomers, many of which that have irreplaceable skill sets, are retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day. And more…

So what?

As a business leader, there really are only two options:

1. Continue on your current trajectory, allowing the shortage of talent to become an impediment to growth, or
2. Turn this challenge, that every other company is experiencing as well, into YOUR company’s competitive advantage.

By the way, I recommend the latter.

If you were starting a new business or re-inventing your current business, how would you differentiate yourself? What would be your competitive advantage? Price? Hey Walmart. Quality? Nice job, Apple. Delivery? What’s up Amazon.

You would set out on a path of understanding what you do better than anyone else in your industry, and work as hard as you could to make that strength of yours even stronger.

So why not take the same approach with your people as you would with your customers?

Many organizations will describe their people as their most important asset, and understandably so. But if that’s the case, why are people not at the center of a business’ strategic goals?

If a company wants to turn today’s talent gap into a competitive advantage, they have to start doing something that other companies haven’t figured out yet. And that difference is how to effectively lead their people in ways that 1) attract others to their business and 2) make the current employees want to stay as long as possible.

What does that look like for each company? It’s different for everyone, but there are several strategic themes that ought to be applied across the board.

1. Build the best culture.

If you can build a culture where everyone in the organization feels more fulfilled in their lives because they work for your company, you’re off to a great start.

“All companies can articulate WHAT they do. Some companies can articulate HOW they do it. Few companies can articulate WHY they do what they do.” — Simon Sinek

What is your company’s WHY? If you know it, do you actually believe it, and do your actions reflect that you believe it?

2. Develop an organized pipeline for fresh talent.

For many companies, this could come through the form of a well-run co-op or internship program, where you have an active and involved relationship with institutions of higher learning. Traditional universities, technical and community colleges, and trade schools all offer some of the brightest talent available, and they’re eager to get experience before they graduate.

Successful students recruit replacements, too.

3. Talk about winning.

When you sell your business during an interview or first introduction, do you discuss what your business does and how you do it? Or do you talk about all the ways that your business is growing, improving, impacting, leading, and winning? Winners like to join other winners, and winning business attract people that know how to win, too.

4. Don’t separate personal and professional. Integrate them together.

While creating separation between one’s professional life and one’s personal life may have been possible years ago, technology has created an environment where being disconnected from work or family is usually not an option. So let’s embrace it!

If people are more fulfilled and engaged in their personal relationships, they’re more likely to be fulfilled and engaged at work, and vice versa. Companies that are able to help their team’s grow both professionally and personally at the same time see dramatic improvements in their culture and energy levels at work. Make this a strategic focus as a leadership team.

5. Learn how to recruit and retain millennials.

The millennial generation is now the largest living generation and the largest generation currently in or entering the workforce. They are different, and their differences are beneficial. When you figure out the tools and techniques to lead them more effectively, and there are many that work extremely well, your business will thrive in the next few decades.

And if you can’t figure out to recruit and retain them, you’ll never figure out how to sell to them.

These are just a few of the strategic themes to keep in mind when trying to turn the talent crisis into a competitive advantage. Each organization will have to determine which combinations of tools and approaches work best for their teams and environments.

If it were an easy challenge to solve, everyone would have done it already.

What is definitive is this: the companies that take this challenge to their strategy room are the ones most likely to succeed.

I think this challenge applies to one of the lessons I try to live my own life by:

My ability to delay gratification is one of the single biggest determinants of my success in life.

I’ve learned this through a variety of ways, in both personal and professional applications, and it always seems to ring true. The easiest route to take usually doesn’t lead to the long-term results I hope to achieve.

But when I go that extra mile, the road less traveled, or push through the more frustrating, harder, and longer alternatives, I’m always glad I did in the end.

As you think about the long-term results for your business, think about the decisions that are made today that delay gratification as a company. We are going through a business climate that most business leaders have never experienced before, giving us a unique opportunity to differentiate ourselves.

Will we take the road less traveled and turn our people into a strategic goal for the organization, and delay the gratification of seeing a successful, growing team?

How will your business respond to the current landscape? Will the Tennessee Talent Crisis be an impediment to growth, or will it become your competitive advantage?