The Digital Dealership, Your Audience: Marketing Activities, Part 2

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The Digital Dealership, Your Audience: Marketing Activities, Part 2

In tonight’s blog post, guest writer Mets Kramer continues his exploration of the digital dealership. Part 2 of a series, tonight we look at marketing activities for your audience. 

Digital Marketing to your Audience

Anyone who’s read marketing articles or blogs or attended a course will be familiar with the 4Ps of marketing, along with many similar acronyms.  Product, Price, Placement and Promotion sum up the core tenant’s marketers need to consider when creating a marketing and advertising plan.  In digital marketing and for the Digital Dealership this is even more important.

In the Digital Marketing world, we often speak about engagement.  Engagement is critical to digital marketing success and why reconsidering the basic tenants of marketing is so important.  In the digital world, what we see and what we want to see are determined by Engagement levels.

Over the past couple of years, you’ve heard a lot about the engagement algorithms used by social media sites and other platforms.   These platforms have two main goals, to create user engagement with the platform and extend the time spent by users on the platform.   To do this the platforms have highly intelligent algorithms that present content it calculates will be of interest to people.   This is often based on the type of content or early engagement with it.  If content has low engagement the algorithm effectively buries the content and, even if you have lots of connections, most of them will not see your content.

Creating content and marketing to your audience through digital media requires careful thought to be effective and this is where defining, segmenting and building strategies for your audience is important.  Take a moment at this point to think about how you interact with various types of digital marketing, you’re someone else’s audience segment too, it will help with your own strategy.

In the first part of this series, we looked at defining who’s in your audience, and segmenting them.  These segments can be defined by any criteria, from sales volumes to location to fleet size and industry.  What’s important is to have segments defined to create strategies.  You can define these for known contacts in your audience, but you can also create these segments in the unknown audience.   For each of these Segments of the audience, consider the tenants of marketing.

First, what is the Product you want to present to each segment?  

Is it the dealership, the experience of the people in the dealership, is it machine inventory or is it services like rental, your shop or parts?  Each of these items is of varying degree of interest to your audience. Content should be created for each of the products your dealership has to offer.   Your existing customers may want to learn more about service products.   Your prospect customers may want to know about the inventory you have for sale or about the brand you represent and the capabilities of that brand.  Your unknown audience likely needs to learn more about who you are and about the dealership in general.  This will help them to recognize and consider your other products, like machines, in the future.  Regardless, it’s important to understand all the products you have to offer as each audience segment will find different values on each product.  Furthermore, don’t forget, your content needs to be engaging, so try and use video, audio, closed captioning and imagery.

Second, what channels will you use to place the content for your audience to see, engage with or react to?

There are traditional channels, like advertising sites, billboards and magazines.  There are digital channels including email campaigns, your website, Linked In, Facebook, Instagram etc.  and there are also physical channels like signage, brochures, posters and even invoices.  What is important is to understand what audience you’ll be addressing through each channel and what the purpose of the content is.

The Channel selection can be approached from multiple directions.  Consider for each channel, “what audience segments use the channel?” or approached from the other direction, “what channels do your target audience segments use?”  You need to determine this for each audience segment.

In the last few years, I’ve seen LinkedIn be corporation and brand development focused, Facebook focuses on small contractor and community focused, Instagram looks to be Brand, Product or announcement focused etc.

Third, what will be your plan combining these 3 main aspects. Audience Segment, Contact and Channel?

For this step it is often helpful to create some matrixes.   For each defined audience segment create a grid with 2 axes.  One for Product content and the second axis for Channel.  This work will help you really think through what content to place on each channel to engage your audience.   For your digital channels this is critically important, and the work done to define your audience and your product content will help you make sure the content is engaging.  Content placed on the right channel designed for the audience in the channel will always get you higher engagement, and in return, your content will be viewed by more of your audience members.

Finally, as a Digital Dealer, how will you use Information to augment your marketing?

Using and collecting information is the hallmark of a smart and digital dealership.  Analyzing information about your audience, including feedback from marketing and advertising efforts, help you to fine tune all the above 3 aspects, content, audience and channel.  Here are some examples.

  1. Add user specific information to Email Campaigns. “Hi John, because you own motor graders, we thought this inventory item might be of interest to you”.  This can be done though tagging in the mail software and merge codes.  This content will be many times more engaging.
  2. A Dealer website that recognizes returning customers and provides shortcuts to frequently visited pages or functions, and filtered inventory or promotions based on existing Fleet. “Welcome back Bill, this section lists the functions you often visit; Online Parts, Machine Specs.  Your 410 is due for a service, here’s a link to the filter kit”

Spending time analyzing your audience always pays.   They can be your existing customers, local contractors or people you don’t know.  Building a marketing plan, for each of the audience segments you’re interested in, will help you retain the customers you have and funnel in new customers to your sales and after sales operations.

Mets Kramer

Mets.kramer@strategicevolutions.ca

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Learned Helplessness

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Learned Helplessness

In tonight’s post, guest blogger Bruce Baker walks you through a struggle we are seeing all around us: learned helplessness.

Many business owners and CEOs we partner with suffer tremendously due to being in a state of learned helplessness.

It is astonishing to see people that reach out to us at Workplaces simply because they are in a state of pain and the challenges they have or perceive they have don’t have a resolution.  After lengthy discussions, the challenges they have “tried everything” to solve become less daunting and transition into something inspiring. At least four out of five times, we have the privilege of partnering with these individuals to better their business situation and ultimately achieve the goals that they work so hard to achieve. Unfortunately, once they experience solving these challenges (something they never thought possible) and, of course, do their “celebratory dance,” they fall right back into their learned helpless state due to a new challenge they face yet again.  This constant state repeating itself seems to be a drug that people seek to justify the pain of their challenge and their perceived inability to solve it.

As time goes on, the more resilient the Business owner/CEO inevitably becomes, the more they transition their business and themselves to an ongoing and sustainable state of success. This is not because they now have “better business tools” necessarily, but because they reduce falling back into a state of learned helplessness.  Those who persevere and learn this new conditioned response to challenge and, at times, failure becomes more successful consistently.

To conclude, I wanted to share a powerful story (author unknown) that I have always turned to when I feel this way and need a path back to a positive state. The story goes like this:

As my friend passed the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused because these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from the ropes they were tied to, but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to escape.

“Well,” he said, “when they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size of rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. Then, as they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” My friend was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds, but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something simply because we failed at it once before?

How many of us are being held back by old, outdated beliefs that no longer serve us? How many of us have avoided trying something new because of a limiting belief? Worse, how many of us are being held back by someone else’s limiting beliefs?

You do not deserve to feel this way!  Your business should be a source of pride and achievement for you, whether you are significantly challenged today or are feeling helpless because you can’t find a solution.  Don’t let your ego and your feeling of learned helplessness be your guide in building your business; you will fail and not return. Instead, reach out to someone you trust, someone that will hold you accountable and show you that the solutions you seek are not far away.

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Principia for After-sales – part three

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Principia for After-sales – part three

Today, Ryszard Chciuk continues his blogs on Principia for after-sales with part three of the series.

In several posts starting from Principia for Business, I am sharing my way of defining and implementing the main principles (values). In Principia for After-sales part 2, I presented my point of view on the potential conflict between private and company values, on the importance of constant reminding and following of the main principles, and how I was writing their definitions.

Now, let’s go back to my after-sales team’s main principles. They were listed in Principia for After-sales part 1. It was my adaptation of our corporation’s main values: Quality, Safety, and Environmental Care.

The No 1 is “Integrity.”

The notion of integrity is mentioned on about 500 million of webpages (only in English). So, what did it mean for us? I decided to use the Stephen L. Carter definition: Integrity, as I will use the term, requires three steps: (1) discerning what is right and what is wrong; (2) acting on what you have discerned, even at personal cost; and (3) saying openly that you are acting on your understanding of right from wrong. It was not easy to explain that definition in simple words. Lately, I found the more useful explanation. Charles Marshall in Shattering the Glass Slipper wrote: Integrity is doing the right thing when you don’t have to — when no one else is looking or will ever know — when there will be no congratulations or recognition for having done so. Where is the man who will do the right thing, no matter what the cost? Is there anyone who will act with integrity even if it means losing a job or an important business deal? Where is the woman who would be willing to act in openness and honesty if she knew it meant losing a significant relationship or a large sum of money? Are there still people in this world who would sacrifice their pride, relationships, or profit in order to maintain their integrity? Are you such a person?

These are hard questions, but you have to answer them if you treat seriously your values. And do not forget to discuss with your people how it is working. The best way is to analyze examples taken from your company life.

The No 2 principle is “Care of people and environment.”

It translates into “Always take care of your co-worker, customer, supplier, investor and of all kind of life”. Obviously, it concerns safety, too high fuel consumption, respect for the environmental regulations, stable and decent working conditions, etc.

The No 3 principle is “Profitability.”

It refers to all players of the business game you are in. You need to earn enough money to stay in business. When you fall, your customers will not be supported at the same level, at least by the time another provider takes over your business. Also, you will not be able to support customers if you kill your suppliers, and this happens just after you force them to supply products at the same quality, but for a much lower price. Then you will also be a loser. If you want to increase your department profitability by the reduction of your employees’ remuneration, they will decrease their loyalty and your company will die soon.

The No 4 is “Excellence.”

This means: “We are satisfied with nothing less than the very best in everything we do”. Today I would remove this principle from the list. Why? If you want to be recognized as the man of integrity you do not do things in a sloppy way, isn’t it?

Next time I will present some examples of how we utilized our values.

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Job Shock, Part Four

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Job Shock Part Four: A New Time Bomb: An Explosion of Skilled Worker Shortages

 

Edward E. Gordon, the founder and president of Imperial Consulting Corporation in Chicago, has consulted with leaders in business, education, government, and non-profits for over 50 years. As a writer, researcher, speaker, and consultant he has helped shape policy and programs that advance talent development and regional economic growth. This week, he continues his blog series with Job Shock, Part Four.

Gordon is the author or co-author of 20 books. His book, Future Jobs: Solving the Employment and Skills Crisis, is the culmination of his work as a visionary who applies a multi-disciplinary approach to today’s complex workforce needs and economic development issues. It won a 2015 Independent Publishers Award. An updated paperback edition was published in 2018.

It is already apparent that as COVID-19 restrictions ease, a pent-up demand for many types of goods and services will be unleashed. As businesses reopen or expand to meet this boom, the demand for skilled workers will soar. It is not likely to fall for the rest of this decade. As cited in prior “Job Shock” segments, a major demographic shift, serious education deficits, and rising job-skill demands have combined with COVID-19 to undermine the quality and composition of the U.S. labor force. An April 2021 National Federation of Independent Businesses survey found that 44 percent of small businesses had job openings they could not fill, a record 22 percent higher than the 48-year average for this survey. Ninety-two percent of businesses seeking workers reported few or no qualified applicants. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were a record 8.1 million job openings at the end of March 2021. We estimate the true number to be over 11 million.

Employers Face Mounting Skills Challenges

COVID-19 has greatly increased the need for skills training. The shift to remote work has placed new skill demands on many employees. Because of the pandemic’s devastating effect on certain industries, about 20 percent of U.S. workers have left their former jobs for new types of work. A March Prudential Pulse of American Worker Survey found that about one-quarter of the workers surveyed plan to look for a different job with another employer once the current crisis eases. All these factors indicate that employee training must be greatly increased.

A significant shift in the priorities of American businesses is urgently needed. In recent years business expenditures on training and education have declined. For every dollar America’s chief foreign competitors invest in employee talent development, U.S. business invests only 20 cents. Training is mostly concentrated on managers and professionals. Only about 20 to 30 percent of U.S. employers have offered entry-level job training or provided employees with training updates. Much of what is now done is mandated by safety regulations. It is not about building new skills.

A recent McKinsey Global Survey found that 69 percent of businesses were doing more skill building than they did prior to the pandemic. However, only 28 percent of these organizations had a training department or similar facility focused on learning. The organizations that employed a variety of education/training methods reported a higher rate of success in reskilling and upskilling their employees.

Even though COVID-19 has greatly increased the need for entry-level training and reskilling, many businesses are again expanding stock buy-backs and increasing dividends rather than investing in worker skills. American companies and organizations instead need to launch new HR initiatives to fill skilled job vacancies and upskill their existing employees through a variety of means including corporate universities and training partnerships.

Human and Financial Costs

Job Shock will have a major economic impact in the United States and globally. In 2030 estimated U.S unfilled jobs range from 25 to 30 million. Globally over 95 million jobs could be vacant. The financial costs for individuals., businesses and nations will be staggering. By 2030 U.S. GDP loss could be over $2.5 trillion. Global losses might reach $18 trillion.

Job Shock: Where Do We Go from Here?

The picture that emerges from before, during, and after the COVID-19 crisis is an American workforce with an abundance of people, but a shortfall of talent for the jobs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. An analysis of the composition of the U.S. labor market at the beginning 2020 and projecting what it might be like in 2030 if the education-to-employment system remains unchanged shows:

Seventy percent of jobs (114 million) were high to mid-skill. Only 55 million workers were qualified. The result was a 60 million job deficit. American employers tried to fill these vacancies with retired baby-boomers, workers brought from other countries, foreign students attending U.S. universities, and/or the increased use of automation. Companies unable to find skilled talent moved their jobs abroad. Thirty percent of all jobs (50 million) were lower skilled. There were 110 million workers at that level, i.e., with limited math and reading competencies. The result was a 60 million worker surplus. Many gave up looking for a job (and thus were not counted as unemployed) because they were not offered entry-level job training.The 10.5 million estimated vacant jobs cost the United States $253 billion in lost productivity and profit.

At least 75 percent of jobs (128 million) will be high to mid-skill. Only 33 percent of American workers (about 56 million) will be qualified for these jobs, resulting in a 72 million job deficit. The U.S. skilled labor shortage will deepen because 70 million baby-boomers will have aged out of the workforce, a global 50 to 95 million skilled worker shortage will limit immigration to the United States, and increased automation will demand ever higher skill levels from workers. The pace of companies leaving the United States due to skilled-talent shortages will rise.

In contrast, 25 percent of U.S. jobs (32 million) will remain low skill. If education and skill upgrades are not adopted over this decade, possibly 114 million low skill people will be in the U.S. labor force. A huge “techno-peasant” underclass will compete for a diminishing number of low skill jobs. High unemployment coupled with mounting skill shortfalls could pose a real threat to American social stability.

An estimated 30 million vacant jobs are possible. The economic loss to the U.S. economy will be between $ 1 trillion to over $2.5 trillion.

The Job Shock Crossroad

We do have the power over this decade to increase the education and skills of American workers. We can produce a workforce that meets the talent requirements of 2030. It does require coordinated actions from key sections of our society. Picture the American talent creation system as a boat with two figures pulling the oars and a third at the rudder. Parents are the rudder steering a better course for their child’s future. One oar is pulled by educators (K-12, post-secondary). The other oar is in the hands of employers providing job training and skill updates to their workers. If one or more of these parties fails at their roles, the boat goes off-course, stops, or sinks from ever larger job shock waves.

This coordinated effort needs to start at the regional level. Enlightened community leaders need to pull together to keep the boat on course. The COVID-19 pandemic has produced a storm of hurricane proportions making the need for immediate action more vital than ever.

Yet many people across America remain opposed to systemic social changes. They are deeply divided into multiple warring “tribes.” They remain at war with each other rather than working to reach agreement on vital common goals. Their acceptance of the cold, hard facts of “Job Shock” remains a hard sell.

The longer the United States delays making systemic changes to the education-to-employment system, the deeper the economic and social turmoil between now and 2030. As Lawrence Summers, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary said about employment, “Walk outside: labor shortage is the pervasive phenomenon.”

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Resolutions and Reading

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Resolutions and Reading

For a change of pace, we decided to share a vlog post today in honor of this being a new year.

 

For more information on how we can help you make this a great year, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

Digital Marketing

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Digital Marketing

Mets Kramer

Digital Marketing: Billboard vs Engagement

“At the moment, our research shows buyers making 90% of their purchase decision before contacting the dealer.” And there it was. I had been having thoughts like these swirling around in my head for a few months now. But when Charles Bowles at Trader Interactive spoke with me, I had no idea how much our industry had shifted.

I have a theory about Digital Marketing in our construction equipment industry and I believe it can be considered in two ways.

  • First, is what I’d like to call Billboard Marketing, which refers to digital strategies geared towards establishing and maintaining digital visibility. These approaches are often additional marketing strategies, while continuing the existing methods of communication.
  • The second approach is called Engagement Marketing and includes digital activities to connect and develop engagement opportunities with your target audience. Dealers who implement Engagement Marketing consider their digital marketing presence as transformative and suggest these methods could replace most, if not all, past marketing approaches.

There are three aspects of Digital Marketing that I would like to look at and compare Billboard and Engagement strategies. They include Websites, Email Marketing and Advertising campaigns.

  1. Websites

Most dealers have a website today, which is a great start, but the buck doesn’t stop there. Listing your equipment, providing contact information and location falls under the Billboard approach: you present your information to visitors and hope they contact you. However, for Engagement Marketing, your website should provide a virtual visit to your dealership; images and videos of your inventory, and related documents showing the quality of the equipment and records of its health and maintenance. The icing on the cake would lead the visitor to a button they can click on to take them onto the next step. (Replace “Contact for more information” with “I’m interested in Buying”) But let’s be real, this call to action isn’t the icing, it’s the entire cake! How do you measure whether you are leading your visitor into an engaging relationship? Make sure you provide ample information about the machine so they can decide on the spot. If there’s not enough detail, Bowles says 90% of visitors will go to check out another listing to find what they need. Hop onto Google Analytics to help you assess whether you’re Engaging or Billboarding.

  1. Email Campaigning

The next common aspect of Digital Marketing is email campaigning.  Email campaigns are a great way to stay connected to customers and present new products. To use email campaigns effectively, it is important to consider your audience and develop strategies in order to create a continuing conversation. Mail programs such as Constant Contact or Mailchimp provide the tools to send information to tens of thousands of people.  A Billboard approach sends the same message to everyone who drives by it – no matter who they are or what they are looking for. We don’t want to use email campaigns the same way. Instead, consider a more strategic approach, engaging different segments of your audience based off their interests. Provide a mixture of Equipment For Sale messages and industry, fleet focused education. Use the tools provided by the email platforms to understand who is interacting with your campaigns and change the messaging and frequency for each segment to further engage your audience. While email campaigns can feel like a one-way communication, change your mindset and remember, email is most effective as a conversation tool. So, create campaigns that encourage your audience to talk back!

  1. Digital Advertising

Finally, Digital Advertising, whether Google, Facebook or others, are designed to bring visitors to your digital dealership: your website.  The Billboard approach will stop at bidding on generic words (ex. Caterpillar excavator, Komatsu bulldozer, Case backhoe, etc.)  which will hopefully bring visitors to your website to see what your dealership has to offer. But let’s keep in mind that digital advertising can be expensive, so the set up and focus of your advertisements should be focused for an Engagement approach. Let’s milk every opportunity! How about bidding on specific machines that are in your inventory? Specific combinations like Komatsu D65EX, for example, will have less bidders, making them cheaper and bringing visitors exactly to what they are looking for, the machine on your website.

The digital marketplace is real and becoming the source of future sales.  All leading industries are showing signs of transformation into the Engagement model of digital marketing.  Automotive sales, Commercial trucks are some but do not forget about Amazon and similar services. We are all proof that Engagement Marketing and Sales keeps us coming back for another slice.

We will continue this discussion soon.

To continue to develop your expertise in Marketing, please visit our website at Learning Without Scars.

You Have to Keep Moving Forward

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You Have to Keep Moving Forward.

You Have to Keep Moving Forward

This year has been a challenge to everyone and everything we had in 2019. Our health is at risk. Our jobs are at risk and in some cases are gone. Our businesses are at risk. Bankruptcies are on the rise. Everything has changed. And the very foundation of our life in the United States has also been challenged. Our history and traditions. Our safety and security. This is hard for me to imagine.

So, what are we to do? I am not going to become a victim. I want to try and control my own destiny. I am going to move forward.

I believe that what ever we have in front of us we have to face it. Whatever the market is going to be or is, all of us are in the same market. Let’s just compete within whatever world we find in front of us.

In the very first blog we posted after updating our website I wrote “James Belasco and Ralph Stayer, authors of the book “The Flight of the Buffalo,” couldn’t have said it any better “Change is hard because people overestimate the value of what they have and underestimate the value of what they may gain by giving that up.”

This time I suggest to you change is easier. We don’t have any choice. Working From Home has become an acronym WFH. Imagine? I read an article today where while working from home some people are using Virtual Reality headsets to make it more understandable. Wow.

I want to suggest that we get going again. In their book “Built to Last,” Jim Collins and Jeremy Porras cite BHAG’s – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. I want you to consider that. Don’t nibble around the edges now go for “Game Changers.” Something dramatic. Step outside of your traditional boxes. Spend less time in meetings and more time doing. Minimize long detailed position papers. Get to work. Clarify roles and responsibilities. Ask everyone to contribute. From the buyers to the warehouse floor and to the field sales force, from the office clerks to telephone sales employees. Everyone can contribute.

It has been said that Being Good is the enemy of Being Great. And Being Great is the enemy of What’s Possible. In other words, making progress is better than seeking perfection. Desmond Tutu famously said “If it is to be it is up to me.” Back to you.

The Time is Now.

We Don’t Have It That Bad

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Maybe we don’t have it that bad!

It’s a mess out there now. Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria. For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.

On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.

Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.

At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you are 55 you dealt with the fear of Polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or die.

At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that? When you were a kid in 1985 and didn’t think your 85-year-old grandparent understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Refined and enlightening as time goes on. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Your parents and/or grandparents were called to endure all of the above – you are called to stay home and sit on your couch.

A Guest Blog from Ed Gordon

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“Ignoring America’s Talent Desert Won’t Solve the Problem!”

 

Reports of talent shortages continue to proliferate:

  • The National Association of Manufacturers reported an all-time record high of over 500,000 vacant positions (September 2019).
  • A National Association of Home Builders Survey found that over half of contractors had shortages in 12 of the 16 categories of construction work.
  • An October 2019 member survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) reported that 53 percent of small business owners had great difficulty finding qualified workers (88 percent of those hiring), This year finding qualified workers has consistently been the top business problem in the monthly NFIB survey.

William Dunkelberg, NFIB Chief Economist warned, “If the widely discussed showdown occurs, a significant contributor will be the unavailability of labor — hard to call that a ‘recession’ when job openings still exceeds job searchers.” This quote is based on official Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports: the 5.9 million Americans classified as unemployed (11/1/19) and the 7 million job openings reported in the Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey issued on November 5. The BLS also reported that the number of U.S. vacant jobs has exceeded the number of unemployed for the past 17 months (August 2019).

 

The official BLS estimate of unemployment (3.6% in the 11/1/19 report) is based on an extremely narrow definition: only those who actively sought a jobs in the past month are classified as being unemployed. We believe that this measure of unemployment is very misleading. The BLS also currently estimates that about 95.2 million Americans over the age of 16 are “not in the workforce.” This is an remarkably high number that has persisted since the 2008 recession.

 

Our analysis of the probably characteristics of this group of 95.2 million Americans is:

  • Approximately 55 million people over age 55 have retired.
  • What about the other 40+ million people not in the workforce? The latest official BLS survey of this group finds that nearly 4.4 million respond that they want a job. About 1.2 million report that family responsibilities, schooling, medical issues, or transportation or childcare difficulties are keeping them out of the workforce. The significant growth of the populist vote in this nation indicates that a large number of people who lost their jobs in the wake of the 2008 recession have been unable to find full-time employment due to such factors as skill deficits, age discrimination, or inability to move to areas with relevant job opportunities. A variety of sociological data provide evidence that a sizable proportion of unemployed Americans are poorly educated and have few of the job skills businesses now demand. But we estimate that as many as 27 million Americans who are willing to work are educationally qualified but lack some skills needed for currently available jobs.

 

Including the 5.9 million Americans who the BLS officially reports as unemployed, these 27 million Americans could potentially help fill the 10.5 million jobs we currently estimate are vacant across the United States provided that they receive training from employers to update their skills. Based on these figures, the actual unemployment rate is over 16 percent!

 

A September Rand Research Report warned that the education-to-employment pipeline has changed little from previous decades despite technological advances, globalization, and demographic shifts. This has resulted in major shortfalls of workers due to: (a) inadequate general elementary and high school education, (b) limited enrollment in and completion of  post-secondary education programs, and (c) lack of access to lifelong learning and training supported by employers. We believe that a staged transformation into a suitable 21st-century education system should occur at the regional level involving the leadership of major community sectors. These programs are already underway in many communities. We have coined the term Regional Talent Innovation Network (RETAIN) for such undertakings. They, however, have not gained enough traction to have an impact on the overall unemployment situation.

 

In 1970 the United States had the world’s best educated and trained workforce. Today America is a spreading talent desert with too many poorly educated workers who do not have the knowledge and skills to fill the new jobs of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

 

We are now on an unsustainable labor economic course. A Deloitte and Manufacturing Institute 2018 Skills Gap study projected that 2.4 million manufacturing jobs would not be filled between 2018 and 2028 due to skills shortages with a potential loss of $2.5 trillion in economic output over that time period. We believe that other sectors of the U.S. economy will also experience significant economic losses because of the encroaching talent desert.

 

The time as arrived for regional public-private collaboration rather than empty political and business rhetoric. It is better to rebuild quality workforces at local levels rather than passively accepting continued skills declines and government programs that are ineffective or underfunded due to political divisiveness at the federal and state levels.

 

Edward E. Gordon is president and founder of Imperial Consulting Corporation

The More Things Change…

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The More Things Change…

Do you remember the first day of your career? That first day? Perhaps you can even remember the interview that got you the job. How about when you walked in the door, was there excitement and anxiety that first time? Then things changed a bit. Do remember what you thought about the work and your coworkers after you had been on the job for a few months? The question that came up a lot “Why do we do things that way?”

Now I would ask you to transfer yourself into the minds of the first day employee today. Are they any different than we were? Are they any less anxious or excited? And what do they think of how things are done after a couple of months?

But we aren’t happy with this new generation. “The millennials.”

They don’t want to work as hard as we did. Remember the truth of our memories. You have no idea how good I was back then. Rose colored glasses.

Can you imagine accepting, deeply accepting, that this new generation is better than we were? Not really. However, they are so much better than we were in almost every aspect of knowledge today.

They are lazy. They are not patient and they don’t do what they are told very well. They want to get paid too well for what they do. They want a fast track to the top. Don’t forget that the world has changed.

Then there is the talk by Simon Sinek, that I have referenced in previous blogs, that highlights that the millennials have been innocent victims of a series of unfortunate things.

They get participation ribbons and trophies, winning at anything has been debased. It isn’t as important as trying. Working hard to succeed is frowned upon in some quarters.

They have been told that they can accomplish anything. They can do anything. They are so good at everything. Then they get a job and find out that those comments were lies, or at the least exaggerations.

Now my generation, the baby boomers, is closing in on retirement. Most of my generation has already retired. Now we are dependent on the millennials in our retirement. They pay into social security so that we can take out of social security.

 

I believe that my generation has become brittle. We are change resistant. We have become obstacles to fresh thinking. The kind of thinking that the millennials bring to us and our workplace. Paul Daugherty, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, at Accenture says:
“Learn, Teach, and Live. Learn every day: challenge yourself to learn more – a new area, a new fact, a new technique – every day, and continuously curate your list of learning sources. Teach others; share your knowledge with colleagues, teams, others – teaching is the path to leading. Live means that you should focus on balance, values, and purpose. That’s the only way you can be your ‘best self’ daily and over the course of a career (and smile and have fun along the way).”

Yet today many companies are promoting what has become named “the hustle” society. It is no longer “rise and shine” it is now “rise and grind.” This is not a good thing is it? We are always on duty today. Cell phones, texts and emails happen 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Apparently, these transitions and this work hustle has been a feature of society ever since the Industrial Revolution and the “mercantilism” of the 16th century.

So how would you respond to this? How should these fresh employees respond to this? They are going to be working for the next fifty years. Think about that. That is a long time. How are they going to stay relevant on the job? How long will their education serve them until it needs to be refreshed and made current? The rates of change over the past fifty years are been eclipsed by the rate of change going on today. Can you imagine the changes coming over the next fifty years?

The workplace seems to be the same as many other aspects of our society today. It is segmented, some would say fractured. It has become more tribal in nature. There are more “Us and Them” moments. How did this happen? For some time now we have heard about “Silo’s” in the workplace. Departmental differences and jealousies. How did this happen?

Well I suspect that WE are to blame. WE let this happen and we are the only ones who can fix it. Unless we step up to make changes in how we operate and think – it will only get worse.
YOU need to embrace all coworkers irrespective of what “tribe” they come from. When they walk in the front door and every day that they continue to walk through that door, they are part of US. We are all on the SAME TEAM we are all in the SAME TRIBE.

Don’t you believe it is much easier to accomplish things if we all work together? We have common goals and objectives, as a team. Working together it much easier than trying to do it all ourselves.

The TIME is NOW.