What Are The Best Strategies For Enticing Workers Back?
Randy Wolken, President & CEO

As the economy continues to recover, workers on the sidelines are considering returning to work. The unemployment rate has continued to decline and is now near the pre-pandemic rate. This makes finding workers even more difficult. Additional strategies will be needed to secure the limited workers available. What do these returning workers want from employers?

McKinsey has asked workers what they are looking for as they look for new jobs. The findings may surprise you. Among the currently unemployed, meaningful work and workplace flexibility are more important than the compensation package. They’re also looking for career development and advancement potential. An essential aspect for those in nontraditional roles is adequate total compensation followed by career advancement potential and work flexibility. It is necessary to consider these critical characteristics as you seek to entice those workers currently unemployed or in nontraditional jobs to your worksites.

Work redesign may be necessary to fill your currently open roles. New ways to communicate with and search for your future workforce will be vital. At MACNY, we are focused on creating new pathways to your jobs. MACNY affiliate Partners for Education and Business, Inc. (PEB) engages many schools and over 100 businesses to expose the future workforce to manufacturing and tech careers. Working with middle school-age children up through high school, PEB helps companies raise awareness among students of the great career opportunities in Central New York—going beyond the traditional college-only approach. (To get involved with PEB, contact Emily Langan at [email protected].)

Our Registered Apprenticeship programs can help you offer unemployed, underemployed, and nontraditional individuals ways to grow into an exciting career path. It can entice them to return to work at your business. It will also offer them competitive wages and access to benefits.  You can join the hundreds of companies state-wide that have begun MACNY-supported apprenticeship and upskilling programs—contact Amy Stage at [email protected] to learn more.

It will not be easy to entice workers back into the workplace, but together we can build better approaches and create new pathways for future workers. You can count on MACNY to help you do this successfully. As always, please let us know how we can help.