Candid Conversations: Hiring, Turnover, and the Economy

Today’s post comes to us from Workforce Institute Executive Director, Dr. Chris Mullen, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, SPHR.

As the economy works its way through “The Great Reset” following the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, it feels like those of us who lead and manage teams are being squeezed from all sides.

Despite an historic number of job openings, and despite the fact, more than seven million people who were working before the pandemic remain out of work today, it seems nearly impossible to hire enough employees to meet demand.  

At the same time, retaining our best team members is getting hard. Some are calling it a “Turnover Tsunami.” It makes sense: With so many job openings, talented and reliable employees will always be able to choose their employer. But it begs the questions:

What’s really going on with the labor market right now?

Why is the economy so hard to put back together?

What should leaders be thinking about to ensure success in 2022 and beyond?

Workforce Institute board member John Frehse, senior managing director at Ankura and one of our resident labor experts, and Dave Gilbertson, a vice president with UKG who leads the UKG Workforce Activity Report analyzing high-frequency employee shift work data to understand economic trends, sit down together for a candid conversation to discuss these questions and more.