Camaraderie. Resilience. Discipline. Critical thinking. Veterans come with a wealth of sought-after transferable skills. Masters of navigating uncertainty, veterans often perform at higher levels and have lower turnover rates than their civilian counterparts. Many spend years managing large numbers of people and expensive equipment. And their sense of responsibility means they are often the first on the job and the last to leave.

So, why do so many veterans face unemployment and underemployment after they hang up the uniform? Below, we explain what stops veterans – and their spouses – from getting the job offer, and what employers can do about it.

Recruiters don’t speak military

Often, recruiters won’t recognize military job titles, ranks, and acronyms, never mind military credentials. They might have low expectations of veterans’ skills and fear that they won’t be a good fit for their workplace. Consequently, they’re more likely to reject veteran candidates or push them into specific fields, like security or trucking, for example. Indeed, 38 of the top 50 industries employ them at a lower rate than nonveterans.

AI weeds out qualified veteran candidates

Most military jobs have a civilian equivalent, but veterans don’t screen like civilians because their job titles are different. AI-based applicant tracking software can put candidates in the reject pile if they lack industry keywords or have gaps in employment history. This disadvantages veterans and exacerbates the talent crunch by rejecting millions of candidates straight off the bat.

Job requirements exclude veteran experience

Job descriptions can deter many veterans before they even get to the application stage. Civilian terms for certain skills don’t always align with how veterans see their skills sets, leading them to rule out roles they are very qualified for. Moreover, postings often demand specialized hard skills that veterans will struggle to attain during their military careers.

Veterans aren’t linked in with civilians

Who you know matters. Veterans often haven’t had the opportunity to build a strong professional network, which can become a problem as they transition to the civilian workforce. (Plus, civilian workers usually lack strong connections with the veteran community.) Unsurprisingly, this leads many veterans to underplay or exclude their military service from job applications.

Military spouses suffer, too

Most military spouses are well qualified for any number of careers, and want or need to work. Yet, the unemployment rate among this group is 24 percent. At the same time, wages are 25% lower than among the civilian population, mainly due to frequent relocations, childcare issues, and an inability to transfer occupational licenses from state to state.

What employers can do

Empowering veterans in the workplace isn’t charity. If you’re not hiring veterans, you’re missing out on a uniquely qualified talent pool of skilled leaders, technicians, and innovators. Here’s what you can do:

Use data as your strategic asset
Dig deep into your hiring data to pinpoint where veterans are dropping out of your recruitment funnel. Regularly review your employee data to establish which roles veterans tend to fill at your company. Delve into departments, seniority levels, and contract types. Ask yourself whether unseen barriers might be causing veterans to languish in roles below their experience level or to drop out altogether.

Level-up internal awareness
Don’t make veterans do all the heavy-lifting in translating their skills. Invest in training to elevate hiring managers’ understanding of the roadblocks and eliminate any preconceived opinions. Train recruiters in when it might be appropriate to waive industry experience requirements. And consider including veterans for ‘top of the funnel’ candidate engagement through recruitment and onboarding, and in promoting internal knowledge transfer.

Institute a dedicated veteran hiring track
Veterans themselves tend to believe that civilian hiring managers will devalue their military experience, and with good reason. Counter that by setting up veterans-only recruitment processes, careers sites, and internal referral programs that cater to their unique needs. Encourage veteran candidates to speak with existing veteran employees. And recraft job descriptions to focus on relevant skills rather than specific degrees or years of industry experience.

And take care of military spouses
Lack of childcare, frequent moves, and the demands of supporting a partner in the military make finding appropriate work intensely difficult for this group. Let them work flexibly, and from home, where possible. And be vocal in your support for military families so military spouses feel seen, included, and welcome at your company.

Considering the escalating stress and financial pressure wrought by the pandemic, we need to do more than thank our veterans this Veteran’s Day. Companies must support them in meaningful ways year-round.

Adecco can help. Our Military Alliance program has been working to address the high unemployment rate for vets and their spouses. To help open doors, we provide job placement, career counseling, resume enhancement, interview training, and much more.

And we partner with groups like the Military Spouse Employment Partnership to help entire military families find jobs they love. Learn more about how Adecco supports veterans and their families.

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These days, retailers aren’t just in battle for consumer dollars. They’re going to war for seasonal workers. Job seekers have enormous choice and that puts employers under pressure to hire the best temporary staff as early as possible. Just consider that last year, Amazon went on a hiring spree to recruit 100,000 seasonal workers for processing holiday orders.

Many industry players pull in the bulk of their annual profit in the last quarter, so adequate staffing during this time can make the difference between a successful year and a disastrous one. While the war for good workers has never been tougher, pent-up demand and projections of a new ‘roaring twenties’ economy means rich pickings are in store for retailers who get it right.

Read on for our five tips for seasonal hiring success:

Tip 1: Above all, start early!

It’s not enough just to put a few ads out for seasonal labor a month or so before you need your workers to start. You’ll need to be systematic about which types of workers you’re targeting. And don’t forget – COVID-19 has changed the very nature of peak period planning, from ‘back-to-school’ to potentially another virtual Christmas. At Adecco, we are experts in quickly mobilizing huge numbers of temporary staff and our recruiters will act decisively to secure the holiday talent you need.

Tip 2: Understand the complex dynamics of today’s market

According to McKinsey, COVID-19 catapulted the retail industry through 10 years’ worth of change in 90 days. Many retailers were forced to lay off sizable chunks of their workforces. At the same time, stimulus checks, an oversupply of jobs and a hesitant U.S. workforce has sent wages and benefits soaring. But there are opportunities for employers, too. Hundreds of thousands of people were left out of work in other sectors, and they can potentially be re-deployed and inject some diversity of thinking into your workforce. Working with a top staffing partner can help you stay creative in attracting the right workers with the right offer thanks to resources like our free payrate calculator.

Tip 3: Don’t underestimate the administrative burden

Seasonal hiring helps you scale your teams without overburdening your permanent staff. But vetting applicants, scheduling interviews and processing hiring paperwork takes considerable time and resources. This means diverting your core team – from HR and recruitment, to finance to corporate counsel – away from your regular business for weeks at a time. What’s more, uncertainties around stimulus support, lockdowns and ever-shifting regulations make operational planning difficult. Learn more from this case study about how we rapidly deployed workers when our retail client needed an urgent ramp-up.

Tip 4: Allay COVID-19 fears through meticulous safety protocols

Recent research suggests that candidates are still facing tough decisions when it comes to returning to work, with millions citing COVID-19 fears. To create a workplace where everyone feels safe, we have produced a range of resources to help you keep your people infection-free during the ongoing pandemic. You can also access our specialized staffing offerings like temperature takers, or visit our business continuity page, designed to reassure our clients and associates of our ongoing commitment throughout the pandemic.

Tip 5: Take the load off permanent staff

Now, more than ever, employers need to protect their current staff. Work-related mental health issues and physical health problems are on the rise. Do employers really want to keep pressing permanent associates to deal with exponential increases in throughput, with all the stress and physical strain that entails? Do they want to burden their finance and HR teams with the relentless uptick in volumes that comes with holiday time? At Adecco, we can help you lighten the load on your staff, while building a healthy workplace culture and – as a bonus – help you boost your retention stats, too.

To learn more about how we can help your business meet even the most challenging peak period staffing demands, download our Seasonal Hiring white paper. 

Visit our Employer Resources section for more helpful insights, and contact us if you have any staffing needs.

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In the digital age, semiconductor chips have been popping up all around us, from connected cars, to smart home lightbulbs, to robotic vacuum cleaners. In the past year, a perfect storm of factors – from COVID-induced disruptions to fragile supply chains, to geopolitical tensions – has sent demand for semiconductors surging far beyond current supply capacity. The resulting shortage, which was being felt as early as in the April jobs report, has been peaking in recent weeks. Facing a throughput time of three months or longer, many industries are waiting until supply and demand are back in sync.

If employers are to build the resilience needed to navigate – and thrive – in this tricky reality, they will need to start building more adaptive business strategies. Below, better understand the impact this could have on your workforce planning and how working with agile, experienced staffing partners can help. 

Automotive sector is hardest hit

Although the impact is being felt across all verticals of the US economy, the automotive sector remains the hardest hit, with a ‘severe decline’ in automotive production – and employment. Automakers are hemorrhaging profits, with the sector expected to produce four million fewer cars this year than last. (This comes on the heels of a modest recovery in the industry after car sales fell off a cliff at the height of the pandemic last year.)

Many automotive manufacturers must reduce production. From a jobs perspective, employment in the sector continues to fall to way below 2020 levels, and employers are adopting a range of measures from extended summer shutdowns, to cutting out overtime, to reduced shift rotations.

This means that many find themselves needing new workforce solutions to navigate this tumultuous time and prepare themselves for when production cranks back up again.

Dearth of skilled engineering talent is compounding the impact

The talent shortfall in the semiconductor industry, and tech industry more generally, is nothing new. For years, American employers have battled with a lack of qualified engineering talent. Recently the problem has intensified as the electronics sector has grown. In fact, 30% of CEOs surveyed in KPMG’s Technology CEO Outlook identified a lack of talent as a top risk for the industry.

If the semiconductor crisis teaches us anything, it should be that – in this age of rapid digital transformation – employers should continually educate, train, and upskill existing workforces in key digital technologies, now and in the future.

Flexible staffing is key

A flexible staffing model is the core of the flexible, agile supply chains that companies need to cope with the relentless changes of today’s business landscape. Biden’s jobs plan is looming, wages keep rising, and COVID-19 cases continue to rise across America. Companies need to be ready to flex their production model to scale up and down as the market dictates.

At Adecco, we are working with our manufacturing and automotive clients across multiple industries who are being impacted by the semiconductor shortage. We partner with them to make sure they’ll have the right people lined up – and at the right pay points – to deploy as soon as the shortage is resolved.

To meet every client challenge, we’ve gone a step further and partnered with Modis, a branch of The Adecco Group focused on technology and digital engineering consulting, talent services and skilling. This allows us to develop workforce and technology solutions on a global scale and for you to find the best candidates for your office, industrial and service sector positions. 

So, as the U.S. economy continues its twists and turns amid surging demand and an ever-tighter jobs market, will your supply chain be staffed with the people it needs to thrive?

To learn more about how we can help you develop a flexible and resilient workforce that’s ready for whatever the future holds, learn more about our partnership with Modis. We’re experts in staffing and workforce solutions with global and local expertise that has helped thousands of companies just like yours thrive, even in times of uncertainty.

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On June 24, the US Senate struck a bipartisan agreement around a historic eight-year infrastructure bill, set to create millions of well-paid American jobs. But what will it all mean for America’s hard-strapped employers, still reeling from the pandemic and stimulus checks?

At Adecco, we understand the seismic changes ahead. Below, we take a look at the bill’s likely impact on the jobs market and offer our expertise on how employers can plan ahead.

Why’s the infrastructure bill coming now?
The ongoing pandemic has stretched our country’s economy to the limit. Recent jobs reports suggest green shoots in a battered American jobs market, but unemployment remains way above pre-pandemic levels, while millions of Americans continue to live paycheck to paycheck. At the same time, the need for investment in America’s infrastructure has bipartisan agreement in a Washington nervous about the rise and rise of China and its infrastructure miracle.

What’s in the bill?
At almost $1 trillion, it’s being touted as the most dramatic investment in the country’s economic future in a generation. Although the wrangling continues in Washington, the deal looks set to create millions of well-paid jobs, particularly for blue-collar workers. That’s thanks to super-charged funding for roads and bridges, railways, public transportation, airports, the power grid, expanded broadband internet access, and much more.

And – if the Democrats get their way – it’ll be followed by a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, with further provisions for above-market salaried jobs in climate change mitigation and ‘human infrastructure’ like Medicare, family services, and free community college.

How many jobs are we talking about?
Although the number has been controversial, estimates put the figure at around 2.7 million. Most pre-pandemic job gains went to college graduates. Of these new jobs, 90% will go to workers without college degrees, precisely the types of people who are already walking out of their jobs, en masse.

What can employers do to prepare?
Without a silver bullet, employers will be facing deep competition for workers among millions of well-paid jobs. However, there’s a lot they can do and a lot that Adecco can do help. Here are three concrete steps we recommend taking right now:

1. Optimized pay and benefits, now and in the future: Wages and benefits costs are going up, but there’s a bright side. The investment needed to bolster pay and incentives might be offset by American consumers having a lot more money in their pockets to spend. Employers should also be aware that outages due to worker shortages can cost considerably more than increased wages. Tools like Adecco’s salary calculator can help you set wages at a competitive – and sustainable – rate.
2. Offer long-term, meaningful training: The government doesn’t have a monopoly on transformative, training opportunities. With Adecco, you can offer your employees flexible, industry-focused career programs at no cost. From courses in digital literacy, to welding, to becoming a frontline supervisor, the Adecco Aspire Academy, gives your workers the chance to continuously improve their skills and move higher up the pay ladder.
3. Invest in all-round engagement and retention: With or without a government stimulus package coming, your best employees will always be in-demand and vital. The good news is that the retention tactics don’t have to cost you much. From white papers to case studies, we have a wealth of resources that can help you reduce turnover and establish a resilient workforce strategy.

This is just a snapshot of the multiple tools and strategies we have to prepare you for the next big swing in this difficult labor market. Getting it right will mean getting creative, and there’s no better way to do that than consulting an innovative, expert partner who knows the market inside-out.

Why not learn more about getting tailored advice on navigating these choppy waters?

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If you look at the monthly data published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, you might think that businesses have eager candidates lining up at the door to fill any job vacancy that becomes available.

The reality for most companies is very different. Despite high unemployment rates, organizations all over the U.S. are struggling to find candidates to fill jobs. So, what’s the reason for this strange phenomenon? Keep reading to discover why employers are having a hard time recruiting new employees and why this is leading to wage inflation.

Furloughed Workers

An estimated 33 million people lost their jobs at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but many believe they’ll be rehired at some point. This could partly explain why employers are having such a hard time finding candidates. Furloughed workers may be waiting to get back to their jobs, and the CARE Act and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance are clear reasons for people to hold off looking for work until they stop receiving government aid. Around 24 million Americans were receiving Unemployment Assistance in 2020, giving them a strong incentive to delay their return to the job market.

Childcare, Education, And Fear Among Workers

The Federal Reserve reports that local labor markets are slow to reactivate due to workers’ concerns over health and childcare. Low-skill workers aren’t applying for jobs over the fear of possible infection, meaning that employers are significantly raising hourly pay to get people back to work.

Childcare and education also seem to be important factors affecting the job market. 15% of working professionals are considering leaving the workforce due to homeschooling, while many others are not looking for work because their children are still attending school remotely.

How Can Employers Attract Talent?

The market is being flooded with job openings as entire industries look to recover from the pandemic and get back to pre-COVID activity. If businesses want to attract talent, they’ll have to increase pay, offer a range of non-wage benefits, and lower job requirements to expand their candidate pool.

At Adecco, we’re experts at helping businesses just like yours find top talent, even during a pandemic. To learn more about how we can benefit your company, click here!

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