The pandemic is the current measuring stick used to determine the U.S. labor shortage. Experts have classified the pandemic’s impact as the biggest employment catastrophe since the Great Depression. More than 30 million people were unemployed at the pandemic’s height, and more than 120,000 businesses closed temporarily. That statistic was followed in 2021 by a surge of 3.8 million new jobs, but the surge in jobs wasn’t enough to compensate for the number of lost employees. Approximately 60% of the jobs that disappeared during COVID came back, but the remaining 40% did not.

The takeaway is simple: the U.S. currently has more jobs than it has people to fill them. And that’s a problem for every industry.
Several factors are to blame. Baby boomers were well on their way to retirement before the pandemic hit, and many people chose to move up their retirement because they saw it as a great time to step away from work. However, some regretted that retirement decision, especially when it proved less fulfilling and they were not as financially secure as they had hoped. Many people looked at their lives and decided it was time to change directions. Also, don’t forget that over a million people have died from COVID and its variants.

Regardless of the reasons behind the employee shortages, retaining employees has never been more important for any business. And dealerships are not exempt. According to WORQDRIVE CEO Tracy Parsons in an article dated June 14, 2022, the cost of losing employees was almost $2.4 trillion in 2021. That’s bad enough, but replacing qualified employees who leave your dealership may not be easy. Many companies have realized the importance of retaining committed employees who understand the work culture. As a result, reducing headcount and leveraging variable staffing models are probably not what should pull one’s focus right now.

Mercer published a 2022 report called Rise of the Relatable Organization: Global Talent Trends. Almost 11,000 people in 16 different places and 13 industries took the survey. Of the respondents, 22% were C-suite executives from high-growth companies. Another 23% were HR leaders who spent the first part of their careers working on the business side; the move to HR was recent. The remainder were line employees, where approximately 24% worked on-site, 45% worked mostly remotely, and 30% had a hybrid work arrangement.

If you are concerned about preventing high turnover, one approach is doing what you can to help employees feel happy enough in their work to stay, which raises an interesting question. Since competitive wages and good benefits are obviously important, assume you have that part covered. What else motivates people to stay working?

Mercer’s introduction described the post-pandemic recovery as “fragile.” As they report, the labor market has changed. Everyone is still fresh from the effects of the last two years, and companies understand that employees who don’t trust and feel valued by the people for whom they work will probably move on to somewhere else that values them more.

Many organizations are responding by reinventing themselves. They want employees to see the place they work as consisting of trustworthy people with whom they can easily relate.

The Mercer report listed the top 10 responses from North American employees about what helps them thrive.
Employees want:

• Fulfilling work
• To be valued for their contributions
• To have managers who advocate for them
• A sense of belonging
• The power to make decisions
• Fun at work
• An organizational purpose that makes them proud
• Opportunities to learn new skills
• Integrated life and work
• Wealth-building opportunities
• Notice how far down the list money is mentioned. Yes, it’s important — it made the top 10 — but it is not as important as other workplace characteristics.

Another item worth noting is the desire to learn new skills. This can be leveraged to increase job satisfaction in other higher-ranking areas. If one learns new skills, there’s a good chance to find work more fulfilling, have a greater sense of belonging and have more fun at work. (Who doesn’t enjoy a break from routine?) Opportunities to learn tell employees they are valued and that their managers advocated for them; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been given those chances to grow.

Training classes might also apply to an employee’s life as well as to their work. In short, one specific area (opportunities to learn new skills) may help improve work in five or six other areas, depending on the program.

For years, NCDU has offered the Thought Performance Training program to help team members thrive within their work environment when following the principles taught in the class. The current economy is a reminder of how important this specific course can be since it benefits participants in the ways described above. As a result, NCDU wants to remind dealers about this class because it can help their employees.
We asked Craig Bickmore, executive director of NCDU, about the class and its potential for positively changing lives. Personally, he has benefited from similar training and wants to provide other NCDU members the same opportunity he has had. Craig believes dealers who invest in sending their employees to the class will create a virtuous circle that improves their dealership’s bottom line.

Read about NCDU’s Thought Performance Training program in the adjacent Q&A with Craig Bickmore.