here to discuss as Monica Plaza chief strategy officer at one Polo,
Thank you so much for joining us.
So I want to jump in.
Yeah,
I gotta ask you though which industries are seeing the most
shortages and who is having more luck getting workers in.
You know,
we're really seeing challenges across the board
with any hourly worker staffed industry.
We see it in hospitality, retail, logistics, food and beverage event space,
anywhere where demand can be uncertain and
workers worker needs fluctuate day to day,
month to month.
Um, and the need to be agile is really there.
So we do see it across the board with hourly workers.
And so how are these workers
shortages impacting businesses especially this summer?
Absoluteal is impacting businesses and we will
continue to see so throughout the summer,
so we expect hospitality to start to boom people are traveling again.
We see um statistics that 85% of Americans intend to get back out there and travel.
Um and that means influx in demand and our need for workers
that um companies and businesses are really struggling to to fulfill um,
particularly in the more traditional methods of filling hourly work.
Um,
so there's a need with that uncertainty and that flux influx of
demand to really think differently about how we bring in workers?
So we know the need is there,
but since they're not getting these workers and there is a shortage,
how is that impacting those businesses?
Are they not able to provide certain services or you know,
because that could impact our ability to enjoy our vacations as well.
Absolutely.
I believe it is impacting their ability to serve customers,
um customer satisfaction really can drop when the labor pool
is not really fulfilling the demand of that particular business.
Um We've all felt it in particular experiences that we have in
our day to day lives and so it is impacting businesses,
It's impacting consumers.
It's impacting businesses ability to hit their numbers
and so really creativity and how we bring,
how companies bring on workers being more agile,
being more flexible leveraging marketplaces such as granola can really help, um,
quickly bring in the workers as they,
as the demand fluctuated as they see spikes in demand.
Well,
can you talk a little bit more
about how businesses are encouraging more applicants,
especially those that maybe just graduating high school
to actually come and work for them?
Absolutely, there's some creativity happening out there.
We've seen businesses give obviously increases in wages,
which is a pretty standard lever there.
Um, but
talking about internships after, you know,
with after freshman year in college or covering tuition
or anything for that age group who um,
what might entice them, We've seen um, focus on gas, uh,
increasing gas prices and how we can help with transportation, um, to bring,
to help those young workers be able to accept these jobs and get to get to the job.
So We've seen it with Amazon, we've seen other businesses really focus on,
on tuition and other more other enticements for 18 year olds and recent graduates?
That's smart and a lot of people need help with tuition?
Well, you know,
I also see that foreign worker interest in us
summer jobs is higher than the previous year.
That's according to indeed.
So could that help may be offset some of the
lack that we're seeing with workers here in the us.
Sure, I believe it could.
I think any influx into the pool of available workers is helpful,
although I would say, I think it's less of a solely an issue of not enough workers,
but really, how do we attract workers?
How do you bring those workers to your particular job?
And I think it's, there's two really big things at play here.
Um One would be the uncertainty,
the ability to have the right number of workers at the right time.
And that's very challenging when there's uncertainty
and fluctuation of the excuse me of
demand and then the other is really meeting workers where their needs are.
And I think that's something a lot of businesses are,
are struggling with and really trying to improve over the past couple of years,
which is really
deeply understanding what workers are designing, what they need,
flexibility is really number one on that list.
Um and bringing that to the workers and and really meeting them where they are.
So yes, additional workers in the pool will absolutely help.
But there are workers out there.
It's a matter of how do we,
how do you attract them and how do you make sure that they
want to work at your particular job and say especially because you know,
we see the unemployment rate is still like 3.6%,
so there are people out there that need jobs, but then you have these jobs saying,
well we can't find employees, so if they're not going to these jobs,
what are people doing for work and why don't they want to take these jobs?
I mean I think we we are seeing that um businesses are
being are a bit slow to adapt to the changing times.
We know from the pandemic and a lot of what we've, you know,
they're called the great resignation in different terms have been thrown around,
but there's been sort of this reassessment of what workers of all
kinds are need in their lives and want in their lives,
you know whether it's
and
a desire for flexibility because of they just want to live their
lives slightly differently or because of some sort of obligation at home.
Um the traditional 9 to 5 40 hour work week,
the traditional way of bringing on workers,
it's just not really meeting that need and really meeting workers where they are.
And so the workers are there, it really truly is about understanding
what it means to value your workers,
hourly workers have not always seen that benefit of value and um
I think it's time for businesses to meet them where they are.
So that's that's really what I believe is happening.
That's a great point there now because a lot
of these companies are paying more besides inflation,
they're rising, raising the prices for hotels, restaurants,
flights and all that stuff.
Do you think that they will maybe deter people
from participating in their favorite summer activity or traveling?
Um I hope not, I think I think we all need it.
Um but yeah prices are definitely going up.
Obviously gas prices are really impacting many folks,
especially for any sort of local travel um and so it remains to be seen.
I think we're in a time of uncertainty. We have been for some time
um signs are pointing to uh really a desire to get out there and travel and and I
hope that is that is the case but it kind of remains to be seen how inflation,
covid surges etcetera can really will really impact the what we
know is a desire for americans to continue to travel.
Alright let's hope so. I know we want to go play.
So let's thank you so much Monica Plaza chief strategy officer
at one. Hello, thank you