Percentage of men in workforce falls, data show | Retaining staff: It's not just about higher pay | Radically transform your company's business model to achieve success
Bureau of Labor Statistics data show the percentage of women in the workforce has increased to 78% while the percentage of working-age men has dropped to 89% as fewer men attain a higher education and more become stay-at-home fathers, deal with mental health issues, take advantage of welfare programs and get discouraged about dead-end jobs. "Societally, the absence of young men from the workforce contributes to issues of social cohesion, increases dependency on welfare systems, and can exacerbate feelings of disenfranchisement and alienation," says HR consultant Bryan Driscoll.
Retaining staff today means more than just increasing salary -- it calls for surveying and listening to them to understand their needs and pain points, writes Stephen Noonoo. A school principal used an HR survey platform to gauge his staff's resilience levels and was surprised to see that early-career male teachers -- not older female teachers -- were the most at risk for quitting.
The lack of child care options and their expense have led many employers to offer on-site child care centers or subsidies to help employees pay for care. Employers that recently opened centers include the Pittsburgh International Airport and Walmart's Bentonville, Ark., campus, but Stanford Center on Early Childhood Director Philip Fisher warns parents relying on these services could face instability if they lose their job and have to find a new one along with child care.
Jet BI has created digital avatars of its employees to answer questions about the consultancy's services and collect information from conversations, says the company, which adds the "AI twins" reflect each employee's personality, likeness, voice and knowledge. "The implementation of AI twins opens up exciting opportunities for the whole new level of personalization and interactive user experience for business needs like sales, service, HR," says Andrey Bosak, co-founder of Jet BI, which emphasizes employees have control over the digital twins and can deactivate them.
The rise of AI offers HR professionals a chance to seize the moment and become corporate leaders like never before, asserts management consultant Michael Brainard, likening the situation to the first talent management platforms decades ago. "By using AI to advance the use of predictive analytics, HR can get out in front of the strategic workforce questions organizations are facing," Brainard writes.
Anyone who has been paying attention to the news over the last four years know that retention is a huge issue in education. Teachers, in particular, have been leaving the profession in droves and those spots are not being filled by new incoming talent. Enrollments are down at many teacher colleges throughout the country.
And while increasing pay is certainly part of the solving this problem, more is still required, as we see in today’s Recruitment & Retention story by Stephen Noonoo. A school principal used an HR survey tool to measure his staff's resilience. What he discovered floored him.
Early-career male teachers, in particular new fathers, were the ones most at risk for quitting. The principal had no idea. He expected the data to show that olderfemale teachers would be most inclined to leave. The survey showed otherwise.
(For the record, all the older female teachers I know are made of titanium and could stare down Satan himself without blinking. They might be frustrated with students, parents and the job, but they are among the most resilient people I know.)
The good news is that the data helped the principal come up with a solution. He and the teachers were able to have honest conversations and create a strategy that included flexibility and resources for support.
I took two things away from this story. First, you can “feel” like you know your team, but data can reveal otherwise. Responsible leaders, like this principal, put their egos aside and let the data lead them to a solution.
Second: Data is a good way to start tough conversations. I don’t think that principal would have found out about the young men and new fathers’ frustrations had he not issued the HR survey. I don’t think those men would have shared their struggles even with their peers.
But the data put everyone on neutral ground. The survey gave teachers a safe place to reflect and the findings gave the principal a safe way to approach a difficult issue. Win-win!
What about you? Are you using a survey tool? Has it uncovered anything interesting? Let me know! And if you enjoy this brief, tell others so they can benefit also.
Sharing SmartBrief on Workforce with your network keeps the quality of content high and these newsletters free.
