What Do Changes In The Job Market Mean For Your Business? Opportunity!

Let’s be clear: there’s been a series of economic shifts in the summer of 2021 that’s changing supply and demand for labor. Depending on who you are, that could be awesome or terrible.

• Does the prediction that turnover is looking to be up to 40% scare you or motivate you?

• Millennials are undergoing career shifts before their midlife crisis: is this a generational trait or response to the market?

• COVID federal funding and rent moratoriums are ending: is it a great time to buy property and find a job, or a great time to use that saved cash to travel and move to a lower cost-of-living location and work remotely?

What’s more important than blaming millennials is how to be a winner in this economic climate. Let’s break it into three buckets.

“The Great Resignation”

From the perspective of business owners, there’s both an increased demand for labor as well as broader remote options which means competition for talent is higher. If your organization hasn’t figured out remote work, is under-compensating in this new climate, has a crappy culture, or isn’t doing enough to promote diverse hires: someone’s coming to eat your lunch. Your talent is ready to walk away unless you give them a reason to stay.

How would you know that you are about to hemorrhage employees? An individual contributor mentions something offhand to their manager about not being recognized. Everyone turns their video off for meetings and social events (though some research says that selective video-off meetings is good, especially for women or new hires). Your internal satisfaction numbers are dropping on culture surveys.

If you’re a manager or business leader, you need to interview your team, conduct surveys, and shift relevant resources towards employee engagement NOW. Unless you want to sufferfest your way into acquiring new talent in a competitive talent market, make the investments and changes now.

Recommended To-Dos for Business Owners are at the end of this post.

“The Great Reshuffle”

From the perspective of unemployed, underemployed, or employed-but-disengaged employees, the winds are in your favor. It’s a candidate market and geographic boundaries are disappearing as progressive organizations (sorry brick-and-mortars) fight to compete for top talent.

There’s unfortunately also plenty of competition for jobs, too: federal pandemic-related unemployment benefits end in the US on September 4th, international competition are taking advantage of job openings, and the “Easy Apply” button on LinkedIn is making it frictionless to apply to lots of jobs.

And you’re here reading an article that’s trying to motivate you to take action.

Carpe fucking diem, friends.

If you’re looking for a new job, seriously consider hiring a career coach and start conducting informational interviews. You have the luxury of choice, but for how long? A coach can make your search more efficient. Talking to people at jobs that you want to have are going to help give you the data and insight to help you choose…and they might even know about a new opening that’s in the pipeline.

You can’t wait on this: organizations are going to tinker with their hiring budgets for 2022 while they’re sitting on job openings and a hot market. Your next dream job is looking for you, but not forever.

Recommended To-Dos for Job Seekers are at the end of this post.

“The Great Reclamation”

Kudos to Marissa for her piece on the Great Reclamation and specifically this passage:

What Marissa did in her piece was to attempt reframe the relationship between employers and employees. I want to take it one step further:

Start your own thing.

The time is ripe to indulge your fantasy of becoming an entrepreneur. Consumers have spending power, businesses are looking to grow, and the technology is available to start a business cheaply and effectively.

If you’re currently employed and performing at expectations, employers are in no position to fire talent that isn’t underperforming. You can keep your current job and begin researching and sending out feelers for your dream career. It’s so much easier to explore if you’re remote, too. You can keep your life security, invest your motivation into discovering entrepreneurship, and see what being your own boss feels like.

Now’s a chance to reclaim your purpose, whether you’ve lost it at a soulsucking job or discovered it during the pandemic. You can have the things that Marissa detailed in her original post: “Time. Space. Growth. Autonomy. Leadership. Wellness. Work-life integration. Money. Safety. Engagement. Equity.”

The best part of being your own boss?

You tell me.

What To Do If You Are A Business Owner:

• Write/ReWrite a Remote Work Policy that promote flexibility.

• Create/Review your Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives and fund them generously.

• Update your employer-brand materials, including your LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Comparably, and other social outlets.

What To Do if You Are Job Searching:

• Research 10 LinkedIn profiles of people who have jobs you want and mimic what resonates with you in how they present themselves. Look for how they describe their experiences, skill tags, and headline images and text.

• Set a schedule for job discovery. Book time on your own calendar to research, conduct informational interviews, and reflect on what matters most.

• Apply! Even if you’re not sure you want to leave your current role, apply anyway and see what happens. You might be surprised.

What To Do If You Are Entrepreneur Curious

• Write down every reason that your imposter syndrome would throw at you why you can’t/shouldn’t start a business or side hustle. Then, methodically prove them wrong. Here’s a few examples:

  • “I’m not qualified to start a business.”

    • Response: There is no universal qualification to start a business. You are more qualified than someone who knows nothing. You probably underestimate your expertise.

  • “I don’t know how to start.”

    • Response: Google it. Sign up for a program. Ask a friend. Visit SCORE.

  • “I can’t handle the risk.”

    • Response: Start small. Ask how other people figured it out. Quantify the risk/opportunity cost of not trying.

• Daydream about what kind of life you want to live. Be descriptive. Use lots of feelings-imagery.

• Get involved in local entrepreneurship-curious organizations like Startup Boston

I can’t wait to see what hustle you dream up!