Unless you are living under a rock, you've noticed it: There are staffing shortages everywhere. Estimates vary, but it is clear that there are millions more job openings than available spots. This creates a massive burden on businesses in various industries, although the burden has fallen particularly hard on the trucking, hospitality and insurance fields.
Thankfully, there are options even in these stressed industries to find alternative hiring solutions. Businesses like Recruitment Process Outsourcing companies — and experts like StaffWorthy —can make a huge difference in filling your job vacancies.
Trucking
Perhaps no industry has been hit with staffing shortages like the trucking industry. At the moment, estimates hold that the United States is short 80,000 drivers, but that number is expected to double in the next eight years. These shortages make sense: Trucking can be a dangerous and lonely profession.
Unfortunately, these shortages are causing huge problems up and down the supply chain, and if you look under the hood, you'll see that many factors contribute to the truck driver shortage. Chief among them? An increase in automation. Automation has always threatened traditional jobs, and these issues are increasing in the trucking industry. Estimates vary, but some estimates show fully automatic trucks could be on the road by as soon as 2023.This is not a secret, of course, and anyone interested in a long-term career may look to a more secure field and where they are less likely to be replaced.
However, this doesn't solve the shortage problem right now. Truck driver shortages are increasing pressures on those that remain truck drivers, with the current shortage making drivers drive more extended hours, thus potentially leading to more accidents. Of course, this creates a vicious cycle: As driving becomes more dangerous, fewer people want to drive.
What does this mean for your logistics or trucking facility? Simple: You have to look harder than ever and explore creative solutions to hire the drivers you need, ensure that they clear a background check, and determine how much to pay. This expertise can be challenging to find, and it explains why more and more businesses are looking to Recruitment Process Outsourcing businesses to hire the truckers they need.
Hospitality
Another well-known job shortage area is the hospitality industry. This industry — which includes areas like restaurants, specific segments of retail, hotels, and tourism — took a massive beating post-COVID. Not only did many businesses in this industry segment close, but many workers left the industry, finding that they could get better jobs elsewhere or at least find safer jobs that didn't expose them to customer anger or the pandemic.
These issues are not minor. To be clear, the Hospitality industry has seen more people leave it than any other industry. Current estimates have found that at least 1.8 million people left this sector.
Again, automation has picked up the slack. A variety of contactless options have emerged as the preferred way of making up for the shortages within the hospitality industry, with automation helping to clean rooms, provide customer service, serve food, and more. While this has helped to alleviate specific labor shortages, it has also created anew problem, as people are typically more afraid to enter industries where automation is on the rise.
As such, automation is not just an answer to the shortage of employees within the job industry but also a cause of these issues. This puts an array of pressure on businesses that can't afford to automate: They now have to compete with better-paying and less stressful industries. This puts increased pressure on companies seeking to find workers, as they have to find the right people to recruit, pay them an industry-appropriate wage, and give them career-advancement opportunities. To say that this is a challenge for many hospitality industry members is an understatement, and it helps to explain why so many businesses in the hospitality and turning to Recruitment Process Outsourcing to fill their vacancies.
Insurance
The insurance industry is also facing particularly unique challenges driven by the changing face of work in America and mainly by competing factors.
During the height of the COVID-19pandemic, almost everyone who could work from home did work from home, and tens of millions of Americans still work from home in some way. In theory, this should drive insurance rates down, as people are now driving fewer miles. Yet, despite these changes in driving habits, more accidents are occurring, driving up injuries and fatalities. This means that car insurance rates are rising despite reduced driving times.
What does this mean for the insurance industry and workers in it? First, new ways of thinking are required. Yes, computers and algorithms are primarily responsible for handling rate changes and calculating insurance protection, but despite the rise in automation in this field, people are still needed. More to the point, creative thinkers are needed more than ever. For example, it is no longer enough to be able to read a computer readout simply: An individual must have the right skills to see what a computer misses.
This is a problem in the best of circumstances, but like other industries, the insurance industry is suffering from shortages, with more people leaving the insurance industry than entering it. This again emphasizes talent recruitment and retention, and it helps to drive the idea that insurance companies may want to rely on outside expertise to obtain the talent they need.
TheStaffworthy Difference
At Staffworthy, we understand the challenges you face. As a Recruitment Process Outsourcing company, we have the talent that knows how to find qualified staff for your field. In addition, we can work in a variety of ways, offering flexible plans that can allow your business to fulfill its vacancies in a way affordably.
Want more information? Contact us today, and learn how we can help your business operate, grow, and thrive.