Author: Avenica

As we face unprecedented times for our public health and our economy, it’s difficult to even conceptualize the impact on the labor market. Millions of people around the world have been asked to work from home, if possible, but what happens to those who can’t? What about those whose positions require their physical presence, whose employers have had to temporarily shut down to further prevent the spread of COVID-19? What happens to gig economy workers who are faced with the unfathomable choice between earning an income and staying home to protect their health?

What we do know is this – the current situation is enabling a tectonic shift in demand towards the organizations on the front lines who have been stretched beyond their limits. Medical providers and grocery stores have emerged as the clear leaders in a global pandemic, and as such, those frontline industries are doing the most dramatic hiring during the coronavirus pandemic. As a native Texan, it’s no surprise to see beloved grocery chain H-E-B offering free curbside service and delivery, changing store hours to allow for comprehensive restocks, and encouraging neighborly behavior that puts community above individuals. The quick and creative change in their operating model demands more team members on the ground, and they are working to hire baggers, cashiers, and stockers. You can find a wealth of short-term opportunities on H-E-B’s careers site. Other grocery stores nationwide, like Kroger, are also hiring during the pandemic.

Similarly, e-commerce giant and customer-obsessed Amazon is struggling to meet demands and is doing a considerable amount of hiring during the coronavirus pandemic. As common household items fly off the shelves, more Americans than ever before want contactless delivery to keep themselves safe and at home. Amazon is therefore looking to add an additional 100,000 associates into their fulfillment workforce. Virtual opportunities are available, too.

Some cities across the US have also taken the extreme measure of limiting restaurants to curbside, takeout, and delivery orders only to aid distancing and quarantining efforts. But who will deliver the food? Restaurants and service-based apps like Favor and UberEats are simultaneously waiving delivery fees and hiring delivery drivers at a clip. Interested? You can check out Favor and UberEats.

Who’s Hiring During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

In addition to the specific roles above, there are other industries looking to fill their staff during the Covid-19 crisis.

• Grocery stores
• Healthcare providers
• Warehouse and inventory staff
• Delivery personnel
• Construction
• Food delivery

Volunteer Opportunities During the Pandemic

If you are an hourly worker looking for a temporary opportunity, consider looking into employment with the organizations working the front lines. And if you have the luxury of good health and a steady income, consider giving some of your time as a volunteer. Look for health organizations who need help, like local public health departments who need to staff hotline volunteers and data entry professionals. National organizations like Meals and Wheels are also looking for volunteers to help deliver meals to seniors, one of the most vulnerable populations in the fight against COVID-19.

But above all, be safe, be healthy, and be a community – the Avenica family is always here to help.

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About Avenica

Through conversation, high-impact coaching, and best-in-class support, we translate and meet the needs of our client partners by identifying and transforming potential into high-performing professionals. At Avenica, we are working from the inside out to embrace diverse thought and perspectives while actively working to dismantle systems of oppression and implicit bias. With a deeply-held belief in human potential, we transform lives and enable organizations to achieve new heights.

If you’re interested in partnering with us to develop or hire your workforce, let’s talk. If you’re a job seeker, please apply now to connect with an Avenica Account Manager.

By: Lauren Olson, VP Client Solutions – North Region

On Thursday, March 5th, I attended the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) AIM: A Women’s Leadership Conference. The event was jam-packed with influential women leaders covering topics from self-care to accountability to effective leadership. Between speakers, we had the opportunity to network with peers from across the state and support local women-owned businesses. There were so many takeaways from this conference that can be applied whether you’re a leader or strive to be one in the future.

Here are just a few of my personal favorites and highlights.

Anne Behrendt, CEO of Doran Company and powerhouse leader, kicked off the event with inspiring words about effective leadership. She stressed that this does not come through reading books about leadership but though learning from each experience, learning from yourself and others, and, in turn, doing great work. Anne then laid out three key characteristics of an effective leader:

• Strategy: having a vision, a goal, and a plan; being thoughtful, intentional, and calculated.
• Accountability: leading from a place of experience and knowledge, owning responsibility and consequences-good and bad.
• Vulnerability: recognizing areas for growth and development; being a genuine, authentic person.

Knowing yourself was a theme that carried throughout the conference, and Anne did a great job of breaking that down into relatable context. Her message was simple but impactful, “In order to be a great leader, you need to first understand who you are and your natural strengths.” Be you. Be genuine. Show yourself. These were three soundbites that I made sure to jot down in my notebook. Anne encouraged us to be continuous learners and be willing to accept feedback. This is great advice for anyone, whether you have direct reports or are leading through expertise and/or inspiration, because regardless of role or level or experience, we can always learn more and get better.

I loved hearing Anne talk about the moment she realized that she was a natural-born leader. While she had always known growing up that she gravitated toward leadership opportunities, it was while working as a barista at Starbucks and being passed over for a “key holder” position, that she affirmed that she had the drive and passion to be a leader. The frustration and disappointment of being passed over for a promotion are feelings we can likely relate to.

The next panel of speakers, all business owners from a variety of industries, was equally inspiring. Angela Pritchard Spiteri of the Pritchard Company said something that struck me the most. “It doesn’t matter how you got your seat, it’s how you use it,” she said. In truth, there are a million routes a person can take to find their career path. Sometimes it’s through a great connection, mentorship, career matchmaking (like what we do at Avenica), or, like many, you’re among the thousands every day trying to compete and differentiate on a job board. Regardless of how you got there, own your leadership seat and know that your perspectives, insights, and talents are needed.

As the event continued, more and more inspiring women spoke about what leadership means to them and how to lead fulfilling lives. We often hear the word “balance” when referring to leading fulfilling lives in work and at home, but it was refreshing to hear, one by one, each speaker dismiss this term and commit to the reality that balance is not realistic. The idea that balance can exist between family and work is an outdated notion. For working mothers, specifically, the teeter-totter of prioritization is more closely a representation of day-to-day life. Companies that support this notion and norm create the most effective workplaces and leaders.

The next speaker, Stephanie Potter, owner of Holistic Life Coach, SMP, drilled down on self-care and why it is so crucial in today’s busy world of being constantly connected to our work life. We have laptops, work from our phones, and receive constant notifications and reminders. Being able to intentionally step away and practice some key steps to improve mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing are more important than ever. Stephanie asked the thought-provoking question, “What would it feel like to live your most fulfilling life?” Whether you are a college student or seasoned leader, we all have different priorities, motivations, and personal/professional goals. It’s about recognizing what motivates each of us and taking intentional actions to reach our goals. Knowing that overlooking our personal health and wellbeing—something many of do on a daily basis—can impact our performance and productivity, Stephanie encouraged us to incorporate movement into our day. This doesn’t mean you need to run a marathon tomorrow, but just get moving. Go for a walk, stand at your desk, do 10 push-ups between calls (shout out to Rhoda Olsen of Great Clips, Inc. for this – more on her later). The point is, every one of us can take small steps to improve and prioritize our health and overall wellbeing.

I would be remiss if I didn’t say that Rhoda Olsen, CEO of Great Clips, was one of the best speakers I have ever seen and heard. Her story and her leadership style spoke to me on so many levels. Rhoda’s stage presence and ability to drive key messages was impressive. She made us laugh, and as a result, we remembered her words. She said to remember that, “Every interaction counts.” Regardless of the stage you’re at in your career, whether  interviewing for your first entry-level position, on the front lines interacting with clients, or leading at the highest levels, bring your best self, your ‘A’ game and know that any interaction has the potential to change your career and life. One great client experience can lead to a referral can lead to a promotion; one great conversation can lead to an introduction can lead to a job offer; and one great teachable moment for one of your employees can lead to their higher productivity can lead to better business performance.

Beyond these examples were many more inspiring moments and stories. However, I will leave you with one final quote from my friend and dynamo leader, Emily Nicoll of CBRE. Emily spoke on the Caregivers panel and shared these words, “one category [of your life] impacts all categories.” As many of us know and have experienced, our home life impacts our work life and vice versa. Giving ourselves the opportunity and time to learn, grow, and prioritize our lives appropriately is increasingly important as we navigate and weave in and out of personal and professional obligations.

A huge shoutout to ACG AIM for organizing this impactful and inspiring event and to the leaders/speakers for bringing their perspectives and whole selves to the conference.

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About Avenica

Through conversation, high-impact coaching, and best-in-class support, we translate and meet the needs of our client partners by identifying and transforming potential into high-performing professionals. At Avenica, we are working from the inside out to embrace diverse thought and perspectives while actively working to dismantle systems of oppression and implicit bias. With a deeply-held belief in human potential, we transform lives and enable organizations to achieve new heights.

If you’re interested in partnering with us to develop or hire your workforce, let’s talk. If you’re a job seeker, please apply now!

If you consistently struggle to find the right candidates for your company’s open positions, it could be because you’re looking for candidates who are so perfectly qualified and so perfectly experienced that they don’t actually exist. Like a “purple squirrel.”

Managing Director of University Ventures and author of A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College Ryan Craig recently addressed this topic in an article on Forbes.com. He’s an insightful commentator on the intersection between education, hiring, innovation, and technology. And in his latest piece, he’s hit on a big obstacle to hiring. Employers who are looking for purple squirrels by demanding too much from job seekers.

Overstuffed Job Descriptions

Over the past decade or two, job postings have begun to burst at the seams with the number of required skills, experience, and qualifications. Craig explains the problem succinctly: “Incorporating every conceivable qualification in job descriptions helps explain nearly 7 million unfilled jobs while tens of millions of talented and motivated workers—particularly new and recent graduates—struggle with underemployment.”

One recent study found that 61% of full-time, entry-level job postings required 3+ years of experience. That same study calculated that the rate of required-experience inflation is rising by 2.8% every year. Extrapolate that over a few years, and you can see how job descriptions have become bloated and unwieldy.

Why Are Job Descriptions So Crammed?

• The Influence of the Great Recession. A recent study showed that, during the Great Recession of 2007 – 2009, job postings saw an 18% increase in education requirements and a 25% in experience requirements. Why? Because unemployment rose and employers could afford to be demanding. But even after unemployment rates fell, employers kept cramming more stuff into their job postings. Another outcome: more and more jobs now require a college degree, even if they didn’t only a few years ago.
• The Rise of Digital Job Postings. Online postings, for those with the resources, can be easy to manage. Which means employers can post novel-length job descriptions and keep them open for months while they wait (in vain) for the perfect candidates. However, most hiring managers don’t know how to effectively use job-posting sites, and don’t get us started on the AI and algorithms that can be discriminatory and/or auto-pass qualified candidates who aren’t using enough “key words.”
• Lack of Ability to Measure Key Skills. Increasingly, employers are realizing that so-called “soft skills” really are essential skills—the kind of abilities that apply in any job. But they’re notoriously hard to measure. So the college degree has become a stand-in for those skills.
• The Disappearance of Corporate Training. Over the past few decades, American corporations have undertaken a relentless effort to cut costs. One of the things on the chopping block? Training programs. A survey from a few years ago found that while 80% of entry-level hires expected their new employer to offer formal training, less than half of those companies did so.
• Employer Inexperience. Particularly at small or midsized companies, the HR department (if there is one at all) may be staffed by people who don’t have much experience writing job descriptions. Even at large companies with robust HR functions, they may struggle to understand the technical and “soft” skills that are required for every role. When they don’t know what skills to feature, they throw them all in.
• Employer Fears and Pressures. Many employers worry that if they don’t cast a wide net, they’ll never land the right candidate. So they include every possible skill. Others fall victim to groupthink – they get in a room with coworkers, dream up an impossible wish list, and then convince themselves the job requires every last skill. Others sink money into recruiting fees or other hiring costs and then figure that—to get their money’s worth—they’d better get absolutely everything from their candidate. And still others forget that their current best performers had to learn things on the job and weren’t perfect candidates when they were hired.

Big Consequences

Unfortunately, this is a big issue that impacts both sides of the hiring equation.

On the Employer Side…

• Jobs are Harder to Fill. This is an obvious one. When you stuff your job postings with every possible requirement, you’re fishing in a much smaller pond.
• Companies Pay More for Talent. A recent study by the Harvard Business School found that for many middle-skill jobs, there is no significant performance difference between workers who have college degrees and those who don’t. But degree holders can command a higher wage – so by demanding college degrees, even for roles where they’re not necessary, employers are forcing themselves to pay more. Similarly, by demanding ever higher amounts of skills—skills that fetch a higher wage—employers are costing themselves unnecessarily.
• Higher Turnover. In that same Harvard study, researchers found that college graduates are more likely to leave a role where a degree isn’t really necessary.

On the Worker Side…

• Getting Screened Out. Thousands of employers use software to screen job applications, looking for specific skills. And because the skills in job descriptions are inflated, there is a huge talent pool that is invisible to employers.
• Pressure to Earn Expensive Credentials. As employer demands rise, workers feel they have no choice but to earn college degrees or obtain other pricey credentials and certifications—often taking on huge debts in the process.
• A 2018 study found that 43% of new college grads were underemployed in their first job—earning an average of $10,000 less than grads who find employment appropriate for their qualifications. And this wage gap compounds year after year—leaving many workers stuck in a rut of lower-paying, lower-prestige jobs.

There’s Gotta Be a Better Way…. Right?

Clearly, employers need help (a) figuring out what their jobs really require, and (b) finding candidates who may not have every skill right now, but who have big potential. In his Forbes article, Ryan Craig advises employers to engage with partners who combine skills training and staffing—training job seekers and placing them in roles on a probationary basis so that employers can “try before they buy.” (Avenica’s model is similar to this).

Ultimately, there won’t be one solution but many. Employers need to rediscover the value of employee training programs. AT&T is already doing this, committing more than $1 billion to retrain workers over the next several years. Employers need to rediscover the potential in their job candidates—hiring for the person, not the resume. And they need to re-examine the way they write job descriptions to focus on the skills and abilities that truly matter.

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About Avenica

Through conversation, high-impact coaching, and best-in-class support, we translate and meet the needs of our client partners by identifying and transforming potential into high-performing professionals. At Avenica, we are working from the inside out to embrace diverse thought and perspectives while actively working to dismantle systems of oppression and implicit bias. With a deeply-held belief in human potential, we transform lives and enable organizations to achieve new heights.

If you’re interested in partnering with us to develop or hire your workforce, let’s talk. If you’re a job seeker, please apply now!

Employment rates in the U.S. have risen every year since the Great Recession of 2008–2009. And today unemployment is at near-historic lows. While that’s great news for many job seekers, hiding behind those seemingly impressive numbers is a phenomenon that’s far less positive—one that impacts entry-level job seekers most of all.

It’s underemployment.

What is underemployment? Underemployment happens when someone is in a job for which they are overqualified/overeducated—typically a bachelor’s graduate in a role that doesn’t require a degree. It’s your local barista or bartender with a bachelor’s, and it’s the English literature major who decided against pursuing further education to become a college professor and is working in retail until they decide what to do when they “grow up.” It’s also a “foot-in-the-door” job, such as a journalism major working the mailroom or front desk of their local paper or a sports performance major folding towels at a health club. And it’s also when someone would prefer to work full time but can only secure part-time employment. There are many different skills that can come from someone who is considered underemployed; customer service, time-management, perseverance, and often managerial skills.

First-job underemployment has lasting effects

Where you start has a big impact on where you end up. A 2018 study found that 43% of new college grads were underemployed in their first job—earning an average of $10,000 less than grads who find employment appropriate for their qualifications. And this wage gap compounds year after year, affecting promotions along with salary increase schedules and amounts. Workers who are underemployed at the start of their careers are more likely to struggle, even decades later—stuck in a rut of lower-paying, lower-prestige jobs.

Underemployment obviously has negative consequences for individual workers, but there are big ripple effects as well. Underemployed workers will have less income overall, which means they may be less likely to pay off their student loans, buy a home, pay medical bills, or move out of their parents’ homes.

Finding talent in an environment of increasing underemployment

A certain amount of underemployment will always be with us. Some new grads take more time to find their career path. Others may choose careers that don’t fit their area of study. Still others may lack the motivation or interest in pursuing roles appropriate for their credentials.

Although researchers and experts differ on the exact numbers around underemployment, most agree that it’s growing. But why is that?

Multiple factors are at work. College enrollment has grown since 2000—meaning more new graduates are pursuing a finite pool of jobs. Previous generations of workers are holding onto their jobs longer, further reducing the number of higher-skill positions. The trend toward contract, gig, or part-time roles means many recent graduates find themselves with less than full-time work. And the skills required for today’s jobs are more complex and changing rapidly, so many graduates are leaving school without the skills and abilities needed to be successful in the roles available. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t suited for the work or position.

Finding the right candidate with the right motivation, determination, and personality to fit into a company’s culture is difficult enough without adding on all the skills that are required. The one thing you can teach in all of it are the technical “how to do the job” skills required of the position. Our philosophy and the advice we consistently give to our clients is to find the right candidate, train for the rest. It’s something we do every day; find high-potential talent, provide coaching and mentoring, and arm them with the training and technical skills needed to be successful in the positions our clients need. We know it’s far more difficult to train or teach someone on soft skills and people who don’t have the right determination and tenacity—no matter their skill set—are never going to be the right fit either.

The unemployment numbers can seem discouraging for those actively seeking entry-level talent, but high-potential recent grads who are motivated and willing to learn are everywhere—maybe even at your local coffee shop.

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About Avenica

Through conversation, high-impact coaching, and best-in-class support, we translate and meet the needs of our client partners by identifying and transforming potential into high-performing professionals. At Avenica, we are working from the inside out to embrace diverse thought and perspectives while actively working to dismantle systems of oppression and implicit bias. With a deeply-held belief in human potential, we transform lives and enable organizations to achieve new heights.

If you’re interested in partnering with us to develop or hire your workforce, let’s talk. If you’re a job seeker, please apply now!