"We are hiring" sign photo by Eric Prouzet on unsplash.com

The Business Journal recently hosted a roundtable discussion with local staffing agency leaders to speak about trends in the workplace and how workers and employers are responding to them.

The discussion included Denham Resources CEO Joe Denham, Spherion Staffing Owner Glenna Gates, Haystack Consultants President Ryan Williams, and IMAGO Head of Product Anthony Yang.

It was streamed live on Facebook and can be seen here.

A laboring market

Haystack Consultants specializes in staffing for administrative, human resources and accounting positions, and with the tight labor market, Williams said it’s difficult to find people that are actively looking for a job.

“Any company that is looking to grow or expand is going to have that as one of their biggest challenges,” Williams said.

Like Haystack Consultants, Denham Resources specializes in finding workers for positions from office clerk to chief financial officer.

Denham said that accounting workers are always in high demand, but there is an especially high demand for them currently, with searches such roles taking longer than normal.

Employers are also submitting counter offers when an accountant has put in their two-week’s notice with a 10-20% increase in their salaries, making finding the right candidate even more challenging, Denham said.

Spherion Staffing is more focused on the industrial sector and taps into a different piece of the market with entry level jobs as well.

Gates said that in all her years of recruiting, this year has been the “craziest” she has seen the labor market.

“There are more people out there looking, turnover is at record levels, and they [candidates] all want it the way they want it,” Gates said.

More candidates have a desire to design their own work schedule, with benefits, perks, advantages and opportunities, Gates added. It’s a very different place from when she first started in the industry.

Spherion Staffing has franchise locations all over the country, but Gates said that they have an easier time recruiting in the Central Valley because they focus on a certain sector of the market, and because of the large available workforce.

“The peaks and valleys of the market lends itself to temporary staffing. It’s going to be a colorful couple of years for us,” Gates said.

IMAGO is an educational technology company in Fresno designed for K-12 education that uses social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum to help children gain meaningful perspective of success.

In education, the future workforce is already learning skills for jobs in certain industries, but there is also trend in learning about social values and beliefs, metacognitive skills, critical thinking skills — more than just the traditional industry specific skills.

“There is going to be a revolution on how businesses hire and work with employees,” Yang said.

 

Quiet quitting

A new term that made headlines this year was “quiet quitting,” when employees do only the minimum requirements of their job without putting in more time, effort, or enthusiasm than necessary.

Denham said that such employees could wreck productivity for a company, and as a recruiter, they look for people that are enthusiastic about a job.

Currently, Denham Resources is seeing more people actually quitting, as in deciding not to rejoin the workforce. After the pandemic, more people found ways to live such as through their savings, or government benefits without having to work, he said.

Gates equates a “quiet quit” to someone that never really started to work, leading to less productivity and higher turnover rates.

Gates said that it was generally accepted that employers and employees had a relationship, but the notion has been challenged in recent years.

“Employers need to recognize that they need to be creative to keep people engaged with the things they want, and to keep them around. It’s going to take some flexibility that employers might not be prepared to deliver,” Gates said.

Yang said the last two years have made workers realize what they want and don’t want in the workplace.

“Every business has an opportunity to build employee road maps to make sure they can identify those who are unhappy, and build a relationship to keep them happy,” Yang said.

 

A younger future force

The current expectation is that younger individuals are more attracted to employers that are flexible with their hours and offer perks such as paid lunches or get-togethers with employees outside the workplace to build community.

“There are not a lot of [accounting] firms that don’t do those things anymore,” Williams said. “They’ve listened to their younger employees; they’ve pivoted and made changes.”

In the niche of accounting, a lot of firms are hiring because they are seeing growth.

While many individuals prefer to work from home, many employees are excited about returning to the office for a sense of productivity, community, and to get away from the distractions of family at home Williams said.

While social media such as TikTok or Facebook might platform news articles with wild demands about schedules and worksites, Denham said that a bulk of the population are looking for a good place to work with flexibility, but still remain productive and have pathways for growth in the company.

Smaller companies in the Central Valley might have more of a challenge presenting opportunities for employees, Denham said.

A company might have one receptionist, one bookkeeper, management and the staff that does the work of the business, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for growth for a new employee.

For 2023, Williams said that he expects the hiring trends to continue for the niche industry of accounting, but he doesn’t see it changing much from the current state.

Denham said he keeps hearing business owners say that they think something bad is going to happen to the labor market, but he doesn’t see it happening.

“2023 is going to be an interesting year,” Gates said. “The trend of smaller businesses and first-time users of staffing services will continue. The trends of what employees want out of their work life will continue.”