The Solution to a Depleting Workforce

Every industry I talk to is worried about recruiting.

They are focused on the wrong problem.

I’m in rooms all the time where the question is: how do we recruit more teachers, nurses, manufacturers, plumbers, pilots…?

Name the industry, and 99% of the time it is wrestling with the same challenge: attracting more talent.

But here is the truth. Most are solving the wrong problem. The issue is not that too few young people want to enter a profession. The issue is that there are too few young people. Period.

So where should we really focus? Here are five (admittedly radical) shifts:

1. Reimagine economic development.

Since WWII, economic developers have prioritized “enough jobs for all workers.” The challenge has now flipped. We need to focus on quality, not just quantity: attracting investment and recruiting businesses that generate outside revenue and high salaries, even if they do not create huge numbers of jobs.

2. Recruit foreign talent.

Immigration reform must make it easier for people who want to work here to do so. We do not have enough Americans to fill the demand, but others around the world are ready.

3. Automate everything.

Instead of chasing more workers, industries should invest in doing more with the workers they already have. Eliminate low-value tasks. Reward efficiency. Embrace AI and automation as the answer to the worker shortage.

4. Recognize the power of the worker.

Too many corporations are misreading the moment with rigid return-to-office mandates and invasive productivity tracking. Monitoring a worker's keystrokes and punishing them for not "working" enough is absurd. Workers have choices. Respect them, and they will choose to stay.

5. Make work attractive.

From affordable childcare to meaningful work that keeps older workers engaged, we need to raise workforce participation by making work something people want to do.

The workforce challenges of the next two decades are fundamentally different from those of the past six. If we keep applying old solutions, we will keep missing the mark. It is time for new thinking at the societal, industry, and individual levels.