Hiring and retainment of employees have been critical challenges in most industries, both locally and statewide, according to Susan Williams, president of the Venango Area Chamber of Commerce.
But, she said, while the need for direct service professionals (DSPs) in the Oil Region’s community-based care settings remains crucial, given the looming closure of Polk State Center, finding workers is just as crucial in most Venango County industries, as well, she said.
“It’s a crisis everywhere,” Williams said.
For a while, she said, speculation was that enhanced unemployment benefits, available because of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, led to a lack of motivation among the unemployed to find work.
“That may, in some very specific cases, lend itself to the challenge but,” Williams said, “many of those employees getting enhanced unemployment had no employer to return to” post-pandemic.
So, while some people might have abused the situation, Williams believes most who received expanded benefits needed them.
More than the motivation to stay at home and collect expanded unemployment benefits, Williams said what the pandemic did to change the employment landscape may be less tangible than wages.
“My observation is that we’ve had a huge shift in priorities,” she said, “and our perception of them.”
At the height of the pandemic, Williams said, people began to refocus time and attention on families or other priorities that had been overshadowed by work. With more time to reflect on their jobs, and their job satisfaction, people have also started returning to work with clearer ideas of what they want that work, and workplace, to feel like.
Overall, Williams said, she likes to get employers thinking about whether there’s a need to address company culture alongside bonus and wage considerations.
One of the major social changes post-pandemic, she said, is a greater focus on family and relationships.
“The last year and a half has demanded families to come back together and take care of one another,” Williams said, and families who thought they needed a second income might have realized they don’t.
Others, she said, might have learned to live with less by being forced to through restrictions and lockdowns. That translates to a different motivation on the part of today’s job seekers than employers could tap into before.
“It’s all connected,” she said. “Finding ways to connect your employees to the ‘why’ of what they do” is as important as paying them well.
And, Williams said, remembering employees are less likely to abandon a job because of the work itself than they are to abandon it for a fundamental flaw in management.
“That was true before the pandemic,” Williams said.
Now, she said, it’s even more important.
When it comes to the DSP crisis, Williams said she can’t speak from experience. But she acknowledged direct care is “hard work. I can’t imagine anyone does that work just for the money. Most of us can tolerate doing what we do, even if we don’t really love it, if we care about who we work for.”
She said “COVID absolutely shined a light on employment issues” that existed before the pandemic. But now, employers might need to start using that awareness to keep employees engaged.
