What does the future of the job market hold?

This question has been fresh in the minds of millions of Americans for quite some time. While our nation enters month six in the battle against COVID-19, the job market has shown significant signs of life in recent weeks. But as some companies have begun ramping up their hiring needs, dozens of pressing workforce questions remain unanswered. Here are some of the most intriguing workplace challenges that will linger for the foreseeable future:

How will companies adapt their policies to support young families?

As millions of daycares remain closed while schools resort to virtual classes at the start of the upcoming academic year, working parents will continue to face a significant strain on their work lives. Moms and dads across the country have struggled in balancing their professional responsibilities with homeschooling their children over the past few months. Companies should seize this golden opportunity to support their employees by helping these young families in offsetting the cost of childcare. Through the distribution of a stipend, workers will be able to afford to pay for a nanny or babysitter to care for their kids during the daytime hours. Companies can not only aid their employees in maximizing their work-from-home productivity, but showcase a genuine sense of empathy in the process.

What will happen to furloughed employees who have found new positions?

Many companies may anticipate their furloughed employees to maintain a sense of loyalty to their organization. Naïve or not, employers could be relying a bit too much on these workers to return to the workplace and quickly regain effectiveness in their roles. But what happens if these furloughed employees have landed new positions? As we all know, the hiring process is often costly and time-consuming. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it takes approximately 42 days with an average cost-per-hire of $4,129 to find a new worker, and even more time and resources will need to be invested into the employee to properly train and develop them. To prepare for a shortage of employees, companies need to begin piecing together a plan of attack to source and attract quality talent if hiring needs arise.

As organizations have downsized their teams, how will they continue to manage responsibilities with limited staff?

Upon the outbreak of the pandemic, companies across a wide range of industries chose to make serious cuts to departments like HR, contracts, and talent acquisition. As many employees were either laid off or furloughed, the ones who were spared inherited an additional workload to atone for the lack of available staff on-hand. For small businesses and other organizations that are strapped for human capital, many of them will ultimately begin to emphasize cross-training in an effort to diversify the skillsets of their employees. By training workers in a variety of areas, companies can maneuver their staffs in an effort to optimize output and supplement departments that are in need of additional resources.

Why have some companies experienced such difficulty in hiring new employees?

For far too long, lower-level employees have been grossly underpaid. Even skilled workers with hard-to-find niche skillsets have been slighted by hourly wage rates that do not adequately reflect their talents and abilities. Herein lies the elephant in the room – PAY. If companies are serious about finding the right talent to support their workforces, they will choose to fairly compensate these lower-tier workers. Otherwise, these hiring challenges will continue to plague organizations in the months ahead.

Are you a job seeker on the lookout for employment opportunities? At Acara, we’ll help connect you to companies that are hiring in your area. Give us a call today!

To view available job opportunities, visit Acara’s official job board here.