Boating Industry

April 2017

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April 2017 | Boating Industry | 35 [ The Workforce Crisis ] www.BoatingIndustry.com Many of the parts of this special report have touched on what, in the end, is the key problem: Finding and keeping great employees. When it comes to finding new employees, the marine industry is decidedly behind the times. Simply posting an ad on Craigslist or In- deed won't cut it anymore. "We refer to that in the recruitment world as 'trapping' – you're putting a job out there online, you're hoping that the right person comes along, sees it and applies," said Neal Harrell, president of Brooks Marine Group, which specializes in employee recruitment for the marine industry. In a survey of Boating Industry readers in October 2016, employee referrals (used by 72 percent of companies) and online job sites (63 percent) were the most common ways of find- ing new employees. In a survey of dealers last fall by the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, word of mouth and employee referral programs were identified as the top two meth- ods of finding employees. The problem with most employee refer- ral programs is that they aren't targeting the right individuals. "What the employee hears … is if you know anyone who's good, who's looking for a job and you refer them and we hire them, then we'll give you this gift certificate. So the employee isn't thinking about who they know who's good, they're thinking about who they know who's looking," Harrell said. "There's a big difference between someone who's actively looking for a new opportunity and someone who's gainfully employed and is good and could be approached." The best companies, in any industry, have a "hunting mindset." They are always looking for someone who might be a good fit now or in the future. Unfortunately, most companies don't start looking for help until they need it or when an employee puts in his two-week notice out of the blue. "The great companies do that, what I call opportunistic hiring," Harrell said. "If a talented individual comes along and they deem that per- son might be up for a job change and might be available to them, even if they don't have an opening, they'll create one. That's the mindset of great companies." While there is understandable sensitivity about actively poaching an employee from a competitor, taking the opportunity to strike a relationship with someone from a different com- pany, and have an ongoing dialogue that may one day lead to employment is an important part of building the best team, Harrell said. Although Brooks Marine Group's primary focus is on management-level talent, the com- pany still sees the biggest challenge out there is at the hourly workforce level. That is where the future industry leaders are going to come from. "We have to get folks in at an entry level and we've got to train them up," Harrell said. "For whatever reason, our industry has been resistant to that. It's not going to fill that immediate need for that skilled technician, but if we don't do that we're going to keep driving wages up and steal- ing each other's best people and eventually we're going to run out of folks." Keeping the best In MRAA's Workforce Assessment, conducted in 2016, the most common takeaway from deal- ers was that they couldn't afford to pay their employees as well as other industries. So as a follow-up, MRAA conducted a compensation study, which was released in February 2017. The responses to the study represent 292 dealer locations and include data from 2,600 po- sitions. (The full study is available for purchase from MRAA.) The study found that, despite what seems to be a common belief in the industry, marine dealer salaries are on par with many other com- petitive fields such as the auto and RV industries, said MRAA President Matt Gruhn. That backs up a long history of research that shows that, as long as wages are competi- tive, money is not the reason people leave jobs. Instead, it's issues like work/life balance, poor supervisors and a lack of recognition. "You'll always have a competitor who could pay them more and steal them away, but if we can understand that we're competitive, it's things like employee satisfaction, it's things like the culture and training and things like that that will contribute to the health of the workforce," Gruhn said. "We'll be able to keep them if we train them properly, if we create a better work environment." Harrell echoed that sentiment, noting that employees want to see the work they are doing making a difference. "Talent is typically driven by the opportunity to impact the organization they work for," he said. "Help me realize that my role is important. Challenge me, train and develop me. Discuss with me career ladders that make sense within your company." That comes in a number of ways, from rec- ognizing high performers among their peers to feedback and performance reviews. "Where companies tend to put themselves at risk of losing people is when there's a breakdown in communication," Harrell said. "Are we doing annual reviews with employees? Are we chal- lenging our people? Are we addressing things like life/work balance?" Recruitment and retention "THE GREAT COMPANIES DO THAT, WHAT I CALL OPPORTUNISTIC HIRING." — Neal Harrell, president of Brooks Marine Group

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