Many factors influencing complex employment issues

In just a little over a month, on Sept. 5, the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program (PEUC), which provides 53 weeks of additional unemployment benefits, will expire.

Throughout Tompkins Weekly’s coverage of the workforce and business sectors during the past year, much of the conversation has centered around how the PEUC has impacted the county’s workforce shortages and the effects its end could have on the county come this fall. So, with one month to go, we asked county workforce leaders how both employers and those considering returning to work can prepare for this transition.

Why workforce shortages?

As several sources shared, workforce shortages in Tompkins County are not a new phenomenon. The county has long had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state, even before the pandemic. But the pandemic has had a significant impact on the county’s workforce in new ways.

As Kathy Nivison, owner and founder of Express Employment Professionals in Ithaca, described, the current workforce shortages are increasingly limiting what businesses can provide.

“Restaurants are closing because they don’t have staff on certain days of the week, and other companies are just sort of giving up on trying to hire and just saying, ‘I can’t find anyone anyway.’ So, they’re just sort of giving up,” she said.

Natalie Branosky, executive director of the Workforce Development Board of Tompkins County, said that while the county has opened back up and is attracting tourists again, workforce shortages remain.

“Thankfully, a lot of our hotels are having a high percentage of bookings,” she said. “That’s good. That means people feel safe about Tompkins County, people are ready to travel, they’re booking hotel rooms, and they’re going to be circulating and spending money locally. What we don’t have is enough people to clean the hotel rooms.”

In past interviews with Tompkins Weekly, businesses facing workforce shortages often referenced the continued unemployment bonuses as the biggest contributing factor, disincentivizing folks on unemployment from looking for work.

Sources interviewed for this story explained that the unemployment bonuses have contributed to the workforce shortages, but they’re far from the only factor to consider. The largest factor that sources cited was continued child care challenges.

“Child care is a big issue, I would say, across the country, [with] schools not opening, telecare not being accessible for families,” said Rosemary Avila, deputy director of the Workforce Development Board. “And so, they’re going to have to weigh, ‘Well, I need to work, but who cares after my loved ones?’”

Mary Opperman, the vice president and chief human resources officer for Cornell University, added that the pandemic has also caused some people to “be introspective about what’s really important to them and how to balance the different aspects of their lives.” And beyond that, while some fear has dissipated, some folks are still worried about their health and safety.

“I think some people still remain concerned about returning to on-premise workspaces, where they don’t really know the health status of the others around them,” she said. “So, I think it’s hard to know right now the extent to which the additional unemployment benefits are impacting our current labor shortages.”

Advice for employers

Because the workforce shortages are caused by multiple factors, sources interviewed recommend that employers keep those factors in mind when trying to fill slots.

Since among the biggest barriers to employment for many in the county are child care and transportation, Jackie Mouillesseaux, director of the Tompkins County Office of Employment and Training (Tompkins Workforce NY), said focusing on meeting those needs will help attract candidates.

“An employer might shrug their shoulders and say, ‘Well, what can I do about transportation?’” she said. “Well, maybe it is about being flexible about the start time and end time with someone’s shifts so that it can accommodate a bus schedule or things like that. If someone has children and they have to drop off or pick up children or they have to navigate that schedule, what can employers do? Again, being flexible with shifts’ times, starts and ends.”

Overall, sources said the biggest thing employers can do to attract workers — both before and after the unemployment bonuses end — is to rethink their hiring process, especially those they consider hirable.

“We’re really wanting employers to reconsider who they consider employable, that it may have been that there were certain pictures of people that they envisioned as to who might be employable versus who wasn’t, and we’re saying, ‘Let’s wipe that slate clean. Let’s open the door. Let’s be mindful that anyone, really, is employable,’” Mouillesseaux said.

Nivison said that employers need to recognize that times have changed.

“Companies that believe that there’s 10 candidates available for every open job and each candidate is perfect in every single way and ready to start working tomorrow, those companies are at a disadvantage,” she said. “They’re taking too long to make their decisions, and they’re losing candidates.”

One of the biggest things employers should look at, Nivison said, is their wages. She said having competitive, living wages helps attract more candidates.

“We know the fast-food restaurants are paying $15 and up,” she said. “And so, companies that are below that are not going to attract people. I think companies have to become comparable in their wages. Wage studies are not hard to find, what other companies are paying for the same job. So, I think companies, as much as they don’t want to, I think they have to look at their wages to be competitive.”

Branosky also voiced her support for looking at things like benefits like rest days and days off, as well as guaranteed interviews.

“We’re very supportive of things called guaranteed interviews here, meaning if you’re going through some kind of training, or if you’re interested in a job, what we’re saying to employers is ‘Turn no one away. Give everybody at least 15 minutes to explain to you and give you a pitch about why they want to work for you,’” she said. “And that turns traditional hiring practices upside down.”

One large employer — Ithaca Marriott Downtown — took Branosky’s advice to heart, and Branosky explained the results that Marriott General Manager Cathy Hart later described.

“She went to her HR department and said, ‘I think we could do this differently.’ And together, they got out a stack of resumes that they had put in the ‘no, not really’ pile and called everyone back and gave everyone at least 15 minutes to have a conversation or in-person interview,” Branosky said. “She said, ‘I have now found some of the best staff of my professional career.’”

Cornell is among the largest employers in the county, and Opperman said the campus is also doing a lot of rethinking of its hiring process, particularly as it comes out of a longtime hiring freeze due to the pandemic.

“We’ve been taking a deep dive into the practices of HR — which ones work, which ones need to be adjusted and which ones need to be built out. And getting and keeping talent was the biggest one,” she said. “We really are focusing on attracting people, particularly a nice, diverse population of candidates for our positions, and then keeping them as long as we possibly can. So, we’ve been looking deeply at how we write job descriptions, what we’re asking for in the job description, how we bring people through pipelining and the process and time it takes to hire.”

Advice for prospective employees

For those currently on unemployment considering rejoining the workforce within the next few months, the biggest piece of advice sources offered can be best summed up in two words: start now.

“I know it probably feels like there’s still some time to go, but really, [we’re] encouraging people to jump in,” Mouillesseaux said. “I think if people are looking to dive back into similar work to what they were doing previously, I would be encouraging them to be looking at the job posts, exploring those and noticing if there are changes in skills or certifications or even education that employers are seeking.”

Branosky said that as much as there’s a workforce shortage right now, there’s also a skills shortage. While other states in the country have decided to end their unemployment bonuses early in an attempt to address the skills shortages, Branosky said that “I don’t think life is that simple,” and prospective employees should take advantage of the extra time New York state is allotting them.

“I think that the fact that we’ve got more time here in our state is time for workers to make very serious decisions about income in their households, what kind of jobs they want, what is the definition of a good quality job, … and how do we go forward out of this moment?” she said.

Nivison added that it’s a “candidate’s market” right now, so deciding what aspects of a job are most important for you will help you in your prospective job search.

Available resources

Sources encouraged both employers and prospective employees to reach out to their organizations for help navigating a post-pandemic workforce landscape. At Express Employment, Nivison stressed that while her staff can help employers fill temporary positions, there’s a lot more they offer.

“We’re placing people in engineering jobs, human resources, information technology and accounting roles. So, that’s our professional division,” she said. “And I would say that’s the thing that most companies don’t know about us. They think we’re a temp agency, and we’re really helping businesses with short-term positions, such as temporary positions, but we’re also helping the higher-level candidates as well.”

Mouillesseaux highlighted Tompkins Workforce NY’s Meet the Employer sessions, which have been held throughout the past year and are still ongoing.

“It provides an opportunity for employers to not only promote their openings, but I think give some insight into the feel of the organization or the business, what’s it like to work there, or what are things that they look for through the application process,” she said. “And I always say to job seekers, ‘this is really valuable.’ If you’re interested in this employer, or even in this field, it’s a real opportunity to get insight from an employer that you aren’t going to see on a website.”

For the Workforce Development Board, Branosky drew attention to an upcoming project focused on manufacturing positions — among the highest-paying jobs in the county — with help from organizations like Tompkins Cortland Community College and Ithaca Area Economic Development.

“We are designing a local entry-level pathway that will have curriculum attached as well,” Branosky said. “And the vision for that is what we’re calling an earn and learn opportunity. So, you’ll be learning and at the same time earning a wage in a job. And this is so that we can respond directly to what employers are saying they need in workers. And so, we’re bringing all of those voices together into one standardized pathway that is going to be our local way to bring more people into those manufacturing jobs.”

Visit Tompkins Workforce NY at www2.tompkinscountyny.gov/wfny, the Workforce Development Board at www2.tompkinscountyny.gov/wdb and Express Employment at expresspros.com/IthacaNY.