October Talent Report with Jim Morgan

Description: 🎙️ Tune in to our latest podcast episode on MRA's October Talent Report! Discover the insights you need to stay ahead in the dynamic world of business, with a special focus this month on "Building the Generational Bridge." Don't miss out on the latest trends and best practices that will elevate your talent management game!

Resources:

Talent Report+ Webinar Series 

MRA Membership 

About MRA 

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Jim Morgan 

Guest LinkedIn Profile - Jim Morgan 

Host Bio - Sophie Boler 

Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler 

Transcript:

Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association. Looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.

00:00:21:05 - 00:00:22:21
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive.

00:00:23:00 - 00:00:40:14
Unknown
Welcome to this episode of 30 Minute Thrive. It is that time again to go over this month's Talent report with Jim Morgan, MRA's vice president of Workforce Strategies. So we'll dive into what he's been seeing this month in the world of business in October. Thanks for coming on the podcast. Always a pleasure to be here.

00:00:40:16 - 00:01:01:02
Unknown
All right. So let's go over what you're seeing this month. Women have been coming back to the workforce in high quantity. So what's driving this? What's the deal with this? I think there's a couple of things going on. Obviously, women have always been in the workforce, but I think post-pandemic, what we're starting to see now is women are still the primary childcare provider.

00:01:01:02 - 00:01:18:19
Unknown
And so I think they may have been at home more or might have been in a profession that allow them to work from home more. And now everything is sort of leveled out. Again, everybody's trying to figure out, you know, exactly what they're going to do. But right now, we've got women in the workforce or at least looking for a job at 77.8%.

00:01:18:19 - 00:01:40:03
Unknown
That's the highest it's ever been in the United States. So that is a as another opportunity, I think, for people, you know, to go find folks. And that totals 815,000 people this year. So in terms of companies that are trying to say, you know, where is the talent? What is going on? We are seeing a little bit of a shift in that women for a whole bunch of different reasons.

00:01:40:03 - 00:02:05:01
Unknown
But I think primarily post-pandemic are coming back into the workforce and in larger numbers than they ever have before. So going into your talent thinking section, you highlighted what was found by the PDC Employer Benefits Perspective Survey on companies wanting their health plans to improve the employee experience overall and really meet the needs of diverse employees over four generations.

00:02:05:03 - 00:02:45:03
Unknown
So where do these employee concerns really lie within benefits? There are a couple of things that that really stood out. One was this desire for digital health care. And you know, we never did telemedicine until the pandemic and actually found out that that was pretty effective for certain things. There are times when obviously you want to come and see your doctor, but the opportunity to use digital to use that type of technology, whether that's in telemedicine, whether that's apps on our phone, whether that's collecting our own biometrics, I mean, you have wristwatches now that can collect all kinds of different data for us.

00:02:45:05 - 00:03:07:13
Unknown
And then having your data available in such a way that it can move from care provider to care provider. And you will see my doctor and then I have to go see a pharmacist and maybe have to see a specialist that it's easy for the employee to say, Here's where my information is, you will get it. So the digitizing of a while that has been a big thing.

00:03:07:15 - 00:03:32:17
Unknown
The second one was employers trying to look at what's the clinical value of whoever their provider is. So if I'm using ABC Health Care, how easy is it for me to get to a clinic? What's the cost for me to visit the clinic and what are their results? Do they have good outcomes from visiting the clinic? So companies being one a little bit more critical about what's the value of the investment here.

00:03:32:23 - 00:03:56:11
Unknown
And secondly, how easy is it, how convenient is it for our employees so that health care is not a half full for them? Yeah, it's something, you know, that they're easily able to do. They also are starting to look at what's being called diverse benefits. You know, are we unconsciously biased against certain types of benefits that maybe would be good for folks in obvious one is holidays?

00:03:56:17 - 00:04:22:02
Unknown
You know, you may have a company that traditionally was you get Christmas. You know well, not everybody celebrates Christmas. And so moving to floating holidays to say, look, you've got two holidays to celebrate, whatever your beliefs might be or just whatever your interests are. If there are beliefs that you want to follow. So that accommodates. You know, almost everyone also starting to look at, you know, child care is something that's a bigger deal.

00:04:22:02 - 00:04:45:20
Unknown
It's very expensive. How do we accommodate some of that financial planning? Some people had access to financial planning maybe more than others. And so how do we sort of level that playing field So all of our employees have that sort of opportunity. You know, and then lastly, I think looking at the workforce of the future flexible benefits, we'll talk about that a little bit later when we talk about generations.

00:04:45:22 - 00:05:11:13
Unknown
But you want different things in Iowa for a whole bunch of reasons. Not just because you're cooler and more here than I am, but lifestyle. Yeah, it isn't that I'm looking for right now. So being flexible with what our parents or what our employees are looking for and then on the recognition side, really starting to hear more of from companies about how much their employees value, whether it's being recognized for birthdays and anniversaries is for jobs.

00:05:11:13 - 00:05:31:22
Unknown
Well done from project to completed the swag, the lunches, all that stuff matters to people, and it actually matters again to the younger generations for sort of this sense of belonging. So we're seeing more. How do we prepare for that next generation? How do we make sure we're offering the things that they truly want? Looks like each hours got a lot of work out there.

00:05:31:24 - 00:05:53:14
Unknown
And they do. They always do it. Just keep getting more. Yeah. Well, let's talk about some other recent survey results. What were some of your findings this month in terms of C-suite happenings? What are they currently focusing on right now? Yeah, we looked at the Fortune Deloitte CEOs survey just to see kind of what's going on. And then we've done our own survey data on the Fortune Deloitte one.

00:05:53:14 - 00:06:17:12
Unknown
One of the interesting things was for the first time in few years now talent was displayed by geopolitics and that was the number one concern and is been talent for as long as we can remember. But just the things that are going on around the world, whether that's in Israel, whether that's Ukraine and Russia, there's just a lot of things up in the air.

00:06:17:12 - 00:06:40:00
Unknown
There's a lot of disruption and that has caught the attention of the CEOs in looking at their outlook for things. About half of the people in their survey said they think there's a recession coming within the next year. This recession has kind of been six months away for two years now. And I think everyone's waiting again for that other shoe to drop.

00:06:40:02 - 00:07:03:23
Unknown
And we keep thinking, well, that might have been it and that might have been it. And yet it doesn't quite happen yet. And within our own surveys here at MRA, it was amazing the number of companies that were budgeting from better times next year, but thinking the economy as a whole was still headed for a recession. So that dichotomy is really interesting that my company is going to do okay, but the economy is not.

00:07:04:00 - 00:07:27:20
Unknown
And I don't know if that's an upper Midwest thing. We have a kind of a talent shortage here still, and so if people are working, you know, I'm looking like must be good out there. Yeah. But they still think overall that there's this potential of a recession on the horizon. And then lastly, the whole technology area, technology in general in terms of how do we use it for efficiency?

00:07:28:00 - 00:07:49:11
Unknown
How do we use it maybe for automation in manufacturing? How do we use it for better processes and moving things along quicker? And then, you know, the big monster on the block right now, artificial intelligence. What does that mean for us and companies now scrambling to put together what's our policy in artificial intelligence? How do we make sure our employees know what it is?

00:07:49:16 - 00:08:05:11
Unknown
How do we use it for good and not for evil? And that's causing again, you know, I think HR, because a lot of times are the keepers of this type of policy on the forefront to say, how are we going to build this? We have people that are already using it, people who probably still don't know what it is.

00:08:05:17 - 00:08:28:14
Unknown
And we've got to kind of give them the guideposts that say this is where it can be used, this is how we think our company can benefit from this. Here are the cautions and making sure that everybody sort of up to speed on what's going on. Yeah, absolutely. And I guess now's a great time to plug. We do have an upcoming podcast on HR technology and using kind of the new innovations in AI and in HR.

00:08:28:15 - 00:08:52:23
Unknown
So stay tuned for that. And then great timing on your part, because it's really companies trying to figure out a AI does these wonderful things, but it's got its own biases and occasionally it hallucinates in terms of creating its own information. So I think, you know, just the smart money is on. Use it for things to get you started, but you still got to take a look and you got to know where it came from.

00:08:52:23 - 00:09:11:01
Unknown
You've got to sort of has to make sure it's accurate. And I think a lot of HR departments are looking at it. And I would say what where is a good place to use this and where should we not? Yeah, absolutely. And we're also talking about technology outside of AI because all eyes are on AI right now, but it's like, what else do we need to be aware of right now?

00:09:11:01 - 00:09:34:20
Unknown
So that'll be a good one. Yeah, but kind of moving on from your from the field section, you lost some key factors that U.S. workers consider when considering a company for employment. So what did you find with like what were some of those factors. Yeah, this was some of this was from Eagle Hill Consulting and they were looking at Gen Z and millennials primarily to say, you know what matters to them.

00:09:34:24 - 00:09:58:09
Unknown
Yeah. D y is big with these two groups bigger than their predecessors. it came up as a key factor in 77% of the Gen Z folks, 63% for millennials. They grew up in a different world. They're more culturally, I think, aware of what's going on. They grew up in a more diverse society certainly than I did. And so that's important to them.

00:09:58:09 - 00:10:28:03
Unknown
And they're seeing it in their everyday life. They see it in the workplace as well with those groups. Again, things that matter to them around collaboration, safety, a sense of belonging, culture, employee resource groups, all of those are designed really around making them feel at home in their workplace and that matters to them. And so companies really are taking a hard look at how do we make them feel comfortable here, how do we make them want to be here?

00:10:28:03 - 00:10:47:07
Unknown
That's sort of the work life balance and the remote work that they're looking at, try to making their workplace attractive place to be, whether that's let's make it look like a Starbucks and people want to come in or let's make it look like there are things going on here that are really of interest. So it's not even a decision whether you want to stay home or go to work.

00:10:47:09 - 00:11:07:13
Unknown
I kind of want to go in there and see what's going on and still have that option of remote work. So how do we make people feel comfortable? How do we make them feel? Part of the team is really where they're spending an awful lot of their time. Yeah, absolutely. Well, kind of continuing that generational conversation. I know this month you featured the topic on building the generational bridge.

00:11:07:13 - 00:11:28:01
Unknown
So do you have any kind of key points that you can summarize from that presentation or conversation in the teller part? Yeah. And where this one came from, as were a couple of years away from the generational tipping points, for lack of a better set of words. That's when the Gen Z and the Millennials will outnumber the baby boomers and the Gen Xers.

00:11:28:01 - 00:11:50:02
Unknown
And, you know, obviously this always happens one generation that's older and moves out and a new one comes in. But I think the characteristics of the two younger generations around technology, cultures, society is just very different than the two that are, you know, the actors and the boomers. And so I think that does make a difference. And companies are now having to pay a little bit more attention to that, to say, you know, what does that mean?

00:11:50:02 - 00:12:10:10
Unknown
And the couple of examples that we talked about on the talent report were, you know, what? What do you value? So if I think about it from a benefits point of view, and again, going back to what we were just talking about, you may be thinking, you know, I've got some student loan debt, I would like some help in paying back that it doesn't really matter to me all that much, but I am closer to retirement.

00:12:10:10 - 00:12:29:07
Unknown
So how much money do I have in my 401k? I'm neither one of us. Probably. Health care may not be the biggest deal for us. You could still be on your parents for a couple of more years. I don't have three kids running around that are in their accident years. Yeah. So I'm looking for a different health care plan than I would have been ten years ago.

00:12:29:09 - 00:12:49:04
Unknown
And so how do we get in touch with what our folks are looking for? Because the benefits are a big deal. And I've said it before, it's not a benefit unless I think they benefit. And so if right now Netflix is of great value to you and maybe to everybody across every generation, they I want a screen, I want a streaming service that's a relatively cheap benefit.

00:12:49:04 - 00:13:10:06
Unknown
And if people really value that, well, good for us. And what are we offering that? You know, it no one's taking advantage of that and we're paying good money for that. Maybe we should reevaluate. So I think there's a real emphasis right now for companies to really know what's important to their employees. You know, try to be a little bit more flexible in their benefits and then providing the things that really matter to them.

00:13:10:08 - 00:13:38:05
Unknown
So I think benefits is a big one. And I think there are big differences with different generational groups. We've got up. Yeah, cross generational teams we spent an awful lot of time on and companies kind joyously trying to say, you know what, if you and I are on the same team, we're going to bring very different perspectives then if it's by people who look like me or find people who look like you and I can quickly stereotype, okay, well, I've got more experience.

00:13:38:09 - 00:13:56:05
Unknown
I've probably seen more things. We've tried these different things. I know what worked and what didn't work. And so I can bring that, you know, you can bring a whole new perspective. You can bring probably some technology that I've never heard of. I might say we tried to do that before, and you'll be in a position to say, Yeah, but did you try it this way?

00:13:56:05 - 00:14:16:16
Unknown
Yeah. And so the benefits of bringing together different groups of people, one, it's a great way to build a team within the organization. It breaks down some stereotypes, and the more that I get to know you, the smarter I see you are done. Sort of. yeah. 23 year old kid think she knows everything. Well, she does know stuff.

00:14:16:21 - 00:14:40:06
Unknown
And by working with you, that's how I begin to find that out. And you can look at me like, God, this guy's a dinosaur. He'll never brand a new idea to the table. And you might find out, No, I've got a couple. So there are benefits to that. Then there's the managing of it and how we look at work, when we work, how we work, you know, making sure, you know, the team members that I might like to I don't know.

00:14:40:06 - 00:14:57:08
Unknown
I need to be out by 3:00 on Wednesdays because I've got some group I go to. Yeah, you are a big biker in Friday afternoon to your biking tag. You know, little things like that. They just say, okay, let me know my people and they know the best time to maybe get this group of diverse interests together. Yeah.

00:14:57:10 - 00:15:24:22
Unknown
And then, you know, I think looking out for the potential roadblocks, though. Yep, we've got stereotypes. We've got to break through some of those things. The challenges of biases that are out there. Communications might be different, the technology might be different. So how are we going to communicate with each other? But then in the end, you know, we do start seeing using the even reverse mentoring to say, what can I learn from selfie?

00:15:24:24 - 00:15:51:20
Unknown
And that's not a way that you really if the two of us showed up, you could ask the vast majority, okay, who's was mentoring who Traditionally, it'd be okay. I'll mentor Sophie. What does Sophie have for me? How can Sophie help me better understand social media so I can better promote some of the things that I'm doing? What has Sophie learned as a more recent graduate from college of how people are using some of the things, different leads that I might be working with every day?

00:15:51:22 - 00:16:17:01
Unknown
How can she teach me how to use Tik-tok to promote my videos? And you know, the speeches? I'm so, you know, two ways. I'm happy to share what I know, but I have to be open then to learning a little bit more about, you know, what it is that you know. So I think it was really talking about all the different things that we bring to the table and how do you get those generations to utilize the skills that each one's got.

00:16:17:03 - 00:16:39:07
Unknown
It's issue that is all this time. Yeah, but I think it's even bigger now and we've got more opportunities. That bridge is a big one to cross, right? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I hope I can be a reverse mentor for you. Jenny Patrick, you play well, and I have to bring up your quote to your quarter of the month as it relates to this times of rapid technological or social change divide generations.

00:16:39:11 - 00:16:58:09
Unknown
Right now we have both. So can you explain why you chose this quote for this month? If you take the technology part out of it? Let me just start with the social part. If you think of the last few generations, you know, my grandparents race was pretty much segregated. And with my parents, they started to see some of the integration.

00:16:58:09 - 00:17:26:12
Unknown
There was women's rights, there were people of color's rights. Then my generation, there were protests and yours early on, assassinations. And it was very, very much turmoil. And then you start moving into generations that are growing up together. We have different social issues now. We have Black Lives Matter. So, you know, things just keep changing. And that social world, as we evolve and hopefully try to get better, then you throw in the technology besides that.

00:17:26:12 - 00:17:47:21
Unknown
And that's the part I think, that had never been there. Social really changes the way we do things and now technology in the last two generations and even just the last generation, it changed everything the way that we communicate, the way that we go out and see people. You throw a pandemic in there. We all learned how to do zoom and video and everything else.

00:17:47:23 - 00:18:17:24
Unknown
And you combine those two things and all of a sudden people have access to all this information. They have the ability to communicate in 100 different ways. And you have all of these social issues at play. It really is another it's another place where it can either divide us or bring us together. And so I can either have my views on social issues and yours are a couple of generations later, and I have my ability to manipulate technology and year to generation and later you can see how that would Thrive things know further apart.

00:18:18:01 - 00:18:35:15
Unknown
And so that was I've heard that on a webinar and I just thought, you know, when you put those things together, that has the potential to really separate everybody or, you know, if you did forget it as a chance to bring us together, how do you manage both at the same time? Because I view it well this month in charts, you included some data around memories.

00:18:35:15 - 00:18:56:17
Unknown
2023 compensate in turn survey in webinar as well as data from Memories 2020 through National ID and Engineering survey. So can you explain what was shown in all of the charts and graphs that were on the talent report, like an hour long seminar, put it end to 2 minutes here for you. Go take a look at the Talent report if you have it, and then you'll understand.

00:18:56:19 - 00:19:16:09
Unknown
You know, I would say, you know, the biggies were as everybody expected on this, the total overall compensation was a little about 4%. You know, for those who have filed this forever, it was 3%, 3%, maybe to nine, maybe three one. Last year. We went over for this year, you know, over for I'm guessing next year will probably be close to four.

00:19:16:09 - 00:19:42:00
Unknown
But I think it might settle down a little bit. But over 4% was sort of the comp trend for the general population. The engineering was a little bit higher at engineering and industrial, you know, high level. Those folks are getting harder and harder to come by. And so that drove that a little bit. Probably. We spent the most time talking about pay transparency, that being Thriven by a couple of things.

00:19:42:00 - 00:20:09:07
Unknown
One, younger generations that are a little more open with their pay and their benefits. You know, they find I am going to make $62,000 and next thing you know, it's posted on four different social media platforms and everybody knows, whereas few generations ago it was like, don't tell anybody. Yeah. So that's happening. There's now some legislation that's out there that's starting to tell employers you need to release pay ranges or you need to, you know, be able to explain all that.

00:20:09:09 - 00:20:27:18
Unknown
So we're not there right now by our own employers. Survey results that most of them are at a level where they hope their employees can understand how to read their paycheck and know what the deductions are. And we're quite a ways away from does everyone know their pay range? Do they know where they fall in it? Do they know your pay philosophy?

00:20:27:20 - 00:20:52:11
Unknown
And so how do companies move if there's the legislation continues to roll and it's out already in some states, some municipalities, cities and counties have put in place, how do you begin to explain compensation to the average employee so they understand your philosophy, They understand ranges because the first is that will be, if you tell me I'm at 90% of my rage, I'll be talking about I'm way better than average I should be.

00:20:52:11 - 00:21:12:22
Unknown
And I'm wondering 10% and trying to explain what the data is for compensation. So I think that's going to be a big one. And I think you're going to see more and more companies talking about pay transparency. Where are they going to fall in that? And keeping an eye on statehouses and federal issues to see what other legislation they pass in the future.

00:21:12:23 - 00:21:30:19
Unknown
And I actually know a friend who they're looking for a job and as they're scrolling through job openings, they won't even look at the jobs that don't list the salary or the salary range. So I guess, yeah, that is a big deal. And yeah, and then you get some of the services out that are out there. Some are much better than others.

00:21:30:19 - 00:21:48:10
Unknown
But somebody in one of our roundtable said, Yeah, there was a job and the pay range was 50 to $300000. God, yes. All right. Well, where do I fall about to cover it, you know, So that's not a real helpful either. Yep. So you're going to be up against all the data that's out there, all the different organizations that are putting it out.

00:21:48:13 - 00:22:08:24
Unknown
Some are very good, are not so good. But as an employee now, one of the examples we used in comp trends was they can go into Chad GPT and go into some other artificial intelligence and say, I'm 42 years old, I have 15 years of experience, I have a degree in engineering, I'm in Shawano, Wisconsin, and I want to know how much money I should make.

00:22:09:01 - 00:22:29:04
Unknown
And it's going to give them an answer, whether it's good, bad or indifferent. But they're looking at it like, well, artificial intelligence told me i think they should make and they walk into HR And so now HR is up against artificial intelligence plus other people's survey results, plus people taking data from new york city and comparing it to shawano, wisconsin.

00:22:29:06 - 00:22:52:12
Unknown
So that's just another area where the human resources people really after themselves be prepared with data and information and now have to start educating their hiring managers so they too can answer some of those questions when their staff members come to them. Right. For health. There's another thing on the plate, another saying, well, as we wrap up, we're always going to ask, can you give us a sneak peek on what November's talent report will be?

00:22:52:12 - 00:23:08:02
Unknown
The topic? Yeah, we're going to talk about talent strategies. And I know we've talked about that a thousand times, but we're going to try to take a little bit different look at it and look out to the future a little bit and say, you know, what are innovative companies doing to attract and retain and what does the future of work look like a little bit?

00:23:08:02 - 00:23:28:24
Unknown
And so as companies, we're starting to make some adjustments in whether that's work life balance, remote work benefits, all that type of stuff. What are innovative companies doing to make sure that they're going to have the talent supply chain? Gotcha. Well, you heard them. You got to tune in for it. Well, Jim, thank you again for the recap on this month's talent report.

00:23:28:24 - 00:23:48:02
Unknown
I appreciate it. And to our listeners, if you liked our chat and you like the topic today, I would urge you to comment the most valuable piece of information that you learned today or any current trends or topics that you've been seeing this month in the HR world. Don't forget to share out the episode and consider joining MRA if you aren't a member already.

00:23:48:04 - 00:23:57:24
Unknown
We have all the resources you need in the show Notes below, including resources on this Once Talent report. Otherwise, thank you for tuning in and we'll see you next week.

00:23:57:24 - 00:24:14:07
Unknown
And that wraps up our content for this episode. Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign them to connect for more podcasts updates, check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, make sure to follow MRA's 30 minutes Thrive so you don't miss out.

00:24:14:08 - 00:24:19:00
Unknown
Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the conversation.