Feb 26, 2021
Paving Contractors that Struggle to Find Talent Need to Look at Pool Differently
BY World of Asphalt
In his session for the World of Asphalt People, Plants and Paving Digital Conference (March 9-11, 2021), Buddy Hobart of Solutions 21 describes the historically unusual place paving contractors find themselves in when searching for talent.
“I don’t speak in absolutes unless it’s absolute. There have never ever been four generations of breadwinners in the workforce. It’s never happened in the history of humanity. I want you to think about that,” Hobart explains in his session that goes live Thursday, March 11. “Now there’s five. Historically there’s never been four, and now there’s five.”
Hobart explained each generation’s place in the workforce this way:
- The Traditionalists (1922-1945), the youngest of which turn 76 this year, are still participating in the labor force. They may be running your company…or your biggest client.
- The Baby Boomers (1946-1964) are a big cohort and are largely ‘running things’ in a lot of the economy, including the paving world.
- Generation X (1965-1979), born at the dawn of the computing age, are bringing their classic tech savvy to higher and higher positions.
- Generation Y/Millennials (1980-2000) are the biggest generation (yes, bigger than the Boomers), and are nearly all engaged in the workforce at this point. The youngest Millennials will be ordering their first legal beer this year.
- Generation Z (2001-) is starting to enter the workforce in serious numbers now, making them the unprecedented fifth generation to participate at the same time.
On top of that, the mix of generations in the workforce is changing, and changing fast, meaning paving contractors are going to have to adjust even further to make sure they have enough people overall.
“There are 78 million Baby Boomers, and 60 million Gen X. It has never happened before that there wasn’t enough of the next generation to replace the retiring generation,” Hobart says. “That means we have to bring up the following generations quicker, because of the next issue: It’s a statistical certainty that Baby Boomers are going to be fully retirement-age by the end of this decade.”
Hobart, in his session, goes on to explain strategies to find the talent paving contractors need to fill their payrolls, and how to lead these diverse teams in a way that gets the job done.
Those interested in learning more can register for the People, Plants and Paving Digital Conference here, or by visiting WorldOfAsphalt.com.