An Inefficient MarketPlace

"Didn't used to be!" That was my grandmother's reply to my screaming "there's a stop sign there!" as she barreled through an intersection years ago.

We all struggle with change, primarily that initiated by others but impacting us. We thought the internet would provide an open and fully visible marketplace for goods, services, and employees. It has failed miserably in all of those.

It is easy to research a topic, or a company, or a person, but it is not easy to discern fact from fiction. The internet has also removed the human from many important decisions. Yes, there is decision-logic used in the filtering process, but it generally fails us.

If your future depends on winning price-based internet RFQs, your future is dark indeed. If you look for suppliers through that same process, your future is equally dark.

Right now unemployment is at records lows -- the definition of "full employment"-- while job unfilled positions are at record highs. That could lead one to believe that we need more people. While baby boomers are retiring, more people is not the answer.

We need a more effective, and less efficient, labor marketplace. Most companies have outsourced reviewing resumes to bots and keywords, and most looking for the right company and right opportunity try to play the game.

It's just not working.

Companies scanning via bots for X number of years of experience, X degree, proficiency with X ERP system, and more, may tick some boxes, but excludes many very strong people committed to learning, growing, and contributing.

Manufacturers employ the whole person, and employees work for the whole organization. Our current internet-based marketplace excludes those concepts entirely.

That could work if you were hiring robots, but you're not. Companies that hire people who check the boxes but are not interested in learning and growing are hiring the wrong people. But that's what they look for per their bots and keywords.

The world has changed and continues to change more and more rapidly. The smart among us drive and guide that change; the rest are like my grandmother: "Didn't used to be!"

A person who understands the culture you want, the learning and growth opportunities you offer, and who can see past the buzzwords of a resume should be looking at resumes. Hiring managers should be talking with candidates who check few boxes, but who could contribute greatly to driving the company's future.

Hire someone who has 10 years experience running a specific model of CNC equipment will give you that. And typically, nothing more.

You can improve the effectiveness of your corner of the labor marketplace by re-injecting the human aspect. The human who will improve your culture; the company who seeks all of you and not just your degree or what you've always done.

Someone has to take the lead. It might as well be you.