When Drew Marine advertised for a communications director two years ago, the Naugatuck-based maritime chemicals manufacturer and distributor received about 200 applications.
An opening for the same job this year drew seven applicants, and not all of them qualified, said Carrie Fuller-McMahon, Drew’s senior vice president for human capital.
“It’s at every level,” Fuller-McMahon said. “Things are totally different than they were two years ago.”
Facing an unprecedented labor shortage, Connecticut employers are increasing benefits, bonuses and flexibility in a competition for a diminished worker pool.
Drew Marine, for example, launched a referral bonus program nine months ago, paying $1,000 to employees — outside of management and human resources — who help recruit a new staffer. The bonus is paid if the hire stays for six months; so far, the company has paid out three.
Connecticut had 109,000 job openings at the end of February, but the labor force has shrunk by about 72,000 people in the past two years, said Chris DiPentima, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association.
“If every unemployed person in Connecticut got a job today, we’d still have more than 23,000 job openings,” DiPentima said. “It’s causing a real strain at every job level, every industry sector that we talk to, and employers are just trying to get more and more creative.”
DiPentima said the tight labor market has prompted employers to increase pay, expand benefits, absorb higher healthcare costs, offer child-care subsidies and, importantly, offer more flexibility with remote work. Employers have also instituted or increased sign-on and employee referral bonuses.
Many employers have also begun granting staff paid time off to volunteer with community groups, he said.
Employee referral bonuses have always been a particularly useful tool, DiPentima said. They are cheaper than job advertisements. Also, current employees tend to nominate people who are good workers and fit with the company culture.
“Using existing employees as an extension of a company’s recruiting arm is something that has gained a lot of traction,” DiPentima said.
Root causes
The pandemic exacerbated trends feeding the labor shortage, including almost nonexistent population growth and an aging workforce, DiPentima said. When the pandemic hit, many opted to retire early, he said.
“It’s like we had this massive scab over a wound, and we tore it open further,” he said.
Elaine Kaiser, managing director of Kaiser Whitney Staffing in New Haven, said this is the tightest labor market she’s seen in more than three decades in the recruitment field. Her firm has hundreds of openings ranging from stock clerks to top management.
Kaiser said there is a “perfect storm” of job creation, early retirements and mothers opting to stay out of the workforce. She knows attorneys doing more of their own paralegal work. She has had calls from nursing homes and nursery schools desperate for staff.
“I have many more openings than people that want to work right now,” Kaiser said. “There are many people who are not working right now, which is a mystery.”
Aldin Beslagic, of Bestlogic Staffing in Rocky Hill, said employee referrals often produce the best candidates, as existing staff want to work with competent people. Beslagic said he aimed to fill one-third of new hires through referrals when he was director of talent acquisition for Quest Global Engineering.
Beslagic has managed his own recruiting firm for the past 15 years. At present, he is trying to fill 150 vacancies. Three years ago, he would have had about 30 openings.
Beslagic advises clients to clearly project their core values to potential hires. A candidate might be swayed by companies that provide a social or environmental good.
Widening the hunt
Hartford-based accounting and consulting firm Whittlesey employs 160 people and “could probably use” a dozen more, said Drew Andrews, the company’s managing partner and CEO. This is an unusually large number of openings, Andrews said. It has become twice as difficult to find talent over the past five years, he said.
In response, Whittlesey doubled employee referral bonuses last year. It also doubled year-end bonuses. It bumped pay in January in addition to the usual August employee review and raise schedule.
In recent weeks, Andrews has relaxed his stance on remote work, accepting the pragmatism of widening his search and hiring some staff who may never come to the office, or visit with clients in person. Whittlesey is similarly advising clients seeking hiring advice to also seek candidates far afield if they can offer remote work.
A staff member hired from a lower-cost, lower-wage state might see a 10% to 15% pay bump by signing on with a Northeast-based company, at no increased cost to the employer, Andrews said.
Whittlesey has also dusted off resumes submitted years ago and even solicited potential candidates who never applied to the firm.
“It’s almost like making stew,” Andrews said of adjustments made to the tight labor market. “The pieces might not taste as good until you put them all in the pot and stir them around and get a good result. I think that’s what we are seeing right now. You can’t just do one thing. You have to do five or six things. Today one will hit, tomorrow another will hit.”
