2/3 of rural businesses struggle with this
The most chosen small business challenge on our 2021 survey was …
workforce.
In 2019…also workforce.
In fact, workforce issues have always been in the top 5 challenges every time we’ve run our survey.
The percentage who pick the workforce as a challenge keeps going up, and in 2021 it was 64%. That’s almost 2/3rds.
I used to work in workforce development. The employers on our Northwest Oklahoma workforce council said many of the same things in 2001 as the small businesses said on our 2021 survey.
- “We post jobs but no one applies.”
- “There aren’t enough qualified people.”
- “We hire, but then they quit.”
While Deb and I were working on our new Rural Workforce Trends video, I was struck by just how much has changed in the nature of work and the makeup of our rural workforce even in the past 20 years. But we’re still hearing the same challenges from our employers.
Which brings me to the good news.
The rapid changes to work and the workforce mean some of the old limits don’t have to be limits any more.
Our Rural Workforce Trends video will change your thinking so you can make more progress on your workforce challenges. You’ll learn and apply the Idea Friendly Method and stop thinking only of comprehensive long term projects.