Western New York, it’s time to get aggressive on hiring & retention.

Are you committed to Upstate New York?

However you define its boundaries, the Western/Upstate/Finger Lakes region of New York State has numerous lifestyle perks — cost of living, proximity to lakes, universities, East Coast skiing. Numerous business leaders embrace Rochester, Syracuse, or Buffalo as the right home for their families and businesses. If you’re among them, this is a call to action. The leaders who build the future of Upstate New York will make strategic talent-related moves in the year ahead.

What’s happening with talent in 2022?

The reality: There simply isn’t enough talent, and the workforce model that brought America and its smaller cities to this point has disintegrated.
The call to action: The new model is yours to create.

“Disintegrated” is an apt description of what’s happened with the workforce, and Bloomberg’s Jobs Day piece, “America is Facing a Great Talent Recession,” will help you understand why. This exploration of the current workforce situation turns over each stone that’s fallen away weaken our economy’s human capital foundation.

If you haven’t read EMSI’s exhaustive piece on the Demographic Drought plaguing American talent, the Bloomberg article provides a great primer. If you have, it’s a great refresher.

Action is particularly urgent when it comes to critical on-site leadership roles.

New York’s ability to attract and retain top talent is under threat at a time when the right leadership is becoming more vital to success. During the pandemic, our state saw the second-highest rate of out-migration in the nation.

To thrive amidst talent shortages, inflation, and a litany of other challenges, businesses will need to strategically reengineer their dynamic with talent.

What Got Us Here

Here’s a breakdown of the firehose of problems in the face of all leadership right now.

There are no surprises here.

• Job Dissatisfaction
• Lack of Upward Mobility
• Slowing Birth Rate
• Aging of the Population
• Globalization of the Job Market
• Delayed Life Transitions: Having Children, Buying Homes
• Cost & Availability of Child Care
• Declining Workforce Participation
• Mass Incarceration
• Overselling of Higher Education
• Falling Graduation Rates
• Exodus of the Highly Educated
• Issues of Equity and Inclusion
• The Opioid Crisis

The talent problems we’re facing were caused by a tsunami of economic and sociological factors that’s been building for decades. The COVID situation sped up those winds; it didn’t cause them.

Here’s the good news. You don’t have to personally tackle every one of these problems.

These problems are systemic. Only America at large can truly address and resolve the structural problems that underlie these record talent shortages.

Your job moving forward as an executive, should you choose to accept it, is to interpret the situation and act decisively to preserve, protect, and grow your company.

When it comes to talent, you’re in the position to implement game-changing solutions from the top and throughout your organization.

CCY has identified 5 solution areas in which leadership teams can take tangible action immediately to start solving talent problems in-house, at the micro-level.

• Getting Leadership Aligned on Strategy
• Making Excellent Hires
• Retaining your Top Performers
• Optimizing Human Capital
• Building Efficiencies

Only top leadership has the power and passion to drive changes in these areas. We are seeing a paradigm shift, and it’s ushering in a period of transformation. The decisions you make now will set your future trajectory and reverberate organization-wide.

Achieving these isn’t all that simple, but that’s where we come in. Cochran, Cochran & Yale is a strategic talent partner that ensures you’re progressing on all 5 of these fronts. With our proven recruitment processes, 40 years of perspective on New York State business, and real-time market intelligence, CCY will help you navigate the fallout of the last few decades.

We’re sticking with New York. We’re here to support you if you are too.