By | Elaine Bennett
Everyone with a passing knowledge about the current state of the business world knows that the US has, for quite some time now, been experiencing a massive labor shortage – probably the worst since the end of WWII. In a situation like that, the businesses that need to fill in their ranks are usually not capable of assembling their crew and working at optimal capacity.
So, it is really no surprise that the growing number of organizations is deciding that, instead of hiring experienced employees, they could benefit much more from looking for opening doors to prospective apprentices and developing their workforce from the ground up.
Let’s take a look at a couple of perks that come attached to this hiring model.
Making recruitment more cost-effective
These days, it is not that big of a secret that the costs of scouting for and hiring new workers can put quite a heavy financial pressure on your organization. What’s even worse is that keeping in mind the current state of the labor market, you may end up without the professionals you need. If you start using apprenticeship as a new hiring model and lowering the bar for new candidates you will get access to far more prospective talents and let the natural selection make sure the best of the bunch gets to the finish line.
Modeling workers’ skillsets according to your need
Even though they are based on the same general practices, all companies have their own unique ways of doing things, specific needs, and established procedures. That is the reason why even professionals with long experience in some positions may not necessarily fit the requirements of your company. On the other hand, hiring apprentices allows you to groom the ideal workers you need and mold their skill sets according to the needs of your company. This way you get a flexible workforce you can’t find on the labor market.
Highly motivated workforce
Some business owners like to think that most people who are enrolling in apprenticeship programs are inexperienced young people with no developed work ethics. However, by using third-party adult apprenticeship services, you can also come into a position to work with people with rich experience and work habits. Since most of these people are undergoing career change or have recently lost their previous employment they are highly motivated to really push forward and compete with younger talent on the market.
Positive influence on an overall morale
The perception of one company by its workers can have a tremendous influence on the overall morale. In most places, people look at their workplace as a place where they need to be before their shit ends. For the apprentices, your company serves as a place where they will get the opportunity to learn, grow, and push their careers further. Their presence at the workplace serves as an excellent way to boost overall morale but also encourage a culture of constant self-improvement, creativity, and innovation.
Access to lucrative government programs
The apprenticeship employment model is not picking up a lot of steam in business circles. As a matter of fact, governments all around the world are recognizing the value of this middle ground between mentorship and employment and offering incentives and subsidies for each new apprentice the companies take under their wing. So, in this case, the companies are not only saving a lot of money on hiring but also on salaries which allows them to allocate financial resources to other critical areas.
Reducing the employee turnover
In this day and age, companies are not only struggling with scarce labor. According to a recent survey, the time the members of Gen Z (up to 24 years) spend in one position barely clocks at 2 years and 3 months. In the case of Millennials, things are marginally better with 2 years and 9 months. Hiring your workers through the process of apprenticeship creates much stronger bonds between you and your staff. The fact the workers use your company as a career platform helps this process as well.
Improving diversity within the company
Last but not least, we would like to remind you that the idea of workplace diversity is, as of late, getting a lot of traction – not only from ethical reasons but also because diverse people bring to the table diverse ideas, approaches, and character traits. Your company can only benefit from this plethora of different backgrounds and personalities. Well, with that in mind, it should be pointed out that hiring apprentices will open your doors to more diverse groups of people than traditional recruitment.
We hope these few arguments motivated you to consider leveraging the idea of apprenticeship within your company as a way of overcoming the current labor shortage hitting the United States and the rest of the developed world. Your company can never hope to get any fair shot at success if it’s not able to fill in its ranks and work with optimal efficiency. Apprenticeship definitely presents one of the most intuitive ways of tackling this issue.
