Want To Hire Someone Professional, A Team Player, Has Social Skills - Hire An Older Person

From:  The North Central Florida Business Report
November 2011
By: Chris Eversole


Jobless Numbers Hide Skills Shortage

"Robert Sturm, owner of G.T. Motorcars in Gainesville, advertised for a body shop worker offering $1,000 a week in potential earnings. Five men responded, none of them qualified. Sturm is not alone.


Hundreds of area jobs are hard to fill, although Alachua County’s unemployment rate is more than 8 percent and there are 10 times as many people looking for work as there are jobs listed with FloridaWorks, the organization that helps people find jobs on behalf of the state.


The skill gap is a big reason, despite a bevy of programs from technical training in high schools to the University of Florida’s postdoctoral programs. In Sturm’s field, applicants who had vocational training have never worked out over the past 25 years. “They were slower than slugs,” Sturm says.

Equally important to the shortage of skilled workers is the decline of professionalism—a work ethic and a sense of teamwork, frustrated employers say. “We need everyone to be a team player all the way through,” Sturm says. “The wash guy is the last one to see if the pinstripes are straight. Even guys who have years of experience generally don’t have what we need.”

The work ethic isn’t what it used to be, says Kathryn Thrasher of Remedy Intelligent Staffing. “For a while, I thought the problem was that a lot of young people were raised in front of the computer, and they don’t have social skills,” she says. “Over the past year, I’ve noticed that the problem goes beyond young people.”

The most reliable workers Thrasher places in jobs are older people, she says. “They had planned to retired by now, but things didn’t work out like they had hoped. They’re willing to do anything they can for minimum wage. If they get more, they’re happy. ”Employers often make mistakes because of their preconceptions, Thrasher says.

One faulty view is that people who appear to be overqualified won’t be good hires. “I tell the companies that the people I send them just want a job,” she says. “They want to go to work.”

Another erroneous belief is that a bad credit history should disqualify a worker. “Plenty of people who are fine workers have run into credit problems because of today’s economy,” Thrasher says."


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