Worker shortage and candidate expectations create hiring challenges

For several years, businesses across the region have struggled to fill blue-collar positions due to a shortage of skilled and specialized workers. While it’s an idyllic place to live and work, Whatcom County’s geographical location produces an even smaller candidate pool. Add in some recent candidate-driven, post-pandemic trends in the job market, and recruiting for skilled labor positions is now even more challenging.

“The county is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Cascade Mountains to the east and Canada to the north,” said Amanda Sell-Sande, CEO of Bellingham-based recruiting company Julison-Sell Search Team. “It creates a geographical conundrum and contributes to the shortage of skilled labor. Lots of companies need it, and they are struggling to hire at that level.”

Bellingham Cold Storage is just one of the many local companies feeling the pinch of the skilled labor shortage. The company’s workforce varies between 160 and 180 people, approximately 35 of whom are administrative staff. The remainder primarily fill warehouse positions, including as forklift drivers, laborers, maintenance staff and engineers.

“The majority of our administrative team are long-term employees,” said Kim Clemons, vice president of human resources for Bellingham Cold Storage. “Positions there rarely open. Where we struggle is staffing the warehouse positions, about half of which are forklift drivers and heavy-duty laborers. In recent years, there’s a shortage of available skilled tradespeople and laborers, so it’s been difficult to find candidates.”

People don’t often show up at job fairs anymore, he said. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, people used to line up at the fairs to learn what Bellingham Cold Storage was doing and what positions were available.

To hire the company’s essential workforce, Clemons and her team work with temporary employment agencies, Worksource and Goodwill and partner with a few companies that aren’t mainstream recruiting organizations, such as World Relief and the Washington State Department of Corrections.

“We’ve had great success with our DOC hires,” Clemons said. “We’ve found them to be reliable workers because they have to check in and report with their parole officers, and they work hard because they want a second chance at life. We run background checks, and if candidates are honest with us about their history, we want to provide them with that second chance.”

Clemons added that Bellingham’s high cost of living also contributes to the skilled labor shortage. Even though Bellingham Cold Storage pays good wages and offers great benefits, it can be too expensive for blue-collar workers to live locally, and not all candidates are willing to commute.

The skilled labor shortage is also a recruiting challenge for Western Refinery Services. The company has 240 to 250 employees within the industries of civil construction, refinery maintenance and asphalt paving. Some of the positions WRS hires include equipment operators, safety professionals and industrial positions. The company recruits in house and posts open jobs on its website, Indeed, GlassDoor and social media, and sometimes it places local ads. These efforts have aided WRS in filling the company’s diverse skilled labor and specialized positions.

“Some of those specialty positions are unique and require a skillset that you can’t go to school and learn,” said Karen Dykstra, the manager of people and benefits at WRS. “So those are the ones that are a little tougher for us, because you have to gain the knowledge through experience.”

The evolving post-pandemic job market

In the past five years, new post-pandemic trends have changed the hiring landscape. Several of those trends are driven by candidates. Besides decent pay and benefits programs, applicants also seek employment opportunities that offer flexibility, work-life balance, employee incentives and an employer whose values align with their own. 

COVID-19 introduced remote work and flexed schedules to the workforce on a wide scale. Since the pandemic, many prospects still want that flexibility in their work day. Flexibility also contributes to work-life balance. Employers who are rigid about work schedules will find it harder to retain employees.

“COVID was a great humanizer,” Sell-Sande said. “People want [to be] recognized as humans who have lives, and they’re not willing to put up with pressure, abuse, unreasonable work expectations. Life comes first. Work is now second.”

However, for companies like Bellingham Cold Storage, operational demands make flexible work schedules an impossibility.

“Our work schedules are determined by when trucks and boats need loading and off-loading,” Clemons said. “Because of remote work and the trend in gig working, I’ve found people want to manage their own schedules. Newer generations of workers want to pick and choose when they work, but that doesn’t work for us. Our operations don’t have that type of flexibility.”

In the past, candidates for skilled labor positions primarily asked during interviews about benefits packages. Today, they are dialed in and ask direct questions about flexibility, training, opportunities for advancement, work environment and safety.

“Candidates also ask about our onboarding process, culture and if there’s profit sharing,” Clemons said. “They want to know specific job details and exact work schedules. They want to know ‘what’s in it for me’. We now offer signing bonuses and additional bonuses throughout the year, including just before Christmas. We also have an employee appreciation committee and an education coordinator.”

Dykstra concurs.

“It’s almost to the point where I’m getting somewhat interviewed, and our company is being interviewed, so that has changed from what I have witnessed in the past. They want to know ‘what is WRS going to do for me’, which is great because we love to have those conversations.”

Workplace culture matters

A key aspect to hiring and retaining employees today is attributed to company culture. Candidates are prioritizing employers who they believe will provide value to them and notice the value they as employees bring to the company. 

“Successful hiring strategies today start with company culture, which needs to be reflected in everything you do,” Sell-Sande said. “Prospective employees want to know what your company stands for.”

Bellingham Cold Storage recognizes the importance culture contributes to growing and retaining a reliable workforce. The company’s core values of teamwork, integrity, accountability, attitude and quality were set by their employees, not management, and are posted throughout the facility. They also are discussed during the hiring and onboarding process.

Dykstra believes that transparency during the hiring process ensures that candidates understand what it means to work at WRS and whether the company would be a good fit for them.

“We are transparent with prospective employees to ensure they understand what our core values are, what it’s like to work here, what our benefits are and stress the importance of our culture of safety, which is huge in our industry,” Dykstra said. “We also let them know we retain and grow our team from within. Of our 57 company leaders, 47 have come up through the ranks. It’s been helpful for us. We’ve experienced a bit of an uptick in applicants recently, and we don’t have a lot of turnover.”

There is no clear timeframe for when the skilled labor shortage will end. With fewer workers available to fill open positions, candidates have the opportunity to choose the employer they believe most closely aligns with their needs and values. The blue-collar job market is highly competitive, so Whatcom County employers will need to implement strategic recruiting strategies to attract and retain these high-demand workers.