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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 21 D E C E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 2 1 F O C U S WO R K F O R C E D E V E L O P M E N T that Maine Medical Center hired 2,200 people in the past year. e hospital employs about 7,000 people. "We need to get used to the labor shortage. It existed before COVID, continued through COVID and will be how we operate going forward," Ter Horst says. Power shift "e power in hiring has shifted from employers to employees," says KMA's Lancaster. "Candidates now say 'tell me why I should work here,'" Lancaster says. "It's unlike any market I've ever seen. It's harder to find all levels of people." Ten years ago, Lancaster says com- panies expected to see an average of six years per company on a resume. Now, the norm is two to three years. People are job-hopping more often and shopping for benefits that fit their lives, she says. Remote work isn't a draw for every person. Some people are extroverts or young people looking to be around their peers. "What people want is flexibility. Flexibility in hours or days of the week, and flexibility in their work/life balance," Lancaster says. Hannaford's LeClair agrees. "How do you overcome the issues that are affecting women in the work- force? Flexibility. Parents should be there for their families, and have flexible work schedules to allow that to happen," LeClair says. Hannaford says one draw has been its tuition reimbursement and reduced tuition partnership with Husson University and Southern New Hampshire University, as well as part- nerships with the community colleges. "We have five generations in the workforce. We need to meet the dif- ferent needs of those different groups," LeClair says. During the pandemic, the people who lost jobs in fields like tourism, hos- pitality or cleaners have moved on and gotten new jobs. Now, there's no filling those jobs with foreign workers due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and local candidates aren't interested in going back, recruiters say. e real estate boom showed that Maine can attract people — but those people came with jobs in hand and are often working remotely, Eastman says. "People always talk about, 'How can we keep talent in Maine or attract young people to the state?' Better wages and better work environments are a start," Eastman says. Retention is key "Once we get new associates in the door, how do we retain them? How are we training them and advancing their careers," LeClair says. "If we don't retain people, it's not worth it. ere's a cost to training new people and there's a loss to the company when institutional knowl- edge is gone." "It's one thing to start people at a cer- tain level, but you need to keep people and retain people," LeClair says. "We want to help people find the right paths and know this company can be a career, not just a job." When Maine Medical Center announced in July its $61 million effort to raise wages across its system, hike its minimum wage to $17 an hour from $14 an hour, and offer referral bonuses, sign- on bonuses, and other efforts, it noticed a difference in hiring, Ter Horst says. Increasing wages helped attract work- ers, especially making it easier to hire environmental services workers, he says. "It helped us at Maine Med be more competitive," Ter Horst says. Still, Maine Medical Center's overall turnover rate of employees is about 14.6%, which is an increase over the average rate of about 10%, Ter Horst says. To retain workers, Maine Medical Center has made an investment in train- ing, such as its programs for CNAs and scrub techs. For the two-year scrub tech program, Maine Med pays candidates to go to training and they emerge with skills, and a career path. Meanwhile its seven-week CNA class also pays people to be trained. Teachers and management get to know the students and they can be immediately hired into a unit. "We want people to have advance- ment opportunities. We want people thinking about career pathways and we can help make that happen," says Jennifer McCarthy, Maine Medical Center's chief operating officer. Je ssic a Hal l, Mainebiz staff w r ite r, can be reached at jhall @ mainebiz.biz P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Holly Lancaster, director of recruiting for KMA Human Resources Consulting LLC

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