Poll question: Recruitment vs. retention

According to data released by the government of the United States, a record number of people (more than 4.5 million) left their jobs voluntarily in November of 2021. Clever headline writers have a term for that societal trend: the great resignation.

Note: the number of workers leaving their jobs voluntarily has declined since then. But across industries, workers continue to leave their jobs more frequently than they did before the pandemic

No one wants to cut back services, cut back operating hours or cut back sales. So there seems to be two major approaches to dealing with the labor shortage in the hardware and building supply industry: Emphasize recruiting, and emphasize retention.

The first describes an increased effort to find new employees and talent. The second describes an increased effort to keep existing talent on the team.

Of course, a third approach might be described as an emphasis on both, but for the purposes of this specific HBSDealer poll question designed to identify where the industry’s mindset lies, pick one: