How Jan/San Distributors Can Conquer Tight Labor Markets

Key Takeaways:
• Jan/san distributors face a shrinking labor pool and must actively market the industry’s stability, solid pay, flexibility, and career opportunities to younger workers.
• Strong mentorship, feedback, encouragement, opportunities to learn, and a phased onboarding process are critical, especially during the first six months.
• Training supervisors and managers to communicate effectively, listen, show empathy, and make employees feel valued is presented as the single most important strategy for improving attraction and retention.

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Retaining existing staff can be a challenge for jan/san distributors. Unfortunately, when a good worker is lost, they can often struggle attracting talent—especially those that are younger. This is a confounding dilemma, as employment with a jan/san distributor offers what so many employers cannot: good pay, steady work, and a stable industry. To better examine how to overcome the recruitment and retention obstacles, Sanitary Maintenance spoke with Claudia St. John, Founder and CEO of The Workplace Advisors, a national consulting and training firm.

Q: Jan/san distributors are having difficulty attracting workers. Is it an issue of unfamiliarity with the industry that causes a lack of initial interest?

A: The labor market is shrinking overall, which creates a higher level of demand for workers in the trades and in the jan/san industries. In July, for example, the labor participation rate—defined as the percentage of eligible workers aged 16 and older that are actively working—shrank to a 50-year-low of 61.5 percent. This is largely due to retiring baby boomers who are exiting the workforce, a smaller Generation Z workforce in line to replace them, a persistently declining birth rate, immigration crackdowns, policy shifts away from refugee resettlement and Temporary Protected Status, and other legal hurdles for immigrant labor.

Those who are looking for work and would be ideal for jobs in this industry are in high demand from companies inside and outside the industry, so jan/san companies struggle to attract candidates. Unfamiliarity with the industry certainly can contribute to this. If viable candidates don't know about the benefits of this industry—including steady, solid wages, scheduling flexibility, and strong career ladders and opportunities—they are likely to gravitate toward those industries that are promoting their workplace opportunities more strongly. Jan/san distributors need to be actively promoting their opportunities in the communities where their workers live and work.

Q: Researchers say Generation Z prioritizes meaningful work and flexibility. They also seem to be prioritizing stability and security. How do jan/san distributors court them?

A: Let's start with what the definition of "meaningful work.” Work is "meaningful" if it, one, aligns with the employee's natural skillset, two, if the employee truly cares about their peers and the industries that they serve, three, if the core values and culture of the company align with the employee, and four, if there's a strong commitment to care and belonging.

Just as companies in this industry promote their services and value proposition to clients, they should also be marketing their jobs to this generation by focusing on what they want and care about: adequate compensation, a commitment to well-being, flexibility to enable employees to satisfy their work and non-work priorities, opportunities to learn and grow, and work that is meaningful. Companies can market themselves by promoting how their jobs satisfy these criteria.

Q: The World Economic Forum forecasts that Millennials will be the first generation to earn less than their parents. With quality of life being such a concern, shouldn't jan/san distributors be more appealing to these workers?

A: Absolutely! I think the jan/san industry needs to debunk some of the negative stereotypes and promote the positive aspects of the industry such as stability, security, opportunity to learn and grow, and an inclusive workplace culture. One thing young people today are very concerned about is job stability. This isn't an industry that will be replaced by AI. It is a high-growth industry with many opportunities for career advancement. Jan/san distributors just need to tell that story.

Q: There's some belief among jan/san distributors that sales professionals are targeting traditionally lucrative industries and that they don't view jan/san to be as attractive or well-paying. How would you dispel those beliefs?

A: Very few college graduates went to school to study sales. They studied psychology,  history, or business. But if they have the right intrinsic behavioral characteristics—motivated by money and accomplishing goals, strong interpersonal and communication skills, extroversion, and resiliency—they will make a great sales rep.

Young people who know they would make good salespeople self-direct toward those more "sexy" and lucrative industries, but the rest may not recognize that a lucrative pathway exists for them in jan/san. Businesses must show, tell, and encourage these individuals that they have what it takes to be great in the role. The pathway into jan/san sales is not direct or self-explanatory. They need a roadmap and a tour guide.

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How Jan/San Distributors Can Retain Good Employees