| | December 2023MANAGEHRMAGAZINE.COM8In MyOpinionHR: UNDERSTANDING EMPLOYEE NEEDSBy Connie Brandli, Senior Manager, Recruitment and Retention, American SeafoodsBrief Overview of Your Career Path I started out in an entry-level office job out of school and, after a time of exploration, realized I needed to pick a lane. I fell into recruiting and did that for about five years and then gravitated towards sales/client management for a time and came back to recruiting about eight years ago. While we were desperately fighting to keep our vessels staffed (and keep our workers safe) during the pandemic, it forced us to sharpen our focus on retention as well. In my humble opinion, I have the best job in the world. Not only do we fill our open positions, but you have a part in introducing a new hire to a job that could potentially change their life for the better. I like how that feels.Major Challenges and Trends Impacting the HR IndustryAs far as challenges go, we continue to struggle with meeting enough qualified candidates for our openings both on the vessels and in our corporate office. While the market has improved somewhat over the last year, it continues to be challenging. From my point of view, it appears that the gap between employee and employer has widened on several levels. Workers want more flexibility in work hours and commuting, and while having that flexibility is attractive (I am eternally grateful that I have this option), it doesn't always meet the business needs. I think the biggest elephant in the room continues to be pay. The cost of living is outrageous, and it creates salary demands that can't be met and further feeds the tension between employers and employees. I certainly don't have all the answers, but one thing I'm sure of is that we all need to be more creative in our approaches to getting what we want and need.Major Predicaments in the HR IndustrySocial media. It can work for you or against you, and things can change in an instant. Our next generation of workers will not know a time when social media didn't exist. Except for faces, there really isn't much `filtering' on social media ­ everything is on blast and on full display. A difference of opinion might as well be a declaration of war. You can't act like that at work, and if you do, you shouldn't. You need to respect your co-workers' boundaries as much as you
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