The Workforce Vector
Engineering Workforce Stability in a Turbulent Labor Market
SM
HR professionals today are navigating a convergence of structural pressures that no previous generation has had to face. Between a post-COVID economy, declining immigration, accelerating Baby Boomer retirements, and falling birth rates, the structural availability of labor has fundamentally changed. In this environment of scarcity, traditional recruiting methods often fail to yield results. This is not due to a lack of effort, but because the market has shifted beneath our feet.
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The Workforce Vector system was designed to navigate this complexity. We apply the rigorous mathematics of aerospace engineering to this web of changes, replacing uncertainty with calculation. By benchmarking your county against 3,000+ others, we identify specific, data-backed opportunities that remain hidden to competitors, allowing you to engineer a recruiting roadmap built upon current demographic realities.​​
Workforce Elements
The Workforce Vector data shows you the directions your organization could take to find new talent pools AND the number of individuals you could hire from each pool.
- If you target women with young children, exactly how many could you attract?
- If you want to improve migration to your community, what is the realistic cap on that success?
We refer to these specific directions to look for untapped talent as Workforce Elements.​
Workforce Elements are the 40 different types of individuals you could target to grow your organization.​​
Workforce Potential
"We hired 30 new interns within one month after your work with our executive team."​
President, Midwest Manufacturer
​The workforce potential is the likelihood of hiring success from the different labor pools in your community.
​The Workforce Potential is the number of individuals, for each workforce element type, who could enter the local labor force.
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The workforce potential is calculated by comparing your county with over 3,000 U.S. counties so you can see the potential in your community to hire from each of the 40 groups of people. This lets you target your limited resources to those individuals where you will be most successful. ​
Workforce Root Causes
After an organization decides which workforce elements to pursue, the next step involves understanding and addressing what limits those individuals from entering the local workforce.
Workforce Root Causes are the reasons limiting or preventing an individual from working for an organization, for each workforce element type.
A literature search of the root causes constraining the hiring of each of the 40 workforce elements uncovered 25 distinct root causes. Each root cause affects one or more of the workforce elements.
"After seeing Ron Cox’s keynote and attending his workshop, our agency decided to focus on three workforce candidate pools. We have since developed comprehensive strategies for marketing, operational excellence, and training to maximize these opportunities."
Michelle Madden
CEO, Independence of Portage County, Ohio
Root Cause Matrix
"I particularly found the data and systematic approach to Disability Service Provider recruitment presented by Dr. Ron Cox very helpful and actionable."
Workshop Attendee
Ohio Alliance of Direct Service Professionals (OADSP)
In mathematics, a matrix is a table of numbers or symbols arranged in rows and columns. They can be used to provide a mapping from something you know to something you want to know.
A matrix is used here to link the 40 workforce elements to the 25 root causes that limit hiring success. Once you choose the types of individuals you want to hire, the root cause matrix will tell you which of the root causes you may need to improve if you want to hire and retain those types of individuals.
The Workforce Equation
The workforce elements, potentials, and root cause matrix are key pieces of a workforce strategic plan. Other key pieces include a competitor analysis, the operational effectiveness of your organization, and the investments to improve root causes. How these work together are displayed graphically in an equation.
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The equation's terms are described on The Workforce Equation page. For each term, an example of how a company addressed the term is discussed.
Workforce Vector Data for for Your County
"Ron has amazing data and is a great storyteller."
Amy Jennings
Executive Director, Lead DSM
Workforce Vector data for all 3,143 U.S. counties and the District of Columbia are available to conference and workshop attendees. In each county, four variables are provided for each of the 40 workforce elements.
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how well the county is doing at employing those individuals,
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where the county ranks among all counties,
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the number of individuals available to work, and
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the potential to draw more of that type of individual into the local workforce.
Attendees also receive the workforce root cause matrix and a process flow template for developing a workforce strategic roadmap.
vec·tor /ˈvek-tÉ™r/
noun
1. Mathematics.
An item that has both direction and magnitude, especially as determining the position of one state relative to another. ​​
| The automobile's velocity vector was comprised of a speed of 60 mph and a direction of northeast.