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 variables, 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 strategy built upon current demographic realities.
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Successful workforce plans require three primary components: a clear Vision, strategies built on the Workforce Vector framework, and Operational Excellence. The Workforce Vector system serves as the bridge, providing the data-driven roadmap to move your organization from its current state to its ultimate vision.
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The Workforce Vector data shows you the direction your organization could take to find new talent, paired with the magnitude (specific number) of individuals you can hire from that source.
- If you target women with young children, exactly how many can you attract?
- If you aim to drive relocation to your city, what is the realistic cap on that success?
We call these specific directions Workforce Elements.
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Workforce Elements are the 40 different types of individuals
you could target to grow your organization.
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​The workforce elements are segmented into five different categories. Brief descriptions are given on the Workforce Elements page. More detailed descriptions are provided on the Workforce Element Definitions page.​​
The number of individuals in each of the 40 workforce element 'pools', locally and across the country, are used to determine the relative success at attracting individuals from each pool into the local labor force.
​The Workforce Potential is the number of individuals, for each
workforce element type, who might 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 compare your community with your peer communities. A similar approach is used for each workforce element so you can consistently compare potential hiring outcomes. This lets you target your limited resources to those types of individuals where you will be most successful. The approach is described in more detail on the Workforce Potential page.
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. A list of the root causes and a description of each is provided on the Root Cause Definitions page.​​
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. More information is provided on the Root Cause Matrix page.
The workforce elements, potentials, and root cause matrix are key pieces of a workforce strategic plan. Other key pieces include a competitor analysis, the efficiency and effectiveness of your organization, and the funding that will be invested to improve root causes. How these work together are displayed graphically in an equation. The equation's terms are described on The Workforce Equation page. For each term, an example of how a company addressed the term is highlighted.
Workforce Vector data for all 3,143 U.S. counties and the District of Columbia are available to attendees at conferences I speak at. For each of the 40 workforce elements, you can see a metric on how well the county is doing at employing those individuals, where the county ranks among all counties, the number of individuals available to work, and the potential to draw more of that type of individual into the local workforce. Attendees also receive the workforce root cause matrix and a workforce strategic planning template to accelerate the development of a data-based workforce strategic plan. County data can be found at the link on the button below.
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.