Filling the ranks

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed frailties in the many systems that keep society running smoothly. From public health to the greater economy, the U.S. still is recovering from historic changes that might have permanently altered how the nation operates.

Included on this list is the nation’s labor market, which has experienced significant strains since the start of the pandemic in March 2020. Major employment firms like Indeed have projected widespread worker shortages to last for years—a somber outlook for employers who have been struggling to fill positions.

Even the most resilient of industries have faced a similar situation, including the waste and recycling sector. Labor shortages have been felt at the municipal and private company level, with haulers and recycling facility operators desperate for personnel to support their day-to-day operations.

At the Paper & Plastics Recycling Conference, which took place Oct. 19-20, 2022, in Chicago, panelists in a session titled Hiring, Training and Retention discussed how they have attracted and retained qualified workers during a time of great uncertainty.

“This war on talent is fierce,” said Mike Huycke, vice president of business development for Phoenix-based Leadpoint Business Services and the session’s moderator. “It’s an obstacle that can hinder our growth and to which none of us are really immune.”

However, Huycke said there is some good news, too. Given the current labor situation, businesses have been forced to adapt and evolve, creating new practices in hiring and training.

Making adjustments

For Shannon Dwire, president of Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Millennium Recycling, these adjustments came in the form of improving employee morale.

“It was incredible how everybody kind of banded together [during the pandemic] … and they understood they were important, and they had to be there—that was something we had to really express,” she said.

In addition to fostering camaraderie, Dwire added that her company needed to rethink how it handles situations that require disciplinary action.

“You’re not going to let people go very easily when, obviously, you don’t have them to replace,” she said.

The Athens-Clarke County (ACC) Solid Waste Department in Georgia had to combat major losses within the department’s collection staff.

“One percent of all sanitation drivers are women—1 percent across the United States. … Ten percent of our collection staff are women, which is higher than the national average,” said Suki Janssen, ACC Solid Waste Department director.

“This war on talent is fierce. It’s an obstacle that can hinder our growth and to which none of us are really immune.” – Mike Huycke, VP of Business Development, Leadpoint Business Services

“We lost the women because a lot of them were single parents or were the primary person to stay behind with the children when [school] went virtual in our community,” she explained.

“[When] the pandemic hit, we lost all of our woman drivers except for one, so what we tried to do was make … staggered shifts,” Janssen said.

Coming out of the pandemic, the ACC Solid Waste Department kept the staggered shifts, which has enabled workers to tend to their children’s school schedules and still get to work on time.

In terms of recruitment, second-chance hiring has risen in popularity among municipalities and solid waste companies as a means to broaden the talent pool.

“That’s primarily where we get most of our employees anymore,” Dwire said. “Not a lot of people want to work in the MRF [material recovery facility] anymore. It’s dirty work, it’s heavy work, it’s cold, it’s hot; people don’t really brag about doing that [work] anymore.”

Millennium works with parole offices, halfway houses and other organizations, including the South Dakota Department of Labor, to identify individuals who would be well-suited for open positions, she said.

“We identify individuals that [we] maybe could build from the bottom up, and we encourage that. … We have an attitude of, ‘Give us six months,’ and even if you choose to move on, I just want you to move on from a better place. I’ve had to get really personal; you have to get to know your employees, meet them [on] more of a one-to-one level, make sure that they know that you’re there for them,” Dwire said.

LRS, based in Rosemont, Illinois, has faced similar hiring issues.

“It’s been tough to find and recruit talent, especially in environments that most people don’t want to work in, [like landfills] or material recovery facilities specifically,” said John Sliwicki, senior vice president of MRF operations at LRS.

While other panelists have turned to unique hiring and retention practices, Sliwicki said LRS has focused on automation where applicable.

“We have tried to overcome [worker shortages] by automating. There are just some jobs that become less safe, from a global standpoint, and less attractive. There are [still] 5 million open positions if we put everybody in the country to work; I think it’s up to us to try to find some of those jobs that can be automated and teach and develop people to do other things,” he said.

Speeding up the process

While attracting potential candidates can feel like the largest battle for waste and recycling providers, it might sometimes only be the tip of the iceberg. For many, lengthy hiring processes and giving candidates a glimpse of the day-to-day job requirements can be just as challenging.

“One of the biggest issues that we face is [figuring out] how we [can] train quickly from an integrated perspective,” Sliwicki said. “We actually want to put the knowledge into local people’s hands. So, we’re using LinkedIn Learning and some other tools so that while these folks are waiting, we actually bring them on onboard, we can pay them.”

He added that LRS recently received approval from its insurance company to have nonemployees do ride-alongs so they can get firsthand exposure throughout the hiring process.

“It’s keeping them close and really not letting them get away because there are so many [other] opportunities out there,” Sliwicki said.

Dwire has implemented similar tactics at Millennium’s MRFs, allowing prospective hires to walk the facility.

“Believe it or not, I almost talk them out of the job,” she said. “We go, ‘OK, it’s going to be hot. You’re going to be up here for 10 hours. You’re going to be cleaning. It’s dusty, and it’s dirty.’ And we show them what kind of garbage they’re going to be pulling. And you just be as honest as you can from the [get-go].

“You can see right away [if] this isn’t going to work for them. I don’t want them starting a job … with the idea that it’s going to be something different.”

She adds that Millennium Recycling also has streamlined its hiring process to the point that new hires can get started as soon as the next day.

“I quit sending out for drug screens, and I actually do a saliva test in my office for immediate results,” she said. “We do that because the clinics were taking two to three weeks to get back, and, by then, [the candidate] would have a different job.”

The author is associate editor of Waste Today and can be reached at hrischar@gie.net.