How’s the professional labor market (Don’t forget that the United States’ Labor Day Holiday is Monday) in the Death Care profession?  I’ve seen no real statistics and most of the information I get is anecdotal. . . however, it is also important to note that statistics don’t really matter if you are a funeral home that cannot find qualified help or you are a funeral director that cannot find suitable employment. . . . Statistics might be great but it really boils down to individual options and if you can’t find help or can’t find work, statistics don’t matter to you.

 

It seemed that the past year has had funeral home owners and managers on the look-out for good quality hires.  There were sign-on bonuses and other incentives to go to work for one company or another.  However, in the past few months, I have not seen as much of that going on in the profession.  Are we finding staffing, finding new ways to manage staffing, or simply seeing less people moving to different professions?. . . .Those are tough questions to quantify.

 

J. Bradley Green, CEO of Park Lawn Corporation, made this comment during his company’s Earnings Call on August 11, “. . .Yes, the pressures off of that (labor) as much as it was a year ago, right? It’s just a different labor market. Look, I’m not saying there aren’t pressures on labor costs. You all read the same newspapers and lots the same financial shows I do. We all know what’s going on. So, there’s still pressure on labor costs. It’s not as acute as it was last year. We’re able to find workers easier than we did last year. It’s just not something that was as front of mind as it was. . . “

 

So, it appears at least in that large company, that labor shortages are easing.  And, according to some of the information that I have seen from the secular job market, Green may be right on that.  Here’s a quote that came from a recent chief economist that appeared in the Yahoo Morning Briefing just Wednesday of this week, “Hard data confirm that employment gains have slowed, overall wage increases are less generous compared to a year ago, and the average number of weeks of unemployment is ticking upward.”

 

That statement would tend to lead one to believe that people, at least in the greater secular job climate, are not finding extra compensation and benefits by simply moving positions because a company is in dire need of able bodies.  The lack of fast rising wages may indicate that secular companies are not in need of workers like they were only a year ago.  I’m wondering if that is true in the funeral business as well?

 

Regardless of that position, it is probably a good time to issue a reminder that payroll benefits can be key in recruiting and retaining valuable employees.  We pass along this recent article from Clifton Larson Allen as a reminder of that.  In it, the consulting and accounting company states that the three top benefits most employees look for are Health benefits, Retirement benefits, and Employee Leave and Personal Time Off benefits.

 

Right now is probably a very good time to take a look at your company’s benefit package to make sure that it is competitive in the recruiting and retention of employees.

 

Related Article — What are the most important benefits to employees?  PeopleKeep

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Funerals in China cost so much money that Beijing is encouraging digital cemeteries.  Microsoft Start
• Planting Roots:  Quebec cemetery turns former golf course into forest for the deceased.  Town and Country Today (Canada)

 

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