Dashboard: Is the Labor Shortage Easing?

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard every Monday Gene marks and I talk about the stories and issues we think business owners should be following hello Jean hello Lauren how are you um great great to see you let's dive in Jean uh a lot of lot to talk about this week some good stuff you've been um you've been covering really interesting issues you wrote One Piece I think last week suggesting that the labor shortage may ease up a bit this year uh for business owners why do you think that there's a few things going on Lauren that I think is going to have um be good news for small business owners I mean first of all when we talk about Labor shortage we know we right now we know we're in historic shortage of Labor never seen before the number of unfilled jobs um but you know we always had this issue right you know before even before covid it was always like the biggest problem so I'm not going to say this problem's going to go away I think it'll ease a little bit in 2020 to and one of the biggest factors driving it will be inflation um you know the the the rosy side of inflation for a small we know as a small business owner nobody likes Rising prices and Rising wages and you know except for your own yeah except for your own of course which but which actually gets to my point um you know you know as as prices and you know go up for you know core things and we just saw the inflation rate came out last week of you know at a 40-year high people are really need to get back to work that haven't been getting back to work before um and are you know more reliant on their jobs you know in order to to to pay these higher prices and I think that is I think inflation is going to be driving a lot of workers back and frankly I'm not alone I mean Marty mcy who's the CEO of paychecks um you they have their monthly like you know employment report and he was on CNBC on squawk bux uh last week saying the same thing that you know they're seeing the employment numbers start to tick back up again at their customers and uh you know one one of the factors is that inflation other other factors of course unemployment you know extra unemployment's gone away no stimulus payments are gone away the uh Child Care credits don't you know they're they're not you know there there's that extra payment in in 2022 that's driving workers back and of course which I'm sure you'll agree um you know as Omron starts to dissipate and as more and more uh States come to their senses and reducing the hysteria and allowing people to you just have to bait me don't you yeah they have to allowing people to actually like live their lives except for Philadelphia where I still can't go into my grocery store without wearing a you know a Darth Vader helmet and uh you went out to three restaurants this week in Philly uh popular ones that you know Lauren for lunch and dinner half empty uh because who wants to come into Philly to eat when you can be in the suburbs but anyway I digress uh you because omon is dissipating because some of these mandates these ridiculous things are starting to go away uh you know I think that people feel more comfortable going back to their jobs um and the schools are staying open because thank God the school teachers are actually going to work and therefore there you know students can go into schools and get educated instead of not being educated at all at home and therefore um people are uh more comfortable committing to a job longterm so all those factors I think are going to lead towards more employees coming back on the market in 2022 and I think that'll be we're going to be paying more for them but I think it'll be good news it's funny I looked at the stories that we picked to discuss and I thought you know what there's there's nothing here that we disagree about and then you just found a way to I got to tell you a story only because of Co and I know where record is but like so I was at a client in Bristol Pennsylvania uh yesterday and on the way home along Route 13 I went to a diner in Bristol and it was like my I I always go there it's a great Diner and first of all at the client no masks full parking lot there 80 employees are all there we had two meetings with outside people there were no mess I went to the diner didn't have to show a vaccine card of course in Philadelphia I have to do that okay whatever I went and I had lunch finished lunch went to pay my bill at the cash register next to the cash register Lauren was a plate of cookies and I said to the cashier are these cookies for your customers she's like yeah sure you put them out take one they're free that means Co is over wer we just washing down our grocery bags like a year ago and now you know three play cookies and I had one and it was delicious oh jean jean jean I'm not going to be baited we're going to move on next story on our list uh also one that you wrote um and also on uh a related topic uh the other reason why this labor shortage may ease a little bit is increased automation which is a topic that you seem to really enjoy writing about I love it and um tell you the reason why I love it and I'm going to put on my my Republican head here or maybe Republican really was it was it off jean I didn't sense it was off you know it is very Politically Incorrect to fight against labor and employees and workers rights and all that and there's all obviously it's all you know there's all good rationale behind all of this but come on can we all agree that because there's such a shorter supply of workers you know it's the workers's moment to really take advantage they're protesting against their companies they're not showing up for interviews they're ghosting their employers they're demanding more pay they're demanding to work from home they want all sorts of benefits and flexibility and you know it's now we've got the 4-day work week thing so oh let's work four days but I still expect to get paid you came out in favor of that we we talked about that last week you said it was good for businesses I I I think it can be good for businesses because this is what workers want I'm not saying you know just because they want it that it's a great thing for business but at the same time if if it's done in the right way it can be a good benefit to offer to your employees but it's still demands demands demands demands are being made by workers because they can because they can and then you know well guess what they're being replaced and and yet again I've written about this in the guardian I've written about this in the hill and now I've because you can't get past it I can't well the reason why I can't get past it is this I am on the Huns I have a a few researchers that help me every day and provide me with articles of things affecting businesses and Technologies and then I look at that for things to write about you know news going on and um again and again I get story after story after Story of restaurants and retailers and and transportation firms and and and manufacturers and Distributors investing in AI investing in workflows replacing you know you know you investing in robotics and robotic arms again again and I bookmark all these things and then every couple of months I'm like I'm going to do a Roundup just like you and I did back at the New York Times of all these stories of businesses big and small that are buying into robots and automation because it's more affordable and it replaces workers and that is exactly what is going on and if you look at the Washington times this week write my most recent article I've got lots of examples from big companies and small chilies Buffalo Wild Wings you you Denny's you know White Castle Starbucks cafes in Utah Trucking firms in the midwest Walmart read it because you'll see again and again you know these companies doing what they're they're being forced to do by these employees getting them wouldn't wouldn't they be doing this anyway I mean the machine is always going to be you know more efficient and more reliable than an employee so most of these businesses if automation was going to be an an option for them they were probably going to pick that option anyway weren't they yeah it's just it's being accelerated it's being accelerated it's being accelerated by two things first of all the cost of the technology is coming down but the reason why it's coming down is because so many more people are doing it so therefore it's you know providing more revenues for the companies that make these Technologies and hence the costs come down but the other big reason is that there is such pressure from employees from even from the administration we now want you know higher minimum wages we're now going to have higher overtime wages we want more unionization uh you know we want we're oh we're not allowed to classify people as independent contract is it your impression that workers have had it too good in this country over the last 40 years with too many raises and uh is that what you're resentful about right now not resentful about it at all all I am just saying is that if workers are going to be arguing with their employers or calling employers out or complaining about their jobs or not showing up to jobs or staying at home and not coming to work at all that's fine employers are just doing what they were planning on doing anyway they're just doing it a lot faster they're replacing their people with automation if they can can you do that in your business can you automate what you do so in in some cases I can so it's a really good question Lauren because I've been thinking about that you know pretty hard um two things that I can automate for because of some of the AI tools that have come out recently um they've cut back on the amount of time that my developers need to spend making changes to products because they're sort of outof the-box tools that allows them to do that secondly we sell CRM applications um I use one um that has AI Now new AI tools built into it so I'm putting on my website more when people are asking questions or need help or have support questions um I'm building in some template answers to give them when they come onto the you know onto our site which Cuts back time for people my my people to spend and therefore could potentially cut back people as well so you yeah in a smaller way though well I don't know I I have no problem with businesses doing what they have to do to to create the margins they need to survive and to thrive um I just sense a little gleefulness in your tone um and I it worries me because I'm not sure you have a healthy relationship with employees there's something troubling in your past that is causing you to be too happy about about this I think no you know what it's funny that you say that I mean the the my employees um have been with me for a long time and I respect people that show up to work work hard don't complain um if they you know if they feel they they want more money if they make reasonable demands which people always do I think that's fair enough I mean that's fine what I what I don't like is and maybe it's just you know the the attention that you see more in the media than anywhere else but I it irks me and I think it irks a lot of my clients and other business owners um when they see employees taking advantage um because there's a shortage of Labor uh you know they're complaining more the way the marketplace Works je yeah it works for businesses a lot of times too couldn't agree with you more and that that's exactly how the marketplace works and I guess my my warning in in my Washington Times piece Lauren was uh for employees just to be careful you know treat you know do a good job keep your head down treat your employer well um because I got news for with if you're a pain in the ass you're going to you're going to be the first one that's replaced by a robot because that's what's happening all across the country all right next story apple is going to let people start pay or let people pay businesses with their iPhones um is this a big deal are people going are businesses going to adopt this is this better than the existing technology I I mean listen if I was at Square I'd be myself you know I mean I don't know are they square or they changed the name to block I think didn't they I think the the the service called Square is still called Square the corporation is called block right okay I guess I should have know that but anyway so there you know I you know that's a big problem I mean listen when I as you know when square is just you know everywhere uh the card readers they they're they have the highest market share of all the competitors but those card readers are it amazes me when I take a taxi cab um even now and um it's sometime I can't tell you how many times I'll take a taxi from an airport to a hotel and after the taxi driver pleads with me to pay in cash and I say no I just have a credit card they'll pull out their iPhone they pull out the Square Reader they pull up the application then that doesn't recognize it and then they want to read my card and then you know it takes forever and it drives me nuts uh because the process is just it is what it is now obviously you know it works better for some than others what apple is promising to deliver is a much more seamless approach where you know you tap your credit card cuz so many of them now you tap and you tap it against the iPhone once it's all set up and the payment's all done no readers no separate software no separate subscription now will it cost more than Square whether fees I mean there will be fees I'm sure um curious to see how Apple's going to price this but I think it's going to have a big impact because I mean why would you get another outside service and why would you have to worry about additional Hardware you know little reader or whatever when you can just you know have your your your customers just tap your phone and you're all done so I think it'll have a big impact there'll be fees because it's it's not Apple processing these payments right they have to deal with stripe or or somebody to do it is that right that is correct but I you know the question is and they they Apple has not disclosed I mean will how will Apple make money off this I mean is there is their revenue you know is their model to charge for it or is there model just to be like hey this is just another benefit of having the iPhone you know what I mean so that that remains to be seen got it all right here's a story I've really been looking forward to talking to you about um you just wrote kind of a howto guide telling everyone how they can steal money from their friends bank accounts can you explain that sure if you'd like me uh to pay your taxes here's what you here's what you need to do um you need to first of all have me write you a check for something so okay you need to find out my bank's routing number and account number um you find that from any regular check that's out there and if you have somebody's routing number and an an account number there are many many places online where you can go to pay your bills just by entering in a routing number and account number of theoretically any bank account and the reason why I bring this up is because I have a client a nonprofit that had this situation happened to them just earlier in January they had a person that went to graduate school and uh previously that same person had received a check from that nonprofit for something so that person had the routing number and the account number from the nonprofit so when it came time to go to pay for you know that person's tuition he just went on the site of his school uh and the site said time to pay your tuition give us your routing number and account number for your bank account he put in his routing number bank and bank account number of the nonprofits bank account and the payment came right out he got paid his tuition got paid the nonprofit didn't realize it until they were reconciling their accounts over a month later they didn't understand why 40,000 was just taken out of their account now luckily they reported it to the fraud department at the bank and after some investigation the bank reverse the charge and put it back into their account but they didn't have that money in their account for that period of time and if they didn't weren't reconciling their accounts like a lot of small businesses trust me don't pay that much attention to what's flowing through their bank accounts as you know as often as they should um and if they had let it go even longer who knows what the fraud department would have been I talked to the fraud department on behalf of this client and the person that I talked to there said yeah this kind of thing happens once in a while you have to have protection set up on your bank account now my client did not have this protection what was the protection oh they had to set up a separate service Lauren for $55 a month $55 a month at their bank account so that whenever somebody whenever somebody that was not on a pre-approved list tried to withdraw you know an a withdrawal from their account they would get a notification of that before it happened so that they would have to approve Jean there's so much about this that is mindboggling but I guess the the the biggest thing is this has been possible all along how is this not why why hasn't there been a crime wave of this happening why haven't we been reading stories about this why hasn't this been solved I don't know the answer it's a really good question it was like the easiest thing in the world to do and then the banks themselves they seem like when I talked to the person at the fraud department they weren't even like you know they weren't even rattled by it they were like yeah all right okay well we rever we're going to reverse it and uh you know and sorry that that happen if so they know who did it did they go after the person who did it so that was another question so I you know I said well you know it's possible this this person this person might have made a mistake although I don't know how you make a mistake by putting in a completely wrong look at the wrong check they thought they were looking at the wrong check they looked at some they looking at the wrong check but yeah unlik could have been a mistake or it could have been fraudulent and the bank said to me yeah if you think it's fraud you should file a police report and I said about you know I was like you know if this was a credit card transaction and somebody somebody fraudulently charged my card which happens to a lot you know I mean you guys would be the banks go after that that person I I assume you know I mean I don't follow a police report for that but he said yeah it's just something different it's an a thing and you know we we tend not to pursue these things so um you can you should you just have to get the service so that you're you're protected now I spoke to a handful of other clients after this happened and in every case when I say handful maybe six or seven clients in every case um they all had the service already like when they set up their checking accounts these all they all had controllers or accounting managers and when they set up their checking accounts they they they made sure that the service was in place my nonprofit client wasn't even aware that it was available and apparently their Banker didn't tell them or maybe the banker did tell them and just trying to save money and they this could happen to individuals too right correct so you need to check your bank account you need to say and and you know do do you have you know it's it's AC debit authorization um protection against your account otherwise Lauren give me your your rounding number and account number I'm gonna pay my taxes what I guess there there are a couple of ways to deal with this one of them is to never use a paper check correct which is incentive not to use paper checks going for it some banks offer services where if you do use a paper check they can they they have a way to hide the routing or the account numbers on the actual check Itself by the way that's also for another fee so that's something you can also consider but um you know it's it's I have to you know this whole prompted me to go and do a whole review of my accounts I did not have this protection set up and we do write checks um we use like the banks you know eay service where like you know we put in for certain contractors in the bank sends them a check and when they get my check they get the check it's got my routing and account number on it so you know and I'm not saying they're you they've worked with me for years but you know it's still out there so I had to make sure that I set up this additional service on my account and I forget what we're paying but maybe is a favor to you we should do a a little test here why don't you give me your routing number and your account number right now and let's see what happens well listen Lauren I mean here's here's here here's the thing I mean I I could invite all of our listeners to go out and do this and and take that test but given the fact that we really don't have any listeners I don't really think now Jean that that was that was below the belt that was more on me than you once I get on actually people do listen and I think a lot of people are going to be surprised to hear about this yeah talk to your Banker if you're a small business owner or and individually talk to your bank and make sure you got the service set up thank you all right Gan marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquir the Washington Times Forbes and entrepreneur you can also hear him on ABC radio's ey on the world with John Bachelor Jee hosts two small business podcasts of his own with paychecks Corporation and the Harford thank you Jean Lauren I love talking to you look forward to it next week always a pleasure have a great week everyone take care