Episode 9. Skilled Trades Workers from a Talent Management POV with Victoria Frerichs
Skilled trades workers make up over 20% of the U.S. workforce. They are highly educated, technically skilled, and essential to entire industries and sectors. And yet they have received remarkably little attention from the people management practices, research frameworks, and organizational systems designed to support workers.
In this episode - the first guest conversation in the Overlooked Workers series - Hannah talks with Victoria Frerichs, a talent management professional who supports a skilled trades workforce including shipbuilders, welders, ship fitters, crane operators, electrical and mechanical integrators, and more. Victoria brings a practitioner's perspective on what it actually takes to hire, assess, develop, and retain this workforce, and where the standard HR playbook falls short.
Topics covered include:
Who skilled trades workers are, and what most people in HR and talent management get wrong about them
The business case for prioritizing this workforce
Where standard hiring and assessment systems break down for skilled trades candidates, including the limits of automated screening and résumé-based evaluation
The challenge of capturing and evaluating expertise that is embodied, not easily articulated
Micro-documentation and continuous performance data as alternatives to traditional performance management
The culture gap between office and production environments, and what it takes to bridge it
Language and terminology: why "blue collar" doesn't land well, and what to say instead
Retention levers that actually work in skilled trades contexts, including creative approaches to schedule flexibility
Workforce pipeline challenges and the part-time mentor model as one response to mitigating loss of institutional knowledge amidst our current retirement boom and shrinking skilled trades talent pool
—————
Music: “Feel Good (Instrumental Version)” by PØW via Epidemic Sound
—————
Victoria Frerichs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vfrerichs/
—————
Resources and References
Associated General Contractors of America & National Center for Construction Education and Research. (2025). 2025 workforce survey.https://www.nccer.org/newsroom/report-92-percent-of-construction-firms-struggling-to-hire-workers/
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Electricians: Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor.https://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/electricians.htm
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration mechanics and installers: Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor.https://www.bls.gov/ooh/installation-maintenance-and-repair/heating-air-conditioning-and-refrigeration-mechanics-and-installers.htm
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Employed people by detailed industry and age: 2025 annual averages. U.S. Department of Labor.https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18b.htm
Deloitte. (as cited in Remarcable, 2026). Construction workforce retirement projections. In Skilled trades statistics for 2026: The numbers behind the workforce that builds everything.https://www.remarcable.com/blog/skilled-trades-statistics-for-2026-the-numbers-behind-the-workforce-that-builds-everything
DeSilver, D., & Lin, L. (2025, March 31). Blue-collar workers are less satisfied at work, less attached to their jobs than other U.S. workers. Pew Research Center.https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/31/blue-collar-workers-are-less-satisfied-at-work-less-attached-to-their-jobs-than-other-us-workers/
Greenberg, E., Schaefer, E., & Weddle, B. (2024, April 9). Tradespeople wanted: The need for critical trade skills in the US. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/tradespeople-wanted-the-need-for-critical-trade-skills-in-the-us
Hardy, N., Barbosa-Resende, C., Kereri, J., & Taghinezhad, A. (2024). Root and Causes of Skilled Labor Shortage in Construction Industry: Comprehensive Literature Review. The Professional Constructor, 58-73.
Homeroom Blog. (2026, January 13). Connecting Talent to Opportunity: A National Challenge to Build Talent Marketplaces. U.S. Department of Education. https://www.ed.gov/about/homeroom-blog/connecting-talent-opportunity-national-challenge-build-talent-marketplaces
JLL. (2026, April 21). Critical skilled trades shortage threatens $1T in economic losses [Press release].https://allwork.space/2026/04/critical-skilled-trades-shortage-threatens-1t-in-economic-losses/
Lucas, K. (2011). Blue-collar discourses of workplace dignity: Using outgroup comparisons to construct positive identities. Management Communication Quarterly, 25(2), 353-374.
Morgan, P. (2026, April 21). America's 'silent army' of skilled tradespeople are retiring with no one to replace them — and the price tag could hit $1 trillion a year. Fortune.https://fortune.com/2026/04/21/america-silent-army-jll-report-skilled-trades-job-shortage-cost/
Spector, P. E. (2024, April 7). It is time we started studying skilled trades workers. Paul Spector.https://paulspector.com/it-is-time-we-started-studying-skilled-trades-workers/
USAFacts. (2024, January 25). How many people work in the trades in the US?https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-people-work-in-the-trades/
Yudken, J. (2010). Manufacturing insecurity: America's manufacturing crisis and the erosion of the US defense industrial base. AFL-CIO.
Yung-Boxdell, H., Frerichs, V., Kiproff-Downer, L., Reiley, P. J., & Turner, S. M. (2026, April 30 - May 2). Expanding the Lens: I-O Practice Centering Overlooked Worker Groups [Alternative]. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, United States.