Have you ever gone grocery shopping without a list of the items that are needed?

If you’re like me, you come home with way more stuff than intended, yet are still out of some of the things that were most needed. And, you may not have the right blend of items to make a proper meal.

With 2022 just around the corner, it’s time for the Chamber to take inventory of our proverbial pantry to provide the best service and support to our members. Rather than just roaming the aisles, looking for something that looks attractive, we want to get what our members are looking for.

Right after the New Year, the Chamber will launch our 2022 Wage & Benefits Survey, which is open to all businesses. Based on informal conversation with our members, we believe there has been compensation movement across most industries; particularly as local businesses grapple with labor shortages, lingering pandemic workplace disruptions and rising costs of benefits.

The data collected will help employers benchmark their own employee recruitment and retention efforts.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, national compensation costs for private industry workers at the end of the third quarter increased 4.6 percent over the prior 12 months, while the cost of benefits increased 2.6 percent. The leisure and hospitality industry experienced some of the highest upward pressure on compensation, with wages rising 6.1 percent and cost of benefits increasing 6.9 percent.

The Chamber’s effort to refresh wage and benefit data in the fall of 2021 was limited by a glitch in the software used to gather the information. Fortunately, the problem was quickly discovered and the decision was made to move forward in early 2022 with a new program. If you were among the businesses that replied, we offer our apologies and ask for you to resubmit your data when the new online link is distributed.

We will also be leaning into our members to help inform our decisions around the Chamber’s key 2022 Program of Work priorities — Housing, Childcare, Education/ Training, and Broadband. And, we will be actively listening for other ways we can serve members through networking, leadership development and workforce services.

For example, the Chamber has recently resumed free rapid COVID-19 testing for employees of our members inresponse to the Omicron variant surge and will work to disseminate information on recently amended safe return-to-work protocols.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, our members have strongly expressed how meaningful the Chamber’s response has been in helping manage workforce disruption and improving business decision making.

The pandemic has helped the Chamber reevaluate member events, providing opportunities to improve on the quality and value of both in-person and virtual programming. Again, decisions that are being powered by feedback from our members.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a Member Benefits store where we can stock up on things, but we can develop an informed list of employer needs to work on in the year ahead. It’s a shopping list that can feed the organization for some time to come.

McBride is the president and CEO of the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce.