I have spent decades devoted to helping you hire excellent people. It has always been challenging work, but thanks to a recent book, I now understand why this challenge will become even harder unless we act now.

The book Of Boys and Men provides the facts around why so many young and middle-aged men are failing in school, careers, family, and life in general. Author Richard Reeves has no end of gloomy statistics to cite:

• Suicides are the No. 2 cause of death among U.S. men under 45, and the number of suicides is up 35% since 2000.

• Men are three times more likely than women to commit suicide and four times more likely than women to die from a fentanyl overdose.

• One-third of adult men are living with their parents.

• One in four school-aged boys is categorized as having a developmental disability. Often, this simply is because their brains mature later than girls. (One of Reeves’ suggestions is to have boys start school a year later than girls.)

• The workforce participation rate of men aged 20 and above has dropped from roughly 87% in 1955 to 77% in 2000 to 70% today.

These statistics matter especially for LBM because men make up 70% of the production, 80% of the transportation, and 90% of the construction work force. We have no shortage of senior highly experienced male professionals who could become excellent mentors – it might be our industry’s greatest asset. Pro-oriented LBM dealers are about 80% male, with the share dropping as you move to smaller and more retail-oriented hardware stores. For various reasons, the traditional pool of workers is shrinking.

Reeves also cites girls’ strong academic performance (two-thirds of the top 10% of graduating high school seniors are girls) and their growth and dominance continuing in the professional world. Female-heavy career roles have not been displaced by offshoring and robotic automation as men have.

Reeves: “Women need a man like fish need a bicycle.”

• 2/5 of women earn more than 50% of men.

• 3/10 moms earn more than their husbands.

• 57% of bachelor’s degrees are awarded to women.

• 50% of MD, DDS, DMD, JD are earned by women.

While it is valid only 10.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, this fact is not an accurate measure for the remaining 99.9% of the population. Reeves references Hans Rosling, and teaches the Gap Instinct, the human tendency to oversimplify complex problems into two groups. Rosling “We love to Dichotomize” And believe there is nothing between the gaps. He stresses that the world’s future needs both men and women to succeed. In America today, societal architecture and gender dynamics often hurt boys’ and men’s progress.

The book outlines men joining the local White Nationalist Group or reaching for opioids in an effort to search for the same solution – a sense of purpose and belonging. The rugged, individualistic Marlboro Man—someone who doesn’t talk about feelings and is expected to solve his problems alone—has become a destructive media concept.

Reeves believes the problems start early, often in households without fathers, and continue at schools where the percentage of male teachers has declined. This lack of role models may mean the people available to hire might be short of men th ey can learn from and admire. These societal factors create enormous opportunities for company leaders to build a mentorship-focused culture.

Here are other steps you can take to shift your culture to take advantage of your advantages:

• Social Mentorship Program: Young men are ushered into manhood by more experienced men. Provide a safe place for their masculinity to thrive. Mentors who will teach how best to protect their family and tribe, take risks, self-mastery, provide stability, and increase earning power.

• Competition and Collaboration: Men love both, so sponsor a wide range of sporting teams: Softball, Bowling, Sporting Clays, Golf.

• Inclusive Character Building: Create a culture that provides the code for men that values female agency, that acknowledges differences but does not denigrate women to do so. Character building that’s inclusive, not exclusive.

Company leaders who recognize this social trend and the vacuum it creates can pivot their culture and solve their hiring challenge in one fell swoop.

Hire Smarter™

Tony Misura