By Sarah Nicastro, Founder and Editor in Chief, Future of Field Service

"Getting 300,000 people into a training program is not the same thing as getting 300,000 people into a career."
— Andrew Brown, Founder and CEO of Trades Media LLC

There have been numerous recent headlines about significant investments geared toward addressing the massive need for more skilled workers. Google recently announced a $50 million investment to help prepare more than 300,000 American workers across more than 20 states.

Maggie Johnson, Global Head of Google.org says, “Building and maintaining the infrastructure for America's future requires a massive, coordinated workforce of skilled tradespeople — from the welders and pipefitters securing complex cooling systems, to the electricians and fiber technicians powering advanced network grids. These jobs offer high-wage careers that can support local communities. There are hundreds of thousands of skilled trade roles currently open across the U.S waiting to be filled.”

Around the same time, Meta announced its America’s Workforce Academy (AWA) initiative in which it’ll invest $115 million in the first year. The program, which will launch in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas as the 2026 pilot locations, not only provides free training but also offers a guaranteed job for graduates.

Earlier in 2026, BlackRock’s Future Builders initiative was announced as a $100 million philanthropic initiative to reach 50,000 Americans with training and support to address urgent labor needs and promising to build long-term financial security for workers.

“Throughout our history, tradespeople have built our country,” said Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock in the release. “America needs an estimated $10 trillion in infrastructure investment by 2033 to modernize aging systems and build new energy, digital, and AI infrastructure. Capital alone is not enough – people are central to building our nation’s future. By bringing policymakers, corporate leaders and labor champions together, we’re helping ensure this growth delivers shared prosperity and greater economic mobility for more Americans.”

Recruitment is Only One Piece of the Puzzle

While it’s great to see programs like those outlined above being introduced, Andrew Brown, founder and CEO of Trades Media LLC, makes an excellent point in this Contractor Magazine article. He cautions, “Getting 300,000 people into a training program is not the same thing as getting 300,000 people into a career.”

Not only do I agree, but I’d take that point a step further – it isn’t the same as getting 300,000 people into a career, but even if it were – what will we do to keep them there?

BlackRock, Google, Meta and the like have a vested interest in the creation of programs like what’s outlined above. And that’s OK – to the extent they expand awareness of the career potential of many of these roles, in addition to the individuals they’ll directly help, it’s a win/win.

But there’s a sustainability piece of this puzzle that needs to be considered; recruiting more frontline workers only solves one part of the problem – arguably the easier part. Retention – the responsibility of the future employers of this talent - deserves equal, if not more, attention. This is a complex challenge because the expectations and desires of new talent entering the workforce differs from that of the talent aging out.

Companies don’t have an easy task at hand in shaping a strategy not only to create an employee experience that will flow over to the customer experience, but also to keep strong talent engaged, nurtured, and satisfied. But they must.

Tapping into the Voice of the Frontline

While the solution is individual to each organization, I do think there’s a wealth of insight that is often overlooked – the voice of the frontline. If leaders were to want to understand what matters most, what challenges are most difficult, what the organization does especially well, or what is lacking from the employee experience – they could unlock a treasure trove of perspective by simply asking.

This isn’t to say leaders don’t listen to the frontline – I think the good ones do. But when it comes to creating a talent strategy that’s fit for purpose in the future of service work, I think many avoid asking the questions because they’re unsure what to do with the answers. While I can empathize, ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.

In March we introduced a new monthly series of our weekly UNSCRIPTED podcast – Frontline UNSCRIPTED. After years of interviewing service leaders, I’ve learned so much after just a few short months of interviews with frontline talent. And it’s made me realize how much knowledge they hold, not only related to the problems they are responsible for solving each and every day, but that leaders could tap into to determine what’s likely to be successful in keeping employees happy and effective.

Understanding What Matters to Your Target Talent

As I look back through the four episodes we’ve released so far, there are already numerous insights to influence change. Here are five truths shared by our initial guests that send a strong signal to leaders about what matters most (which should influence how the talent strategy evolves):

• A sense of purpose matters – and it motivates. In episode number one, Phil Manchester, Service Team Lead at AirTight FaciliTech spoke about what he loves most about his work. “I mean, it’s never good that someone has a problem, but it’s always a good feeling when you go in there and help. When they're sweating because it's 95 degrees out or their business is about to shut down, and you go in and you figure out what's wrong and fix it,” he explains. “You’ve made their day – they’re always so happy. You know? And that’s such a good feeling. Like, I didn’t save the world – but I definitely made their day better, which makes me feel better, and it makes me proud of what I’m doing.”

This sense of accomplishment – of making a difference – is appealing. And, as Phil mentions, it doesn’t have to be on the grandest of scales – service keeps the world running in a variety of ways; it’s the sense of fulfillment that comes from helping others that is significant, not necessarily the type of job being done.

• One-size-fits-all leadership is out. Another really insightful point that came up during my conversation with Phil is the reality that today’s leaders must put in more effort to meet people where they are. In his team lead role, he’s learned a lot about communication preferences and has taken the onus to tailor his approach.

“With the older age group, people are a little bit more blunt a lot of the time, and you can just be straightforward to the point. Like – alright, let’s get off the phone – we don’t need to be talking all day. Which I like. With some of the younger guys, things have to be set a little nicer and maybe tiptoed around a little bit, which is not a problem. Everybody’s just a little different and learning that is the hardest part,” Phil explains. “If you're set in the ways of being too blunt and too honest and just here's your information, bye; it's not going to work for the younger generation. They want they want a little bit more of the why behind things. The younger guys on my team, I tell them to go do something and they ask why; why am I doing that? They don’t know why – so, I’ll show them, we’ll go over it, and I’ll explain why we do what we do. You can take this as someone talking back to you, or you can take it as them wanting to learn. They don’t want to just be told what to do, they want to understand. It presents its challenges, but it’s a good thing – it means they’re hungry for knowledge, and I love that.”

• A path for growth is crucial. In our second episode, Jacob Brumbelow, a service technician at MaxAir Mechanical, spoke about the fact that having opportunities to grow are something he prioritizes in any career decision. “Growth my number one in terms of what’s important. If there's a ceiling, it’s a no for me,” he says. “In this industry, it feels like there's so many different opportunities for growth to develop myself to be the best me that I can be. And that's something that I really value, and which pulls me forward, that personal growth. Of course, how the company treats their employees, how they value them, matters too. The company I’m at does a great job of making you feel seen, listening to your thoughts and opinions, and including you.”

There’s plenty of data that supports this desire is widely shared. What I think companies should try harder to understand is how progression is a motivating factor. Often leaders assume this drive is a delusional ‘race to the top’ or tied directly to seeking dollars, but in reality, progression offers a sense of achievement, development, and accomplishment. This emotional fulfillment isn’t the only objective, but it would be worthwhile to consider it further.

Further, companies need to determine a path for growth that isn’t dependent on promoting each field engineer to supervisor to manager to director and so forth. Not every frontline employee that desires progression wants to manage a team – and not every service leader who’s been given a team to lead should have been. Quality of leadership is so important in today’s ever-changing landscape; companies need to adapt accordingly.

• Flexibility and work-life balance need to be reimagined. In our third episode, I spoke with Fernando Ferreyra, Service Engineer for the Technical Solutions Center at QuidelOrtho, who used to be a field engineer and then took his current remote role. “This role has the benefit of work-life balance. Now I get to work from home, which was really appealing to me,” he says. “I was already in this position when my wife decided to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner. Now that I'm working from home, it's easier for her to go back into her career.”

Companies will be well-served to put more time and effort into considering how to leverage today’s digital capabilities to offer greater flexibility to the frontline. Individuals want to feel some autonomy – there are plenty of options to provide that sense in a way that’s aligned to what the company needs to achieve. Tomorrow’s talent will demand it, in my opinion.

• In the AI era, the impact of the soft (or human) skills of the frontline are magnified. For our fourth episode, I talked with Marina George, who at the time was a Field Service Engineer at Oxford Instruments, about her path into field service and what she’s learned in the role. She came in well-prepared technically, but less so from a soft skills perspective.

“So, I came in, and I know the technical details. And I know how academia works, but everybody has so many different personalities and different goals. There is a really large range of personalities and also priorities from customers,” she says. “The biggest piece of advice that I got was to just be myself. You don't need to perform. You don't need to have a specific way to work with customers. If you just come to the customer as yourself, like another human being and say, okay. Number one, I’m listening. I hear what you're saying. This is our plan. And then following up on the plan. That was really important advice, because in our tool belt we have all of these sophisticated skills, but I wasn’t really sure how to act or what to say.”

Marina’s experience is food for thought when we consider not only the historical tendency to not provide enough soft skills training, but how the frontline role will evolve as a result of AI and automation. I’d venture to guess those human skills become the priority, and companies should be both seeking and supporting talent in ways that align.