United States Articles
D.M. Partnership releases its recommendations
October 7, 2006
Mark Yontz had a degree from an Iowa university. He had about 15 years of experience. He had stellar references.
So, why did it take the Iowa native a year to find a job so he could move his family from Michigan back to his home state?
"We never, ever thought it would be a problem finding our way back to Iowa," said Yontz, now a marketing manager at Triple F's Insta-Pro, which makes extruders in Urbandale. "All we heard was that Iowa was desperate for people to come home. ... But there's a disconnect between what the governor says as he travels the country and what's happening here in the trenches on hiring."
The Greater Des Moines Partnership says it's not just Yontz who's frustrated.
Employers, public training and job placement agencies, and schools need to do a better job of connecting workers and employers, especially with central Iowa facing a projected shortage of 60,000 workers during the next decade, said Martha Willits, chief executive of the Greater Des Moines Partnership.
The group on Friday released recommendations - mostly organizational - that would put more focus on coordinating work-force education, recruitment and retention efforts.
"Things aren't meshing the way they should," Willits said. "We've got gaps. We've got young people looking for jobs. We've got employers needing workers. How do we help that match?
"We have to become much more intentional about work-force strategies."
The recommendations range from creating a board of "heavy hitters" - corporate executives, labor and public leaders - who address work- force issues to creating more internship opportunities for college students. The proposals also include having large and small employers work together, sharing information about job candidates who want their resumes in a candidate pool.
"There really is a war for talent out there ... but we're looking to put our territorialism aside to help our companies, the community and individuals," said Loran Storts, a human resources leader at Wells Fargo.
Yontz said he hopes the partnership's initiative goes beyond creating committees. "I've seen these issues get committeed to death," he said. "There are no shortage of ideas. The question is: who will be on these boards and what action will they take?"
Pulling Together
Central Iowa has good training programs, good job placement programs, and strong education systems - kindergarten through 12th grade, community colleges and universities, said Willits and Robert Denson, president of the Des Moines Area Community College.
Problems exist in getting all those programs to work together and tied to corporate and economic development needs, Willits and Denson said.
The key is a better marriage between the needs of workers and employers, Willits said. She noted that the proposed boards - groups with metro-area and industry-specific focuses - must look at identifying training needs for underemployed and unemployed workers as well as retaining young people and recruiting workers.
Worker supply, Willits said, is critical to attracting jobs, corporate investment and to the community's economic health.
It's become a top priority for groups such as the Iowa Business Council, which is made up of leaders from Iowa's largest employers.
It spurred the creation of Diversity Focus, a group aiming to make minorities feel more welcome in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor as a way to recruit new residents.
One group recently projected that Iowa will be short 150,000 workers through 2012 - a number that was estimated to be as high as 500,000 before the terrorists attacks in 2001 accelerated a national slowdown.
Iowa's worker supply concerns stem from its aging work force colliding with the stagnant population growth.
For example, Iowans age 65 and older will grow to nearly 500,000 by 2015, about 60,000 more than now, Census figures show.
"Even if there's no worker shortage and worker supply is just flat, we'll be in trouble," Denson said. "We'll lose jobs and companies."
Willits said central Iowa's rapid economic growth has turned the heat on worker supply.
Allied-Nationwide, for example, has started construction on a $142 million expansion in downtown Des Moines and is adding 1,570 workers during the next three years.
In August, the Des Moines- area's unemployment rate was 2.9 percent, significantly less than the statewide rate of 3.6 percent.
Storts, the Wells Fargo human resources executive, said the message has been clear as employers met with the partnership to discuss work force issues: A talent shortage already exists in Des Moines.
Three hot markets
The Greater Des Moines Partnership recommends three groups form immediately to begin looking at employment needs in financial services, technology and construction, areas already seeing labor shortages.
"It's not just that we need tech workers, but we need tech workers who are entrepreneurial," said Mary Bontrager, the partnership's executive vice president of community development.
Tight labor markets result in companies raiding each other for workers, which drives up labor costs, Storts said.
That's why companies are talking about a proposed human resources consortium. Companies want to "leverage our strength to sell Des Moines first," then sell their individual businesses, Storts said.
The discussions have moved employers in a new direction: Proposals to share job candidate information, cooperate to find positions for "trailing spouses," even find new opportunities for existing workers with other companies to keep them and their families from leaving Des Moines and Iowa.
"If we attract more people to Des Moines and keep more people in Des Moines, we all win," Storts said.
Developing a better work force
The Greater Des Moines Partnership hopes to improve connections between workers and employers. The recommendations include:
- Creating a group of "heavy hitters" from labor, business and public agencies to address employment problems and challenges. The group, the partnership said, could use its clout to lobby state lawmakers on work force issues.
- Establishing 10 boards that represent Iowa industries - starting first with financial services, technology and construction, where officials say shortages are already evident - to respond quickly to changing needs within the industry, such as education, training or recruitment.
- Creating a human resources consortium that brings central Iowa's hiring leaders together to discuss employment needs and work together to recruit and retain workers as well as sell the Des Moines area. The group is also discussing posting openings in one spot online and sharing resumes with each other to better place available workers. Leaders say the exchange would only occur with applicants' permission to swap information.
- Creating a summer internship residency program to expand the pool of young workers who are exposed to central Iowa workplaces. The group would partner with local colleges to provide students with places to stay.
- Working with the Pappajohn Education Center in downtown Des Moines to give working residents opportunities for additional job training and education. The focus will be on adult learning opportunities that "mirror the real world of work," the group says.
- Developing a new marketing plan that focuses on "the quantity of life" in central Iowa, instead of the "quality of life." Loran Storts, a human resources executive at Wells Fargo, said focusing on schools and short commutes fails to appeal to younger and older audiences that may be less concerned about more family-oriented issues. The "quantity of life" tag line places the focus on the number of activities available in central Iowa - from arts and culture to professional sports, music and recreation, Storts said.
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