Economic development and workforce development work hand in hand to facilitate a healthy economy, says Elodie Dickinson, Lexington’s workforce development manager. Strong economic development helps retain businesses and promote the area to companies looking for an area to locate, while workforce development strategies help establish career pathways and encourage a robust workforce, as well as equip employees with the skills they need to thrive in today’s economy.
Elodie Dickinson
“There is also a focus on supporting businesses through sharing best practices for employee retention,” Dickinson said. “When there is a higher workforce participation rate, our community’s economy thrives.”
Sometimes too much of a good thing can create unexpected challenges, however—such as when employment rates are very low, as they are currently. While full employment, as economists refer to these periods, supports economic development, it can be difficult for employers to find qualified candidates to fill open positions. Retaining existing employees and providing ongoing training can also be tougher.
“There is a skills gap that exists,” Dickinson said. “The available workforce needs opportunities to gain the skills they need to qualify for jobs in their area of interest.”
Building on a solid foundation
Dickinson works with the University of Kentucky, Bluegrass Community Technical College, Commerce Lexington, nonprofit agencies and local businesses to identify and coordinate workforce development strategies. She’s an advocate of businesses finding and developing their own workforce through clearly defined channels that include on-the-job training, apprenticeships and internships.
Conrad Carney
Xooker, a rapidly growing local tech company that produces a hyperlocal mobile marketing app, has hired 90 students from area universities for paid internships over the past two years.
“One of the things we’re very proud of is that they’re plugged in just like a team member,” said Xooker CEO and chairman Conrad Carney. “A lot of our hires have come from people that have interned with us. We use that as one of our tools to being able to recruit new employees.”
Many of Xooker’s 16 employees and 26 independent contractors are executive consultants who work in sales and customer service. Within the next 12 months, Carney expects to fill 300 additional jobs at its Lexington headquarters and expand into Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Charlotte, North Carolina, among other markets in the four states represented.
“One of the reasons we’re glad … to stay in Central Kentucky is because of the pool of talent coming out of the universities,” Carney said. “We are excited about the team we’ve been able to recruit and retain.”
More jobs than skilled workers
A nearly zero percent unemployment rate is also creating some unprecedented situations for businesses to contend with, said Beverly Clemons, president of CMI Consulting, a Lexington-based human resources consulting firm. She is seeing clients in different industries who want to expand operations, but can’t find skilled workers in both technical and soft skills. Increasingly, promising candidates will also unexpectedly drop out partway through the employment process.
Beverly Clemons
“Recently, we had a client who set up interviews for an entry-level customer service position,” she said. “They set up 15 interviews, and two people showed up. We have people who will accept an offer of employment and resign the same morning, or work half a day and not come back. And again, this is in all industries at all levels. Honestly, it is a bit mind-blowing.”
Clemons also helps organizations design processes for retaining talent. She advises a foundational approach in re-evaluating the company’s core mission, vision and values in light of today’s economic landscape. Businesses should also look for opportunities to foster a sense of community and purpose, which many employees—especially among the younger generation—value.
“Companies need to look for ways to provide their employees with opportunities for making a societal impact,” Clemons said.
Core values and outside-the-box thinking
Diversity, innovation, respect, compassion and teamwork are the values UK HealthCare follows when recruiting staff. As a top-five employer statewide, UK HealthCare has more than 11,000 employees. That’s more than double what the workforce was in 2003. Total personal salaries and benefits 15 years ago were around $340 million; now that number is more than $1 billion.
Colleen Swartz
“First and foremost, we look for talent with patient- and family-centered core values,” said Colleen Swartz, chief administrative officer and chief nurse executive. “We are currently experiencing a market shortage for several key clinical roles, including nursing, specialty radiology technologists, specialty ultrasonographers and laboratory scientists.”
One way the medical centers are dealing with workforce shortages is by partnering closely with their academic counterparts at UK to stay current with the rapidly changing health-care industry, in terms of both technology and data, “especially extemporaneous data that influences clinical decision making,” Swartz said. “We also are looking at successful industries outside health care to learn about process improvement, such as the engineering and aviation industries.”
When business owners look to hire for specific skill sets and individuals experience frustrations with the application process, perhaps both sides would do well to cast a wider net. For example, Swartz would like to see people without health-care experience consider entering the field. “We are much more open than we have ever been to include individuals with fresh eyes and perspectives to bring to our health-care traditions,” she said. “I also think we have to be more adaptable to generational expectations of work/life balance and resiliency. These aspects cannot be underestimated.”