A promising career path and a company with a promising new employee, new trainings are emerging to help solve workforce challenges. In the final part of my three-part series on workforce, we look at how we move forward given the tremendous challenges facing businesses.
There’s really two ways to look at this. First, what can businesses do to better recruit and retain workers in today’s environment? There are a number of approaches out there and with competition for talent global, it’s important to look at what is working. I encourage all businesses to be flexible and adaptable, offering innovative incentives to attract and retain workers.
Second, there are a number of things the community is doing to help better train and prepare individuals for the workforce. Many of our local educational institutions are well-aware of the workforce challenges and taking important steps to help solve the problem. Additionally, the Chamber and other partners are working on several programs such as a job shadowing program, a talent attraction campaign, a community-wide soft skills initiative and others.
Perhaps one of the more exciting things recently has been LaunchCode, a 20-week training that teaches students computer programming. Put on by Codefi, there were 18 graduates in the first cohort, representing a strong 47% graduation rate, but I just want to share one compelling story from the class. One graduating student was hired to a position making more than $40,000. 20-weeks ago, he was not employed, while his wife worked to support the two of them and a child making only $900/month. Now this was obviously a life changing experience for this young man. But even more than that a local business was able to find an employee, trained locally, in an in-demand field that will help the company grow. We must continue to do more to create pipelines for employers in growing professions in our region.
