Workforce Supplement to the Q4 2018 Issue of Area Development

2018

BUILDING 21ST CENTURY SKILLS

Drawing a Maturing Workforce

What Is the Future of Work?

Family-Friendly Workplace Policies Can Help

Automation: Scary Threat or Major Opportunity?

The War for Talent

Attracting and Retaining Talent

Special Supplement to Area Development Magazine

The

Deciding Factor.

A quality workforce makes the difference between failure and success.

That’s why site selection professionals have ranked Georgia Quick Start the No. 1 workforce training program in the United States in nine out of nine annual surveys conducted

by Area Development magazine.

9

And that’s why the offer of Quick Start’s customized training has been the deciding factor for companies across the globe choosing to invest in Georgia.

N INE ANNUAL SURVEYS N INE CONSECUTIVE WINS

GeorgiaQuickStart.org

EDITOR’S NOTE According to a new 2018 skills gap study1 from Deloitte, conducted with The Manufacturing Institute, 2.4 million jobs will go unfilled over the next decade, risking $454 billion of economic output in 2028. (A 2015 skills gap study had put that number at 2 million unfilled jobs between 2015 and 2025 so the gap is growing.) Sadly, five out of 10 open positions for skilled workers in the U.S. manufacturing industry remain unfilled even today because of the skills shortage.

PUBLISHER: Dennis J. Shea

According to Forbes,2 the growing shortfall can be attributed to an education system that produces too few graduates grounded in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines as well as the misconception that manufacturers aren’t clean and progressive workplaces and an under-appreciation by young people and their parents of the favorable wages in U.S. manufacturing.

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jessica Whitebook

In response to the skilled labor shortage, companies like Siemens are taking a proactive approach. Siemens has revamped its recruiting, onboarding, retention, and training programs with plans to double its number of apprentices.

According to Michael Brown, vice president of Talent Acquisition for Siemens America, “Industry needs to build a system of industrial reskilling that is responsive to industry trends and that weathers the potentially adverse impacts to workers inherent in such an increasingly unpredictable job market.”

Valerie Krpata (ext. 218) valerie@areadevelopment.com

Realizing the unpredictability of the job market, companies are now recruiting college grads for positions that might not even exist. They’re looking for a candidate’s “transferable skills,” i.e., problem-solving or analytical ability. Companies need “workers who can adapt to ever-changing technology,” says Susan Arledge, president of Site Selection and Analytics at ESRP Real Estate.

Cheryl Cran, a “future of work” expert, further explains that companies are shifting their hiring criteria. “Where a specific job asked for a certain degree, employers are now looking to hire for culture fit and are prepared to train and develop for specifics related to the job,” she explains. And just as AI and automation are being used in the manufacturing process, these technologies are also being used in the hiring process with automated applications and screening processes.

EDITOR: Geraldine Gambale editor@areadevelopment.com ART & DESIGN: Patricia Zedalis

ADVERTISING: Bill Bakewicz (ext. 202) billbake@areadevelopment.com

DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER: Justin Shea jshea@areadevelopment.com BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Matthew Shea mshea@areadevelopment.com WEB DESIGNER: Carmela Emerson BUSINESS SERVICES: Barbara Olsen (ext. 225) olsen@areadevelopment.com EXECUTIVE OFFICES Halcyon Business Publications, Inc. PRESIDENT Dennis J. Shea dshea@areadevelopment.com FINANCE: Mary Paulsen finance@areadevelopment.com

These issues and others — including how automation will actually create more jobs than it will displace — are discussed in our Q4/2018 Workforce edition.

Also, the organizations profiled in this special edition can provide you with more information about their various workforce initiatives that can help your company to fulfill its labor force needs.

All Correspondence to: Area Development Magazine 400 Post Avenue, Westbury, NY 11590

Editor

phone: (516) 338-0900 toll free: (800) 735-2732 fax: (516) 338-0100 www.areadevelopment.com

1

https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/manufacturing/articles/future-of-manufacturing-skills-gap-study.html https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2017/03/15/u-s-manufacturing-labor-shortage-how-to-make-your-companya-happy-exception/#40b506407e13 2

©2018 Custom Publishing Group of Halcyon Business Publications, Inc., Publisher of Area Development Magazine 2018 • 3

CONTENTS 3

E d i t o r ’s N o t e

The War for Talent —

A Battle for Employee Attraction and Retention Employers need to anticipate the competition for employees, increase wages, recruit nationally, and utilize local site selection strategies to attract the desired talent.

8 Drawing a Maturing Urban Workforce

Outside the Central Business District

If a company wants to succeed in drawing — and retaining — a maturing urban workforce to urban fringe communities and beyond, it needs to focus on a location’s quality of life, high-level amenities, and sense of community.

14

ALABAMA

32 AIDT

F E AT U R E S

5

PROFILE/ SPONSORS

www.AlabamaRTP.org WWW.AIDT.EDU ARKANSAS

12–13 Arkansas Is Meeting Workforce Needs Through “Future Fit” Arkansas Economic Development Commission INFO@ARKANSASEDC.COM WWW.ARKANSASEDC.COM FLORIDA

16–17 Don’t Wait for the Right Talent. Create It. Enterprise Florida TVANDERHOOF@ENTERPRISEFLORIDA.COM WWW.FLORIDATHEFUTUREISHERE.COM GEORGIA

2 Georgia Quick Start WWW.GEORGIAQUICKSTART.ORG

What Is the Future of Work?

As they look to the future, today’s HR leaders need to quickly adjust to change and technological innovation in the 21st century.

18

ttracting and Retaining A Top Talent in the New Normal

Siemens has taken a new proactive approach to fulfilling its labor force needs with revamped recruiting, onboarding, retention, and training programs.

23 Workforce Automation:

Scary Threat or Major Opportunity?

Despite dire predictions that robots and automation

will displace workers, studies predict automation and robotics will actually create more — but different — jobs than they displace

30

ow Family-Friendly Workplace Policies H Can Help Solve America’s Labor Shortage

Companies that institute family-friendly workplace policies will be more successful in recruiting and retaining the skilled talent they need, leading to a more robust performance for themselves and the overall economy.

4 • WORKFORCE

KENTUCKY

20–21 W orkforce Development in Kentucky Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development WWW.THINKKENTUCKY.COM LOUISIANA

24–25 L ouisiana’s Customized

Workforce Solution Louisiana Economic Development PAUL.HELTON@LA.GOV WWW.OPPORTUNITYLOUISIANA.COM/FASTSTART MISSISSIPPI

7–11 Mississippi Plays to Win

Mississippi Development Authority GMCCULLOUGH@MISSISSIPPI.ORG WWW.MISSISSIPPI.ORG NEVADA

28–29 H enderson, Nevada —

An Oasis for Business City of Henderson BARBRA.COFFEE@CITYOFHENDERSON.COM WWW.HENDERSONNOW.COM

THE WAR FOR TALENT — A BATTLE FOR EMPLOYEE ATTRACTION AND RETENTION Employers need to anticipate the competition for employees, increase wages, recruit nationally, and utilize local site selection strategies to attract the desired talent.

I

f you want to win big in the war for talent, you have to be able to attract and retain the best talent.

Well-resourced tech companies are now seeking talent like never before — seeking to attract the top tech prospects and engineers and recruiting heavily out of Stanford, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and MIT. The truly “smart kids” have noticed this trend with more Harvard Business School grads going into

technology than into banking for the first time since the dot-com era.

Every employer today knows that the war for talent is very real.

The millennial generation has changed all perspectives about workforce. Millennials make their preferences clear: 88 percent say they want to live in

THE WAR FOR TALENT

63%

85%

87%

63% of CEOs are concerned about the

85% of the global workforce is actively or passively

AVAILABILITY OF KEY SKILLS

LOOKING FOR A NEW EMPLOYER

87% of the global workforce is “NOT ENGAGED” or is

PwC

LinkedIn

“ACTIVELY DISENGAGED” Gallup

By Susan Arledge, President, Site Selection and Analytics, ESRP Real Estate, Dallas, Texas 2018 • 5

an urban environment within a close distance to their jobs. And the C-Suite should be concerned — according to a LinkedIn talent blog,1 85 percent of the global workforce is actively or passively looking for a new employer!

When C-suite executives are asked what keeps them up at night, all of them answer, “Hiring the next generation of leaders.” So, for employers, the future of their organizations depends a lot upon the location of the real estate that is selected because, for the foreseeable future, they know they will be competing for quality employees.

What is the impact on this battle for talent?

Several years ago, Mark Lautman of Lautman Economic Architecture predicted2 that the impending chronic shortage of qualified workers is causing employers to rethink their business models, calling zero-sum labor the “C-suite’s next wicked problem.” In a zero-sum game, employers who need to add qualified employees to survive or grow would have to steal them from their competition. Lautman says a zero-sum game changes everything because it shifts the power in the hiring relationship from employer to employee.

To compound the situation, in five years, 75 million baby-boomers will be over 55. As they bail out of the workforce, there just aren’t going to be enough qualified entrants from the baby-bust generation to replace them.

Why should physics be taught in middle school?

Further, Lautman references the concept of teaching physics early.

After living in France, Germany, and South Korea early in his career, Ukrainian-born physicist Anatoliy Glushchenko, Ph.D., noticed that cities and countries either overproduce or underproduce technical talent.

His proposition was simple: A universal, age-appropriate physics curriculum that begins in fifth or sixth grade is the primary factor that separates places that overproduce technical talent from those that underproduce technical talent.

The underproducers wait until later in high school and sometimes make physics an elective. It turns out, if you start teaching physics in middle school, it com-

6 • WORKFORCE

pletely rewires the student’s brain for complex, analytical thinking and drives a student’s success metrics higher across all subjects.

Physics is the fundamental science discipline that describes how the world works. Whether a student goes on to become an engineer or a musician, the end game is the same. Studying physics at an early age develops critical thinkers who can internalize and process complex ideas as they advance in life. Most young brains are uniquely curious and eager to learn up until around fifth grade. Waiting to offer physics until the 12th grade chokes off interest in STEM fields and drives the sky-high attrition rate of freshman STEM majors.

Why is a community’s focus on developing STEM talent becoming so important? Because competing for quality STEM talent is becoming more and more challenging throughout the U.S.

Tra n s fe r ra b le ta le n t re p re s e n t s one creative way to compete.

Employers are now competing and creating new ways to bolster employee attraction and retention, such as hiring “transferrable talent,” where employees are hired for a position that doesn’t even exist. Companies will hire first and figure out jobs for recruits later. In competing for college recruits, companies like Facebook and Google are making offers without having a particular job waiting — or even a starting salary in mind.

Recruiters say that so-called “transferrable or program hiring” helps companies secure promising talent ahead of their competitors. By identifying a person’s transferrable talent, such as problem-solving or analytical ability, the employer can then find a job that puts those talents to the test. As businesses seek workers who can adapt to ever-changing technology shifts, companies are recruiting for innate abilities, such as high motivation, rather than skills applicable to a particular job, and they’re focusing on a candidate’s raw talent, not the job duties.

Intuit brings on about 200 new graduates annually in its hiring program, which commenced several years ago. This is designed to align the hire’s interests and talents with an available position. Teams that help with college campus recruiting know that they often get the first shot at new hires.

What are the potential threats to retention?

Everyone knows that in the U.S. we are facing a chronic shortage of qualified workers, and this fact is going to cause most employers to rethink their business models and their locations. As a result, location will become a critical factor. Retention will become defined by compensation, culture, and creating a positive work environment that is reflected in a company’s sense of “place” or its location.

Employees will have more of a choice about where they work, and the location of the company’s real estate will vastly affect that choice.

In order to remain competitive, companies will have to find ways to redesign their space to reduce occupancy costs because the requirement to select higher-profile locations where employees want to work is typically where rental rates are significantly increasing.

Additionally, economists all agree that wages are expected to increase in most markets in the coming months, especially for STEM talent. Employees have had little negotiating power with wages for a long time, but that is about to change.

Also, phrases such as “middle skills,” “skills gap” or “career pathways” all address the demand for skilled workers to fill jobs that don’t require four-year degrees. It’s widely accepted that the skills gap cannot be closed by government programs alone. Stakeholder collaboration between state and local government entities, academia, unions, and other organizations is the best way to tackle the skilled worker shortage.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Where is the future labor force headed?

In the early stages of analysis and data-gathering, the location decision becomes more about site elimination. Eliminating sites will be based on numerous operational and business factors for any given project, such as labor availability (quantity and quality of the workforce), labor sustainability, presence of organized labor, logistics/transportation, utility infrastructure, energy costs, taxes, permitting, regulatory climate, quality of life, and the often-overlooked incentive opportunities. However, labor is often the No. 1 factor companies consider during the site selection process. Therefore, areas with a strong projected population growth rate over the next five years will become increasingly important.

As a result, employers are going to need to be prepared to anticipate the competition for employees, increase wages, recruit nationally, and utilize local site selection strategies to attract the desired talent. In addition, it will be critical to create a desirable workplace environment and corporate culture for long-term sustainability in what has become a highly competitive labor market.

Mississippi’s 15 community and junior colleges provide employers tailor-made training programs. The right workforce makes a world of difference. Find out how Mississippi can make a difference for your company.

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https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2014/03/active-vs-passive-candidatesthe-latest-global-breakdown-revealed http://www.areadevelopment.com/skilled-workforce-stem/workforce-2014/zero-sum-labor-impending-worker-shortage-2276252.shtml

mississisppi.org/workforce

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DRAWING A MATURING URBAN WORKFORCE OUTSIDE THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT

If a company wants to succeed in drawing — and retaining — a maturing urban workforce to urban fringe communities and beyond, it needs to focus on a location’s quality of life, high-level amenities, and sense of community.

A

courtesy Westmoreland County Community College

young company’s real estate needs can change over its life in much the same way as the personal needs of its employees change over theirs. At the outset, startups and early-stage companies, particularly in exploding new industries like robotics and artificial intelligence, are typically drawn to space that’s centrally located within a city or near its universities. Younger employees find attributes like walkable or bike-able communities — where there are a lot of restaurants and amenities — attractive and are drawn to workplaces in such locations.

But as employee count and production capacity grow, companies will need more space to expand,

Welding student at the Advanced Technology Center of Westmoreland County Community College, an RIDC tenant

more senior employees will want to have their own offices, and employees starting families will consider moving to the suburbs for larger houses and better schools. Finding additional space within a city that’s convenient, affordable, and accommodating of these specifications is difficult to come by, but it presents an opportunity to owners and real estate developers in urban fringe communities and beyond to draw a maturing workforce to their properties.

Maintaining a “Vibe” While shifting needs will help make companies and their employees more open to the move, it doesn’t change the fact that they have become accustomed to working in a central business district-like atmosphere.

Property owners and developers who want to capitalize on this opportunity need to think about how they can make the move more palatable for companies with employees who have “grown up” in a vibrant urban environment. What will potential tenants see as positive features? Or drawbacks?

Central business districts have a “vibe” the maturing workforce will be reluctant to lose for what they might consider a more sterile, remote environment.

This naturally occurring energy is difficult to define, but the feeling of vitality and connectedness it engenders is a crucial asset to both communities and workplaces.

By Donald F. Smith, Jr., Ph.D., President, Regional Industrial Development Corporation of Southwestern Pennsylvania 8 • WORKFORCE

Although “vibe” is harder to come by in areas outside central business districts, it is not impossible to find or cultivate. Urban fringe communities often have an established “sense of place” — a walkable older business district with buildings that have good bones and housing stock that’s ripe for rehabbing into trendier space.

Brand image, as well as budget, weighs heavily on location decisions. Companies want space and a surrounding community that fits their workplace cultural identity. If the location doesn’t appeal to the talent a company is trying to attract, chances are the property will be passed over for one with more spark. For employees and potential employees, coming to work in a creative, amenities-rich environment is important, but it’s not all they care about. They also want to come to work in a neighborhood that makes them feel welcome, safe, and at home. How the surrounding community receives them, the atmosphere and identity it conveys, and their subsequent sense of belonging are all felt acutely by employees.

What’s near a property — such as restaurants, other businesses, and support services — can be as important as the property itself.

Employees want to be able to easily and comfortably go out for coffee breaks, take clients out to lunch or get drinks with co-workers and friends after work. If they can’t do those things, that’s an immediate strike against the property.

PARTNERSHIP IN SUCCESS

Potential of Urban Fringe While economically depressed, urban fringe neighborhoods are challenging to develop and market, they are also full of potential when the community has made a commitment to their revitalization. Owners and developers in such communities who attract new industry; establish a new economic pillar; rehab blighted, vacant properties, and put them back on the tax rolls will be lauded as catalysts for renewal. Even if nearby blight evokes negative images, potential tenants will take a chance on a property if it is a unique, interesting space, relatively inexpensive, and they are confident in the trajectory of local revitalization efforts.

Such an investment in a community’s turnaround can be mutually rewarding in the long run. As a case in point, the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Lawrenceville was “once a blue-collar neighborhood more down-and-out than up-and-coming,” according to Pittsburgh Magazine.1 The burgeoning new robotics industry in that area has not only put the industrial/residential community back on the map, it has also paved the way for its distinction as one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city. The redevelopment of old, obsolete industrial sites provided homes for this new industry and lit the match that sparked its renewal and economic upturn.

When a home-grown business expands, it speaks volumes about a state’s business climate and workforce. Saf-T-Cart’s more than three decades of growth and success says a lot about opportunities here. Start your success story in Mississippi.

mississisppi.org/workforce

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Governor Phil Bryant attends a reception at Milwaukee Tool’s Greenwood location to celebrate the company’s announcement to expand at all three of the company’s Mississippi locations. Olive Branch and Jackson join Greenwood in announcing 660 new jobs and a $33.4 million investment.

MISSISSIPPI PLAYS TO WIN Mississippi consistently recruits toptier companies with its highly skilled workforce — a workforce the state is committed to developing to fill the indemand jobs of the future.

In 2016, Gov. Phil Bryant enacted the Mississippi Works Fund. The fund commits $50 million to assist in growing the workforce of tomorrow. Seventy-five percent of the funds are allotted for new job creation, while 25 percent are allotted for existing workers and workforce certification. The fund has proven to be a valuable resource as corporate leaders rely on a quality trained workforce to help them achieve success and long-term growth in today’s dynamic marketplace by providing a pipeline of skilled workers for their facilities.

Glenn McCullough, Jr. Executive Director

•

Mississippi Development Authority P.O. Box 849 Jackson, MS 39205 800-360-3323 Fax: 601-359-4339

•

gmccullough@mississippi.org www.mississippi.org 10 • WORKFORCE

“The Mississippi Works Fund legislation is a proven, valuable resource to companies and educational institutions. Mississippi develops a workforce to help ensure our corporate partners achieve their goals in our state,” Gov. Phil Bryant said.

Northrop Grumman, manufacturer of rotary and fixed-wing autonomous systems and manned platforms in support of the United States and its global allies, announced the addition of a mix of new work to its Unmanned Systems facility in Jackson County. The project is a $3.7 million investment creating 60 jobs for workers along the Mississippi Gulf Coast — employees receiving training as a result of the Mississippi Works Fund.

“Northrop Grumman has expanded our operations in Moss Point and grown our aerospace workforce at the site by more than 40 percent since 2017,” said Kevin Mitchell, sector vice president, Global Operations, Northrop Grumman. “We greatly appreciate the strong support from state and local partners and our federal delegation.”

Toolmaker Milwaukee Tool and thirdparty logistics provider FedEx Supply Chain are also benefiting from the Mississippi Works Fund, as funds support the training of the companies’ 660 and 450 new employees, respectively.

The legislation also has been instrumental in the start-up of programs critical to helping fill in-demand manufacturing and high-tech jobs throughout the state. Addressing a need to fill high-tech coding jobs, Mississippi Works funds assisted in the creation of the Mississippi Coding Academies. The program prepares highly motivated high school graduates for careers in the high-tech field of coding.

The state’s proactive workforce development initiatives position companies for years of growth and viability in Mississippi. To learn more, contact the Locate Mississippi team at 1.800.360.3323 or LocateInMS@mississippi.org.

Suburban Amenities Blight is often less of an issue for more suburban communities — neighborhoods that are a little further out from the central business district and urban fringe. Potential tenants and their employees are sometimes leery of these locations because they may feel sterile in appearance or isolated. Property owners and developers need to focus on creating community-connected properties and build a high level of amenities into the property to make it feel less like a product of urban sprawl. A unique property will make it more appealing to a maturing urban workforce.

Attractive high-level on-site amenities may include: • Green spaces and picnic areas • Rooftop patios • Skylights to let in natural light • Fitness amenities • Indoor parking • Bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly roads and paths Older suburban centers that leverage and invest in their main streets can offer nearly all the benefits of central-city living, at lower cost, and with less congestion. Access to restaurants, places of entertainment, community events, and public amenities — like parks, pools, libraries, sports fields/leagues, and bike trails — are important to a maturing workforce, but so are affordable houses, good public schools, and ease of transportation.

Employees don’t want long, heavily trafficked daily commutes.

Properties located on routes that are easily accessible by public transportation or car will have an advantage. In cases where buses and light rails are inconvenient to use or not readily available, which can sometimes be the case outside central business districts and urban fringe communities, there needs to be nearby residential areas with diverse housing options.

Apartments and condos may be preferred by young, single employees, but a maturing workforce that’s starting families will likely be more interested in buying a house. In either case, companies being able to offer their employees the option of living near where they work can be a major draw.

Quality of life, high-level amenities, and a rich sense of community are crucial elements to retaining a maturing workforce long-term. Companies cannot grow and flourish without talented employees. If a property cannot attract the workforce that a company strives to employ, and support its overall growth, it will fall out of the running rather quickly in the location decision-making process. Owners and developers marketing their properties to young and maturing companies need be cognizant of that if they want to succeed in drawing a maturing urban workforce to urban fringe communities and beyond.

DRIVEN TO SUCCEED

Mississippi’s highly skilled workforce rolls out nearly 500,000 new vehicles annually, tests engines bound for outer space and builds the most technologically advanced warships in the world. Come discover why successful companies make their best products in Mississippi.

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https://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/February-2015/Welcome-to-the-New-Pittsburgh-A-CityTransformed/

mississisppi.org/workforce

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ery visits with Arkansas manufacturers, AEDC found approximately 10,000 unfilled jobs and the need for more capable and skilled workers in the pipeline. Of those unfilled jobs, 26.2 percent require no formal education, and 52.5 percent require a high school diploma or GED, plus some postsecondary training.

Manufacturing is fundamental to Arkansas’s economic diversity and success, and there’s a need for more skilled workers in the pipeline. “Future Fit” is a new, 120-hour manufacturing training program designed for recent high school graduates, military veterans, for unemployed or underemployed individuals, and for non-violent offenders.

ARKANSAS IS MEETING WORKFORCE NEEDS THROUGH “FUTURE FIT” Arkansas has been a leader in manufacturing for more than half a century, and today’s advanced manufacturing jobs provide a better work environment, higher pay, and a greater standard of living. Arkansas boasts 2,928 manufacturers that make products ranging from paper products to textiles, machinery to packaged food items, making advanced manufacturing fundamental to the state’s economic diversity and success.

The Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC) helps companies in the state to grow and evolve through a variety of programs and training, expanding markets, enhancing value within supply chains and Mike Preston, Executive Director collaboration among public and private Arkansas Economic Development partners to make the Commission state’s businesses 900 West Capitol Avenue, more competitive.

Suite 400 Little Rock, AR 72201 501-682-1121 After conducting more than 1,800 face-to-face discovinfo@ArkansasEDC.com www.ArkansasEDC.com

•

•

12 • WORKFORCE

AEDC collaborated with 10 companies in western Arkansas to identify job roles and the required skills sets to fill their entry-level employee roster. Next, AEDC partnered with Tooling U, the training arm of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, to create “Future Fit,” a 120-hour training program that could remedy or at least give relief to companies struggling to find sufficient talent.

To best suit their training needs, each company provided a subject matter expert to create job profiles for (1) Production Operator/ Assembly, (2) Mechanical Repair Technician, and (3) Mechatronics Technician roles. These job standards were utilized to create an initial screening assessment for program applicants, a curriculum to educate and train candidates for employment at these companies, and a final assessment as part of Future Fit training.

Future Fit is designed for high school graduates who don’t plan to enroll in a college or university, for military veterans, for unemployed or underemployed individuals, and for non-violent offenders released from community correction.

Those populations often have difficulty financing postsecondary training, but that burden can be alleviated through the ArFuture Grant from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. The scholarship provides for tuition and fees for eligible students enrolled in regional high-demand areas of study or STEM fields.

While Future Fit is piloted in western Arkansas, AEDC will scale up the program to the entire state with industry-specific training for each region. For more information on the state’s workforce development efforts, visit www.ArkansasEDC.com.

SITE SELECTION SITE SELECTION WAS REINVENTED WAS HERE. ArkansasEDC.com/AD REINVENTED HERE.

Site selectors told us they wanted a website that facilitated efficient and informed decisions.

We responded with a new site that quickly lets you find incentives, available locations and anything else you need, in a few simple clicks. See how we’re reinventing site selection and making it even easier to do business here, at the new ArkansasEDC.com/AD.

AEDC 35704-2 PIN DROP Area Development_rr.indd 1

10/8/18 3:46 PM

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF WORK?

As they look to the future, today’s HR leaders need to quickly adjust to change and technological innovation in the 21st century. In this interview, Cheryl Cran, a “future of work expert,” discusses why companies must build “future-ready” workplaces that are attractive to multiple generations of diverse workers. They also need to locate these workplaces in dynamic communities that will provide the workforce with a fulfilling lifestyle.

Today’s low unemployment rate has made it more difficult for companies to find the skilled workers they need. You have said employers need to be “future-ready” in this competitive environment.

Can you explain that?

Cran: Future-ready means that organizations have future-ready leaders — millennials and Gen Z want to work for leaders who will provide a career path, provide growth and learning and opportunity. It means that HR needs to have flex opportunities, work-fromhome opportunities, remote-worker programs, and the latest technology to allow workers to work collaboratively. Senior leaders need to be willing to invest in people and people development, as well as upgrading technology systems. All of these things lead to a company being both future-ready as well as being able to attract and retain top talent.

How is the shrinking labor pool impacting companies’ recruiting processes?

Cran: Many companies are shifting their hiring criteria — where a specific job asked for a certain degree, employers are now looking to hire for culture fit and are prepared to train and develop for specifics related to the job. HR is having to look at creative ways to find talent, including incentives as well as increasing presence in schools and universities to recruit right out of school. In countries such as South Africa, education

By Geraldine Gambale, Editor

14 • WORKFORCE

and employers are partnering to create “learnerships,” which are paid internships for students to help bridge the talent gap.

Can you discuss the need for diversity and inclusion in the workforce?

Cran: Diversity and inclusion are critical to the future of work — the more diverse and inclusive the culture, the more innovation, and the more that the general public is represented. Researchers such as McKinsey, the World Economic Forum, and Futurism.com have verified this.

One of the positive outcomes of the labor shortage is that employers are looking at finding people where they may not have looked before. For example, returning veterans, or retired workers looking to work part time, or hiring culturally diverse people and also hiring more women, including single mothers and babyboomer women.

What role do AI and automation play in the recruiting process?

Cran: AI and automation are helping to identify potential hires via online usage. For example, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google could identify that someone is looking for a job, and targeted online recruiting efforts can match up to people searching for work. We will see even more automation being used such as automated applications and automated reference check-

ing, and we are seeing an increase in online interviews via FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, or other platforms.

ability to have a say and create their own jobs. They want to leverage robotics and technology, and they want to have their own business one day.

What other creative techniques are being utilized to find the necessary talent?

Are retirees being drawn back into the workforce?

Cran: Companies are finding out what their top talent has in common. For example, a few years ago, an HVAC client found that their best workers were those who enjoyed hunting and fishing as their hobbies. The company creatively decided to put a recruiting booth at a series of hunting and fishing tradeshows within their states and was able to recruit quite effectively.

Cran: Yes — the number of baby-boomers retiring is causing a “refiring.” That is, many baby-boomers are retiring from long-term jobs, but they are looking to stay busy and continue earning well until they are about 75 — the predicted new age of retirement in the near future. This presents an opportunity to target retirees from certain industries. For example, if some-

LEADERS NEED TO IDENTIFY the skills that indicate someone is suited for leadership or for another opportunity in the company.

The first question to ask is, “What do we know about how we have successfully recruited?” Then, from there, “How do we find people like our top performing people?” Leaders and teams need to brainstorm and come up with ways to engage. Video needs to be leveraged on websites for recruiting — interview your happy employees and post those on your websites.

What is meant by finding the “potential” in talent?

Cran: Finding “potential” in talent or people means leaders looking for strengths in the people they lead.

Leaders need to identify the skills that indicate someone is suited for leadership or suited for another opportunity in the company. This is why I say that leaders need to be future-ready by building the ability to grow and coach people to their highest potential. Potential is, “What is this person capable of and how can I help him or her get there?”

What do millennials want in a job? How about Gen Z? Cran: Millennials want flexibility, mobility, the latest technology, and fast progress. Their attitude is, “If I am doing the job well in a few months, why not promote me?” It’s not because they think they are better than others, it’s because they are linking performance to progress.

Gen Zs want entrepreneurial opportunities, the

one spent 30 years in the oil and gas industry and is retiring, he or she may be perfect to work part time or on contract in the agriculture industry.

What about luring workers who are geographically mobile back to the communities where they grew up and/or went to school?

Cran: Millennials and Gen Zs do tend to move back to their communities once they start a family; however, with the increasing technological innovation, people will live and work wherever they want. In the future, someone could live rurally but have a job that is global in nature. It’s not about “luring” them back; it’s more about the communities having the amenities that are attractive to millennials and Gen Zs — schools, entertainment, opportunities for family outings, etc.

Having more millennials and Gen Zs wanting to live in a community requires the employers, the city/town, and the education system coming together to make that community more attractive.

~

CHERYL CRAN is a “future of work expert” and founder of nextmapping.com,1 which helps companies with leadership development techniques to be more agile and innovative.

She is also the author of six books, including The Art of Change Leadership - Driving Transformation in a Fast-Paced World and her new book coming out this year, NextMapping - Anticipate, Navigate & Create the Future of Work. Cran’s work has been featured by Forbes, HuffPost, Metro New York, CBS, Fox News, and others. Her clients include AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, Gartner, Appirio, and Upwork, among others.

1

https://nextmapping.com/leadership-development-with-nextmapping/

2018 • 15

faculty from across Florida and the U.S., “Scientists at MPFI come from all over the world to work [and] thus you get an exchange of creative ideas that stem from unique backgrounds,” she said.

The Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience, located in Jupiter, Florida, is the first U.S. institute established by the Max Planck Society.

DON’T WAIT FOR THE RIGHT TALENT. CREATE IT. Florida’s colleges and companies collaborate to create top-ranked talent.

Like many college students, Monique Tromp loved her first internship. And what’s not to love? She enjoyed learning more about biology and the visual system, was thrilled to find out about all the career opportunities available to her as a researcher, and appreciated the guidance she received from the scientists she worked with at the Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience (MPFI) in Jupiter.

Tim Vanderhoof Senior Vice President, Business Development

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Enterprise Florida, Inc. 800 N. Magnolia Ave., Suite 1100 Orlando, FL 32803 407-956-5600

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tvanderhoof@EnterpriseFlorida.com www.FloridaTheFutureIsHere.com 16 • WORKFORCE

“The technology is over the top,” Tromp said as she talked about the high-tech equipment she had access to as an intern that she might not typically see in a college lab setting. In addition to outstanding research

Tromp was one of a few undergraduate students chosen in 2015 for the yearlong MPFI Scholars internship program designed to prepare undergrads for a career in research. The partnership between Florida Atlantic University and MPFI is just one of many collaborations happening across Florida as higher education institutions and in-state companies collaborate to train the next generation of workers.

These programs are as important for employers as they are for interns. The benefits for students like Tromp are obvious. The future workforce has a chance to build their skill sets while maintaining employment. At the same time, the company can evaluate them and develop new talent.

From robotics and photonics to mobile technologies and modeling and simulation, Florida is a hotbed for high-tech excellence. That’s why the state is home to more than 30,000 tech companies that employ nearly 312,000 workers. Three of the 10 largest universities in the country are in Florida, as are some of the nation’s top institutions for R&D and commercialization of technologies.

Florida’s progressive efforts in fostering partnerships between colleges/universities and companies is preparing the state’s workforce for tomorrow. And with the state’s 38,000+ STEM graduates each year, it’s easy to see that Florida isn’t just ready for the future.

We are the future. Learn more about Florida’s future workforce at www.floridathefutureishere.com/potential.

WE HAVE AN EDUCATED, TALENTED AND DIVERSE WORKFORCE EAGER TO CHANGE THE WORLD. IMAGINE WHAT THEY’LL DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS. The only thing as impressive as our current workforce of more than 10 million is our future one. Our colleges and universities are among the nation’s top performers of R&D and commercialization of technologies. So while we’re helping you succeed with today’s talent, we’re also preparing tomorrow’s. Discover what a future in Florida means for your business at floridathefutureishere.com/potential or call 877-YES-FLORIDA.

ATTRACTING AND RETAINING TOP TALENT IN THE NEW NORMAL

Siemens has taken a new proactive approach to fulfilling its labor force needs with revamped recruiting, onboarding, retention, and training programs.

O

ne of the biggest challenges today that manufacturers encounter is finding skilled labor. Employer demand for labor is now greater than the supply, and with the unemployment rate at a 10-year low, the question of where to turn for experienced, highly skilled technical talent is very real for manufacturers. With limited internal staff and processes to attract, source, screen or onboard, and train talent, many manu-

facturers are unprepared to meet the demands of today’s labor market.

Currently, the population of the United States is growing faster than the U.S. workforce, reported Barron’s.1 It’s a state of affairs that occurred twice during the last century (1948–1967 and 1991–1999) and was accompanied by labor shortages both times. This time, baby-boomers’ retirements may exacerbate the situation. Some estimates suggest the current labor shortage could last through 2050.

In addition to rapid population growth, according to Forbes,2 the causes of the growing shortfall are also attributed to an education system that produces too few graduates grounded in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) disciplines; some reputation problems — which are mostly a case of perceptions trailing reality — that manufacturers aren’t clean and progressive workplaces; and an under-appreciation by young people and their parents of the favorable wages in U.S. manufacturing, averaging about $77,500 a year and of the innovative, sophisticated, and global nature of the work.

Siemens and the New Normal

Siemens plans to double its number of apprentices. Shown here: instructor with apprentices and 3D printing machine

By M ichael Brown, Vice President, Talent Acquisition for Siemens Americas 18 • WORKFORCE

The jobs at Siemens are highly technical and require technical knowledge and experience. The company builds trains, steam and gas turbines, deploys software to automate factories, and installs systems to run smarter infrastructure, all at a massive global

10 STEPS

TO DEVELOP A MORE PROACTIVE RECRUITING PROGRAM

scale. Siemens’ technology must keep up with the rapid rate of change, and to do this, it has to make sure it is upskilling its existing talent. The company has a history of making significant investments in training its employees. In fact, Siemens spends $50M in job training in the U.S. each year.

Finding candidates of the quality and quantity required is the most significant challenge Siemens’ faces.

The other challenges are the continued aging of the workforce, lack of qualified engineering talent coming into the workforce, and the digitalization of work to the extent that it can be done from anywhere. Moreover, mid-level skills are becoming harder to find in the market.

Like many other organizations Siemens relied on a reactive approach to talent acquisition, posting roles on career sites hoping for the best candidates to apply. Now, Siemens is taking a far more targeted and proactive role by engaging potential candidates prior to jobs being available for them and using a completely new suite of IT tools to facilitate that process.

For example, the company faced challenges related to gaps in federal markets and employment brand recognition within the military community.

Then, in 2003, Siemens began working with Orion as a strategic partner to manage its military hiring initiative.

The Siemens Military Talent Program with Orion officially launched in 2010 and provides a continuous pipeline of high-caliber military talent, combined with a brand marketing campaign, training platform, and key metric reporting and delivery. Over the last five years, in partnership with Orion,

1

Align human resources, talent acquisition (TA), and hiring managers on hiring the best and on the realities of the talent market today.

Siemens has hired over 2,500 veterans and has committed to hire an additional 300 veterans per year for the next three years.

2

Inside the Revamped Program: RECRUITING

Identify key positions and what those types of employees value.

3

Create an employee value proposition (EVP) based on step #2.

4

Make the EVP real (e.g., market wages, benefits, culture, etc.).

5

Optimize the talent acquisition model based on needs of your organization.

6

Digitally brand your EVP to the targeted markets.

7

Broaden your candidate talent pools for sourcing.

8

Adopt new HR/TA technology that makes sense.

9

Optimize your sourcing channels.

10

Simply put, Siemens went from a reactive generalized approach to recruiting to a proactive segmented approach where ideal candidate profiles for key job families were identified, and then focused sourcing efforts on talent pools that could fulfill those requirements were implemented. As an example, Siemens knows that many of its roles can be done quite successfully by veterans, but not necessarily just any veteran — those with certain experiences and skillsets. Therefore, partnering with Orion adds significant value to the company’s approach by finding exactly who is needed in a far more effective way than Siemens could on its own.

Inside the Revamped Program: ONBOARDING Siemens has evolved from a new employee orientation to a new employee engagement framework. With so many separate operating units it can be difficult to create common processes and standard information to be shared with new employees. However, without some standardization, there was a missed opportunity to truly engage new employees when they joined the organization.

As a result, a new employee engagement program was created that acts as a platform to engage new hires across the entire company.

This common framework includes

Train TA and hiring managers on the tools, the EVP, and how to win the best.

2018 • 19

In June, Braidy Industries broke ground on its highly anticipated $1.5 billion, 600-job aluminum mill in Ashland’s EastPark. Company officials noted the region’s available workforce and the opportunity to revitalize the eastern Kentucky economy as decisive factors during the site selection process.

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT IN KENTUCKY Companies of all sizes are clamoring for qualified employees to help grow their businesses. Kentucky has responded by aggressively confronting the need for skilled labor and taking transformational steps to provide the top workforce in the nation.

There is no higher priority for state and local leaders than building a workforce that’s one step ahead of a changing economy. Recent studies make clear there will be a national need for thousands of additional workers across many industrial sectors by 2020 — that number will likely be 70,000 in Kentucky alone.

Whether it’s incenting advanced training and education, developing innovative programs of instruction in partnership with our major industries, or recruiting the best and brightest minds from around the world, Kentucky has deployed diverse industry expertise and millions of dollars to ensure a deep, highly skilled labor pool.

The Cabinet for Economic Development also has dedicated further resources to the issue by increasing the size of its workforce develTerry Gill, Secretary opment team.

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Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development Old Capitol Annex 300 W. Broadway Frankfort, KY 40601

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www.ThinkKentucky.com

20 • WORKFORCE

Programs like the Work Ready Skills Initiative, which represents a direct investment of $100 million, are directly meeting the training needs of local business

and industry. The Kentucky Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (KY FAME) program has had remarkable success in educating and guaranteeing employment for hundreds of students with graduation rates far exceeding standard two-year and four-year degree tracks. The state also has ramped up efforts to establish apprenticeships in industries in need of talent.

In addition, Kentucky has successfully attracted companies to regions with an abundance of displaced skilled workers.

Examples include Braidy Industries’ aluminum sheet plant, which will put many of Ashland’s former steel employees back to work; Novelis in Todd County, where the workforce includes a large population of highly skilled, post-service military members from nearby Fort Campbell; and EnerBlu, an innovative, high-tech battery company locating in the heart of coal country with hundreds of former miners already trained to use advanced machinery.

Workforce efforts on the part of Kentucky’s business and education communities have already served to reduce the jobless rate and increase labor participations. With these impressive results, Kentucky leaders are determined to prepare and attract more residents to meet 21st century demands.

Top Pay for Top Talent Kentucky’s major sectors require highly skilled labor and pay accordingly. These are average salaries for the state’s major Industries.

Aerospace Automotive Upstream Metal Manufacturing Food and Beverage Logistics

$70,905 $68,513 $62,133 $56,704 $53,921

(800) 626-2930 • ThinkKentucky.com

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS IN KENTUCKY WITH

Kentucky has 144 Opportunity Zones. That’s 12 dozen places where you can open or expand a business and realize significant tax benefits. Be one of the first to take advantage of these opportunities.

Find out more at KYOZ.com

a comprehensive approach to communication, a standard new employee orientation, and a new employee website which hosts relevant onboarding information for hiring managers, new employees, and HR professionals.

Inside the Revamped Program: RETENTION At Siemens, it’s believed companies only really succeed if they fulfill the needs of the society in which they work. That means business has a responsibility for economic and social development, and that companies must add lasting value to the countries and communities they work in. The fact that its employees not only view Siemens as a good place to work, but also see how the things they are doing directly impact our society has a significant influence on reten-

To run an advanced industry, you need highly trained people. This year, Siemens is doubling the number of states and nearly doubling the total number of participants in our apprenticeship program, and we will hire a thousand more veterans over the next three years. In addition, the company has a global learning campus organization with a hub in Orlando, Florida, that provides access to hundreds of online training programs in addition to offering targeted classroom training as well.

The choices are endless; this is an area where Siemens continues to invest in technology and where it makes it easy for employees to access training whenever they want from wherever they are.

One Step Ahead Industry is most qualified to define the skills

NO ONE BETTER THAN INDUSTRY can help establish and strengthen training and education systems.

tion. Siemens employees are proud of the great work that the company does. In addition to that, good HR practices reinforce retention throughout an employee’s career at Siemens.

Siemens’ focus is on engagement from an employee’s first day of employment, providing access to a robust training and development tailored to each individual, having transparency into global job opportunities, a continual dialogue as part of the performance management processes, and obviously, competitive compensation and benefits programs. The sum of these done well is the right approach to retention.

Inside the Revamped Program: TRAINING Siemens has a significant commitment to training and development worldwide. Digital is the future.

Siemens is reinventing itself as a fully digital company — just like many of its customers. And what is being seen with robots is very clear: they add value, although it’s true they’ll replace certain tasks.

22 • WORKFORCE

needed to run new technology. No one better than industry can help establish and strengthen training and education systems. Still, it’s bigger than any one company. Together, industry needs to build a system of industrial reskilling that is responsive to industry trends and that weathers the potentially adverse impacts to workers inherent in such an increasingly unpredictable job market. In a time of record corporate profits, companies have responsibility to ensure workers, not just the companies themselves, benefit from the digital age.

Industry has a legacy of upholding America’s middle class. Now it must prove it still can. From a recruiting perspective, Siemens’ approach is to focus on delivering top-tier service to its hiring manager customers today while trying to predict and plan for the future.

This is a daunting task but by piloting new approaches and new tools, Siemens may be able to stay one step ahead of the change.

~

1 2

https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-great-labor-crunch-1520655014 https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjosephs/2017/03/15/u-s-manufacturing-labor-shortagehow-to-make-your-company-a-happy-exception/#40b506407e13

2018 • 22

WORKFORCE AUTOMATION: SCARY THREAT OR MAJOR OPPORTUNITY?

Despite dire predictions that robots and automation will displace workers, studies predict automation and robotics will actually create more — but different — jobs than they displace.

Y

ou might have read about the “Second Machine Age,” in which automated technologies perform more and more work that humans have been doing — and machines become competitors rather than helpers. Some people talk about the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and the disruptions that it will bring. Inevitably, such discussion stokes fears that a lot of people will see their livelihoods dry up as machines take over their work.

“Those seem to be the headlines,” acknowledges Bob Doyle, vice president of the Robotic Industries Association. Some real-world examples are from articles in respected publications: “Robots in the Workplace? Each

Engineers use a wireless remote control of robotic welding and robot workpiece for smart factory — an Industry 4.0 concept.

1 Costs 6 Jobs, New Study Finds”1…“How to Survive the Robot-Fueled Jobs Apocalypse”2…“Evidence That Robots Are Winning the Race for American Jobs.”3 Those ominous headlines, though, don’t line up with the actual findings of a number of studies, Doyle responds. “If you dig into the reports, they say automation and robotics will create more jobs than they displace,” he says.

On the Bright Side One such study comes from the Association for Advancing Innovation,4 a Michigan-based umbrella group that includes the association Doyle represents.

The “Work in the Automation Age” report disputes the notion that automation costs jobs and spotlights the many bright sides. “As employers add automation technologies such as robots, job titles and tasks are changing, but the number of jobs continues to rise,” the report states.

Indeed, more robots were shipped to U.S. customers in the first seven years of the current decade than in any seven-year period before, yet manufacturing employment was up by nearly 900,000. “As robot sales have gone up, unemployment has gone down,” Doyle observes. To cite some specific examples from the report, General Motors kept adding humans to its payroll even as it was adding more and more robots to its assembly lines. And Amazon is building up its robotic operations while also creating thousands upon

By Steve Kaelble

2018 • 23

technology, corporate offices and petrochemicals. Manufacturers must create a net 15 jobs and service firms a net 50 jobs to be eligible for the cost-free, comprehensive solutions.

Since 2008, FastStart has delivered highly customized training to over 28,000 individuals at more than 200 expanding Louisiana employers. Increasingly, FastStart is a key influencer in why those employers choose to invest in Louisiana over other states and nations.

LOUISIANA’S CUSTOMIZED WORKFORCE SOLUTION Even before the Great Recession, Louisiana leaders set their sights on a new strategic direction for workforce training. Flexibility and innovation were programmed into state agencies and college campuses.

New thinking expedited training. Skills in high demand received priority funding.

And from this crucible of innovation, LED FastStart® was born.

Ten years later, the Louisiana Economic Development program remains the U.S. gold standard for project-focused workforce training. Louisiana’s nimble, collaborative approach touches the workforce supply chain at critical junctures: foundational programs in high school classrooms; intensive skills-training at advanced manufacturing centers on community college campuses; and industryadvised technology classes at research universities.

Paul Helton Executive Director of Workforce Programs

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Louisiana Economic Development 627 North 4th Street, Suite 2-200 Baton Rouge, LA 70802 225-342-5543

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www.OpportunityLouisiana.com/ faststart paul.helton@la.gov 24 • WORKFORCE

With that foundation, LED FastStart professionals create a custom plan for recruiting, screening and training a new workforce for expanding firms in target industries, such as advanced and traditional manufacturing, logistics, information

“I was blown away with FastStart’s flexibility and their capability to customize,” says Tom Yura Sr., former general manager for BASF’s chemical facilities in Geismar, Louisiana, and current chief operating officer for Cornerstone Chemical Company near New Orleans.

The LED FastStart team includes dozens of experienced private-sector professionals from a range of industries. The team’s goal — to help firms efficiently ramp-up through intelligent training — gives workers the skills they need from opening day.

Customized training plans are drawn from an in-depth analysis of each company’s workforce needs. Elements of that training might encompass workforce safety, regulatory standards, industry-specific benchmarks, and leadership development for upper-level managers.

Recruitment of well-suited job candidates is just as crucial. LED FastStart has created social media recruiting campaigns for technology firms such as DXC Technology, IBM, GE and CenturyLink.

Louisiana’s new approach to workforce development cultivates meaningful partnerships among state government, private industry and higher education. In every case, regional workforce demand determines training programs and coursework.

It’s a strategy that works for both employers and job-seekers, and one that spans the state.

thousands of new human jobs.

The World Economic Forum, meanwhile, predicts5 that 75 million human jobs will be displaced by machines and algorithms between now and 2022. That sounds bad, but the same report forecasts that these automation technologies will create 133 million jobs, for a net gain of 58 million new jobs.

A similar prediction can be found in a United Kingdom economic outlook produced in July by PwC.6 “AI and related technologies should create as many jobs as they displace,” the PwC report states. “AI and related technologies such as robotics, drones, and driverless vehicles could displace many jobs formerly done by humans but will also create many additional jobs as productivity and real incomes rise and new and better products are developed.”

Bhushan Sethi, strategy leader of PwC’s Workforce

cases, robots are taking tasks that are dull, dirty or dangerous, the three Ds,” Doyle says.

Disrupting the Status Quo Of course, positive as it sounds to shield humans from the “three Ds,” doing so definitely is a disruption to the status quo. Those people whose daily work is steeped in dull, dirty or dangerous tasks may be able to avoid economic calamity as the future unfolds, but change is unavoidable.

“It’ll require retraining,” Doyle says, but companies are often eager to develop the people they know.

“Companies want to invest in their people. They’re typically good employees that they want to keep.”

The truth of the matter is, even the status quo is likely to require more and more focus on training.

After all, “ask any of our member companies — their

CHANGES BROUGHT BY automation are just as profound in the office as they are on the assembly line and in the distribution center.

of the Future business, says his firm’s research predicts more than $15 trillion in GDP growth that can be linked to automation, “some by 2020, the majority between 2025 and 2030.” Yes, there will be automation, and many jobs will be impacted even as many jobs are created.

But automation-driven productivity gains and business growth enabled by artificial intelligence will generate added wealth, which will result in new spending, and increased spending will drive even more job growth.

Manpower Group weighs in with its “Skills Revolution 2.0”report.7 Digitization is the name of the game, and it’s happening everywhere, according to the report. Importantly, in three-quarters of the countries Manpower surveyed, companies are more likely to see automation growing their workforces rather than shrinking them. “As companies go digital,” the report says, “most will need more people, not fewer. Automation is good news for job-seekers, if they have the skills.”

The key thought, as succinctly summed up in the Manpower report, is that “robots take tasks, not jobs.”

In fact, adds Doyle, robots take the tasks that a lot of people are better off not having to do, anyway. “In most

26 • WORKFORCE

biggest challenge is finding qualified people to take the jobs they have open,” Doyle says. Employers need new training options now, and “the future of increased automation will dictate workforce development that’s focused on preparing people for the world of advanced manufacturing.”

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, had much the same to recommend in releasing his organization’s report in September. “It is critical that business take an active role in supporting their existing workforces through reskilling and upskilling, that individuals take a proactive approach to their own lifelong learning, and that governments create an enabling environment to facilitate this workforce transformation. This is the key challenge of our time.”

It’s vital that the business community, and society as a whole, figure out how to fill the skills gap, according to Doyle. He cites research from Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute suggesting that by 2025, a couple of million jobs will be unfilled because there just aren’t enough people with the right skills. Innovative training models are the way of the future, includ-

ing parallel work-study tracks and various forms of on-the-job training.

What Does the Future Hold?

The future holds a big increase in demand for such things as data analysts and scientists, application developers, and experts in e-commerce and social media, according to the World Economic Forum. There will still be plenty of demand for roles that are big on people skills, too, including customer-service professionals and marketing professionals.

The want ads will include all kinds of job titles that are unfamiliar to a lot of people today, Doyle adds. Future opportunities could include such roles as predictive equipment analytic specialist, machine algorithm designer, mechatronics technician, robotic application developer, and computer vision designer. “A lot of these are jobs that would not have existed 10 years ago,” he says.

There will absolutely be new jobs created,” Sethi agrees. Just a few examples: “There will be people needed to create algorithms, there will be new roles around auditing, roles making sure the algorithms are ethical.”

The future will require big-picture understanding of where in a process bots will fit best, and where they won’t, Sethi says. That is a new kind of expertise. “To really understand how work gets done, we need to go into the employee master file. What employees do I have, within what tasks and processes, and what bots do I have? The future of understanding how work gets done has to understand employees, contingent workers, and bots.”

It’s worth pointing out that the changes brought by automation are just as profound in the office as they are on the assembly line and in the distribution center. White-collar workers are affected just as much as those whose collars are blue. A lot of what Sethi tracks is the field known as robotic process automation, which involves creating software bots that learn to handle repetitive tasks performed on computer desktops. Robotic process automation can have a significant impact in the worlds of data entry, accounting, and payroll, for example.

“Many firms implement automation to say, ‘How do we take repetitive tasks and automate them?’” he says. “It’s not the job that gets automated, it’s the underlying task.”

Meanwhile, there’s lot of work to be had in ar-

eas that design and oversee the bot workforce. For example, “We still need audit and control and security.

We need to make sure the underlying algorithms cannot be manipulated.”

And in any case, Sethi says, not all tasks that have the potential for automation will be automated. “Just because you can put a chatbot in a call center, that doesn’t mean every firm is going to implement a chatbot,” he says. There are legal and regulatory considerations that sometimes come into play, as well as a firm’s community connections and views on social responsibility. “It’s not just one size fits all. Do we really want to do this and what are the impacts on the community? What will happen to community relations and brand reputation if we disrupt 5,000 people?” he asks.

An Historical Perspective If you look back in time, Doyle says, technological advances have always changed the nature of jobs. And there were always people — respected experts — who feared the impact those changes would have on those in the workforce.

Here’s a thought expressed in 1930 by the famed economist John Maynard Keynes: “We are being afflicted with a new disease of which some readers may not have heard the name, but of which they will hear a great deal in the years to come — namely, technological unemployment.” And here is what another highly regarded economist, Wassily Leontief, said in 1952: “Labor will become less and less important....More and more workers will be replaced by machines. I do not see that new industries can employ everybody who wants a job.” Those alarming warnings happened well in the past, and yet here we are today, still dealing with the workforce issues that go hand-in-hand with low unemployment.

The bottom line, says Doyle, is that “robots are tools used by more and more industries to compete in the global marketplace.” The biggest threat to jobs, it turns out, isn’t robots, but rather the inability to effectively compete. Those horror stories about robots coming to take all of our jobs? “That’s not going to happen,” concludes Doyle.

~

1

http://fortune.com/2017/03/29/robots-workforce-labor-jobs-united-states/ 2 https://www.infoworld.com/article/3181293/artificial-intelligence/how-to-survive-the-robotfueled-jobs-apocalypse.html 3 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/upshot/evidence-that-robots-are-winning-the-race-foramerican-jobs.html 4 http://www.a3automate.org/docs/Work-in-the-Automation-Age-White-Paper.pdf 5 https://www.weforum.org/press/2018/09/machines-will-do-more-tasks-than-humansby-2025-but-robot-revolution-will-still-create-58-million-net-new-jobs-in-next-five-years/ 6 https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics-policy/insights/uk-economic-outlook.html 7 https://www.manpowergroup.com/wps/wcm/connect/59db87a7-16c6-490d-ae701bd7a322c240/Robots_Need_Not_Apply.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

2018 • 27

Now topping 310,000 people in a metro area of 2.1 million, Henderson is an ideal location for your next retail expansion.

HENDERSON, NEVADA — AN OASIS FOR BUSINESS For businesses looking to relocate, expand or start fresh, finding property in a location that makes business sense can be a tall order. Affordable land is oftentimes limited to remote reaches of the country, far from interstate, ports or other vital infrastructure. When these amenities are available, businesses frequently have to grapple with a seemingly insurmountable cacophony of taxes, restrictions, and red tape, giving even the most seasoned companies second thoughts about moving elsewhere.

However, in the West, often home to pioneers, a place does exist where business and people thrive, where local government makes it easy for companies and their employees to get to work. In the desert of southern Nevada lies Henderson, or what has been deemed Wow Valley, a business oasis that is steadily becoming an economic force to Barbra Coffee reckon with.

Director, Economic Development & Tourism Located just 15 minutes City of Henderson from Las Vegas, Henderson City Hall Annex, 280 Water Street forms the southern edge P.O. Box 95050, MSC 512 of the Las Vegas Valley, Henderson, NV 89009 702-267-1655 covering more than 100 Fax: 702-267-1651 square miles between Lake Las Vegas to the east Barbra.Coffee@cityofhenderson.com and Interstate 15 to the www.HendersonNow.com

•

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28 • WORKFORCE

west. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 42 percent of Henderson residents are between the ages of 25 and 54, and nearly 15 percent of new residents arrive to the area with polished professional, management or technical skills. When it comes to a balance between age and experience of its local workforce, Henderson, Nevada, is hard to beat. And a workforce of approximately one million is within a 25-minute commuter shed of Henderson area business parks.

Key Employee Recruitment and Training Programs: • Train Employees Now — A grant of up to $1,000 per trainee with 25 percent company match awarded at the discretion of the Nevada Commission on Economic Development to qualifying companies • Nevada JobConnect — Employee recruitment and training incentives designed in conjunction with employer needs • Workforce Connections — Oversees the implementation of the Workforce Investment Acts, providing funding for employment and training services throughout the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Area • Silver State Works Program — Employers can get up to $2,000 per employee in incentive reimbursements or training allowances for new hires Thanks to its bountiful and diverse available properties, business incentives and accommodating local government, Henderson makes the transition to the Las Vegas Valley seamless for companies of all sizes and industries. When coupled with its proximity to an international airport, freeways, major ports, and markets, Henderson’s location allows companies to thrive. For more information about why your business and family should call Henderson home, visit www.hendersonnow.com.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES IN NEVADA

WORTH A SECOND TAKE

When businesses have access to plenty of property and a workforce more than a million strong, it’s easy to foster a thriving company culture. One example is Barclays. Located in Henderson, Nevada, Barclays hosts quarterly theme parties to showcase exceptional performance. Recently, the company has also doubled in size with room to grow, giving it one more reason to celebrate in Henderson.

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HOW FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACE POLICIES CAN HELP SOLVE AMERICA’S LABOR SHORTAGE

Companies that institute family-friendly workplace policies will be more successful in recruiting and retaining the skilled talent they need, leading to a more robust performance for themselves and the overall economy.

I

f you’ve tried to hire a skilled tradesperson lately, you know how scarce these workers have become. According to Manpower research,1 roughly 40 percent of U.S. employers report difficulty filling jobs because of the lack of labor, particularly in the skilled trades.

In April of this year, a record 6.8 million positions remained open but unfilled. U.S. companies have been creating an average of between 150,000 and 200,000 net new jobs per month in recent years, and labor force growth is just keeping pace.

The workforce participation rate stands at 62.9 percent, and the participation of women in the workforce sits lower than the overall average at 57.6 percent.

By R yan Severino, Chief Economist, JLL 30 • WORKFORCE

Even though the participation rate is rising, the current rate is still below the rates of the last 20 years.

Of course, the 10,000 baby-boomers retiring each day skew the numbers, but the net result is nonetheless a very tight labor market.

A re Wo m e n t h e A n s we r to the Labor Shortage?

There are a variety of underlying issues driving the shortage, according to a recently released report

by JLL.2 But one fact is hard to ignore — women are missing in action. Currently 18 million women are out of work, half of whom are educated, skilled, and more than qualified to enter the workforce.

U.S. Census data indicates 1.4 million primeage American women with master’s or other advanced degrees were absent from the workforce as of 2017, compared to fewer than 473,000 prime-age men. Additionally, more than 3.3 million prime-age unemployed women had bachelor’s degrees, compared to fewer than 1.3 million prime-age unemployed men.

Why the disparity? Many highly qualified women are temporarily out of the workforce because they are caring for children or aging parents. Paid parental leave in the U.S. lags behind the family-friendly workplace policies of other developed nations, while affordable childcare can be elusive to find. And when women face inflexible work schedules or other

workplace obstacles, taking time out for family is often a necessity.

Making It Easier for Parents t o S t a y i n t h e Wo r k fo rce It’s clear that attracting women back to the workforce can make a big dent in the labor shortage. So how do we increase labor force participation among parents, particularly mothers?

To entice and retain women in the workforce, employers shaping the future of work should adopt policies and workplace strategies that make it easier for women — and men, too — to manage competing priorities. Competitive paid maternity and paternity leave

Corporations alone should not have to feel the burden of incentivizing women to stay in the workforce.

The government can play a role by investing in familydriven community programs to cultivate a strong workforce. Ensuring access to quality education, childcare options, and open public space will attract working parents.

Reversing the Shortage = Big Gains for Commercial Real Estate and the Overall Economy At a high level, a labor shortage generally leads to a less robust economy. It also means reduced productivity as employers wind up hiring workers

GOVERNMENT CAN PLAY A ROLE by investing in family-driven community programs to cultivate a strong workforce.

is a start, but once women return to work after having a child, they need to feel supported. For example, a dedicated women’s room with a mini fridge, an outlet, and a comfortable chair can help breastfeeding mothers feel more comfortable at work.

On-site childcare can make it easier for parents to manage their workday with more convenient drop-off and pick-up arrangements — and increase employee satisfaction in the meantime. JLL’s Workplace – powered by Human Experience research3 found that 84 percent of employees who had access to on-site “spaces for small children” felt engaged at work, exceeding the average engagement rate of 65 percent.

While on-site childcare doesn’t make sense for every organization, flexible schedules and remote working are relatively easy ways to support workers who are juggling the demands of career and family life. Organizations that offer flexibility for parents to care for a sick child or take a family member to doctor appointments are much more likely to retain their top performers.

who lack the optimal skills, experience or training for the work at hand. Those outcomes, in turn, reduce demand for commercial real estate. So, commercial property owners and investors should be concerned about the larger implications of slow labor force growth.

Conversely, if we were better able to match jobs and workers, property owners and investors would benefit along with the rest of the economy. By our projections, national office asking rents would rise by about 5 percent, and the average national office vacancy would fall by roughly 2 percent.

Investing in policies and support systems to keep women in the workforce can reap big dividends for an organization and the economy at large. Many companies, of course, are already taking steps, including creating engaging workplaces for the future of work.4 1

https://go.manpowergroup.com/talent-shortage-2018 https://www.us.jll.com/en/trends-and-insights http://humanexperience.jll 4 https://www.futureofwork.jll 2 3

2018 • 31

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