MMAC’s commitment to helping you solve talent challenges

By Tim Sheehy, President of MMAC

Coming into 2020, the year of COVID, the region had roughly 35,000 unfilled job openings. During the pit of COVID, the region lost 100,000 jobs, with unemployment jumping to 14%. As this goes to print, we have recovered to 6.2% unemployment.

This was clearly a year of abrupt job losses, especially in hospitality, entertainment, travel and leisure. Our economy has a way to go before jobs in these industries fully recover. But what has come screaming back as the top concern for most employers … is talent. The most pressing concern from our member companies is hiring and retaining employees with the right skills to fill open positions. In addition, the work itself is evolving. According to a recent ManpowerGroup report, 49 percent of all roles in manufacturing will need to change in the next 3-5 years as the industry transitions to digital. And that’s just one industry of so many that are being disrupted. Keeping the Milwaukee Region competitive requires an all-hands effort on several fronts.

In this issue is an overview of how MMAC and M7 are engaged in helping you to prepare, attract and advance talent. This includes the impending launch of a new digital talent resource portal that will connect employers to experts and information to help address your talent challenges.

To inform your talent recruitment and retention strategies, we’ll also provide an overview of the rapidly evolving expectations that workers are voicing (spoiler alert: flexibility is here to stay, and diversity and inclusion are more important than ever). We’ll look at the education pipeline and City Forward Collective’s efforts (read more on page 23) to help the next generation reach its full potential. And we’ll introduce an industry-led reskilling effort to address high-need positions in health care – perhaps providing a model of collaboration that companies in other sectors can follow.

For more than 160 years, MMAC has been here to help our members solve their challenges. And while the nature of those challenges continues to evolve, our commitment has not wavered. Just as we worked to listen, learn and lead during the pandemic, we’ll do the same with the long-term challenges we face on the other side.

49% of all roles in manufacturing will need to change in the next 3-5 years as the industry transitions to digital.