M7’s regional talent pitch

When talent is top of mind, how does M7 sell the Milwaukee Region?

By Chris Jenkins Communications Director, MMAC

To some extent, workforce has always been a part of the Milwaukee 7 Partnership for Economic Development’s discussions with homegrown companies that want to expand in the Milwaukee Region, and out of market companies that are considering a move here.

The current labor market has made those discussions more complex and urgent. “It’s the first thing almost everybody talks about,” says Jim Paetsch, M7’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Attraction and Expansion and Executive Director.

Ten or 15 years ago, companies were content with information about the supply of workers with specific skills, paying more attention to traditional economic development factors such as site availability, the local and statewide business environment and the availability of incentives. Today, companies are far more focused on the labor market, requesting more – and more complex – information. If I need to hire workers with particular skill sets in the Milwaukee Region, what will the competition look like?

While working on a recent request for information from a company considering new locations, M7 ended up filling two-thirds of their report with labor market information. Beyond labor supply and demand, companies also want to know about adjacent skills – how many people in the market have skills that are close enough to what a company is looking for that they could make a career transition with a reasonable amount of training?

The more exciting new companies we can keep here, or bring here, the more attractive career opportunities are here.

- Rebecca Gries, M7

“The smart ones that we talk to, it’s not that they get scared off when they see that there’s strong demand,” Paetsch says. “What it helps them understand, though, is that if it’s a highly competitive market for talent, they had better have really granular knowledge about the labor market structure.”

Concerns about labor market constraints are not new. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, M7 Vice President of Corporate Attraction and Expansion Rebecca Gries heard companies express long-term concerns – looking perhaps five or 10 years down the road. Today, it’s more immediate.

“Now we’re asked to provide labor data pretty quickly in the attraction process,” Gries says. “I would say, further down the process but sooner than in the past, we’re seeing a little more of that cost of living and culture play a role – ‘How are we going to convince our employees from outside the state to move to Milwaukee?’”

It’s tempting to think about this as a Milwaukee Region problem. But it’s not. Companies and regions across the country are having similar experiences. Milwaukee’s work force compares favorably to several Midwestern peers, but our region is facing new competition from locations in the Southwest and Southeast that have manufacturing expertise and have experienced significant population growth.

Milwaukee can compete with just about anyone on manufacturing expertise, but our population growth has been relatively flat.

“For us, that’s real competition,” Paetsch says.

Paetsch also is seeing more companies turn to automation not as a cost-saving strategy, but rather as a labor strategy: I can’t find the people, so even though I’m not necessarily inclined to look at automation solutions, I have to now. To regain its edge in this fastchanging environment, Paetsch says, the Milwaukee Region could undertake a large-scale upskilling and reskilling program to prepare employees to work in a world with an increasing level of automation.

“We’ve got a great work ethic among our people,” Paetsch says. “They’re nimble, they’re loyal, they’re willing to learn. So how do we harness those things and figure out ways that at scale, we can reposition the work force for life in that automated lane?”

Such an effort would require even more alignment between industry and education.

“Companies want to see that your postsecondary institutions can be feeders of younger talent,” Paetsch says. “They’re hungry for those partnerships -- hungrier today than ever. And on the other side, I think there’s also a receptivity among our post-secondary institutions that’s greater than it’s ever been.”

Meanwhile, M7 continues to have success helping homegrown companies expand, and attracting new companies to the region. What’s the message to our existing companies who already are struggling to find talent and now face additional competition?

“My argument against that statement is that it is well known our population isn’t growing organically, or at least not at a rate that is going to keep up with job growth,” Gries says. “By bringing in more opportunities like Formlabs, like Niche Cocoa, and expansion projects like Milwaukee Tool, it is an opportunity to pull in more people from outside Wisconsin who want to work for those or similar companies.”

For example, Boston-based 3D printer Formlabs is bringing a number of employees – and their families -- in from Boston to staff its new Milwaukee office.

“It’s talent attraction from a corporate attraction point of view,” Gries says. “The more exciting new companies we can keep here, or bring here, the more attractive career opportunities are here for younger people to stay, or new people to move here from another region.”