Chair Message

BY MARIE HOLLIDAY, CPA

People are the key ingredient to an organization’s success. However, in the last several years, employers have struggled to hire and retain qualified employees. Factors such as low population growth and the retirement of the aging baby boomer generation have contributed significantly to this reduction in the workforce.

For instance, in 1957, the average number of births per woman was 3.8, but by 2022, it had decreased to approximately 1.7 births per woman. The outlook for the next decade isn’t promising, given that the Baby Boomer generation, the largest segment of the US population, is set to reach full retirement age by 2030. How will employers address this impending labor shortage?

In the upcoming years, workforce development will play a pivotal role in every organization’s employment initiatives. As organizations compete to hire a limited workforce, those investing in their employees will retain their team members. Our traditional education system, although important for the basics, cannot adequately prepare our workforce for the technological changes that will happen over a worker’s lifetime. A new approach, with an emphasis on lifelong learning consistently over an employee’s career, will become necessary. This “people first” approach to upskill workers will be critical for the long-term viability of an organization.

Workforce development demands a comprehensive approach from the business community. Chambers of commerce, local governments, and the broader business community will all need to contribute to this effort.

An example of an innovative preemployment workforce development initiative is Zip Code Wilmington. The demand for programmers in the banking and tech industries in Delaware far exceeded the supply of qualified programmers. These companies, which were some of the key employers in the state of Delaware, were crucial to the state’s economy. Government officials needed to retain these businesses in the state and tried to encourage a California-based coding school to open a branch here in Delaware to meet the growing need. They were unsuccessful in their efforts, but undeterred in their mission.

Rather than give up, a nonprofit coding school was started in Wilmington. Zip Code Wilmington offers 12-week coding bootcamps with a curriculum that was developed by the future employers of these students. The employers have not only developed a pipeline of talent but have changed the lives of these students. The average earnings of the students before Zip Code were about $34,000, but after Zip Code training, their average earnings increased to over $76,000. Since Zip Code’s inception in 2015, over 600 students have graduated, and over $100 million in increased wages was earned by these graduates.

I truly believe a similar model can be developed in other industries. Who is up to the challenge?