CBJ Workforce Leaders 2019

Takeaways and
solutions from the
CBJ’s exclusive
workforce series
By Dave DeWitte and
Katharine Carlon
dave@corridorbusiness.com
katharine@corridorbusiness.com
Connecting the
threads from a
year of workforce
reporting
All this year, the CBJ has been exploring
the causes and effects of the Corridor’s
worker shortage, as well as the wants
and needs of workers and the challenges
of adapting to a business environment
where tech, regulations and tradewinds
can change at a moment’s notice.
To say our challenge was daunting is
an understatement. Over the course of
our (un)Hired Help series, we’ve looked
at the historical reasons for Iowa’s acute
undersupply of skilled labor – a situation
at least one Corridor economic official
called “stifling” to future growth –
and what the state is doing to address it.
We talked to many employers about the
types of workers they’re seeking,
and to workers about what
both draws them and keeps
them on the job. We looked at
the shifting nature of jobs and
how employees and employers
are responding. And we investigated
why diversity is an essential
piece of the solution.
One of our top takeaways was that
although Iowa’s population growth is
slower than most states, it is far from
the worst contributor to the state’s talent
shortage. Rather, it centers around a
skills mismatch reflecting the failure of
the state’s employers and educational
system to prepare workers for the kind
of jobs that exist in a new economy
that’s more online, more digital and
more automated.
“Fifty-one thousand of the 127,000
Iowans we need to get upskilled are
adults with no post-secondary education,”
said Iowa Workforce Development
Director Beth Townsend. “They’re
not living at the poverty level – they’ve
been working. Convincing them that
now is the time to take that step and get
some education is not an easy thing to
do, and we recognize it.”
At the same time, employers and employees
alike are dealing with disruptions
to traditional full-time employment.
The shadow of the Great Recession
has loomed large over the past decade,
leading to the rise of job-hopping and
alternative work arrangements, along
with an increase in short-term contract
and temporary workers. Automation is
both eliminating traditional low-skilled
jobs and creating higher-skilled ones
daily, underlining the need for constant,
ongoing retraining if we are to build the
workforce of tomorrow.
That will require an all-hands on
deck approach in which government,
educational institutions and employers
come together and grapple with solutions.
There is no silver bullet to the region’s
workforce woes, and all partners
will have to shoulder their share of the
responsibility.
“The days of an employee doing the
same job for the same way for years is
over,” said Kate Pine, business marketing
specialist for IowaWORKS.
The following represents an encapsulation
of our reporting from the first
five parts of our (un)Hired
Help series, along with 16
takeaways and solutions that
you can use to begin building
a stronger, more productive
workforce at your company.
Our reporting is by no
means definitive or exhaustive,
and we wish we’d had
even more time to investigate factors
like transportation and housing that impede
workers from living near existing
jobs, or the impact of the relative lack
of cultural and recreational amenities in
drawing workers to the state.
We will continue to investigate causes
and solutions to our region’s labor
issues in the weeks and months to
come, and invite you to join the conversation
with insights of your own.
What can our region do better to meet
the #workforce challenge? Weigh in on
Facebook and Twitter at @CBJournal. >
CBJ WORKFORCE LEADERS 2019 5