PROVIDENCE – With Rhode Island now having regained more than 90% of jobs lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employers may feel that the dust has largely settled on workforce shifts.
But remaining stuck in a static mindset is perhaps the biggest misstep companies can take, said Matthew Weldon, director of the R.I. Department of Labor and Training.
“The ability to be flexible is probably the best asset you can have at this time,” Weldon said at Providence Business News’ 2024 Workforce Development Summit on Thursday morning at the Providence Marriott Downtown.
While making this point, Weldon spoke specifically on balancing employee and employer preferences for remote and in-person work. But throughout the summit, which included a panel of six workforce leaders covering a range of Ocean State industries, panelists consistently returned to a theme of adaptability and understanding employees’ needs.
Adjusting with the times takes many forms, panelists said, whether that means increased attention to work-life balance, adapting to new technology or leveraging the talents of changing demographics in Rhode Island.
At the DLT, that often means allowing hybrid work where possible, Weldon said. But even in industries where this arrangement is less practical, such as health care, employers can look for other ways to adapt, said Ara Millette, director of talent acquisition and workforce development at Lifespan Corp.
“I think where we’re seeing less flexibility, we’re seeing less success,” Millette said. What that flexibility looks like could vary drastically by industry and workforce, she noted, and determining the best path forward for employers and employees needs to involve “sitting down to the table to hear what the workforce needs or what they’re looking for.”
Alongside Weldon and Millette, the panel also included Lindsey Brickle, director of workforce and community partnerships at Polaris MEP; Julie Matthew, manufacturing director of Amgen Inc.; Nina Pande, executive director of Skills for Rhode Island’s Future; and Douglas Sherman, senior vice president and provost at the New England Institute of Technology.
As the state’s workforce ages and college enrollment continues to decline, employers must also become comfortable hiring and working with nontraditional employees, Pande said.
She called on employers to invest in training and other education programs for adult learners, noting that “if we can’t fix [career readiness] on the K-12 side, it is a moral imperative for us to fix it on the adult side.”
Meanwhile, employers must work with educators to provide younger students with necessary career resources, she added.
“The systems are broken in many ways, and we can’t wait for the systems to auto-correct,” Pande said. “We’re going to lose generations of students … We also need to make sure that schools are preparing kids for the workforce” and not just academic tests.
Weldon also noted that much of Rhode Island’s population increase comes from people who immigrated to the U.S., who may have to navigate excessive red tape to begin working in roles they’ve already gained credentials for internationally.
“Someone who comes from another country with credentials shouldn't have to become a CNA all over again in Rhode Island,” Weldon said.
Employers and employees alike must also grapple with the recent increase in artificial intelligence capabilities and availability, panelists said.
But even as this technology evolves, companies and educators need to remember that it isn’t perfect, Sherman said.
“You cannot take what AI spits out to you as a final product,” he said. “You have to have that knowledge to go in and make sure it’s accurate.”
In preparing the workforce for specialized professions, educators also can’t neglect the skills that are universal necessities across industries, he added.
“There always needs to be, from a higher ed perspective, a liberal arts component” to any technical training program,” Sherman said.
Jacquelyn Voghel is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Voghel@PBN.com.
