“No matter where you are – California, Dallas, Chicago – finding talent is one of the biggest challenges” to successfully running a business, said Tim Hebert, a panelist at the inaugural Providence Business News Workforce Development Summit.
Improving ways to do that locally by focusing on career-long education, retention of millennials, breaking with conventional hiring and maximizing state supports was the focus of the Feb. 14 event, which attracted approximately 200 to the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick.
Hebert launched information technology services firm Atrion in 1987 and more recently founded software firm Trilix, a Warwick boutique IT firm, and serves as chief managed services officer of Exeter-based Carousel Industries of North America Inc. He said Rhode Island has some natural advantages to attracting workers and growing as a company, starting with its size.
“We joke about Rhode Island being small, but that means there is one degree of separation” that makes communication, be it with government or the business community, easier than anywhere else, he said. Other panelists agreed.
Damian Ewens, project director for nonprofit workforce-development organization Opportunity@Work at TechHire Rhode Island, said any state official or businessperson is just one phone call away.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement in that communication, said panelists, including Miellette McFarlane, interim director of the R.I. Department of Labor and Training’s Real Jobs Rhode Island program.
One of her priorities is to “cut away the bureaucratic silliness” that hinders state government from keeping pace with the growth and development of local firms, she said.
She hopes to innovate, starting with admitting the department wasn’t always aware of the importance of understanding what supports local businesses need most.
“We’ve come to our senses, let our ego aside” and want to “listen and create” solutions based on what businesses prioritize, she said.
Attendee Joelle Moyer, a Bank of America relationship manager, applauded McFarlane and said the state “should continue to be open-minded” in its handling of workforce development.
She hopes the message of working “collectively and collaboratively” with the state reaches more businesspeople but knows only so much can be achieved via “word-of-mouth” communication.
Hebert, who has worked in the constantly evolving tech industry for three decades, said government should be able to “enable” workforce development that keeps pace with business evolution. Often, in his industry, he said, what recent graduates learn in college is already “obsolete” by the time they are hired – “employees need to be educated all the time.”
New England Institute of Technology’s Douglas H. Sherman, senior vice president, provost and a summit panelist, concurred but said a piece of the puzzle is missing: “Amongst [higher education] institutions, we cover the gamut of skill-set development. … We need you, as employers, to engage with us to tell us where those skills gaps are” and how to best fill them, he said.
Highlighting the Wavemaker Fellowship – a program offered by R.I. Commerce Corp. that defrays student-loan debt payments for up to four years for graduates of Rhode Island colleges and universities who pursue technology, engineering, design and select other eligible careers at Ocean State firms – Sherman suggested employers “consider” offering a similar grant as a way to entice Rhode Island-educated graduates to launch their careers locally. Panelists also discussed the importance of a diverse workforce in fostering business growth.
“We want … [a workforce that] represents the population we serve,” said panelist Lisa Abbott, senior vice president of human resources and community affairs for Lifespan Corp.
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MAKING WAVES: R.I. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor speaks during the PBN Workforce Development Summit on Feb. 14 at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick. Commerce’s Wavemaker Fellowship that defrays student-loan debt payments for up to four years was highlighted during the summit. / PBN PHOTO/PAMELA BHATIA[/caption]
At 12,377 full-time equivalent employees according to the 2018 PBN Book of Lists, Lifespan is the largest private employer in the state and Abbott works to ensure diversity in the ranks.
Going beyond demographics, Ewens said personality also plays a key role in the strength of a workforce. Hiring managers, he said, need to step out of the “status quo of how we do hiring” and give those who may appear as “out-of-the-box” candidates a fair shake.
The “traditional checkboxes,” he said, overlook a valuable population and leave them “invisible in plain sight.”
When asked the best way to educate hiring managers about expanding their practices, the group agreed advancement opportunities need to include nonmanagerial leadership positions.
“Growth doesn’t necessarily mean managing,” said Abbott. “We need to create [additional] pathways.”
Anecdotally, Hebert said he overcame the challenge of transitioning career-long “individual contributors” to managerial leadership – those he said weren’t ready to go “from buddy to boss” – through leadership training for his entire workforce.
However, he admitted, “most companies cannot afford to do so themselves.”
Panelist Matthew Reeber, a Pannone, Lopes, Devereaux & O’Gara LLC partner, suggested employers additionally get to know “the issues in your workforce” – the subjects that most interest workers and impact their day-to-day lives.
“We have the #MeToo movement right now,” he said. While some executives may deem that “an issue for the coffee room,” not addressing such topics may leave the company open to liability, he added.
Conversation centered on the millennial generation for two reasons – its potential and importance in establishing a new generation of Rhode Island workers.
While a millennial herself, McFarlane warned employers to look past her generation’s online personalities and methods of expression, to their work ethic and drive.
“The young people in Rhode Island really want to work hard, are passionate about and want to do good,” in their careers, she said.
“The cultivation of potential in [young] people,” is a fundamental aspect of successful workforce development, said McFarlane, urging hiring managers in the audience not to overlook millennials.
Reeber complimented the depth of knowledge of millennials in his law firm but touched on a topic each of the panelists knew all too well – keeping young, Rhode Island-trained individuals in the state after they graduate.
“We’re training people and they’re either going to go up I-95 or down I-95” to find careers, he said. Reeber believes the state needs to leverage available benefits, including paid family leave, to entice millennials to choose the Ocean State.
Moving forward, panelists concurred there is a bright future for job growth in Rhode Island – especially in the health care, information technology (cybersecurity), trades, life sciences and creative-design industries.
The fact the onus for growing Rhode Island’s workforce does not lay entirely with either the employee or the employer is an idea on which all panelists agreed.
“We used to ask people to change to meet [employer demands], now we have to meet in the middle,” said Hebert.