“Partnerships are key to reaching diverse and minority candidates during the recruitment process,” said Williams, “The networks and marketing capabilities of external organizations gives Stiles Machinery access to qualified veteran candidates, as the technical skills required for many of our positions are often found among men and women with a military background.” Talent is a community-wide issue, which means tangible solutions will likely have to be born out of collaboration in order for them to succeed long-term. HIRING FOR THE PERSON Something that is frequently seen among human resource professionals is the tendency to hire for the position, not the person. Companies lose quality candidates with the potential to be top-tier cultural and organizational fits due to a hyper- focus on the specifics of a position. Attitude, work ethic, and cultural compatibility are far more important to Williams than most other criteria. The rest, she says, is teachable. That’s why Stiles Machinery has implemented two apprenticeship programs to meet quality candidates where they are in their technical capabilities. These programs allow for apprentices to work closely with a mentor and develop their skills in order to move into a more permanent position within the company later on. To combat the needless loss of quality candidates based on technicalities, Mercy Health has significantly transformed its hiring process to adopt a system that provides scientific data to support whether or not candidates are a fit for the organization. Candidates are thoroughly evaluated to determine if they are a good match for Mercy Health as a whole, not just for the jobs they have applied for. Once this piece has been confirmed, even if the candidate is not selected for their originally intended position, the HR team at Mercy Health does everything it can to find another place for them to fit. MORE THAN JUST DIVERSITY Diversity is undeniablepartof the solution for the future of our workforce, but simply diversifying is not enough. Creating a more inclusive work environment, and ingraining inclusion into company culture, is equally important.
“Inclusion doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a journey. We can hire diverse candidates, but if we can’t retain them, that’s a far bigger issue,” said Lewis-Welch. Williams urged audience members to ultimately consider what people want: a sense of belonging. To belong somewhere and to feel as though you are making a difference greatly impacts how you experience your work. “It is the responsibility of every manager to look at the whole person when it comes to their employees. The things that are unique about each individual will help determine how they can feel like they belong with the organization and in their department,” said Williams. WHAT’S NEXT? Employers can’t tackle all of the talent issues on their own. Everyone in the community has a role to play, and the panelists emphasized this in their closing remarks. “We would like to see more collaboration among higher education institutions to eliminate some of the barriers that are preventing students, especially non- traditional ones, from applying prior experiences and credits towards degrees that would allow them to advance in their careers,” said Heethuis. Stiles Machinery has also taken a stance in support of ‘banning the box,’ and has begun working with a local non-profit, 70x7 Life Recovery, which works with individuals that have a criminal background to prepare them to re-enter the workforce. 70x7 decides if, and when, these individuals are ready to be hired by one of their partners, helping to curb the amount of talent that is being written off before they even make it through the application process. While there is no one solution that will prepare West Michigan for the workforce challenges to come, there are many ways our region can curtail the impact of shrinking talent pools. The time to come together and work as one, collective community is already upon us.
The Right Place’s last Investor Breakfast of the year zeroed in on one of the hottest topics for businesses around the world: talent. A panel of experts joined the Vice President of Talent Initiatives for The Right Place, Cindy Brown, as she moderated a discussion where each panelist shared how they were preparing their company and workforce for the future. PANELISTS • Shana Lewis-Welch , Executive Director, Talent Acquisition, Mercy Health • Steve Heethuis , Training Director, NN, Inc. | Mobile Solutions Group • Elizabeth Williams , Corporate HR Manager, Stiles Machinery President and CEO for The Right Place, Birgit Klohs, opened the discussion with some somber statistics, painting a picture of the talent issues we will face in the decades to come. The 2018 birth rate in Michigan was the lowest since 1941, and that trend was reflected across the country as well. In the U.S., the number of children a woman is expected to have in her child- bearing years dropped to 1.76, while the “replacement” rate, or the optimal rate to renew the population, sits at 2.1. Put plainly, the data indicates that in 18+ years there will simply not be enough people to sustain the current workforce. “We need toengage everyone, to be inclusive in our efforts and make certain that no one is getting left behind as we develop solutions to tackle the challenges posed in the years to come,” said Klohs. PARTNERSHIPS ARE KEY Partnerships were a reoccurring theme among the panelists. Workforce development, Lewis-Welch said, is a collaborative effort. There are many community organizations in the region that can act as resources in the talent recruitment and development process. Mercy Health, for example, has an ongoing partnership with West Michigan Works! to develop and diversify its workforce and build a stronger talent pipeline. The six entry-level job families within Mercy Health make up over 70% of its workforce. The organization needed solutions to upskill and develop more than 450,000 people to prepare for the future, and those solutions came from a community partnership.
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