The Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce brainstormed ways to boost a shrinking workforce with help from Ronald Cox, director for Industrial Extension at Iowa State University.
Cox contributed via Zoom to the Friday meeting. He finds the biggest pressures on businesses right now are lower workforce participation due to pandemic job loss, the mass retirement of baby boomers, a general population plateau and the exodus from rural areas to cities. The quickest solutions to these problems are to embrace immigration, draw people to move domestically and help potential employees overcome the obstacles keeping them from work, he believes.
Cox and his associates divide an area’s potential workforce into 29 categories based on gender, demographic, age, marital status and more. Deciding which categories to seek out allows them to present job openings more effectively and solve the root causes keeping people out of workforce.
“This is the kind of company who succeeds in finding people,” he said.
Chamber President Steve Halter called the meeting because he wanted the workforce task force, composed of area business leaders, to understand the problem facing employers.
“The main issue is ... we just haven’t replaced and aren’t going to be able to replace the amount of people leaving the workforce,” he said, but businesses can focus on alleviating the problem and helping each other.
The task force identified Butler County’s main issues as housing, transportation, daycare and broadband internet access.
Ryan Hendricks of Briggs & Stratton said his company gives employees the flexibility to work around some of those obstacles through hiring them part-time. While the attrition rate is similar to that of full-time employees, and shifting schedules are complex, the approach still works overall.
“We’re looking for at least another 100 plus on part-time,” he said.
Chris Rushin, executive director Boys & Girls Club of the Heartland, noted the organization is willing to expand their childcare operations. He also urged continued partnerships between businesses and local high schools and Three Rivers College.
“It will benefit all of our community in the long run,” he said.
John Dunivan, also of Boys and Girls club, spoke on the issue of welfare. There is a stigma to relying on welfare rather than work, but he has spoken to a recipient who feared losing their housing, health care and SNAP benefits if they left.
“It is an issue where you’re fighting a losing battle because the government isn’t understanding exactly what we need,” he noted.
The conversation moved to potential workforce demographics. James Berry of the District 25 Probation and Parole office urged board members not to overlook former low-level offenders, saying those making commitments to improve their lives are some of the best workers he has ever met. He also advised accommodations for employees seeking to kick an addiction through group counseling and other measures.
The task force decided to look more closely at recruiting high school graduates. Charles Kinsey, director of the Poplar Bluff Technical Career Center, pointed out military and colleges attract students in droves because they have a strong presence on campuses.
TRC Director of Workforce Development Leann Clark agreed. However, some high school students would rather avoid the college debt they see their peers and elders struggle with and directly enter the workforce, as long as they feel a company is likewise investing in them.
“You’d be surprised how many will choose to go to a program like that instead of college,” she said.
Hendricks backed Clark’s statement. At the last job fair, Briggs & Stratton employed four graduates.
“All of those thus far have stayed,” he said.