Page 16 - FDI Alliance International Magazine. Spring 2021 Digital Interactive Issue

NATIONAL TRENDS, LOCAL WORKFORCE

“All politics is local.” So said former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives That is what the general manager of an 800-employee manufacturing facility
Thomas “Tip” O’Neal. By that, O’Neill was pointing out that while he and in rural Missouri recently told me during in a workforce study. While about
his peers considered issues of national scope, they were elected by what manufacturing, the same could be said about most business sectors.
was happening for and to voters in their home district. It is a distinction Technology and automation are increasingly prevalent in the workplace
that economic and workforce developers’ need to consider when thanking and in rural as well as urban areas.
about their local labor market.
That workforce study is being undertaken by a regional planning group in
A year into the COVID pandemic there has been a lot of speculation on the west central Missouri. This group, the Kaysinger Basin Regional Planning
impact it has had on the workforce. As the length of the pandemic grew, Commission, is aggressive in determining the current state of its workforce,
more of the speculation became trends. For example: what employers need today and in the future and what training will need to
be offered to meet that need. “We want to ensure that businesses have a
• Accelerated adoption of technology across a spectrum of workforce with the skills needed for them to be successful into the future. In
business sectors. turn, we need to have education and training opportunities for our residents
that help them get and keep good jobs,” said KBRPC Executive Director
• Increased remote working; perhaps even an end to the Sheridan Garman-Neeman.
office as it has been known.

• More people moving to small metros and rural areas, with Unlike many labor studies that focus on the availability of work force to
employer support, as they found they could work remotely. expanding and new firms, Kaysinger is digging deeper into what is needed
in the future. While availability of workforce is key, the skills of the workforce
• An increase in on-line shopping as many who had no, or and closing the gap between education and training offered and what
limited, use jumped on their computer to order everything employers need is a key focus. “We are not just looking at businesses and
from food to clothes to cars. residents currently in the workforce, but also at those entering the workforce
in the next five years. We need to make sure their expectations are supported
However, some of those trends will evolve as more people are vaccinated, by solid education and training that will help them get good jobs and be
more businesses and educational facilities return to “normal” and people, excellent employees,” said Garman-Neeman.
in general, believe they have more time to consider what their longer-term
response to the pandemic should be. Regardless the trends are there and, While rural in nature, the seven-county Kaysinger region has a wide array of
while national in scope, they impact the workforce at the local level. That businesses that create a diverse scope of job options. The region is home
is why economic developers, chambers of commerce, education, local to companies in aerospace, specialized machine tools and printing to
government, and others that support economic and workforce development small family-owned operations that support tourism at the large lakes in the
need to take the opportunity now to assess their own workforce ecosystem. region. As in many places, medical care is a growing sector. The diversity
of businesses in the region presents challenges. “A lot of smaller firms need
“We need people who have cognitive and critical thinking skills, are comfortable people who have basic computer and customer service skills, and they
working with automation and technology and willing to continually learn give high marks to the younger workers they are hiring. But we also need
new skills”. to make sure we have the engineers, chemists, highly skilled production

16. FDI ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL