Last week, we shared information from the Governor's summit on Future Talent Demand and some of the things happening in our region to address that demand.  This week, we move on to the next outcome, Talent Acquisition Challenges.

Talent Acquisition Challenges

Employers across the state face a variety of challenges in recruiting qualified candidates for job openings. While Michigan's economy is particularly impacted by structural downsizing in the manufacturing sector, it is all the more critical to help employers fill the 55,000 estimated job openings currently available in the state-each unfilled job opening unnecessarily delays Michigan's full economic recovery.

Summit participants worked together to identify the range of talent acquisition challenges faced by employers. Each group of seven to 10 participants identified as many challenges as they could, and then developed a consensus around the three most significant. Subsequently, with support from the key business leaders and facilitators, each region and industry spent time consolidating the table work into a consensus set of key talent acquisition challenges.

Michigan's population is rapidly skewing older, and, thus, accelerating the need for employers to acquire talent. By 2020 Michigan's population of those 60 years of age and older will be 49 percent greater than it was in 2005, while the state's total population is expected to decrease by one percent. While increasing vacancies from retirements may be a positive development for job seekers, employers are having difficulty in replacing the significant experience and skill retiring employees provided. The demographic "bubble" of retiring baby boomers is leaving a gap of experience in its wake as retirees increasingly outnumber advancing younger colleagues or equivalent skill sets in the job candidate pool.

The talent acquisition challenges viewed as most significant by summit participants across regions and industries include:

• The "aging out" of the workforce
• The ability to retain college graduates and experienced employees in Michigan
• The lack of basic and soft skills in the job candidate pool
• The perception of manufacturing
• The perception of Michigan as a place to "live, work, play"
• A limited awareness of skilled trade opportunities
• A dearth of on-the-job training resources
• Weak intra-industry collaboration on talent pipeline development

Employers at the summit noted, as did Mr. Traub, economist with the Detroit branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in his presentation to attendees, that job candidates are increasingly lacking the basic and soft skills required for long-term employment. These include literacy and mathematics, as well as communication, teamwork, and other social engagement skills. Beyond basic skills, Mr. Rothwell, president and CEO of Business Leaders for Michigan, also noted in his presentation that higher education will overtake skills development as the primary hurdle for candidates to be qualified.

Employers and educators alike also identified the low awareness of skilled trade opportunities as a challenge to finding qualified candidates. High school students that may prefer a vocational career path are often not aware of the resources and jobs available in pursuing that option.

In the Upper Peninsula Region 1 Talent District, our talent district partners have produced the Upper Peninsula State of the Workforce Report for three consecutive years.  You can download the report HERE.

Many collaborators through the talent district, UPWard Initiative, UPEDA, UPCDC and others have been working in concert on many efforts to determine talent supply and demand challenges and to implement strategies to address those challenges.

Some of the strategies that are aimed primarily at K-12 and Post-Secondary Institutions include the following:

• Multiple STEM Related Activities
• Distribution of Career Exploration Materials
• Job Fairs
• Career Preparation Activities
• Company Tours
• Job Shadowing
• Internships
• Classroom Presentation
• Web based materials
• In-Service Presentations
• State of the Workforce Report
• Aligning educational institutions with industry demand
• FIRST Robotics
• NEXT Robotics
• Jobs for America's Graduates
• Youth Entrepreneurial Activities
• Career Path System
• Michigan Works! Staff on-site at Educational Institutions
• Short Term Training Processes
• Recruitment of students for high demand training programs
• Michigan Works!, MI-SBTDC, PTAC, EDO Partnerships
• CTE Whitepaper and Subsequent Legislation
• Trailing Spouse Services - Upper Peninsula Trailing Spouse Network
• Continued focus on economic gardening
• Development of more paid internship opportunities
• Michigan Works! business services and talent matching systems
• Attendance at job fairs by companies with openings
• Adult Education
• Jobs for America's Graduates
• TRIO and other remediation services
• Career Path System
• Lego Robotics
• Company Tours
• Career Exploration
• Grow teacher externships
• Continued Public Relations and Marketing
• Pure Michigan Campaign

While these efforts and many others are ongoing throughout our region, we need your input.  Please join us at the UP Talent Summit on September 20th and help us determine and prioritize next steps for addressing Future Talent Demand in the UP.  Register now at www.upmichiganworks.org.

Stay tuned to our Keeping You Connected emails for weekly updates including next week when we will share more about outcomes and expectations from the Governor's summits.