Economic development groups, employers strive to recruit qualified candidates

To recruit more experienced employees, do Iowa businesses need to reach out farther?

That's one avenue economic-development agencies in the state are following to bring back more good workers to Iowa.

This past Monday, for example, the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, Iowa City Area Development Group, Greater Des Moines Partnership, Ames Development Group and Cedar Valley Development Group hosted a workshop in Minneapolis to connect with more than 50 alumni.

Alumni associations from the University of Iowa, Iowa State and Northern Iowa University sent invitations to graduates living around the Twin Cities area to attend the event and meet with representatives from Iowa companies hoping to hire experienced workers.

While Iowa economic development groups are used to working to retain recent graduates from Iowa universities for entry-level positions in local businesses, Monday's workshop was the second in an effort to recruit more-seasoned employees who may be considering a return to Iowa or make the next leap in their career, said Allison Antes, workforce strategist at the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance.

Alumni associations have the network to reach qualified employees, said DaLayne Williamson, ICAD workforce business services director.

'Employers that we're talking to know how to reach recent grads, but they're having a harder time reaching more experienced workers,” Williamson said. 'By working through the alumni associations, we know that those people (potential employees) already know what a great place it is back here. We don't have the challenge of trying to explain ‘why Iowa?'”

Events such as Monday's workshop help economic-development agencies target specific professionals and speak to them on behalf of large companies area employers such as Rockwell Collins and Transamerica. These professionals have been in the workforce several years and may be seeking the next step in their career. Antes said changing positions may be easier to do in Iowa, rather than in a large city with a saturated workforce.

Williamson agreed.

'They're probably at a point in their career when they are thinking of making a change. Even though they may not realize that we have lots of great companies back here in Iowa, we really do,” Williamson said. 'We don't have enough people here, so we have to make sure that our message is getting out beyond just the Corridor. If they are looking to make a change, they should look back here to Iowa.”

With the unemployment rate in Iowa at 3.9 percent in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rate in Cedar Rapids in May was 3.6 percent and 2.5 percent in Iowa City. Finding skilled employees to fill higher-level positions is more difficult, Antes said.

'In terms of growth here, having low unemployment rate is good. But on the employers side, having a good talent pool to pick from is a bit more challenging,” she said.

People always will come and go, but recruiting from other states helps to provide another perspective and a potentially unparalleled set of developed skills.

'They (large businesses) will go where the people are,” Antes said. 'We want to make sure they have their growth here. We do have a productive stable workforce here, and they don't always have that elsewhere.”

‘Not just cornfields'

But just as important as the right position and employer are amenities in the area. Antes said employers and economic-development agencies are targeting alumni because they already know what the state has to offer outside the office.

'One of the biggest barriers for talent attraction to the area is the perception of what Iowa is,” Antes said. 'They (alumni) know what it's like here. They know it's not just cornfields.”

Williamson said she sees many young professionals moving back for personal reasons such as to be closer to family or because they want to start a family.

'Sometimes they want to get out of the city,” she said. 'They've done the city life, and now their family situation has changed and they're ready to look at something more family-friendly.”

Mike Goedken, controller at MediRevv in Coralville, started working in public accounting in Minneapolis the summer after he graduated from the University of Iowa in 2005. After about nine a half years there, Goedken wanted to get out of public accounting. He searched for jobs in the Corridor because he was attracted to the many startup companies, both small and mid-sized, he knew the Corridor offers.

'The thing about this job was it's a small entrepreneurial company, which I saw a lot of when I worked in public accounting,” Goedken said. 'I really like the energy associated with those types of companies. I'd rather chart the financial course of the company than be in a company where that's already set.”

But Goedken, who is from Iowa City, said he also was looking for a better work-life balance and to move closer to family. Being familiar with the area was an additional draw because he knew what life in the Corridor was like during each time of the year.

'I figured with a growing family and a desire to be closer to family, that was certainly a contributing factor,” he recalled. 'Even beyond family, I came back to the Corridor because it's vibrant. If I were from a small town in Western Iowa or Northern Iowa, I probably wouldn't have come back to those particular towns.”

The fall football games, breweries and restaurants and other events that make a thriving cultural scene in the area drew him back.

'The Corridor has so many activities, whether that be cultural (or) recreational,” Goedken said. 'If you think you have to go to a big cities to find (them), you're wrong, you don't. I did the big-city thing for 10 years and I enjoyed it.”

But, he continued, 'there comes a time when you don't want to drive from one side of the Twin Cities to the other for a barbecue at a friend's house. Ultimately it kind of eats at you, spending that amount of time on a bus going downtown to work or in a car. You don't need to do that to also get the benefits of vibrant economy, art scene, cultural scene.”

Antes isn't yet sure how many people have moved back to Iowa because they attended the workshop in Minneapolis or last fall's workshop in Chicago, but she said she heard many Minneapolis workshop attendees saying they had been meaning to get back to Iowa.

'The Corridor changes so rapidly, letting people know about the development and maturation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem and a lot of these other things is a message that we have to get out,” said Chris Klitgaard, CEO of MediRevv.

He said he's seen start-ups as well as established companies have difficulty finding qualified employees in the area, so recruiting from out of state is the best option.

'We're not just a flyover state,” Klitgaard said. 'There's a lot going on here.”

Klitgaard added he also sees factors such as education draw families back to Iowa.

Metro Economic Alliance's Antes said she sees professionals moving back for the relatively lower cost of living, shorter commute times or to be more involved in a community.

'I think some of those quality-of-life things come more into play when they've been gone five to seven years,” she said. 'This is a one phone call community. If you want to get something done or you want to be connected to somebody, you really just have to pick up the phone and make one phone call. You can really make a difference here whereas it's a little easier to stay anonymous in the bigger cities.”

Even if professionals don't immediately move back after connecting with Iowa economic development groups, the seed has been planted, said Ashley Rittenhouse-Durham, assistant director of alumni programs at the UI Alumni Association. Events such as these also act as networking opportunities where professionals can meet potential future employees, or simply meet peers in their area, she added.

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