Attracting, retaining people key to north-central Iowa workforce

MASON CITY — Attracting and retaining workforce in north-central Iowa was the key theme for last week’s Rural Economic Development Summit held at North Iowa Area Community College.

Members of a panel of local business leaders agreed that among the top of the line issues deal with making the area attractive to not only bring in new people to the area but also to retain people here.

Collin Davison of the Laird Law Firm says when they are recruiting law students, one of the things he has to deal with is the “big fish-small pond” concept. He says business owners have to better understand what that pond truly means.  “Is it amenities? Is it scope geographic area to cover for clientele? Is the the type of practice? Is it professional? Is it personal? I think what my experience is, when you push on that and you dive down and hear what they have to say, it’s not something that’s insurmountable. I think it’s something that we have to be candid with individuals and acknowledge what we may not have, but is that really within the pond to which they make reference?”

Jason Henderson of Iowa State University Extension says while many people may label the next generation of workers as not being resilient, he thinks they will be the most resilient generation that we’ll ever have. “They’ve been through the Great Recession. They’ve been through COVID. They’ve seen things in other ways that others might have not lived through. How do we help them? I think they are a generation that’s focused on individuals, and they just want to be seen as a person, and how do we see that? That’s not sugar-coating all the bad things that are happening around us, but it’s being real, being authentic, building trust, because I think at the end of the day they’re going to stand up to the challenges emerged.”

The Rural Economic Development Summit was hosted by First Citizens Bank, NIACC, and the North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation.