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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 02/13/2017 - City Manager’s Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com MINUTES CITY OF FORT COLLINS FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING Date: February 13, 2016 Location: CIC Room, City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave. Time: 4:00–6:00pm Committee Members Present: Wade Troxell, Chair Gino Campana Kristin Stephens City Staff: Jeff Mihelich, Deputy City Manager Jacqueline Kozak-Thiel, Chief Sustainability Officer Darin Atteberry, City Manager SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Manager Kelly DiMartino, Assistant City Manager Jackson Brockway, Graduate Management Assistant Teresa Roche, Chief Human Resources Officer Patrick Rowe, Redevelopment Coordinator Invited Guests: Caroline Alexander, Senior Consultant, TIP Strategies Tom Stellman, President & CEO, TIP Strategies David May, President & CEO, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce Community Members: Ann Hutchison, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce Chris Johnson, Bike Fort Collins Dale Adamy, citizen Meeting called to order at 4:04pm Approval of Minutes: Gino moved to approve the December minutes as presented. Kristin seconded. Motion passed unanimously, 3-0-0. Think Tank Item 1-2017: Talent 2.0, Regional Workforce Strategy • Main themes: Employers have hard time finding talent. Also, community of highly educated people with underemployment. Countertrends. Skills gap and skills mismatch. • Labor market profile done by EHO and TIP in 2014. Snapshot and analysis of marketplace. New report includes updated profile and action plan. This is the first 2 workplan focused on workforce in Larimer County. Plan will be updated every couple of years. • Partnerships in workforce development community—Loveland, Fort Collins, Larimer County Workforce Center, United Way, Chambers, etc. • Geography of Jobs (on TIP website)—map of changing jobs by metro area. Shows job gain and loss through recessions and recoveries. http://tipstrategies.com/geography-of- jobs/ • Geography of Recovery shows loss and gain since Dec 2007. Fort Collins fully recovered lost jobs in 2010/11. Communities that recovered first often had oil and gas. Over 100 metro areas that had not recovered jobs by end of 2016. http://tipstrategies.com/geography-of-recovery/ • Last recession was deeper and longer than previous. Economic output recovered faster than jobs—GDP recovered without as many jobs. Automation, equipment, etc. Still influences business and employment decisions. Ex: Manufacturing output increases while number of jobs decreases. • Talent shortage—survey of employers shows difficulty filling jobs. Skilled trades, truck driving, sales reps, teachers, restaurant and hotel staff, engineers, accounting and finance, nurses, laborers, technicians, etc.—top lines that are hard to fill. Seeing increase in gig and contract work. • Aging of Boomers impacts availability of workforce. Boomers delaying retirement. Succession planning. GenX and following generations are smaller. • Disruptive technology—changing types of jobs. Ex: Automated commercial and personal transportation. o By 2020 expect to create 55 million new jobs, 24 million will be entirely new jobs (not yet defined). Moving target. • Challenges: o Hiring difficulty—adding more jobs than workers—high underemployment. Competing with other metro areas for talent. Low unemployment rate, high participation rate. Structural issues exacerbate recruitment: transportation, child care, etc. Difficulty attracting:  People from Denver and coasts, C-level executives, young professionals (choosing larger urban areas)  Reliable workers for jobs with high physical requirements  Those who can pass drug tests—marijuana use  Low wage services—food service, housekeeping o Expect labor market to continue to tighten. Anticipate 5000 worker shortage over 5 years. o Aging workforce. 21% of workforce is 55 and older. Acute in middle skill and high skill jobs. • Strategic Plan: o Access: support employers in attracting/retaining talent o Alignment: education and workforce resources o Barriers: address structural issues. • Ideas: o Create talent portal (info on working, living and relocating), assemble ambassadors to recruit, trailing spouses program, recruitment services, talent roadshows. o Underemployment Project: outreach, inventory, coach, retrain, re-employ. o Plan for Succession: employers not yet focused on developing talent they will need in 10 years. 3 Discussion • What does “manufacturing” represent now? o Hard to classify. Ex: Waterpik, Otterbox, etc. o System outputs rather than “thing” output. o Movement toward more craft and artisanal products—higher cost, lower output.  Adds value and pays well—demand for skills. Adds balance. • What is gap between projected need for employees and available employees? o Hard to predict. Potential impacts: technology may reduce demand, immigration changes, changes in retirement age, etc.  Ex: Robotics creates higher skill jobs, reduces jobs that are more physical, dangerous, etc. • C-Level Recruitment: Fort Collins is attractive but if job goes away have to relocate to find another job in field. • Stay-at-home parents who have become empty nesters can’t find work—opportunity for entrepreneurship and/or refreshing, upskilling. o See at university—people in 50s want to engage in classroom activities and hands-on. Separate track for practitioner-driven learning. o Organizations that focus on hiring stay-at-home parents for online quality assurance work. o Diligent, reliable, don’t need as high a wage. • See underemployment of people who have qualitative skills. If had Master’s in different field would they find work? o Top fields of study are liberal arts and business. Outside of the health care field, there is not a good match between what people are studying and what jobs are available. o Need to go into middle schools so people can determine what to study. Doing a disservice by not teaching students what jobs are available.  Partnerships for career awareness.  Have strong manufacturing programs—need to scale up. • Trend that municipalities are needing programs to attract/recruit or is this a Chamber-led initiative? o Chamber, with support from municipality. • Institutional partners? PSD, CSU, FRCC, health sector? o Implementation doesn’t work without these partnerships. o City has been active in sector partnerships. Continue that success. o Intentional focus on economic clusters. o Support manufacturing and health care sectors—help remove barriers. Can form additional sector partnerships as needed. • What is role of City? How can Jackie’s team engage? o When implementation begins will need City at table with resources. Chamber is in process of raising dollars. Discussing structure—flexible arrangement. Will ask City to take part in specific aspects of implementation. o GIS, funding, ambassadors?  Public policy. Impediments: Access—City is already at table for I-25 improvements. As drive time increases, labor shed decreases. Affordable housing is a barrier the City will have to address. Not just subsidized housing, even at higher incomes cannot afford desired or equivalent housing. Workforce housing. • City Plan process is coming up—blue print for buildout. Important to be deeply embedded in that process. Attracting talent sounds like a growth issue, but it is really a sustainability issue. Jackie can connect City Plan staff with TIP 4 o Overlay this data with buildout plan. Rebrand as being prepared. • How big of a part of the strategy can addressing underemployment be? How do you invest in people who are already here to fill the gap? If do it right, can it be a remedy? o Better to use those who are here—reduce need to bring more people in.  Win-win. Would like to see jobs go to people who live here already.  Moving folks to “right-size” employment, allows others in mid-low skills to fill those gaps left by those right-sized. • Addressed in plan. Should it be a priority? How successful can it be? • Pioneering in this area shown in the report. Catalogue and quantify current employment. Don’t know any communities that have done this successfully. o Corporate examples of upscaling/retention. o Difficult to assess skill sets just in City organization. o Underemployment project is the first of its kind. • How do we get this language into strategic plans? o First workforce development plan in this MSA. Will be iterative/dynamic. • Work with partnerships to address underemployment. Ex: Certificate programs at CSU. University is trying to adapt. Help underemployed build skills. • House of Reps tax plan is a value add tax—if have long supplier chain would incent moving manufacturing onshore. If moves forward, will have companies seeking more employees. • Child care as a barrier—recommendations? o Structure for addressing barrier—have champions to move forward solutions. o Young people, women especially, are not able to fully engage in workforce due to lack of available/affordable child care. Some HOAs have prohibited in-home childcare.  City can trump HOA requirements, if in interest of City values. Ex: clotheslines, beekeeping, xeriscaping, etc. o How much of labor force isn’t working because it costs more to pay for child care than potential earning? • Understand how to complement/coordinate with Denver initiatives including Career Wise. o Addressed in plan where there is clear nexus. • Interest in clusters of northern Colorado. Related to technology and innovation, diversity of employment. Pursue cluster identity with Denver. o When industry comes together to partner, can address gaps. o Work in the Triangle is an example. DO: Next Steps • City continuing as partner—institutional, sector, implementation, funding, steering committee, etc. • Partner on three major barriers: transportation, housing, and childcare. • Align with City Plan—make sure issues are part of principle statements and vision. • Language in Strategic Plans—can get more intentional. • Underemployment—explore City’s role in retooling/matchmaking process. • Federal policy—future opportunity for City support. • Coordinate with Denver and State, esp. for clusters. 2017 Meeting Planning 5 • Not discussed. Meeting adjourned at 5:33pm.