 Being welcome to the 2021 Workforce Development Symposium hosted by the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce, I am Deja Martinez, the executive director, and I am so happy to see you all. And we've got the most beautiful view of fall colors behind us. Thank you to Pine Hills for hosting us for yet another delicious breakfast. And Jonathan is somewhere, and he is phenomenal. So when Jonathan walks out the doors, we'll all clap for him because I don't think we celebrate how awesome he is enough. And he makes sure. There he is. Yay, Jonathan. But every time I show up and say, I don't know how to do this, Jonathan finds a solution. So thank you, Jonathan. So we are going to just get right to it. You all have a booklet in front of you. We have a wonderful lineup of speakers today. Before we get started, I want to say thank you to our sponsors. They make sure that we can continue to provide, develop, and implement this type of programming for you all. So Gapes Construction, thank you to Masters Gallery Foods, thank you to Sargento. Those are our three platinum sponsors for the day. So we can say thank you and give them a round of applause. Our gold sponsor for the day is Rockline Industries. Thank you, Rockline. And then our silver sponsor for the day is Johnsonville. So thank you, Johnsonville. And with that, we have a special message from Ms. Laura Kohler of Kohler Company. Hello, everyone. I'm so delighted to be here as part of the Workforce Development Symposium and as a fellow business leader in Sheboyton County. I'm especially excited to introduce a topic to which I'm extremely passionate about, diversity, equity, and inclusion. As we consider our role in strengthening our business and the communities in which we work and live, our action around fostering a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment becomes ever more important to sustain and build for the future. The murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in June of 2020 was really the wake-up call that we needed as a company and as a global brand to remind us of our role in supporting our associates and supporting our communities in the work of DE&I. We went out, talked to our associates, and learned how to better support them and learned how to message to our communities and our world really how we feel very passionately about supporting diverse associates in our communities and in our workplace. In fact, Delight Customer is our first and foremost cultural belief at Kohler Company. And we believe this really leads the way in the thinking around DE&I. We really believe our ability to compete and thrive in a global workplace and a global marketplace requires us to become even more diverse, equitable, and inclusive as a company. Our customer expects the best innovation and the best service. And we deliver that by getting the best diverse talent to apply their strongest thinking to solve the problems in front of us. The customer wants our teams to challenge one another and represent their point of view from the design of the product, development, marketing, and so on. So we need that creative diverse thinking to deliver our very best. And we empower our associates to boldly innovate to serve our customers as well. And to get there, we know our DE&I journey will take intentional leadership, ownership, and advocacy. It requires each of us to step out of our comfort zone and be aware of our bias, get involved in our thinking, and press forward in meaningful action. And that's not easy to do. It's not just one person's job. At Kohler, everyone is a leader, from an individual contributor to a top executive. We all have a role to play in achieving our mission rooted in gracious living. And it's an expectation too that we treat one another with dignity and respect. We foster an environment where associates can bring their whole selves to work and support them to achieve their highest potential. Having a sense of belonging is what makes this all sustainable. With belonging, those who live and work here will lay down roots, they'll buy a home, they'll send their children to our schools and they'll participate actively in our community, adding to the enrichment of our culture that only builds over time. You see, when we focus on and build belonging in our workplace, it not only benefits our business, but our community as well. Sheboygan can be a major hub for business and known as a great place to call home when we all work together as a team across our industries to build belonging. So as you think about your role and how you can influence, I would like to leave you with a few questions. Are you using your influence to guide specific and actionable goals around DE&I for your organization? Are you fostering an environment where your associates can take action, get involved in affinity groups or business resource groups who will create opportunities for connection and education community and drive strategy within your organization? Are you developing strategic partnerships and relationships with groups that represent and serve underrepresented communities? Have you looked at your internal policies and processes to ensure they are designed with equity? And finally, are you growing in your own personal journey of DE&I and role modeling the behaviors you wish to see across your organization and encouraging your teams to do the same? As leaders, we must use our influence to build cultural intelligence. That will recognize, respect, and value and embrace all of our differences for the greater good. Thank you all for your time here today and being a champion for inclusion and belonging in our community. Morning, everybody. I recognize lots of faces in the room, but for those of you who don't know who I am, my name is Tammy Flora. I'm the Vice President of Human Resources at Masters Gallery Foods, both in Plymouth and in Usberg. So I welcome you here today. We're excited to be a sponsor for the event and I'm really excited to hear what the keynote speakers have to say, but I have the privilege of introducing our first keynote speaker, who will be speaking on the challenge of finding workers in Wisconsin, something many of us are facing. Our speaker has been the Employment and Training Division Administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development since June of 2020 and previously led the Office of Business Opportunity in Equity Compliance. Winning numerous state and national awards, she also has served 23 years in the military. Please join me in welcoming Michelle Carter. Good morning. Good morning. I have to figure out how to manage. I'm not usually scripted and I usually talk loud, so I'm gonna just work with me a little bit, please. So again, thank you very much for inviting me, although I was the second choice. They wanted our secretary. Our secretary doesn't need Amy Pahachek, but our secretary really does regret that she cannot participate, but I promise you that we are very interested in any opportunity to engage business and really bring in our local partners to make sure that we are fulfilling our mission. So I want to tell you to look in this book, please, because I don't want to use a PowerPoint. I feel like sometimes that can be a little restrictive, so if we go to page five in the book there, that's, I'm gonna follow that PowerPoint. So if you need to, if you're thinking, what did she just say? You can go back to that, and so that'll be a reference point for you, okay? So the challenge of finding talent. So overall, the trend in the workforce is that we have our growth is declining. Wisconsin's labor force may actually decline by 2035. So the retiring baby boomers, right? The slow population growth, I mean, we've been talking about that for a while. The division that I lead is the division of employment and training, and we actually have a labor market analyst. We have a whole section of economists that are constantly looking at the data, and we've been saying for a long time that the labor shortage was coming. The numbers of people getting out there in the workforce was continually decreasing, so we knew that before COVID, but COVID exacerbated all those things, right? We also know that the situation is true, not only in Wisconsin, it's also true for the upper Midwest, much of Western Europe, and even China. So we know that there's global competition for talent right now, and we didn't used to be in that same area, right? So we know that a skilled workforce has been an existing demand even before the pandemic, in and almost every industry occupation and geography. So before the pandemic, employers were struggling to fill open positions, looking for skilled labor. We're looking at the influence of advancing technologies and the aging population, right? We also know that these problems are not going to solve themselves. So DWD really does understand that state agencies have to work with business employers, chambers, workforce development boards. I mean, we literally have a workforce development system that I'm not sure if people are aware of. So think about the, how many of you are familiar with the workforce development board? Matt Veliket is the executive director, and Kate Owens is their business services manager. She's relatively new there, but we work with them, but we work across the state, we work with these workforce development boards, and they give us the local connection, the local feel of what's going on. But we pull the data from our labor market information to really understand what's going on, the trends for businesses. So looking at that, we can tell you that we know of the people working in the workforce now, there are approximately 1.5 million or 32.4% of Wisconsin civilians that are not institutionalized age 16 to 84. And they do not currently participate in the labor market. That's a pretty big number. We know that of the 1.5 million, 1 million have retired or aged out of the workforce with no intention to return, right? And then COVID kind of gave a number of people a wake up call. They decided what's important and they walked away. That helped another number of people walk away. We also know that somewhere between the age 16 to 24, about 181,000 opted out of labor market for educational endeavors. So we recognize that there's four underutilized, I'm gonna call them untapped workforce areas. But I will say that sitting at the table, I heard the commitment to working with youth and working with internships and working in college. That is an excellent strategy because we have to make sure that as the new supply and demand is there, right? That we're making sure that we're nurturing that and ensuring that they have the skills that they'll need. So the individuals with disabilities is that first area. We have learned that we already, we have a division of vocational rehabilitation and they actually have counselors who do assessments with individuals and they work very carefully with them to understand what their situation is, right? And to find out what they need to be able to get into the workforce and be more productive. So individuals with disabilities are 182,000 residents that we have that are untapped, excuse me, to the labor force. Then veterans, veterans of all people, you would think that people who've served our country and then come back and they have the skill sets. They've done a number of things to say yes, that they're serious employee. But yet we know that our state veterans population has a lower labor force participation rate than the rest of the state. And their unemployment rate is higher than the unemployment rate for the state. Now that seems like a disconnect. So we know that that too is an opportunity. Justice involved persons. So we know with our Department of Corrections, some of the, we have almost 9,000 people who are released every year, but we know that we have our minimum security, medium security, different security levels, but we're actually in at least 10 job, each at least 10 facilities across the state. We actually have what we call a job lab. So we're actually making sure that individuals who will be released within the next six months are getting some training. They're connecting to our job center network, the computer systems and being able to prepare for those high skill or in demand job opportunities. So based on that kind of data driven research, we know that these four groups are kind of the largest or the low hanging fruit. So we want to use our resources to help you connect with these four groups. So our business services, we've been at a business services unit and that business services unit is an integrated unit. That unit actually, it includes veteran services where we have veterans representatives that again cover the state. And they're working with individuals who are being anyone who is transitioning out of active duty military. They actually, most of them receive an outgoing session that tells them about the workforce in the area that they say that they want to return to. So for the soldiers, so that outgoing session is very helpful for them. So our veteran services people connect to them as well as local veteran resources. We also have our Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards which is in our unit. Now, apprenticeship is an earn while you learn process. We work with the trades, we work. So industry, government, trades and community-based organizations are working together. In apprenticeship, we actually have certified pre-apprenticeship where employers can, if they believe so, community-based organizations have a group of recruits and they work with employers who say that they have a demand, they can craft or customize training that will give them the pre-apprenticeship skills and actually connect to registered apprenticeship. And we also have a youth apprenticeship area and all of that is also accessible and the youth apprenticeship area engages youth in 11th and 12th grade and that allows them to kind of do the work co-op and leave school and they get credit. So they're getting some educational credits, taking some curriculum and then they also are leaving school to be able to work so they have that connection to the workforce and again start working on their skills. So of that integrated unit, the veteran services, the apprenticeship services, it really does help. And then the workforce development board is also one of the partners there. Job service is obviously a key link so I would hope that, does anyone here familiar with Jolene Wilkins? Yes, and so Jolene is our business services manager, our supervisor there and she's usually engaged, she told me that she would usually be coming to these events but with our staffing issues, we have a lot less people as well. So she couldn't be here this time. But we also have, again, as our vocational rehabilitation person, we also have a representative there and all these people are trained, they're experts, they're out there, they're in the community and working with those target populations. So just know that we are working to be, we are making sure that we are tailoring our services. So on the conversation of finding talent, we are really trying to customize what we do. One of our mantras going forward is meeting people where they are, right? But we believe that one of the things we have to do first is make sure that you understand the services that we have available. So the integrated service team, again, by contacting one person like Jolene Wilkins, you'll be able to get a number of your, you'll be connected and you'll get a lot of any of your questions answered. I would like to talk, let's see, I'm gonna give you some examples of recruitment services and some things that you may or may not know about. One, we have a fidelity bonding program. If you hire a justice-involved individual or there's someone that you're concerned about, we can actually do a fidelity bond. We would pay for that bond so that you then have some protections in your company to give you some extra assurances if you are not confident. If you're thinking, I feel like this individual is a good candidate, but I want a little bit more of an assurance, we have that fidelity bonding program. We also have a workforce opportunity tax credit that I would encourage you to take a look at. We work with, D.O.A. is familiar with that. They can help you walk through that, but again, our staff can help you walk through those sorts of opportunities. We do virtual hiring events, sometimes from our job center, sometimes from our workforce development areas, but we do those events again free of charge, all of it, free of charge. So I know that many of you may use staffing services, but it is something that can help you also get connected. We will come onsite to your location and do some hiring events. We do sector and targeted recruitment. One of the things in our workforce development system is that we have, so we have Title I, Title II, we are connected to the technical college system, so we do that. Our connection there is viable and you see it in apprenticeship, but we also have a series, we have what we call an eligible training provider list, and we have over 2,000 providers on that list. And so individuals based on their eligibility or based on usually the low income populations, some of the youth who are transitioning out of foster care are going to be eligible to have their training paid for. So that could be, it can be, so again, if you do a customized training as employer, you'll see that, but also connecting with the technical college and there's some community-based organizations. We have some connections like with Grow with Google and some of those things as well. So individuals can be connected that way. So just let, you know, need to just let us know and we can be there and help you. Again, Jolene Wilkins, I'm gonna keep saying her name. Matt Velikette, you know him. Also Kate Owens is in works for the workforce development board. So again, make that connection, please. We also, our DVR, our Division of Vocational Rehabilitation can actually come onsite and do some look at your workforce, look at your workplace and help you make determinations on what you can do to accommodate people with disabilities. So if you have individuals that, again, the number of people we have that are disabled, again, I shared that number with you earlier, some of the issues might be, they might have a hearing issue and so hearing aids might make it easy for them to be able to participate in your workforce. There's a number of things and so often I think we take disability as something to say where people can't participate and maybe we have a picture in our heads but we need to understand it's much more broad and our DVR will come out and they'll make sure they do those assessments and help you make connections. So please engage there. Then, like I said, no matter who you talk to, Jolene Wilkins, Kate Owens, Matt Velikette, no matter who you talk to, you can be connected to the workforce, to all of our workforce resources at no cost. Let's see, I wanna give you some data because that is people like that, right? Let's see. I'm gonna talk about the governor, the governor had three grants that he posted and I think the key thing about the three grants that the governor recently put out is that they all are inviting innovation. The governor, actually the biggest one which just closed its application period was called a workforce innovation grant and that he committed $100 million to and it put this application out that allows nonprofits or public bodies to compete for grants up to $10 million. And these grants, what they're asking for are regional solutions to the workforce shortage and the biggest thing I want to say about that is that what that is saying, the governor is saying, let's get new ideas, right? We can't assume that we get it, right? He's saying, let's get those new ideas and so the actual application period just closed and it looks like we have over 100 applications. It is, that is an effort between WEDC and the Department of Workforce Development to again bring in some of the innovative solutions to how we can solve this issue. They want the solutions have to be data-driven. The solutions also will, the goal is to leverage existing infrastructures. So we are really excited about what the results of that will be. We've heard from employers around the states that the statewide workforce challenges must include community because those community connections are going to be critical. It is common sense that what Southwest Wisconsin employers need to fill their open positions might not be the same for issues in other areas, right? I will say that Jolene coached me and she said that if you're going to Sheboygan you need to understand fry brats that you dress them and fried and dressed. So this is an area that you can't, the brat language is very specific. So the thing that I would say about that is again that we recognize that really solving the workforce solutions requires that it's a tailored and customized approach. It's different across the state. And again, I wanna say that the governor recognizes that as well. So again, I do wanna point out in that grant, one community might use the grant to support affordable childcare, which I know is one of your issues here. And another might use it to look at transportation infrastructure, right? So those grants will give that opportunity. And I do know from having read a little bit that you're interested in how you can be more inclusive. So again, just know that I hope that some of you, did anybody apply for any of those? Anybody familiar with that? Okay, very good. Let's see. Then the other grant was one called a worker advancement initiative. And those were funds that went to workforce development boards. And what they asked each of the boards again was for some innovation and ideas for subsidized employment opportunities. Again, trying to connect individuals to the workforce, although those individuals might have some additional assistance needed. And that subsidized work at least will cover the minimum wage. But in that program, what we're looking for is, and it would be administered through DWD, working with the boards, but it's gonna help people who've had those challenges with COVID primarily or post-pandemic, really trying to help them get reconnected so they can be successful in the labor market. So making the connection, subsidizing that to limit the cost for the employer. And then finally, the last program that the governor supported was one called a worker connection program. And this is one where the pilot that we are doing in WDA five and in the Milwaukee area. And that pilot is going to put what we call achievement coaches out in the community to build partnerships. Again, trying to meet people where they are and trying to get referrals where trust can be built. Some of our key partners right now are the Wisconsin Literacy Community Action Program and the Boys and Girls Clubs, but really trying to put achievement coaches out in the community. And so we expect that to expand. And by having those individuals out in the community, the goal would be that there would be trusted referrals. For example, young people or an individual who usually comes to that place. We expect that that community-based organization would be able to make some connections and say, this is a good person. Their only challenge is this. Can you work with them? Let's refer them to the right organization and not refer them like, here's the phone number, go and take care of it. Instead, say, let me take you here. This is how we make this connection and really leading them through. One example that that program would serve that we've talked about is when you look in the technical college system, black and brown people that are in the technical college system have dropped out at a greater rate than any others. And sometimes those are for financial reasons. But oftentimes the individuals may not understand that they may be eligible for what I talked about that Title I assistance. They might be eligible for one of those programs and they would not have had to drop out. But because, unfortunately, the system seems to sometimes set people up so you have to go to here or here, we are trying to reinforce a no wrong door approach. So we're trying to make our system more fluid instead of choppy. And we also wanna make people more aware of the workforce system and what the system can do for them. Did you all know that our job centers are tied to our workforce development centers and are tied to the technical college system? Did everybody already know that? Before I came to DWD, I did it. Did you know that the Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards, the Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards had a director that had been there for more than 25 years. Some people didn't know that the Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards was part of the Department of Workforce Development. So again, we know that we need to make sure that we get out and help people understand what we can do to address the workforce shortage. I wanna share some other data that it's from our Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The, and so there's a bunch of acronyms here and I want to make sure that I get it right. So Wisconsin quits, the number of individuals who quit reached a series high in August of 2021 at 97,000 people. The United States, Illinois, and Iowa also reached a series high in the same month. That'll be in August. Wisconsin job openings are down slightly from the July 2021 peak to an estimated 214,000 in August 2021. Wisconsin hires are down over the month to 105,000. And again, the United States and all of Wisconsin's bordering states are experiencing a month over month decline. So we're seeing the numbers, national trends are saying that there are less people available, but we're hearing more and more creative solutions. We're trying to create the, foster those solutions again through some of the governor's initiatives and the way that we do our work. Lastly, the, I told you, so I told you about the governor's initiatives. I told you that we have integrated services. Are any of you using, do all of, so you said, a few of you said, you know, Jolene, so you are working there. Are there any other, I guess, are there any initiatives that are going on here that you need additional support for? Are you maximizing, do you feel like you're maximizing the workforce, the existing workforce development system? Are you all in a place where you can reach out to Matt Velikette or to Kate Owens or Jolene Wilkins? Do you feel that, or have you had some challenges in that? Anyone? We have a really great relationship with Jolene. So sadly, she's not with us today, but we know she's very, very busy. But I would say in our communities, we have a very strong relationship, thankfully. As I understand that your business expansion, it's really been growing over the last seven years, like in 2015 or so, it was probably your last kind of major employer leaving. It sounds like, again, from the table, I said that there's a number of really positive efforts. The investment in our youth is a huge thing. So it sounds like you already have that. But we have really learned and we are growing into really relying on those community partnerships and where trust already exists. The data is telling us we can't do things like we have been. We also know just as the person on the screen said earlier, we're in a time where why would someone trust government, right? I guess from businesses side or from individual side, why trust government? So what we know that we need to do is build those relationships and build a brand that says that we are here, we are a helping organization. So that is what DWD is doing. We're relying, again, on data. We're working towards those data-based, evidence-based decisions, right? So we're pulling all the data in, making sure that we are responsive to what's coming up. And so we know that that requires your input. And I saw, yes, John, sorry. Yeah, with the achievement coaches that are new, are they working with the Windows to Work at Department of Corrections and with the Justice Involved participants on when they are reintroduced into the community where those individuals can locate, because it used to be that they have to automatically go back to their original destination. And I'm just curious, because of Green Bay and the Milwaukee pulling up that corridor, if there's any opportunity for those achievement coaches to really help our employers with some of that reintroduction? And rather than automatically taking majority back to the Southeast area? What we want is for those achievement coaches to be very fluid and be able to support people wherever they are. But we do have a strong relationship with corrections, as I said, where we have job labs actually in a number of the facilities across the state. And so we have been talking to corrections. We've learned that there are some things that, while we were working with the individuals that are currently incarcerated, we didn't have a connection to them once they were released to know that they stayed in a placement or that they used the training. And so now we've changed our data systems to get that. So we do continue to grow those relationships, but the coaches should be fluid to be responsive to the community and to the needs. And that means the job seeker as well as the employer side. So you will see that. And the achievement coaches have not started yet. We are actually in the hiring process for them. So we have a core team of eight, but we have their 17 coaches that will be in the WDA-5 in this area. And then another 17 that'll be in the Milwaukee area. So again, they'll be dedicated to really connecting with the community. Thank you very much.