Category: Talent

No matter what your industry, there’s likely talent waiting to support your business – if you know where to look.

“We understand that workforce is a shared, significant challenge for our business community,” said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Our approach is to try and turn that challenge into an opportunity as we help businesses find the talent they need now and in the future.”

The Sioux Falls Development Foundation takes a multifaceted approach to doing that, beginning before students graduate high school and continuing through their college experience.

Career Connections

When a student is exposed to work opportunities while still in high school, it can make a strong impression that resonates well after graduation.

The Development Foundation launched Career Connections in 2020 as a pilot program. It’s designed for the 30 percent of high school students who have little to no post-secondary plans, serving as an introduction to industries and careers within the Sioux Falls region.

Starting with 59 students rotating through five organizations, the program has grown quickly in popularity among educators, businesses and students, reaching more than 400 students who chose among 38 firms in 2021.

“The response has been tremendous from our community. Our partner organizations see the value of investing time and resources to expose them to the career and educational pathways available to them in the Sioux Falls community,” Guzzetta said.

One of those partners is Graham Tire, where students learn about opportunities in the auto industry.

“We need workers,” president David Mickelson said. “This program has opened the employment pipeline to high schools, which is something we needed to do.”

The data behind the program is encouraging. Career Connections has helped 72 percent of high school seniors with post-secondary and employment plans after graduation.

Lincoln High School seniors Abshir Ibrahim, Kishmar Eberline, Aleyda Callejas Cruz, Christina Furula, Alfred Toe and Junior Meselu are some of the many college-bound students thanks to their participation in the Career Connections program.

“Use the opportunities that you get and others wish they had because maybe one day you might give them one,” said Cruz, talking about what the Career Connections program means to her.

Cruz plans to study business at Southeast Technical College.

Ibrahim, inspired by his visit to LifeScape, applied and has been accepted into the University of South Dakota’s nursing program.

“Working directly with the teachers and students has enabled us to identify barriers and apply resources and help immediately to the students,” Guzzetta said.

The Career Connections program is available in six of our community’s largest high schools. The program is looking to expand next year to help define more career and educational pathways for students after graduation. To learn more about participation, email deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

Connecting in college

As students advance through college, the Development Foundation continues to connect them with Sioux Falls and the career opportunities available here.

When the pandemic began in 2020, the Development Foundation innovated and flawlessly transitioned programming from in person to virtual.

Digital enhancements included establishing a strong presence on Handshake, the largest collegiate online network dedicated to underserved students and alumni. This platform has simplified the communication and engagement process with administrators, professors and students.

“We enabled several ways to help organizations to connect and engage talent using Handshake, from programs, internships and employment opportunities,” Guzzetta said.

The Sioux Falls Development Foundation’s Handshake network has grown to more than 2 million students in less than two years.

For in-person experiences, new approaches to internships are becoming an innovative way for businesses to establish relationships with future employees.

In the fall 2021, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and the city of Sioux Falls collaborated and launched a pilot micro internship program with the University of South Dakota’s Beacom School of Business.

Over eight weeks, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation helped 30 very motivated, talented college juniors and seniors with placement. Students engaged in intensive learning projects and experiences in financial services, construction, land development, manufacturing, government and nonprofits to apply knowledge to practical and real-life work experiences.

“Internships are increasingly becoming more the norm for students of all ages. Internships are evolving to year-round experiences for students,” Guzzetta said. “We are at the beginning stage with these experimental experiences, seeing demand increase daily for micro and project-based internships.”

The Sioux Falls Development Foundation plans to build on the robust internship program this year, with more students from USD and a new cohort from Augustana University to help smaller and midsize businesses attract the talent they need.

“Now is the time to get connected, so we can begin bringing talent into your organization that will help meet your workforce needs today and in the future,” Guzzetta said. “We’re making a difference both for students and for businesses, and we’re positioned to build on that success.”

As we look to 2026, we continue to view workforce as a key outcome of the Forward Sioux Falls campaign. The Sioux Falls Development Foundation is excited to report progress on our current workforce programs, and also to share new programs that will help fill the workforce pipeline in the Sioux Falls area.

Career Connections

A misconception about workforce development is that it only involves filling open positions. While this is one of the end goals of our programs, we have strategically started outreach efforts in our middle and high schools to support students and encourage them to seek high-demand careers after completing their high school education.

One of these programs is Career Connections. We’ve partnered with Brandon Valley, West Central, Harrisburg, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Washington high schools to offer a weekly job shadowing experience that immerses these students into high-demand careers. There’s also an off-campus component that allows students to visit businesses in our key industries. Site visits from the 2021 Career Connections program included Electronic Systems Inc., Deffenbaugh Homes, Marmen Energy, and Grand Prairie Foods.

Many of these students are first-generation Americans and English is their second language. As Sioux Falls becomes more diverse, we must continue to reach these populations. To date, we’ve reached 461 students through this program, and it’s making a difference. Aleyda Callejas Cruz, a Career Connections student, shared why the program has been valuable to her and why she’d encourage other students to participate.

 

“Use the opportunities that you get and others wish they had because maybe one day you might give them one.”

If your business would like to host a Career Connections visit, please contact deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

Recruitment Council

On Thursday, Feb. 3, we hosted our first Recruitment Council meeting of 2022. The Recruitment Council is a monthly meeting open to business leaders, HR professionals, and education and career guidance professionals to educate on best practices for attracting, retaining, and developing talent.

 

 

The first meeting of the year focused on internships. Attendees listened to a presentation on “4 innovative ways to increase your ROI through internships,” followed by a Q&A panel featuring Dr. Venky Venkatachalam (Dean of the University of South Dakota Beacom School of Business) and Tegan Molden (employee benefits specialist with Marsh McLennan Agency in Sioux Falls). The panel was moderated by Jodi Schwan (founder and publisher of SiouxFalls.Business), and attendees received great insight into best practices for internships as a way to fill their talent needs. If you are interested in joining our Workforce Information Now (WIN) email list to stay up to date on the latest workforce development events, please contact deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

UPSKILL Sioux Falls Program

In August, the SFDF received notification that we’d received a $100,000 workforce marketing and incentive grant from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED). 50 % of this grant is to be used for workforce incentives or upskilling programs. In working with our partners at the South Dakota Association of General Contractors (AGC) and Southeast Technical College (STC), we identified a critical need for enhanced training for first-time Commercial Drivers License (CDL) applicants.

New federal requirements for entry-level driver training for the CDL went into effect on Feb. 7, and apply to all entry-level drivers seeking the following licenses:

• Class A or Class B CDL for the first time
• Upgrading an existing Class B CDL to Class A CDL
• Obtaining a first-time school bus (S), passenger (P) or hazardous materials (H) endorsement

Courses will be instructed through STC and will be cost split between SFDF, GOED, and the businesses participating. This cost structure is stipulated by the grant, but still allows businesses to receive upskilling for their employee(s) at a fraction of what the cost would be under normal circumstances.

Our current partners offering this CDL upskilling include: K and J Trucking, Inc., South Dakota Trucking Association, and Southeast Technical College. If your business has a need for training CDL drivers, please contact deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

The Sioux Falls Development Foundation anticipates launching the workforce upskilling program in April 2022.

Graphic artist Clara Meath grew up in Washington, D.C., went to college in Georgia and spent some of the first years of her professional career in Atlanta and the Twin Cities.

Two years ago — well after building a national reputation and a following large enough to fund her comic book projects without a publisher — Meath chose Sioux Falls as her home base.

Why?

“It was the best move for my career at this point,” Meath said.

That may seem surprising, but it perhaps shouldn’t be.

The cost of living is lower in Sioux Falls, for one thing. And Meath can work from anywhere. Her social media fan base — more than 43,000 on Instagram — can explore the worlds she creates regardless of where she builds them.

But perhaps most importantly, Meath said, “they love me here.”

“I mean, shouldn’t that be enough?” she said. “That’s what mutual attraction is all about, right?”

Like any healthy relationship, Meath’s affection for the city has grown with time through shared experiences. She visited on multiple occasions for events like Siouxpercon or smaller gatherings at shops like Rainbow Comics over the years. She had spent a short stint in town already, rooming with one of her sisters before bouncing back to Minnesota.

The 32-year-old has made plenty of connections with fans and other aspiring artists in a city she describes as friendly, genuine and supportive. Siouxpercon is her favorite event, in part because so many of those fans make it a point to find her and say hello.

“Every city has its own personality, right?” she said. “Here, you do have that Midwestern nice thing. People want to engage, and there’s not that impulse to be competitive and cut people down.”

Sioux Falls is also a place where she can be a “big fish in a small pond” and embrace the role of mentor and guide to aspiring artists, both online and in person at events.

Fans can learn a lot about how comics are made from Meath’s Instagram feed. For her current project, “mother 47,” Meath posts her progress on the platform with the hashtag #whoismother47, which acts as a window into her day-to-day work life.

The hashtag’s followers can watch the project take shape in near real time. Meath might post the rough sketches with the shapes of her characters’ heads in one photo and then the finished product in the next panel. Some posts pan between her computer screen and her numbered notes; others are time-lapse videos that show her artist’s hand at work.

It’s an understandable commitment to her fan base, given how important Instagram has been to her recent projects. She’ll pitch them to followers and then direct them to Kickstarter campaigns. The “mother 47” project has raised more than $11,000 in advance funding, for example. Her “Sketchbook” series and her adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Conqueror Worm” also were financed by fans.

Her creative success while based in Sioux Falls shows how the city has evolved as a place to work, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Clara’s success on social media and through crowdfunding really highlights how entrepreneurs and artists can increasingly grow their business from anywhere,” she said. “What also matters, though, is what kind of community you’re experiencing when you’re not online. And increasingly, we are finding artists and other creative entrepreneurs are finding people they can connect with and who will support them in Sioux Falls.”

Add in the state’s favorable business conditions and the city’s emphasis on quality of life, and it’s a powerful combination, Guzzetta said.

“A self-employed graphic artist enjoys a favorable tax structure here just like a larger corporation,” she said. “And there are increasing ways to collaborate with other like-minded people, whether it’s within a small business or event, at Startup Sioux Falls or by participating in the growing number of calls for art within the community.”

Meath would not necessarily suggest using an Instagram business model to all artists. It’s just the platform that has worked best for her. She doesn’t spend much time on Facebook nor does she intend to join TikTok. She has a video podcast on YouTube with mentor and collaborator Zach Howard, for example, who has cultivated his fan base on other platforms.

“You have to find what works for you,” Meath said. “Zach has a lot more success on Facebook, which is probably just a demographics thing.”

It’s also not especially surprising that Meath feels compelled to offer guidance to others. She grew up with four sisters in a home-schooled household, where she was taught by her mother, a dancer, and supported by her father, an independent publisher.

Her family and her teachers at the collegiate level offered support during rough patches. Before graduating as valedictorian of the Savannah College of Art and Design’s sequential art program — “sequential art” is an umbrella term for panel-by-panel narrative art forms like comic books and graphic novels — Meath hit a low point, during which she wasn’t sure if she’d finish. Her professors and advisers pushed her to stay on, a “humbling and empowering” experience that still resonates with emotion when she retells the story nearly a decade later.

Showing both the process and the finished product is more than marketing, Meath said.

“I’d definitely say helping newer artists learn is one of my goals, having people who know even a little more than you come alongside you when you’re just getting started is so, so important, so I suspect I feel an obligation,” she said, adding that her best advice for artists is to “know who you are, know your strengths and weaknesses, and lean into both.”

As far as her storytelling goals, that’s a little simpler. As complex, detailed and full as her panels and plotlines may be, the endpoint is always the same: empathy and “the maximization of experience.”

“I want to allow people to mentally experience things they’d never be able to otherwise,” she said.

Meath said she’s glad she has landed in a community that supports those endeavors and one that has grown more supportive of the arts in general.

The slow, peaceful pace doesn’t hurt, either.

“I grew up in D.C., so this place is Candyland.”