Talent Archives - Page 8 of 13 - Sioux Falls Development

Looking to grow, retain, optimize your workforce? This event is for you

Posted on September 7, 2022September 29, 2022 by leahb

How to attract and maintain a diverse workforce.

Reinvention: The flip side of disruption.

Collegiate engagement made easy.

Workforce reimagined: How manufacturing and tech can help us have hard conversations

Culture, culture, culture: If you do it right, nothing else matters.

That’s just a sampling of the topics that will be explored at the fifth annual WIN in Workforce Summit, held Oct. 26 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.

The Summit is organized by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation and supported by Forward Sioux Falls.

“We just have continued to evolve and now are part of a national conversation about talent and workforce,” said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development.

“We bring people globally into our event and into all the engaging things we’re doing here. It’s just very well planned and diversified as far as the talent and expertise.”

Attendees at the summit can choose from nine sessions divided among three tracks:

Talent attraction, which includes a look at best practices across the area collegiate network.
Talent development, which will offer insight around how organizations are up-skilling and growing their own talent internally.
Today’s issues, which will explore themes such as culture, wellness and sustainability.

“As a community, we have leaders across all these areas, and we’re bringing them together in one place so you can hear directly from them,” Guzzetta said. “When you look at the new generation of talent and what they’re looking for in a workplace, there are increasingly conversations around these themes.”

Additionally, the Summit will feature two keynote speakers.

NFL Pro Bowl running back Justin Forsett, an underdog fan favorite, now is a podcast host on LeBron James’ UNINTERRUPTED Podcast Network and is an entrepreneur and inventor featured on ABC’s Shark Tank as the CEO and co-founder of Hustle Clean.

“He pitched an idea, got funding and now his products are sold in major retailers, and he just has a wonderful story,” Guzzetta said. “Everybody thinks you have to be the smartest or most athletic or the best and what he’s going to tell you is it really is your mindset and how you’re looking at things.”

Then, Travis Hahler, a South Dakota native leading global change and transformation for Google, will speak on the themes of his own business, The Neurological Nomad. As an independent consultant, Hahler brings neuroscience, neuropsychology and behavioral psychology to business executives at large and small organizations.

“He helps companies with transformation and working through change and understanding what motivates people,” Guzzetta said. “That’s what everybody is trying to figure out right now is what motivates people.”

The Summit is designed for everyone from CEOs and business owners to human resources professionals and even high school and college students, she said.

“If you’re touching workforce in any way – maybe you’re a nonprofit or an economic development organization, or you work in operations for a manufacturer – there are going to be takeaways of value for you,” Guzzetta said. “One of the messages we’re sending loud and clear is that WIN in Workforce is where everyone has a voice and everyone sits at the table.”

The WIN in Workforce Summit also will provide plenty of time for questions, networking and sharing best practices.

“Hopefully, you’ll become what we’re calling The Great Attraction, or The Great Upskill,” Guzzetta said. “There’s a huge opportunity right now to make investments in talent.”

The Sioux Falls Development Foundation is an approved recertification provider from the Society for Human Resource Management, and human resources professionals who attend WIN can earn nine professional development credits.

Tickets are $89 for in-person attendance, which includes lunch and snacks, and $20 for virtual attendance. Group discounts are available. Contact deniseg@siouxfalls.com. To learn more and register, click here.

Talent Thursday: Jennifer Hoesing

Posted on August 22, 2022December 5, 2022 by leahb

Talent Thursday is a weekly social media livestream event that spotlights talent and workforce in the Sioux Falls area by sharing the stories of young professionals in our community.

For Thursday, August 18, 2022, we caught up with Jenn Hoesing, who is Director of Development for DakotAbilities. She shares more about the mission and services offered by DakotAbilities, as well as her career journey and how she ended up in Sioux Falls.

Talent Thursday is held weekly on Thursdays at 3 p.m. CT on the Sioux Falls Development Foundation’s Facebook page. Follow here: https://www.facebook.com/developsf.

TALENT THURSDAY

POWERED BY:

Forward Sioux Falls is a unique, innovative program designed to grow and improve the Sioux Falls region. Created through a joint venture between the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce and the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, we work to outline strategic initiatives to grow jobs, businesses and quality of life.

Learn more

Couple from Detroit settles into Sioux Falls as son also chooses city for college

Posted on August 3, 2022August 3, 2022 by leahb

A job search and a college search collided in one place this year for a Detroit family: Sioux Falls.

Dr. Bart Miles and his wife, Jennifer Knightstep, have lived all over the country. She was born in California and spent much of her life in Michigan; he has been in the Detroit area since 2003.

The closest he came to South Dakota was as a student at Dordt Univeristy in Sioux Center, Iowa, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“I had friends in Sioux Falls, and at the time I was at Dordt, I’d come over once in awhile to go to a movie. Sioux Falls was significantly smaller, and I hadn’t been back since,” said Miles, whose family still lives in the Omaha area, where he grew up.

When he saw Augustana University was launching its social work program, he applied and interviewed to become an associate professor.

Dr. Bart Miles

“So for the first time in 30 years, I came back to Sioux Falls and saw it and really had a great experience,” he said.

When he returned to Michigan, he said: “Oh my gosh, Sioux Falls is so cool. You’re going to love it there,” Knightstep said. “We had traveled through Sioux Falls, but I hadn’t been to stay and visit. I really love South Dakota though, the Badlands, and whole state is just beautiful to me.”

The social work program is part of Augustana’s broader Viking Bold 2030 strategic plan. The Harriet Emily Scott Social Work Program at Augustana will include Bachelor of Social Work and Master of Social Work degrees.

Miles is helping develop the curriculum, with a plan to go through accreditation and fully launch the bachelor’s program in 2024, followed by the master’s program in 2027.

“The U.S. Labor Department says social work is one of the fastest-growing occupations and is projected to stay that way for another at least 10 years,” he said. “As Sioux Falls expands, there will be higher and higher demand.”

And while this Augustana program proved the right fit for Miles, the school also rose to the top of his son, Nic’s, college search.

Miles Family

“He knew he wanted a smaller school, maybe a private institution that was more personalized,” Knightstep said. “When he applied to Augustana, he didn’t tell them he was related to a faculty member. He wanted to see what happened on his own, and he did it. He loved it. He went on his first campus tour and said it was exactly what he was looking for in a university.”

Nic will be a freshman this fall studying biochemistry and botany.

And he won’t have far to go for a trip home. The family decided to begin life in Sioux Falls by renting a house not far from campus.

“We looked downtown, we could be downtown urban-living folks, but our dog decided she wanted a yard, so we found a nice little house near the university,” Knightstep said. “Everyone we’ve met has been so nice. The day we unloaded the U-Haul the neighbor across the street came over with a dolly and offered to help us move.”

She also has found a warm reception for her own business: Jen Knightstep Photographer.

She specializes in newborn photography and already has found clients through word of mouth in Sioux Falls.

newborn photography

“I had my first session here a week after we moved,” she said. “I had posted in a Facebook group that I was new in town and offering to photograph babies, and someone reached out and ended up being an ideal first client.”

She runs her business through jenknightstep.com.

“It’s a niche area of photography,” she said. “You can’t just pick up a camera and start shooting newborns. You need safety training, to know how to pose them and to know how to get them to sleep.”

newborn photography

The photographer in her also appreciates the landscape of Sioux Falls.

“We were just at Falls Park, and it was amazing. We don’t have anything like that in Detroit. Right here in downtown, 2 miles from my house, there’s a literal waterfall. It’s gorgeous. I can’t wait to start shooting here.”

Dr. Bart Miles and his wife, Jennifer Knightstep

In their free time, the family loves spending time outdoors.

Knightstep likes to go for morning jogs and recently joined a local running group. They’re both training for the Detroit marathon this fall.

“And I love biking and think I’m really going to enjoy that here,” Miles said. “I’m contemplating getting a road bike because there’s so much space for road biking.”

Dr. Bart Miles and his wife, Jennifer Knightstep

Their son loves it too, Knightstep added.

“He loves wandering around downtown and loves Falls Park, and I can imagine families with small children would love everything there is to do too,” she said. “You’re usually no longer than 10 or 15 minutes from anything in town. In Detroit, it could take an hour. Everything is close together, and yet there’s still good diversity whether it’s a Mexican mercado or great barbecue.”

The family is a wonderful example of how people from many stages of life find a fit in Sioux Falls, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“We could not be happier that this family has connected to our community in so many ways,” she said. “But that’s exactly what Sioux Falls offers – opportunities to grow something from the ground up, like this incredibly valuable social work program, build your own business, including as a solo-preneur and find an amazing place to go to college.”

Ready to learn more about carving your own path in Sioux Falls? Visit siouxfalls.com, or reach out to deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

Ever wonder where area workers are coming from? Check out the census data!

Posted on July 22, 2022July 22, 2022 by leahb

Job-to-Job Flows from Metro Areas to Sioux Falls, SD (Q2 2021)

We know South Dakota is one of the best places to live, but other people are coming to see what all of the buzz is about!

In new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Job to Job flows shows the number of employment hires in the Sioux Falls metro area — focusing on worker reallocation. This data represents Q2 2021.

Below are the top metro and non-metro areas, outside of South Dakota, where new employees came from.

Metro area	Number of employment hires
Non-metro MN	204
Non-metro IA	167
Sioux City, IA-NE-SD	137
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	136
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA	50
Ohoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ	47
Non-metro NE	44
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO	42
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA	39
Fargo, ND-MN	35
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI	28
Non-metro, ND	24
Lincoln, NE	23
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX	21
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA	20
Non-metro WY	20

A spring break trip to South Dakota?

When Joe Brummel’s wife and two teenagers didn’t turn him down immediately, he knew the idea that had been brewing in his mind might have the chance to become reality.

“When COVID hit, we couldn’t help but notice that in the Twin Cities it was lockdown central and a lot of unreasonable considerations, and in South Dakota right next door, we kept hearing about a different approach,” said Brummel, who has lived in the Twin Cities most of his adult life.

“And so we just paid more and more attention to it.”

He’s the owner of two businesses – Strategic Retirement Partners, an SEC-registered investment adviser that helps employers set up group retirement plans and guides employees through using them – and Plan Sponsor Roundtable, an interactive education forum for employers that oversee and run retirement plans.

“I had built a team in the Twin Cities, and we were adding clients in the Upper Midwest, including South Dakota, and I realized South Dakota was growing, and there was an opportunity to do more here,” Brummel said. “I felt South Dakota was going to be best served by someone from my team being on the ground here, and it turned out that was me.”

But first, the spring break trip.

Instead of heading to Florida, he and his wife, RoAnna, and their high schoolers headed west.

Brummel family

“I started talking to clients and got great recommendations for places to go, and the family jumped on board,” he said. “So in March, we made a trip to the Black Hills and checked out the sights and had a ton of fun. Little did the kids know, but my wife and I were contemplating a move out here.”

Meanwhile, “the whole time we were on vacation, our son kept saying we should move to South Dakota, and we just looked at each other,” Brummel said.

Brummel family

They weren’t sure their daughter, who was heading into her senior year of high school, would feel the same, but that changed too.

“After we got home, we began having conversations with her, and she was telling us how at school things were difficult and she couldn’t wait to be done with high school and go on to college,” he said. “That gave us the confidence she’d be OK with a move, and when we told the kids what we were thinking, they said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”

Brummel family

They officially made the move in mid-August, enrolling their kids at Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools and connecting with the Catholic Men’s Business Fraternity, which helped Brummel meet others early on.

“I got connected with helpful, awesome people,” he said. “Including a real estate agent and an attorney to help move my business. The school has been an excellent experience and made a huge difference for our kids, helping them integrate and making sure they got settled with the right classes.”

That’s not to say there weren’t some transitional challenges. Their house in Minnesota took longer to sell than expected, and they caught COVID-19 in the middle of the move. But now, even his daughter said “she has made better friends here than she had in high school in Minnesota,” Brummel said.

“It’s just great. Quite honestly the hidden secret about South Dakota is the quality of the people. They’re just authentic.”

His daughter just found a part-time retail job and plans to stay in South Dakota for college, attending SDSU. His son is looking for a summer job and also has made good friends already, he said. After renting while house-hunting, the family just moved into a home in Harrisburg.

Brummel family

“It took us some time to get a feel for the housing market, but we found a place with almost 2 acres and a private backyard, and we’re super excited,” Brummel said.

The next steps include getting more connected to the community, especially for RoAnna as a stay-at-home mom.

“She’s still meeting people, and that can be challenging,” Brummel said. “But we recently got connected with the Newcomers Club in Sioux Falls, and we met really great people through a couple different churches, so we’re grateful for that, and meeting new people really doesn’t seem very hard to do.”

Brummel also plans to hold an education session through his business in the coming months in Sioux Falls.

“This is considered a smaller market for something like that, and to my knowledge there’s never been any kind of fiduciary training program here like it in South Dakota, so it should be a completely new service,” he said.

“I have talked to a variety of local business leaders about this, and everyone seems to be excited that we are bringing it here.”

He’s also learned he’s the only Certified 401(k) Professional in the state, according to the Retirement Advisor University, which provides the training and certification for the designation.

“Specialists in just about every field tend to offer and do more than generalists, with better results to show for it,” he said. “This is a big reason I am excited to be in South Dakota now, to help companies here better manage their retirement plans and to improve results for their companies, leadership and employees.”

The family’s experience is indicative of many newcomers in Sioux Falls, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“We especially continue to see a Minnesota migration as families from the Twin Cities and beyond discover there’s a different life just a short drive away,” she said.

“They’re moving businesses, settling their kids in great schools, connecting with civic organizations and loving their new neighborhoods. We’re thrilled the Brummel family is finding the same experience.”

The culture of Sioux Falls and South Dakota immediately stood out and continue to, Brummel added.

“There are awesome people in Minnesota, but here the people are just different. I quickly felt at home having grown up on a farm in Wisconsin where there’s the same mentality in South Dakota that you help each other out, you do what you can and be a real person and do the right thing,” he said.

“I’m happy to say it wasn’t just a honeymoon feeling – the people here are great, and I think they are the best and most underrated part of South Dakota.”

Are you looking to make a move to Sioux Falls? Visit siouxfalls.com to learn more about the community, or email deniseg@siouxfalls.com to get connected to career opportunities.