Talent Attraction Survey 2021 Encourages Greater Support Among South Dakota’s Manufacturers

In late January, the Sioux Falls Development Foundation conducted a pulse survey involving 322 organizations across six industries and in organizations of different sizes to learn more about recruiting difficulty, skills shortages, and the recruiting and training tactics used in response to these challenges. Central to this survey were answers to questions asked including,

What types of roles and experience levels are the most difficult to fill?

What are the most common strategies and tools organizations are using to deal with recruiting challenges?

What recruiting geographies were the most popular? Are there any parallels between recruiting geographies and time spent recruiting?

Ninety-one percent of organizations shared positive experiences including “Talent attraction programs have helped us understand how better to compete,” and “Denise worked with our talent acquisition people to develop a targeted campaign outside Sioux Falls.”

Financial, health, and technology organizations shared low to moderate recruiting challenges. They identified support needed at the regional and national levels. These organizations also participated the most in the Sioux Falls Development Foundation’s talent and workforce programming.

General construction and manufacturing industries reported the highest difficulty recruiting experiences. Manufacturers shared they have strong employee retention rates, substantial benefits, and good talent management processes. Most were recruited locally and felt they could support developing talent due to solid internal teams and natural mentoring between new and existing employees.

Based on feedback, SFDF partnered with the Govenor’s Office of Economic Development and South Dakota Manufacturing Technology Solutions on “Talent Attraction and Implementing Workforce Solutions,” a webcast moderated by Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development, to communicate resources available to help manufacturers.

Information about programs, including Career Connections, automation and robotics workshops, and SD Works, were shared with nearly 300 organizations. Discussions about programs, such as Talent Draft Day on September 23, encourage additional conversations with businesses, including Peter Vaillant, VP of Operations at UltiMed, Inc., and Aimee Miritello, Manager of Human Resource at Marmon Energy. Miritello shared positive feedback about current programs, such as Talent Draft Day Webcast 2020, while signing up to partner for the second year of Career Connections in August 2021. “SFDF’s talent programming opens so many doors for us.”

Other companies in attendance included 3M, BAE Systems, Daktronics, Henkel, Malloy Electric, Marmon Energy, MidAmerican Energy Company, Muth Electric, Inc., Orion Land Mark, Raven Industries, Inc., and Sioux Valley Energy. To view this webcast, please visit SFDF’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/developsf/.