Press Release
While 3-year-old Dalton Brunsing bounced in and out of his mother’s arms, his 5-year-old sister, Shelby, quietly showed off her green dress and happy smile.
“She likes dressing up,” said her father, David.
David and his wife, Rose, moved to Norfolk last October. The family of four—both David and Rose are 30 years old—made the transition not out of necessity, but because they wanted to return to where they grew up.
David is from a family farm in West Point and Rose is from Spalding. The two graduated from Wayne State College and started their post-college lives in Lincoln.
But with Shelby nearing kindergarten age, the two realized their lifestyle had to change.
“The main thing we wanted was to get a good environment for raising kids,” Rose said. “Although we loved Lincoln…it was accepting the fact that we would be raising our kids in such a different atmosphere than we were raised in that was difficult.”
David searched for a job for almost a year but came up empty-handed. And, with David from a family six and Rose a family of three, the number of trips back and forth from Lincoln to Northeast Nebraska were becoming close to ridiculous.
In August, David got in touch with an old friend, Jay Knobbe.
The head of Norfolk Area Recruiters, Knobbe hand-delivered David’s resume to banks around the area. By October, David was starting his job as vice president at the Bank of Madison.
”After talking to him on the phone, two weeks later I had a call from the president of this bank,” David said.
With the move complete, Rose said family members have stopped by more frequently, David can make trips back to the farm and Shelby started kindergarten at Sacred Heart this week.
“Things are just a bit slower here, not so hectic,” David said. “In Norfolk, it just seems like everyone is from the same background. A lot of our neighbors are just like us.”
COOPERATION NEEDED
Tackling a situation as broad in scope as the current labor and skills shortage issues, brings forward numerous philosophies and ideas.
While many at the Columbus, Norfolk and state level agree that people need to be brought into communities to help fill positions, how to attract and retain them has officials and volunteers stumbling over each other’s varying opinions.
There are differences on what ages to target, whether Nebraska should change its attitude from recruitment of businesses to recruitment of labor and whether or not competition is beneficial.
But, at the end of the debate, there is one element everyone agrees upon—cooperation.
“I think it’s healthy to have different ideas,” Knobbe said. “We all have similar needs, but we have different ways of going about it. We just can’t be territorial. We have to work together and cooperate.”
DIFFERENT TARGETS
Right now, Columbus is targeting people of all ages. From those graduating college to those nearing retirement, the community’s Drive for Five program—500 new workers in five years—has set out to attract as many workers as possible.
Members of the community and company representatives also have traveled to Iowa and South Dakota in an attempt to recruit new labor.
From the perspective of Angie Ramaekers, director of Drive for Five, it really doesn’t matter who she recruits as long as it means adding a new body.
Norfolk, on the other hand, has been less aggressive in terms of its recruitment demographic, which could be because the city doesn’t have the immediate need like Columbus. So far, most of Norfolk’s focus has been on the recruitment of high school and community college alumni, ages 27 through 34.
The Brunsing family is a perfect example of NAR’s focus, and David can see the benefits.
“I think they are targeting the right age group,” he said. “We had people coming up to us when we left wanting to leave, too. But I would have never thought of this area if I hadn’t grown up here.”
CHANGE IN MENTALITY
Workforce Development consultant Caleb Pollard said Nebraska has been stuck in a 30-year economic cycle, pushing business and job creation. Now, Pollard and Elkhorn Valley Economic Development Council director R.J. Baker of Norfolk say they think a change in this mentality is necessary.
The shift must be from job recruitment to people recruitment, Baker said. While he added that the state can never completely rid itself of business recruitment, people should be the top priority right now.
“We need to change our emphasis,” Baker said. “That doesn’t mean we abandon any current programs but just need to add a people recruiting element and make it a top priority.”
Gov. Dave Heineman has a somewhat different perspective.
Since he thinks the entire situation is an opportunity for Nebraska to grow, he took it upon himself to push for a reduction in taxes to make Nebraska a more business-friendly state. While he agrees that the state has wanted to create jobs for the last 20 to 25 years, he said it wasn’t doing a very good job since it was considered a high-tax state.
By altering this, he hopes to persuade businesses to come and, even more so, local businesses to grow.
”We are trying to help our current businesses expand,” Heineman said. “It’s not just getting the jobs, and it will happen. We’re not targeting everything. We’re targeting what’s good for us.”
ZERO-SUM PROBLEM?
At some point, it’s important to consider the simple fact that what is good for Norfolk may not be the best for Columbus. Or what may benefit Omaha may not help Lincoln.
In an age of growth, opportunity and ingenuity, there is also a very obvious aspect of competition, and how to use that competition has come up in the current debate of solutions.
Dan Mauk, president of the Norfolk Area Chamber of Commerce, defined it as the “zero-sum” problem. If Norfolk recruits someone from Kansas City, then Kansas City may be to “steal” someone from Des Moines and so on.
“As communities nationwide realize the need to recruit, (recruitment) is not going to be possible,” Mauk said. “It’s a positive thing for those entering the work force at first because it will cause an inflation in salaries. But this will translate into inflation in prices and economy as well. It’s just supply and demand.”
But Knobbe doesn’t necessarily agree.
To him, the competition will force communities to change and adapt. Cities like Columbus and Norfolk will be forced to look into infrastructure improvements, employment incentives and wage increases.
What comes out of this competition is a resurgence in the livelihood of the community, Knobbe said.
“Competition is always good because it wakes people up,” he said. “I’d love to see the day that young people tell us what they want and what they need to live here, and that’s what competition does. It lets them tell us, ‘Well, Grand Island has this, so that’s why I prefer living there.’ Without the competition, the world would be stagnant, boring and lifeless.”
COMING TOGETHER
While the situation seems impossible to solve at times, there also seems to be many people more than willing to attack it at various levels around the state.
And the best part may be that these people are coming together.
Both chambers of commerce from Norfolk and Columbus are working with city officials and educators. Norfolk Area Recruiters and Drive for Five are meeting to discuss possible mergers and plans for the future. The superintendents of schools are working on efforts to educate administrators, teachers and parents, and the state is aiming at solutions as high as the national level.
With all the differences in opinion, it seems this attitude of cooperation has been the state’s saving grace, and Heineman has made a call to every Nebraskan to participate.
:Every single citizen in this state, and I mean that seriously, has a role,” he said. “There’s a key responsibility for state and local government, for economic development and for companies, but the fact is every Nebraska family has a relative who would like to come back. Now, it’s your chance to spread the word.”
By Katelyn Kerkhove
- Story Courtesy of the Norfolk Daily News
