Community leaders consider worker recruitment

MOSES LAKE — A long list of solutions came out of less than two hours.

About 28 people sat in attendance at a meeting at the Grant County International Airport conference room Friday morning to discuss employee recruitment to the Grant County area.

The meeting followed a similar session at the same time Thursday morning held to discuss the needs of the construction industry and what help the community can provide. Those in attendance Friday focused their efforts on drawing in workers to the area.

As he did the day before, Grant County Economic Development Council Communications and Research Manager Jon Smith wrote down the issues the area faces and the solutions suggested by those in the audience. The solutions filled more than three oversize yellow notepad pages.

Problems mentioned included a lack of technical resources, a lack of job opportunities for family members, a decline in quality of workers available and the ability to keep workers once they have become trained.

REC Silicon Director of Administration Dean Martinez spoke about his company's needs when it comes to recruiting employees skilled for such positions as chemical operator, which takes two and a half years to certify.

"Those aren't just walking the streets of Moses Lake," he said.

Possible solutions to those concerns include participating in college, military and local school job fairs; connecting with high schools in the education process, letting students and their parents know about the positions and opportunities available, apprenticeships and targeting the correct demographics.

Genie Industries General Manager George Santiago said his company began targeting universities with surrounding communities in a rural setting similar to Moses Lake, as opposed to colleges in more urban environments.

"We've had a lot of success with students saying, 'Yeah, I want to relocate to a town like Moses Lake because it's a lot bigger than the town I came from, but not so large I'll get lost,'" Santiago told the group. "We should make sure we're looking at the profiles of the schools we're targeting and make sure we're getting the type of students that want to live here and stay here."

Fifteen to 18 of the meeting's attendants formed a task force to work on the issues, both long-range and short-term, scheduled to meet Friday.

Jeffrey Wiberg, branch manager of Moses Lake-based human resources company Barrett Business Services, serves as chair of the task force. He believes partnering the area's economic development councils, the educational facilities and interested employers allows for a pool of resources.

"I think it would be very important for our community to back the growth we're having and understand the opportunities available, and ways to get involved," Wiberg said. "I know there's a lot of individuals who may not have had access to an invitation to this meeting that may very well be a fantastic asset in marketing our community because there's a lot of community pride out there. Getting folks that are proud of our community who would like to sell it involved is just going to create a bigger asset for us."

Martinez felt the meeting netted ideas, information and experiences.

"The industry leaders and the community leaders need to come together and work toward solutions," he said.

Many of the solutions discussed were suggestions his company is capable of implementing, he said.

Port of Moses Lake Commissioner Larry Peterson felt the meeting included a cross-section of the group necessary to discuss a coordinated approach to recruitment.

"We had a good number that signed up to work on the task force to carry this forward," he said. "Manpower is a challenge. We've risen to meet it, and we will, so we can continue to comfortably grow and know it's going to work out."