April 2013: Roth Provides Tips on Hiring and Retention in the Face of a Labor Shortage

 

Hiring and Retaining Top Talent in Greater Des Moines (DSM)

Katie Roth, President of Portico Staffing, kicked off her presentation with a surprising fact; Iowa is experiencing a labor shortage! "In Iowa, with unemployment around five percent, and the typically unemployable around three percent, we are almost at a full blown employment shortage now and it is going to get much worse," Roth warned at her presentation before the April Business Innovation Zone luncheon. "In the next five to seven years everyone born between 1945 and 1955 is going to start retiring. In fact, the only reason it hasn't already started is the great recession," she observed.

In the face of this challenge, Roth, the Senior Professional in Human Resources, as certified by the Society for Human Resource Management, offered two key strategies and appropriate tactics as to how the challenge can be met. Consistent with her presentation's title, she noted that it is all the more important moving forward to hire the right people and then make the appropriate effort to retain them.

Square One DSM, an initiative of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, is formerly known as Business Innovation Zone (BIZ).