Spreading Seeds of Possibilities: Concerted Effort Begins with Program to Grow Area Workforce

Chris and Lindsay Shepard were a unique find for an employer. Fresh out of the University of Kansas Law School last year, they married last summer, then moved to Great Bend where they are both attorneys for Watkins, Calcara Chtd., after passing their bar exams last fall. Without recruitment efforts by Watkins, Calcara, planting those initial seeds of possibilities, the Shepards would be caught in corporate bumper-to-bumper lawyer traffic right now, in a small room somewhere researching case law with the inside of a court room at least five years away. That’s not what they were looking for in starting their careers, but they thought that was their only path, until Watkins, Calcara came along.

“Based upon the firms coming on campus to interview, we thought that we would have to go to a larger community,” explained Chris. “We figured that there was no way we were both going to get a job in the areas that we wanted in a smaller community. We looked at Wichita and other larger communities, but it ended up working perfectly for us to come here.”

Right Place, Right Time – Attorneys Chris and Lindsay Shepard at Vet’s Park. Chris, from Topeka and Lindsay, from Western Kansas, are here because Watkins-Cara sold them on what Great Bend as a community has to offer. “The entry level opportunity here compared to other places was enough to get us in the door, looking here and interested, but it definitely wouldn’t have sold us in and of itself,” said Chris. “If we would have come to town and been dissatisfied with what we saw or what we heard from people who lived here, we wouldn’t have come.” Away from work, the Shepards stay busy interacting with new friends and playing softball and volleyball. Factoring into the Shepards decision to locate to Great Bend was the anticipation of settling in and eventually raising a family. “One reason we’re in Great Bend is because not only have we found friends and great jobs, it’s such a good foundation to raise a family in and I’ve heard the school system is excellent,” said Lindsay. “I couldn’t think of raising a family anywhere else. It’s starting to feel a lot more like home here.”

Watkins, Calcara captured lightening in a bottle by landing the Shepards over the big firms on campus. What would happen if that recruiting process were spread community wide? Those seeds of possibilities could then be scattered around the state and nation and the process of capturing lightning could be refined to attract professionals, skilled laborers and general laborers in those sectors where area jobs need to be filled.

A community workforce development effort is in progress to find out those answers. A Great Bend Area Community Employee Recruiter – ACER is expected to be hired later this month. Funding has been provided by the City of Great Bend and by several Great Bend businesses to launch the new program. Once on board, the recruiter will work with area businesses and organizations to build comprehensive employee recruitment and search program in an effort to bring people from outside of the area in to fill those job vacancies. The recruiter will report directly to the President/CEO of the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development.

According to estimated figures from Great Bend’s KANSASWORKS Center there were approximately 380 open positions posted in various resources around the area in late July. At the same time, KANSASWORKS reported Barton’s June unemployment rate was 3.3 percent, compared to the state average of 4.4. High job availability with low unemployment equates to a moderate, but definite workforce shortage. 

Central Kansas Medical Center encounters the shortage regularly, and is trying to resolve the issue partly by helping to fund the community recruiter program.

“In the six years I’ve been at CKMC, I’ve never seen less than 35 jobs standing open,” said Mark Mingenback, physician recruiter and public information director for the hospital. “Some of the jobs are very technical and/or clinical, but some of the jobs are open because there is nobody to fill them. Jobs that stay open like plant services or food service; those are obviously important jobs because the hospital can’t function without those critical inputs from those key employees who are responsible for those areas. Our needs go all the way from fundamental like that, all the way to needing people like radiation therapists, respiratory therapists; and we always have a shortage of nurses. For the basic economy to continue to grow here, we have got to increase the pool of available labor in just about every sector.”

When recruiting new employees, USD 428 finds its effort doubled by having to also recruit spouses or friends in other markets in order to land the teachers it wants. The school district helped fund the program because it is hopeful the recruiter will complement its recruitment efforts all ready in place.

“When we go out looking to hire teachers and staff for our school district, we really need more resources for their spouses,” said assistant superintendent Dan Brungardt. “We go to 10 to 12 different university job fairs a year and we just need more updated information to provide them. Hopefully the community recruiter could attend some of them to help with the trailing spouse. Sometimes with college students, they don’t have a trailing spouse but they have friends who are also looking for jobs, so if you could have a job for a teacher and their friend or a couple of their friends where they could move together to a new location, that works well, too.”

For the Surgical and Diagnostic Center of Great Bend, another business that helped fund the program, an effective community recruiter is vital as the center moves toward expansion in the coming year.

“I see the community recruiter as a very important position for us moving forward,” said Pam Chambers, administrator for the Surgical and Diagnostic Center. “We are going to be adding more than 80 people to our staff here next year and I’m not sure we have 80 people out there in this area who are trained in the specialized fields that we need them to be trained in. We have to reach out beyond this area, and to let people outside of our area know about the quality of life we do have here. The recruiter can plant those seeds in people’s minds outside of our area that this community is a viable option for them.”
    
Though the Surgical and Diagnostic Center does not face a labor shortage now, the center’s labor pool already covers a 40-mile radius, Chambers said, so expansion would most certainly have to come from outside of the central Kansas area. 

“Probably more than half of our nurses and staff live outside of Great Bend, so we recognize how important and far-reaching this program is to all of our community, not just Great Bend,” Chambers said.

Along with the community recruiter effort, the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development began its New 2 Great Bend group last spring to help new people to the area network with other people and businesses in the community. The group targets individuals who have moved to the Great Bend area the past two years. New 2 Great Bend has a barbecue planned for 5 p.m. Aug. 10 at Vet’s Park to keep that interaction going for those who recently moved to the area.

Continued interaction with new employees is an advantage Great Bend has over many other communities, the Shepards said.

“I feel that Great Bend is so open, friendly and really wanting young professionals to locate here,” said Lindsay. “It’s making you feel welcome long-term, not just the initial meet and greet and then you never hear from anyone again. They remember you here, they tell you they will give you a call, and they actually do. We’ve met so many other younger people. It’s surprising to me that there are so many other younger professionals here. New 2 Great Bend does these functions here and there to continue that interaction, reaching out to new people and their spouses.”

It’s not just young professionals coming to the area workforce nowadays. Baby boomers, many of them with area ties, are finding their way to a more serene lifestyle after years of metropolitan living.

“We are seeing more people in their mid to late 50s looking for employment,” explained Mingenback. “They aren’t ready to retire but they have had it with the rat race in a major city. They may have grown up here. If they can find gainful employment in or near where they grew up, then they are coming home. Many have aged parents and they become caregivers to them. I have several stories where the initial reason someone decided to move home is because they had to take care of mom, or at least assist her or be available. What they find is after they came here for that reason; they see that it affects them in such a positive way. They enjoy the peaceful lifestyle, the low stress, the five-minute commute, the acquaintances, people say hello to each other. All those things we have here that we take for granted, they find all over again, and so they decide to stay.”

In order to increase those opportunities, however, Mingenback said the community needs to be more progressive in its pursuit and that’s why the community recruiter is so important.

“Without the recruiter, we end up being passive and the train leaves, many times,” explained Mingenback. “We may not even know that we are missing something as a community, but the train left and we weren’t on it. A community recruiter will be aware of what’s going on at Fuller, Doonan Specialized, CPI, the hospital, the college, this community as a whole.”