In a switch, initiative focuses on recruitment of workforce

Barely five years ago, northern Nevada was like most regions across the nation, beating the bushes to find new employers to provide jobs for local workers.

Times change.

The new Workforce Network that's beginning to take root focuses instead on recruiting workers from elsewhere in the nation to take jobs for employers who already are here or might be looking to launch facilities in the region.

The first steps of the Workforce Network a loosely knit consortium have been modest.

A banner over a concourse at Reno-Tahoe International Airport reminds visitors that they could work and live here. A just-launched Web site, mynvdreamjob.com, hooks up folks with northern Nevada companies that are recruiting.

The effort spotlights the new reality of efforts to strengthen the region's economy. Company after company questions its ability to find enough workers in the region to staff new or expanded operations.

"It's now the No. 1 issue," says Ron Weisinger, executive director of the Carson City-based Northern Nevada Development Authority. NNDA joined with Nevadaworks and the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada to spearhead the network.

In fact, Tom Fitzgerald, the chief executive officer of NevadaWorks, says failure to provide sufficient numbers of skilled workers could put a stick through the spokes of the rapidly spinning economy.

Two big studies of the region's economic future last year EDAWN's Target 2010 and NNDA's NorthernNVision effort both strongly suggested that the region pay far more attention to recruiting skilled workers.

Northern Nevada isn't alone in facing tight labor supplies, but Fitzgerald and Weisinger say they don't know of many other regions that are aggressively beginning to recruit workers.

Steve Hull, a former school administrator who works as a consultant to the Workforce Network, says the lack of models elsewhere in the country means the northern Nevada effort is likely to feel its way toward campaigns that work.

"We're trying to find what is available to businesses that will be in the workforce toolbox," he says.

The airport banner, telling 5 million visitors a year along with local residents about job opportunities in the region, is one of those tools.

So is an effort by the Workforce Network to keep businesses informed about the customized training programs available from public schools and private training academies.

So is the thought that a campaign might reach to former residents who long to return home and await only the possibility of a good job before they load up the U-Haul and come back to northern Nevada.

The EDAWN, NNDA and Nevadaworks spearheaded development of the Workforce Network, Hull says the effort is intended to coordinate work undertaken by individual companies and organizations.

"We're not going to be recruiters," he says. "But we can help organize some of this."

The new Web site, for instance, includes links to employment opportunities with companies such as Microsoft Licensing, International Game Technology, Clark & Sullivan Constructors and Sierra Pacific.

Sharon Sperry, the talent acquisition manager for Microsoft Licensing, called the workforce initiative a major step forward.

"We're very focused on attracting and retaining talented people to ensure our company's continued success, and the existing on-line resources don't go far enough to let people know what great employment opportunities there are in the Greater Reno-Tahoe area," Sperry says. "The Workforce Netqwork is the first regional effort working to connect us and other companies to skilled job candidates in our target professions."

While EDAWN and NNDA's new economic-development plans call for more attention to creation of high-skill, high-pay jobs in the region, the Workforce Network looks at technical jobs welders, advanced manufacturing as well traditional high-tech jobs such as software engineer.

"We need a strong workforce for everyone," says Fitzgerald.

Hull says communication tools such as the new Web site also are important in retaining recent graduates from schools in the region. Some, he says, reluctantly leave to work elsewhere in the country even as northern Nevada employers are hungry for their skills.