Dave Cain: Welcome to unsuitable on Rea Radio, the award-winning financial services and business advisory podcast that challenges your old school business practices and their traditional business suit culture. Our guest are industry professionals and experts who will challenge you to think beyond the suit and tie while offering you meaningful modern solutions to help enhance your company’s growth. I’m your host, Dave Cain.
The weather is getting nicer, which means more people are headed outside before work, after work, and during their lunch break, but it may not be a coincidence that we are seeing more people outdoors. Over the last decade or so, many businesses have begun to embrace workforce development initiatives including corporate wellness. Today’s guest has a lot to say on the topic of workforce development and the role corporate wellness plays into the larger picture. Jeremiah Gracia, economic development administrator with the city of Dublin, and 2017 winner of Under 40 Award in economic development, has worked closely with area businesses since 2011. In an effort to promote continued economic stability and growth within the Dublin and Columbus area, Jeremiah has taken a greater interest in the importance of workforce development and its impact on the business and community. Welcome to unsuitable, Jeremiah.
Jeremiah Gracia: Thanks very much for having me.
Dave: First of all, congrats on this award, Under 40 Award.
Jeremiah: Thank you very much.
Dave: Did you get a big trophy?
Jeremiah: Actually, it was a really small star that said rising star, and my response was, “Well, that means there’s 39 people better than me in the world.” So, I guess I better work on that.
Dave: And just out of curiosity, where does that award stay? Is that at your desk or-
Jeremiah: It’s actually perched above my desk behind me there.
Dave: Ah, okay.
Jeremiah: A little small star, yeah.
Dave: Okay. You ever bring that out and brag about it, or it’s old news?
Jeremiah: Nah, it’s old news.
Dave: Old news?
Jeremiah: Old news.
Dave: So, I know the folks at the office are frequent listeners to unsuitable on Rea Radio.
Jeremiah: So am I.
Dave: And you shot us some notes from time to time, and certainly appreciate that so we got to get you on.
Jeremiah: I’ve actually listened to this podcast running on a treadmill in Tokyo, Japan.
Dave: Fantastic. There we go. Yeah.
Jeremiah: True story, true story.
Dave: Okay. You’re trying to get invited back, aren’t you?
Jeremiah: It’s a true story. True story. I’ve done it.
Dave: So, let’s talk about workforce development. Earlier today in one of the podcasts, earlier podcasts, we talked about still the challenge, the race for obtaining talent in any business no matter what industry, but workforce development and why it matters … Let’s talk about it.
Jeremiah: Yeah. So, traditionally, the economic development folks were really worried, looking to have assets, right? So, you had bricks and mortar, and places where people could put their companies and their people, and that has changed dramatically over the last few years and the number one issue that the company is really asking about is how do you reduce my risk of finding quality workers because if I can’t find that, I’m going to be in a whole lot of trouble.
And so, it’s been our focus to do that because a lot of communities are, and a lot of folks even in the industry are saying, “Yeah, well, we have workforce development.” What are you doing, right? So, are you actually actively engaged on it, or are you just saying you’re doing something about it? And so, this is part of the strategy that we’ve taken with our workforce development strategy that we have shared and got us here today.
Dave: And going strong.
Jeremiah: It is. So, in earnest, we’ve been doing this really hard since middle of 2016. We did a lot of research upfront, making sure we didn’t make the wrong assumptions, and then have been working to create a strategy and validate that more importantly with our companies.
Dave: So, again, as an economic developer, tie it together, workforce development and economic development. You are trying to sell an area, convince companies to expand and grow and come to this part of Ohio. Let’s tie it together.
Jeremiah: Sure. So, the number one thing is workforce development has the direct impact on the bottom line, period, and so, if you don’t have good workforce, your company is probably not going to do well, community is not going to do well, and you’re going to be struggling.
And so, the reality is, for us, is we have taken an approach that we need to be really targeting individual workers, not necessarily companies. So, our marketing message and target has even changed over the years because we have a series of developments that we’ve had. Columbus has definitely changed over the last decade. Certainly, Dublin, Bridge Street District and the like has changed. Those are all amenities not only that the incoming workforce is looking for, but existing workforce and those folks maybe looking at the next stage of their career, right?
So, they’re just kind of saying, “Hey, I’ve done my time, but I need the next generation,” and so, that’s what’s really important about workforce development, and that’s what makes the difference between many communities. Do you have momentum in those things and can you get workers for the companies that are seeking them?
Dave: And so, your group will work with businesses to help develop those initiatives?
Jeremiah: That’s right. That’s right.
Dave: And let’s talk about it, a couple of those. You mentioned certainly bottom line impact and cost mitigation, but what are … Again, look at some examples. I think we’re going to dive into corporate wellness, and let’s get into the corporate wellness and what role that plays.
Jeremiah: Yeah. So, more importantly, everybody’s talking about work-life balance and what other amenities do you provide your employees and benefits other than the salary figures, right? And so, one of the things that we’ve found that we were really kind of the cutting edge on is creating this corporate wellness program that, as far as we can tell, is the only program of its likening in the nation.
And so, what we have invested in is actually hiring a full time staff member through our rec center to work with us to bring programming and corporate wellness to the company, and so, what that means, Dave, is this. The company understands that it’s important because their employees have explicitly asked for the amenity or they know that if they offered it, people probably would utilize it to have some sort of, again, wellness initiative within the company, but they don’t know how to start because everybody’s busy, right?
They say, “Okay, so who’s going to be the champion? I just need a little bit of resources,” and so, our program is really about bringing customized solutions to the company and taking, again, time, risk and money for the company. If we bring it to them and help as a resource, all those things get reduced.
Dave: Can you give me an example of a customized solution, a wellness solution? I mean, something that’s worked-
Jeremiah: Yeah. So, one of the companies that we … Right now, there are seven companies that are in the beta test that we’re running with and the reality is what they’ve started is to build camaraderie, right? So, just literally offering some yoga classes, nutrition classes at the lunch hour in their … They basically transform their conference room into the workout studio, right? That has a direct impact in corporate culture, corporate engagement, employee engagement and the like, and they are continuing to grow that program based on employee buy-in and it has sort of turned into higher retention efforts. Because of that, their recruitment efforts get better because the best people that they use to recruit are their current employees, and so that has become a success story for us, and that’s really the common thread amongst the seven companies that are doing the beta test right now.
Dave: Do you see the number of participants, and those would be the employees, increasing when you beta test?
Jeremiah: Yup. So, by the numbers, we’re averaging about 25 employees per session, if you will, at the companies.
Dave: What age group would be involved?
Jeremiah: All across the board. So, one of the things we’ve uncovered is it’s not just the younger folks that say, “I need corporate wellness.” It’s all across the board. People are saying, “Yeah, I’d love it if you brought it to me,” and those that choose to want to take the next step, we offer corporate memberships to the rec center, and so, the company, again, impacting savings to the bottom line, they don’t have to create a gym within their space. They can subsidize or just pass along that, for $20 a month, any Dublin corporate employee can become a member of the rec center, right? Cheap.
Dave: So, it’s a start. I mean, you’re giving the seed money, the initiatives, to get going.
Jeremiah: Right.
Dave: You’d also mentioned the nutritional training, which is somewhat of a unique approach. When you hear corporate wellness, you always think of the push-ups, the running, the training-
Jeremiah: Yeah, right. Right.
Dave: How many chin-ups can you do?
Jeremiah: I’m not going to answer that question, actually.
Dave: Are those chin-ups or pull-ups? What’s the difference between a chin-up and a pull-up?
Jeremiah: Are they assisted or unassisted? We got to ask that.
Dave: Either one.
Jeremiah: Assisted, probably like 500.
Dave: 500?
Jeremiah: You looked at me like that’s crazy. You don’t believe me?
Dave: Well, I always like to show respect for our guests, but you’ve gone over the edge.
Jeremiah: Do you have a pull-up bar in here? We could do it right now.
Dave: We could get one. … Go get us a pull-up bar, would you? So, but it goes beyond the exercises.
Jeremiah: Yes, it does, and so, it’s really a lifestyle change, right? And so, the nutritional part, too, that’s a small step into helping, and even in our own organization, we have a strong, healthy … It’s called Healthy By Choice, the city, and it has really changed how we workout as employees in small groups and how we connect with people from other departments we otherwise wouldn’t necessarily meet up with because of just different job demands and being in different locations.
Dave: Is this a selling tool that you use when you go out on the road to talk to businesses that want to come to Ohio?
Jeremiah: Yes, it is, and it is also more importantly a huge sales tool for existing companies to want to continue to invest here.
Dave: To retain-
Jeremiah: Yes, yes, and it’s a big deal for them because, again, they understand this will make them a more attractive place to work, and again, it’s either responding directly to a request or they know they need to be doing this in order to remain competitive, and if they don’t, they’re likely going to lose employees to a competitor.
Dave: Sure. We always like to go off script a little bit on unsuitable, but we do to talk to you a little bit about the business environment, the business atmosphere in the state of Ohio. How are we doing?
Jeremiah: Well, actually, by our region, we’re surpassing our ten year mark. So, we’re on pace to exceed 150000 new jobs since 2010, and, more importantly, wages have also increased with that per capita for the statisticians listening, per capita. So, the per capita rate has almost increased by 30% since 2010.
And so, what that reflects on Dublin being part of the Columbus market is obviously we’re contributing to those numbers, not all of them, but a significant portion of them, and we know Dublin has the largest economic impact of all the suburbs in central Ohio, and so, we know we’re doing well, but we know that, if we don’t do things like this workforce development piece, we’ll lose traction. We’ll lose ground and momentum, more importantly.
Dave: And you can’t rest on your laurels. You got to do something different today than you did yesterday.
Jeremiah: That’s right. Actually, our motto in our office is you cannot rest on your laurels. It sits on our strategic plan at the top and says, “You cannot rest on your laurels.”
Dave: Is that back by your plaque, your-
Jeremiah: No, it’s not. It’s actually back by the city manager and he always asks things like, “What are you doing next?” Stuff like that.
Dave: Sure, it’s a challenge.
Jeremiah: Yeah, it is a challenge, but it’s good.
Dave: So, off the top of your head, keeping with that theme, where does Ohio rank among the other states as far as business growth, job growth?
Jeremiah: Yeah. So, over the last, I’m going to say, three years, Ohio has been in the top three of new projects across all states. Typically, Texas and Ohio are competing for the most projects and investment on a given year. This year, we were number two. Texas is … It’s a large state. They’ve got a lot of activity. There’s a lot of good things about it, but we’re holding our own. We see that the investment pipeline is strong and, more importantly, we see companies that are staying here and I mean, really staying here longer and being successful, which helps us do our selling.
And so, it takes us across the globe. So, we travel with our partners across the globe. As I mentioned earlier, I literally listened to this podcast in Tokyo, overlooking Tokyo downtown from the Imperial Hotel.
Dave: We’re going to get that on our website. That’s great. That testimony is wonderful. Let’s talk about the industries, type of industries, that are coming to Ohio, central Ohio, and I’ve heard you speak about the IT workforce development in the area and I even heard you say every company is an IT company no matter what product or service it provides.
Jeremiah: That’s right.
Dave: Can you expand on that comment?
Jeremiah: Yes. So, behind every great company, there is an IT backbone, and so, we took this approach very literally and we’ve talked to many companies in our community and also read a lot of stories on places like Donato’s Pizza, Domino’s Pizza. Their largest divisions are IT divisions and, in fact-
Dave: Interesting.
Jeremiah: And they will tell you … Domino’s Pizza specifically has run many stories and many different CBS Sunday Mornings. You read articles about them. They consider themselves an IT company, and taking that to what we are here in Dublin in terms of, yes, by the numbers, the largest concentration of companies are IT based. In fact, we have three times the national average of IT companies based in our community per capita than any other place in the world.
And so, taking that into consideration, we said, behind that again, is workforce, and so, more importantly, where we see the market going with things like Smart Columbus, Smart Cities Initiatives, AI, data analytics, companies are making decisions based on that data and what supports that data is IT infrastructure.
Dave: Right, right. Our production crew gave me some notes and they said no matter what you do, do not ask Jeremiah about credits and incentives. So, let’s talk about credits and incentives.
Jeremiah: I’ll talk about it. I want to talk about it, sure.
Dave: You want to talk about it?
Jeremiah: Sure, we can talk about it.
Dave: I mean, in some circles, that’s a dirty word, but it is what it is.
Jeremiah: So, the short answer is that’s less than 2% of what an economic development professional does, and what I tell a lot of folks is incentives are part of the game, but not the game, only part of it. Incentives would never make a bad deal good.
So, if you don’t have the right community, the right workforce, the right assets behind that, it doesn’t matter how big of an incentive we show up with. You’re not going to win the project because when they do their site visit, they’re going to see right through that.
Dave: So, again, going back to where we started the podcast, being creative with workforce development issues and corporate wellness, and let’s talk about, in the few minutes we have left, the additional tips to help business owners develop their workforce.
Jeremiah: Yeah.
Dave: What are some ideas you have?
Jeremiah: Well, so one of the things that we’ve talked about in our strategy is soft skills or the hard skills, right? And so, soft skills rule the day, even the technical side of the IT space, or maybe even in the technical … Like accounting for example, right? Do you have the folks on your team that have those soft skills that can maintain a conversation, can do business and development, can they have some sales and marketing … When they need to do that, do they have great communication skills?
And so, those are things that we’re bringing to the companies that understand, and those that get it are already implementing it. Those others are talking about it, but they don’t prioritize that in a sense of they may not budget for it, both literally on the line item or have a staff member that’s responsible for implementing that and executing on that plan.
And so, what we’ve also done is bring these workforce assessments to those companies to help them get a base line foundation of where they are, right? So, where are you on aligning … So, the things we’ve talked about of attracting employees, aligning resources, developing teams and retaining your talent, and there’s a metric an a scorecard that we provide to them, and we are right now footing the bill for that assessment as an investment to prove that the program we’re creating has value and lessons learned from that to make the next iteration of whatever program or offering that we give to the companies.
Dave: Are we making headway of retaining the talent?
Jeremiah: Yes. So, as a matter of fact, we’ve been really engaged a lot with our IT companies and I can tell you we have been told by the IT professionals and our workforce development partners that we are one of the few communities that show up to the, I’m going to call, parties or the right events that the influencers and decision makers related to this strategy are hanging out.
And so, we’ve also have received unsolicited contact from companies and organizations to ask us to share our strategy and share that with educational institutions, private business and workforce development partners, and then that directly correlates with the jobs, right? What kind of jobs have we retained here and what jobs have we attracted here?
Dave: Has the market become a bit saturated or are there still jobs available?
Jeremiah: Plenty of jobs available. The market is very tight. There’s more jobs than there are qualified candidates. So, if you’re an IT professional, listen to this and you got a good opportunity, but, again, this goes back to our strategy of place branding and marketing ourselves as the community of the place where those people want to live first, then they’ll figure out all the other opportunities, and then when they say, “This is a cool place,” by the way, you have umpteen opportunities at all these companies based on the momentum that we built over the last decade.
Dave: Yeah. Obviously, we have some great universities and colleges, both public and private, throughout the state of Ohio. Again, any stats or information you have? Are the kids staying put? Are they staying in Ohio?
Jeremiah: I don’t have the exact stats, but you raise an interesting point there about the colleges and universities. So, one of the things that we’ve talked about with companies of all industry, not just IT, is their willingness and I guess agility to change their hiring reqs for folks that may not have a four year college degree because they don’t have time to wait for those four year college degrees folks to graduate.
Now, there are some industries we understand their reasons behind it, but IT, again, a good example is they’re not looking necessarily for the degree. They’re looking for passion and soft skill. They can teach the technical piece and they don’t necessarily need a four year degree.
Dave: Right, right.
Jeremiah: So, it’s a paradigm shift, right? And we’re already seeing the higher education partners changing their program offerings to match that. Private boot camps, rapid growth of that across the nation, specifically in central Ohio.
Dave: Great, great, and we’ll finish up with one. We just got an email handed to me from, actually, your office, and they said, “Ask him how many sit-ups he can do. He brags about being a stud athlete around the office. Ask him how many sit-ups he can-“
Jeremiah: In 30 seconds, I can do 30 sit-ups.
Dave: 30? Take odds on that?
Jeremiah: I don’t really know. How about push-ups?
Dave: How many can you do push-ups in a minute?
Jeremiah: I don’t know. I’ve not done a minute.
Dave: For our listeners, there’s the challenge. There’s the corporate challenge.
Jeremiah: Actually, there is a corporate challenge that ran especially as participated in the city of Dublin.
Dave: That’s correct.
Jeremiah: That’s right.
Dave: And that’s for the young folks. We got to get some event for the more mature folks.
Jeremiah: Dave, we just talked about push-up competitions, sit-up-
Dave: Push-up, chin-ups.
Jeremiah: There is … I think the guy that holds the world record for push-ups and sit-ups is like 85 years old.
Dave: Yeah, and even the marketing team can participate.
Jeremiah: Correct. They would sell that to everyone. They would-
Dave: They would sell-
Jeremiah: Yeah, yeah. Live podcasts from there.
Dave: There you go. Our guest today has been Jeremiah Gracia, economic development administrator with the city of Dublin located in Dublin, Ohio. Thanks again for joining us on unsuitable today.
Jeremiah: Thanks for having me.
Dave: Great presentation. This has been a really interesting discussion, went in a lot of different directions, and I never realized that workforce development actually impacted so much inside and outside of the business as we try to get that work-life balance.
Listeners, thanks for tuning to this episode of the podcast. What do you think? Are you currently investing in workforce development initiatives? If you are, or plan to start, let us know. You can email us at podcast@reacpa.com or you can leave a comment on YouTube, SoundCloud or iTunes, and speaking of those platforms, please consider subscribing to unsuitable and share our show with your colleagues and friends, too. Until next time, I’m Dave Cain, encouraging you to loosen up your tie and think outside the box.
Disclaimer: The views expressed on unsuitable and Rea Radio are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rea & Associates. The podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not intended to replace the professional advice you would receive elsewhere. Consult with a trusted advisor about your unique situation so they can expertly guide you to the best solution for your specific circumstance.