Workforce Solutions Breakfast

Thank you to everyone who attended our Workforce Breakfast on Friday, December 1, 2023 at the Diamond Jo Casino in the Port of Dubuque. The presentation delivered by several members of the Greater Dubuque Development team provided updates on our workforce solutions programs, a sneak peak into the results of our NEXT GEN Perceptions Survey results, and advancements in soft infrastructure development in the Greater Dubuque region.

Jason White, Vice President of Business Services, welcomed the 180+ attendees, which included several elected officials and representatives of local and state government alongside with area employers and HR professionals, to this twice a year event. After introducing Greater Dubuque Development staff and walking the audience through the morning agenda, Jason invited Mandi Dolson, Director of Workforce Recruitment & Retention, to the stage to provide an overview on workforce solutions programs offered by Greater Dubuque Development. 

Mandi’s presentation kicked off with revisiting the AccessDubuqueJobs.com survey conducted in August, highlighting key take-aways and discussing enhancements to the site been implemented or are in development in response to survey feedback. A review of Workforce Investor resources followed, reminding the audience of our community tours and Distinctively Dubuque program. Mandi also touched on successful engagement and outreach through Workforce Investor events such as YOU can be great here Community of Colleges events to date and the kickoff of our HR Professionals Cohort this November.

To wrap up her presentation, Mandi’s final slide featured an online spinner pre-populated with the names of area businesses that had provided their information when responding to the AccessDubuqueJobs.com survey. With a click of the mouse, the wheel spun, finally landing on FEH Design who will receive up to $1,000 off their next AccessDubuqueJobs.com renewal. Congratulations FEH Design and thank you to all that responded to the survey!   

Following Mandi, Jenni Petersen-Brant, Director of Communications shared an overview of our NEXT GEN Perceptions Survey which was launched November 1, 2023 to collect input from our next generation of talent in an effort to better understand current perceptions of the Greater Dubuque region. Jenni provided a sneak peak of select survey results based on the 1,488 responses received as of Thursday, November 30, 2023 and concluded her comments with a call to action to response to or assist in distributing the survey to employees and colleagues.

Nic Hockenberry, Director of Workforce Programming, took the stage next to discuss Greater Dubuque’s work on soft infrastructure issues of housing and child care, two community factors called out in the NEXT GEN Perceptions Survey. Nic provided an overview of successes to date in how the Greater Dubuque region has worked collectively to tackle the need for workforce housing as well as a status update on the number of new housing units in-progress or under construction.

The bulk of Nic’s presentation focused on defining the need for child care and outlining the work that Greater Dubuque Development has undertaken as of recent in conjunction with numerous community partners to address the issue. In addition to fostering the creation of new child care facilities thus increasing the number of available child care slots in the county, Nic announced our receipt of a $560,000 grant from the State of Iowa being matched up to $280,000 by local employers. The grant will be applied to creating a wage enhancement program aimed at boosting efforts to recruit and retention more child care professionals.

To close out the workforce breakfast, Rick Dickinson, President & CEO of Greater Dubuque Development offered a call to action, inviting employers in attendance to become a Business Champion of Child Care and join other area employers in contributing to the State of Iowa grant match. Rick also took a moment to recognize and thank Bob Woodward who will soon retire from Woodward Communications to lead the Local Journalism Support Fund, a new initiative to ensure local reporters and local news outlets exist to tell the story of how YOU can be great here in the Greater Dubuque region.

Download a PDF of the Workforce Solutions Breakfast presentation.