WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT


“We are not dabbling in this space. Last year, the first year of media outreach, we placed more than 400 stories with workforce messaging, reached over one million people with messaging about the profession on social media and drove 100,000 to our career site and job board.”


Weld movement, even include sexual-harassment training as part of the core curriculum. The automotive industry has recently identified creating formalized mentorship programs and having more women in visible leadership positions of utmost importance in recruiting and retaining women. The trucking industry is starting exposure to their profession early, having recently created a Girl Scout badge to demonstrate that trucking isn’t just for men. Women, who generations ago were stereotyped into just a few occupations are now being enticed, incentivized and courted by those desperate for talent. Many industries, including construction, cyber-security and hospitality, have identified apprenticeship programs as the silver bullets in their workforce recruitment needs. They have found these programs advantageous in attracting people to their professions who want to learn a craft or trade, especially non-college-bound high school students, veterans, career changers and even those close to retirement age who want to remain in the workforce but want to try their hand at something new.


WHAT IS THE LANDSCAPE INDUSTRY DOING?


Exploring what other industries are doing to solve their workforce crisis is both inspiring and perhaps a bit daunting. On one hand, it is exciting to see how compa- nies in these industries are working together to identify


and implement needed changes to their workforce challenges and see the results being achieved. Others’ successes offers food for thought and even motivation for landscape professionals. However, as these industries create such changes that appeal to millennials, seasoned workers, vets, women, etc., it magnifies the importance of the professional landscape industry working together to control its destiny. It is becoming apparent, that without aggressive and immediate action, today’s crisis could be tomorrow’s catastrophe.


NALP has already responded to this challenge by creating the Industry Growth Initiative (IGI) to raise the positive profile of the industry and grow the workforce. IGI’s work focuses on attracting entry and management level employees to the industry and is committed to attracting 100,000 new people to the profession by 2025. Primary targets IGI is reaching for the industry’s recruit- ing messaging include those between 15–38; parents of middle, high school and recent college grads; educators and guidance counselors; women; those actively looking for new careers; and those who will expand diversity within the industry. Through IGI’s work, aggressive public relations activ- ities including media placements, social media outreach and advertising are changing the narrative about the profession. Messages are carefully crafted and personal- ized to various target audiences. For instance, according to recent artificial intelligence research conducted by IGI, a passion for helping the environment and the opportunity to be creative and help design beautiful outdoor spaces ranked much higher in importance than earning a competitive salary with young people interested in our industry. As a result, our messaging to millennials is designed to reflect how younger people are making career choices. We are not dabbling in this space. Last year, the


first year of media outreach, we placed more than 400 stories with workforce messaging, reached over one million people with messaging about the profession on social media and drove 100,000 to our career site and job board.


Workforce Development continues on p.16 2


NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS


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