Bismarck, N.D. - Gov. John Hoeven today kicked off the 2009 Governor's Workforce Summit at the Ramada Plaza Suites in Fargo. This year's theme is "Bridging Gaps to the Future," and the event features a range of solutions to help meet today's workforce challenges, including the state's current activities and new plans for attracting, retaining and expanding North Dakota's talent pool. The conference is hosted by the Office of the Governor, the North Dakota Department of Commerce and the North Dakota Workforce Development Council.

Keynote speaker Cam Marston's talk titled "Four Generations in the Workplace" will address generational dynamics in the workplace and marketplace. Marston is one of a handful of experts dedicated to conquering the generational divide. His book, Motivating the "What's in it for me?" Workforce: Managing Across the Generational Divide, demonstrates the individual characteristics and motivating factors each generation brings to the workforce.

Other featured speakers include Greg Newton, who will address where to find the workers of today and tomorrow, and Silver Rose with ideas for keeping top talent from walking out the door. Other discussion topics include talent shortages/skill gaps, replacing workers reaching retirement, retention issues, and best practices/innovative solutions of competitors.

"Our efforts to grow and diversify our economy have resulted in a corresponding period of growth for our workforce, which is a widely recognized asset for our state," Hoeven said. "When we started, our challenge was creating jobs. Now that we've done that, our challenge is recruiting and retaining the young men and women our state needs to fill those jobs."

Since 2002, North Dakota has created a growing, more diversified economy, creating nearly 40,000 new jobs and increasing the state's labor force by approximately 23,835 people. At the same time, the Census Bureau's most recent population estimate shows that the state has continued a five-year growth trend. Since 2003, which was the decade low point, the state's population has increased by nearly 9,000 people, many of whom are between the working ages of 20 and 39.

All of these features of North Dakota's changing labor force, which are outlined in the 2009 North Dakota Workforce Review from Job Service North Dakota, point to the need for aggressive workforce development across age brackets and industry sectors. Some of the conference's breakout sessions that will help to do that include:

Attracting and Retaining a New Generation of Employees

Talent Pipeline Mapping: Where Will Businesses Find the Workers of Today and Tomorrow?

How to Keep Your Top Talent from Walking out the Door

Social Media for the Confused, Left-Out, or Downright Scared

North Dakota Employer Support for Guard & Reserves

Leveraging Registered Apprenticeships as a Workforce Development Strategy & Worker Retention Tool

At the same time, Hoeven noted that North Dakota is not immune to the national recession, citing recent layoffs as a reason to continue the push for economic development.

"As we work to develop our workforce, we need to acknowledge that we have experienced some layoffs, reduction of hours, and other adjustments made by businesses in North Dakota in response to national economic factor," Hoeven said. "For that reason, it is more important than ever to continue our aggressive economic and workforce development efforts. That's what our workforce summit is all about."

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