Shawano County is partnering with New North Inc. to recruit members of the armed forces transitioning from military life and bring them into northeast Wisconsin to fill vacancies at key businesses in the area.
To facilitate that effort, called the Hiring Heroes imitative, New North received a $425,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. In the press release announcing the grant award, it is noted that Shawano County holds specific strategic value due to economic appeal and cultural readiness. The cost of living is below the national average, and the average commute is less than 16 minutes.
New North has already been utilizing Hiring Heroes for five years, according to Peter Thillman, chief economic development officer for Shawano County Economic Progress Inc. Part of the work involves going to military bases around the country and meeting with service members whose commitments are nearing an end.
“They’ve been recruiting at these job fairs for service members who are leaving the service and pitching northeast Wisconsin as the place to do business,” Thillman said.
The program is currently set up through Shawano County and any counties adjacent to it, including Menominee, Oconto, Langlade, Brown, Outagamie, Waupaca and Marathon. Thillman noted that to do it for all 18 counties would require cooperation from economic representatives in each of those counties, which would have been too much red tape for the project.
Instead, Rebecca Deschane, New North’s vice president of talent development, encountered Thillman at a conference, and the pair agreed to have Shawano County be the main hub for the grant.
“We can’t do it on our own, so we need a regional group to do it,” Thillman said. “My budget is nothing. There’s no way I could afford to do it, a trip to any of the bases for a week to do the recruitment.”
Thillman sees the recruitment effort as not only benefiting northeast Wisconsin, but also the service members who sometimes struggle to find employment once military life ends. He noted Wisconsin is among the top 10 states in terms of benefits given to veterans.
“It’s an easier sell to get them,” Thillman said. “We just need them to be aware of northeast Wisconsin and the job opportunities.”
Besides recruiting service members and their families to come to the area, it’s been necessary to make sure anyone who comes here has a place to live, which is why SCEPI has been working with municipalities to get housing projects going in Shawano, Bonduel and Wittenberg.
“Our companies are not having too difficult a time in recruiting, maybe in some of the skill sets,” Thillman said. “When I got here, the numbers haven’t changed dramatically, but in 2020, before COVID, 40% of our workforce left the county to go to work on a daily basis.”
He said that he’s made the argument with industrial businesses that have set up shop here that, by paying the wages here that they pay in the bigger cities, that will encourage people to work locally instead of commuting longer for better paying careers.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
