Tahoe trying to find sustainable workforce
By Kathryn Reed
INCLINE VILLAGE – Employers, educators and workforce providers spent nearly threes hours Wednesday trying to figure out how the Lake Tahoe Basin and Truckee can have a sustainable, year-round pool of workers that people want to hire.
Two of the main objectives of the meeting were to find out what the people in the room have to offer and what they need to better perform their jobs. Their needs, along with challenges they have and what they have to offer were recorded on large sheets of paper.
Kim Bateman, dean of Sierra College in Truckee, talks Oct. 2 about course offerings. Photo/Kathryn Reed
The diverse group gathered at the Parasol Foundation in Incline Village on Oct. 2. Representatives were from the four colleges in the region – Lake Tahoe Community College, Sierra Nevada College, Western Nevada College and Sierra College in Truckee, along with Ritz-Carlton Lake Tahoe, California Conservation Corps, Harrah’s Lake Tahoe, Sierra-at-Tahoe, El Dorado County, real estate, artists and others.
For more than a year the Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative has been meeting to deal with a variety of issues. The workforce issue is the focus of the Economy-Education-Culture working group.
Inadequate public transportation, housing that isn’t affordable and lack of communication between the sectors were major issues that were unearthed.
But as the human resources rep from the Ritz said, nothing he heard on Wednesday was new. And that concerned him – that nothing innovative came out of the meeting.
College personnel said they could do a better of job of getting the word out on what they offer.
Those helping workers find jobs said rules about crossing county and state lines make it difficult at times to place people.
Simple things that could come out of the session include developing a more robust internship program at the colleges with area businesses; and having businesses communicate with colleges what they would like from a graduate so perhaps courses could be developed to meet those needs.
The soft skills are what employers said they need more than workers with technical skills. They are able to train the person to do the job. What they can’t do is teach them how to set an alarm, not call in sick on a powder day and the importance of proper hygiene.
The group not at the table was the actual workers. So it’s not known if they are having a hard time figuring out the higher education opportunities in the Lake Tahoe-Truckee area, or if they know about job placement services, or if they know what employers want. And without workers it is not known why people are looking to leave, why they never accepted the job here, or even why they stay to find out what might be working.
One placement person said she has been told people leave the area because of lack of leadership within organizations in the area.
A man who has a small engineering firm said even a six-figure salaried position is hard to fill because people want more than the area can offer. They want better schools, more opportunities for their children and more personal professional development.
But expecting to find what a metropolitan area has to offer in a rural location is not realistic. Any professional in Tahoe looking for training beyond the work site has to travel to find it. There are tradeoffs to living and working anywhere.
On the other end of the spectrum was the desire to work with seasonal businesses to find year-round work for their employees so they aren’t continually training new people.
And while the arts received substantive discussion time as a potential economic savior in the way of providing a destination for visitors, tapping colleges that already have recognized programs, and embracing the renowned artists who live in the basin, their numbers skewed the discussion so it was hard to know if that is truly a viable and desired direction for the basin to go in.
The attendees said they want to meet again to possibly drill deeper into some of the issues that were broached.
Interesting, I worked for Hyatt Tahoe, And Cal-Neva from 1976-1978 while I was in High School.
I worked Kitchen, Maid Service, special events.
what happened?
What changed?
Part time work in my teens was an excellent life experience. I also made money to buy a Car and stuff I wanted.
It was interesting seeing the people who I worked with on these job at my 30 year Reunion In Incline.
All my coworkers from those times were to a greater or lesser degree very successful as adults.
Waaaaay back in time – late 60’s, I worked for the Aspen Ski Corp. Most seasonal businesses offered an incentive for employees to finish the season with a decent attendance record; e.g., a round-trip ticket to Mexico. In the airline industry, shift workers could “trade” shifts. How that would work during ski season, might be that powder hounds could get another (non-powder hound) to take their shift (get signed off the day before), and go ski. This reciprocal arrangement always seemed to work well in the airline industry….. and still works in many hospitality jobs. Also, consider hiring the older employee — usually very responsible and service oriented…. but maybe doesn’t look like the ski area poster model. Start a “senior work corps” and I bet you will get a new sustainable workforce!
In Tahoe, it is difficult to find a job that pays a half-way decent wage. I was shocked recently to learn that H_______ Sports pays their cashiers $8 per hour and the “Head Cashier” gets paid $8.50 per hour. No benefits, of course. I think this is a major sustainability problem! The casinos used to hire “full-time” employees and offer benefits…. so many casino jobs now are part-time with no benefits.
Tahoe business needs to develop “employee engagement” if they want sustainability. It is a 2-way investment! Our local colleges are pretty good – but maybe offer more training in Spa services (massage, esthetician, spa management, etc.); sports training management; event planning; etc.
Anyway, just my 2 cents…
Agree with Irish, you get what you pay for, you’re probably never going to get much loyalty paying people under $10/hr, especially if the benefits if any are insignificant.
I am the perfect example of an ideal employee candidate. As a former high school teacher (science), I am highly educated and I have all those “soft” skills mentioned in the article. Yet, I can’t find a job in Tahoe that pays more than $9/hour – not to mention a professional career. The only jobs I regularly see are seasonal or service staff. Am I looking in the wrong places? It’s frustrating to read a story about how businesses can’t find employees when I can’t find a good job!
The problem is not with the workforce, but rather, the industry.
Tourism is seasonal, and until the people of Tahoe recognize that they need more than tourism to support the local economy, there will be no sustainable economy in Tahoe.
Ever been to Hawai’i? Same problem there.
Oh that pesky minimum wage!
Important to pay a living wage not the minimum wage. I have to agree with Barb. The problem here is not a lack of qualified workers. It’s a lack of decent paying jobs.
Reliable and capable employees in Tahoe are indeed a problem, and it seems indigenous to resort type communities from what I read.
A sustainable work force cannot be achieved in Tahoe until there is more of a sustainable business base with year round activity. I really don’t see this happening unfortunately. It is the three legged stool analog…Casinos, Government related and seasonal service jobs, construction etc. Even the government sector is highly seasonal. The huge seasonal third leg is not stable and will always keep the entire system unstable to one degree or another.
The difficulty in attracting sustainable commerce here, with the transportation difficulties, the arduous and fickle permitting timelines (assuming you can find a structure to house your business) and the significant weather events all combine to keep the area off the radar for businesses seeking expansion or original locations to use.
A business or industrial park could help. How about converting one of the hotels to an office complex capable of handling, say, a regional admin center for banking or insurance?
A.B is on it! Tahoe needs to unleash its 4 season brand now! October to December is Watchable Wildlife season (like bears pulling salmon out of the river!) And Heritage could be highlighted! The economy we seek is all over the ground we keep driving over.
As we stop rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic and relocate our thinking onto a 21st interlinked transit system that utilize Truckee and Meyers as gateway base camps, so we can host people to fun, meaningful, low-carbon adventures that inspire stewardship…lines will form, resorts will hire and workforce will follow (starting with using the amazing resource of talent and expertise right here in the region! No need to import).
And, this Roundtable did create sparks of awareness for who and what is on the other side of our aisle, and some puzzle pieces did click in.
The call for Tahoe to activate its art potential, like way-finding art signs connecting south lake to pyramid lake and uncovering the Art Renaissance ready to sprout on request with support – was another refreshing reminder of our wealth of underutilized local resources and talent ready to play and increase visitors stay!
Ironically, if we let Art lead, we would attain sustainability much faster, as creativity is low on limitations and large on potential!
Barb Bedwell stated it perfectly. Prior to moving to Tahoe (in 2001) I’d had very responsible positions in mid to upper management in the accounting/finance field with excellent organizations and brought great written references with me and I couldn’t find anything available that was remotely like that in Tahoe. The only positions available were low paying minimum wage or near minimum wage, and I imagine anyone with the same experience and skillset as I who had one of the very few decent positions just never left because there is nowhere else to go professionally in Tahoe. Maybe I also was looking in the wrong places but I’ve long since given up finding work in my chosen field where I could utilize my skills and feel like I was actually making a contribution to an organization. It really is frustrating to read a story like this about how businesses say they can’t find employees who can set an alarm, not call in sick on a powder day, and understand the importance of proper hygiene. I wonder where these organizations solicit for employees.
Spouse of 4-mer-usmc
First of all, sustainability is way more than economic, but Tahoe seems to think that because the “environment” is taken care of by a slew of agencies, then all who showed up at this meeting just think that it is “jobs & salaries” that they have to think about. . .
True sustainability does not distinguish between economic & environmental, as it encompasses both, in the form of a holistic lifestyle: not piecemeal programs that each can ‘consense’ upon (only if their bosses agree). . .accordingly, living wage & housing affordability go “hand-in-hand”: when one happens, the other stabilizes, and money stays in town to circulate, i.e., economic development.
Note if you will I mention ‘housing affordability’ vs “affordable housing”, as that term is toxic to building a community in that landlords & owners automatically & emotionally equate the latter term with negatives, as in losing property values, versus thinking about the stability of the town. That’s not what this is about.
Everyone here has been so victimized by “bottom line” issues, they’ve forgotten that there’s a “top line”, too. . .but that’s why no one from the work force was there – they’re just busy trying to make ends meet, even instead of sometime doing an adequate job, with the lack of leadership & vision casting a shadow on any future they might want to develop. . .
A beautiful place like Tahoe needs a “full-bore” marketing presence to begin the arduous task of recasting itself – difficult to do with so many corporate “cousins” (other locations in so many other places to compete with) that could afford to herald Tahoe’s benefits at the expense of their other properties, but don’t. . .
And that will only be helped by establishing strong values, aside from all the hype and misconstruing of goals. . .TRPA & clarity are not the only ones. . .
As long as the ‘car culture’ is overly tolerated, we will not be able to recast to a sustainable identity. . .anytime soon.
Re Kae’s uncertainty about the Arts element and skewing the discussion: there were only 5 of us out of the total 45 (+/-). My impression was that most of the attendees got the importance of integrating and promoting the Arts more in both the educational areas & courses offered, etc. The biggest import was the recognition that we do have an ideal area for an Arts identity that can become more of an economic driver from employment to supporting professional artists who are basically hidden and events that are just waiting for the right champions and funding. And the man from the Ritz may not have heard anything new (and who does after 30 yrs of similar efforts and issues?) but he was also one of the most excited about the effort and the networking that occurred. It was a very fruitful Roundtable even if one claims I am biased due to my being a member of the group producing it. And many thanks for Kae’s good job at covering it!
The foundation of empire is art & science. Remove them or degrade them, & the empire is no more. Empire follows art & not vice ver sa as Englishmen suppose.
William Blake
empires
I have to agree with Bill…….something is degraded.
The idea that Tahoe can become a center for science is a pipe dream at best. It has always been a destination for recreational activity in one form or another, be it sport-related, entertainment, or other recreational activity. In certain places art is important, as it exists solely for the entertainment of humankind. The world will survive without it. Science, on the other hand is important for the survival and betterment of mankind. Where would the world be without continual scientific research and development?