There’s no question the topic we’ve written about most at Insight during the past four to five years is the worker shortage. It affects all industries and seems to be intensifying, making me wonder sometimes about solutions that could fill the gap.
Fond du Lac County is trying a new strategy to attract workers to the region: offering money.
The new Fond du Lac County Worker Relocation Incentive Program is a collaboration between Envision Greater Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac County and Fond du Lac County Capital Resources. The program allows businesses to offer prospective hires an incentive of up to $15,000 with the ability to receive 50 percent of the reimbursement of the incentive amount when the worker successfully completes 12 months of residency and employment in Fond du Lac County with the same employer.
The program is the first of its kind in Wisconsin and is the result of the county and Envision determining they needed to take radical steps. In Fond du Lac County, job growth will outpace population growth over the next decade, and more than 25 percent of residents will be over the age of 65 within 10 years as an expected 34,000 workers will retire. Those factors led the county to make a bold move.
According to Sadie Parafiniuk, president and CEO of Envision Greater Fond du Lac, attracting workers is the No. 1 factor for businesses as they look at plans to expand. She said the Fond du Lac County Worker Relocation Incentive Program provides businesses of all sizes another tool they can use in attracting workers to the area.
The money spent on the program will be worth it if additional workers move to the area, she adds.
The program is available to any Fond du Lac County-based business, regardless of size and industry. The prospective employees must move to Fond du Lac County from an area outside of the county, be hired for a full-time role with a Fond du Lac County employer, be at least 18 years of age and be eligible to work in the United States.
I’m sure other counties will be watching the Fond du Lac County Worker Relocation Incentive Program to see if it draws more people to live and work in the county. A program like this could be another tool in helping businesses find the workers they need.
