Rick Haglund: When in-demand talent can work from anywhere, what happens to Michigan?

[313WX]

Rick Haglund: When in-demand talent can work from anywhere, what will happen to Michigan?


https://michiganadvance.com/2021/11/...n-to-michigan/

“Place need business. Business needs talent and talent wants place,” said Public Policy Associates Chair Jeff Padden, a quote he attributed to Rob Fowler, who retires next month as CEO of the Small Business Association of Michigan.

“If you don’t get place right, there’s nothing you can do in economic development to save you from failure,” Padden told me.

We can see this in the auto industry, which is looking to hire thousands of software engineers in its historic transition to electric vehicles.

While metro Detroit is still the nation’s auto engineering capital, automakers will place many of these new jobs in Silicon Valley; Denver; Seattle; and Austin, Texas, and other hip cities where software talent is concentrated.

The COVID pandemic has shown that high-education attainment workers can perform their jobs from just about anywhere, and many are doing them from where they want to live, not where their employers’ cubicle farms are located.

That presents a difficult challenge for states like Michigan that are rapidly aging and not seen as “cool,” except for the winter temperatures.

State Senate Economic and Small Business Development Committee Chair Ken Horn [[R-Frankenmuth) recently told me he thinks Michigan will need 1 million more residents to fill existing jobs from rapidly retiring Baby Boomers and new jobs that state employers want to create.

[401don]

While you may have to allow remote workers if you can't find the talent any other way, I think companies still prefer a hybrid model, where employees are in the office 2-3 days per week. Remember in the 70's when Detroit automakers learned and started adapting the Japanese small teams approach? It's fine if you're just writing code but you can't possibly get the same creativity and synergy having everyone on their own islands and not sharing ideas face to face.

It would be interesting to know what Gilbert and the Rocket executives think about how they've done with remote work. Their offices went to the extreme with everyone walking around, riding scooters, bright multi-colored offices, etc. all to create this atmosphere of energy and push each other.

[313WX]

While you may have to allow remote workers if you can't find the talent any other way, I think companies still prefer a hybrid model, where employees are in the office 2-3 days per week. Remember in the 70's when Detroit automakers learned and started adapting the Japanese small teams approach? It's fine if you're just writing code but you can't possibly get the same creativity and synergy having everyone on their own islands and not sharing ideas face to face.

I think this is a moot point when the problem is the fact that you simply can't get the desired talent to come to/stay in Michigan for this type of collaboration to take place.

[Richard]

Keep saying you cannot and you will not.

I have a friend that started WFH after the real estate crash and her company downsized.

It is okay if you are an introvert,because she has become that while sitting in her little office 8 hours a day afraid to walk away from her desk in case of a conference call comes in.

Everybody that comes into the house during those hours has to be quiet as a church mouse.

When I deal with the city I can tell who is WFH,because you can hear kids yelling in the background and you really do not have the full attention of who you are speaking to because they have to many distractions going on.

How do you assemble a team and have team work while dealing with digital images and not really people?

Minneapolis is cold and gloomy in the winter,but yet is population is increasing dramatically,even those in the warm south are moving there for opportunity.

I do agree it is a moot point because of the state does not get really serious about economic diversity right now,today,15 years down the road WFH is going to be the least of the worries.

I do not agree with taking the stance of the talent is not there already,it’s like a flower,if you do not take care of it,it withers and dies.

The state has gotten to comfortable under the skirts of the past,now is probably the time to climb out from under them.

One auto manufacturer is already setting the stage of leaving,that translates into 10s of thousands of jobs and talent all across the board that will be gone.

Six years already wasted while waiting to win the lottery,that’s a lot of livelihoods being gambled with.

This is like the 4th WFH thread and if it is going to destroy the state and nothing has changed,it’s that mentality that will help destroy the state.

The state has lost,steel production,will lose fossil fuel refining,is losing automotive manufacturing and related support which includes the employment base and the tax revenue it brings in.

I do not know,maybe build a new bridge and spend billions on that while wiping out the existing tax base,because it will increase trade and create jobs while pumping billions into the economy buy moving stuff for the automotive industry that will no longer be there,how is that working out?

Today will be gone tomorrow,states cannot survive by looking at today and reacting.

[Danny]

What this state needs is EV car making. It's going to more than Factory Zero to get Detroit and it's suburbs to catch up with China and Japan.

[Richard]

^ the EV car making bus has already left town,people do not want to face the facts.

The existing manufacturers have to many legacy costs to compete in what will be a highly competitive market.

That is why they are building in the south with clean plates.Get it - clean plates as in battery plates.

Everybody wants to compete with China,how about taking them out of the picture and do what Americans used to do best,build good quality lasting stuff and let everybody else worry about building the crap.

We are only China’s little bitch because we want to be,but that has consequences and leaves 60,000 homeless in the streets.

We just have to figure out who we care about more in this country,our fellow Americans or the Chinese,as it stands now,clearly it is the Chinese because they are so nice to us because they sell us junk for cheap.

You cannot get your hands dirty while sitting at home working from the computer as a job,sooner or later you still have to stand up and see everything else around you had to be built somewhere.

I guess it is okay for China,everybody can WFH and report to them,the boss,once a week.