Work In Progress

Those interviewed here offered a balance between positive and more cautious responses when asked what’s being done to secure the North Bay’s global competitive and productive edge. The optimism is primarily due to the passionate dedication of local college administrators, government officials and corporate leaders. However, warns Cynthia Murray, executive director of the North Bay Council, “The [North Bay] is competitive. But if we want to remain competitive, we have a lot of work to do. We can’t rest on our laurels.”

The North Bay Council, a nonprofit coalition of employers, educational institutions and community-based organizations that promote sound public policy and support initiatives that contribute to the economic health and quality of life in the North Bay, was started 16 years ago by leaders from eight Marin companies that realized they could accomplish more by working together. Today, the Council includes 30 private employers (representing a workforce of more than 20,000) in Marin and Sonoma counties and meets regularly to discuss current or impending issues affecting the North Bay workforce as well as other economic challenges and how it can help resolve some of those concerns. And it sure has its work cut out.

Less for more

One of the many issues affecting the American workforce, as a whole, is the expected exodus of employees from all industries as the baby boom generation reaches retirement age. And for those industries already facing shortages, including health care and construction, the blow will hit doubly hard.
“There will be about the same number of people retiring as there will be new jobs created by growth in expanding industries over the next two decades, so it’s going to be a double whammy,” explains Murray, who then adds another twist to the dilemma for the North Bay. “With retirements coming and the cost of housing continuing to escalate, we’re going to see an increasing mismatch between the positions open and the people there to fill them.”

The cost of housing is just one issue acting as a deterrent in recruiting workers to an already tenuous local workforce. Basically, workers don’t get paid a big differential to work in the North Bay, but they have to pay much more for housing. In addition (due in part to the high housing costs), transportation challenges and increases in commuter traffic act as further deterrents to recruitment. What’s more, the environmental consciousness and NIMBY nature of North Bay culture limits our workplace choices and prohibits certain kinds of industries from entering the North Bay.

“The North Bay is a very environmentally conscious community,” says Dr. Joseph Fink, president of Dominican University of California. “Because of that, traditional manufacturing programs don’t come here. So we’re working with technology, biotech and film industries, and clean business industries such as health care and education. We need to respond to the fact that we have this particular geographical set of circumstances.”

Health care is already being hit hard by the dual challenge of an aging population and an aging workforce. “One of the major problems in health care today is the shortage of trained individuals in a number of different specialties, including registered nurses, pharmacists, radiology technologists and laboratory technologists,” says Mike Cohill, CEO of Sutter Medical Center in Santa Rosa. “Number one, the age wave is increasing demand for health care services because we need more as we get older. Also, the workforce itself is aging. The average age of a nurse at my hospital is 47.”

Some would argue that additional medical personnel are the most needed workers in the North Bay. Not only are there a lot of available positions, but given these are typically very good paying jobs, they’re good for the local economy as well. And the shortage of skilled individuals in the medical field isn’t only affecting services, it’s contributing to health care costs as well. Constrained supply, coupled with increased demand, has led to rising wages for many of these medical professionals, ultimately affecting the overall cost of health care. But given this grim picture, enormous strides have been made to address these issues and contribute to the ongoing competitiveness of our local health care workforce.

“The North Bay—all three counties—has developed a wonderful partnership between hospitals, educational institutions, county governments and workforce boards,” says Ron Smith, regional vice president of the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California, a nonprofit hospital and health system trade association that meets on an ongoing basis to develop and implement solutions for issues that may be county-specific and/or regional in nature. “These [representatives of local colleges and universities] have become so creative in maximizing resources and figuring out incredible programs. They turn $1 into $20.”

Not only is this teamwork beneficial in addressing critical workforce issues, it’s also positioned the North Bay to receive more funding and support. Because of the strong cooperation among North Bay hospitals, workforce boards, and local junior colleges and universities, the North Bay has received the largest nursing grants of any region in California.

“We got more money, for instance, than all of Los Angeles or San Diego counties,” says Smith. “We got 10 times what the rest of the Bay Area received because of this great leadership and collaboration; the hospitals contributed, the schools contributed, everyone contributed. We’re the model for the state.”

Even between locally competing hospitals, there’s an atmosphere of cooperation and alliance among the leadership. The CEOs of all North Bay hospitals meet every three months to discuss workforce issues and to ensure there will be enough nursing and other medical staff to cover each hospital’s needs.

Back to school

Local educational institutions have played, and will continue to play, a pivotal role in addressing current and future workforce challenges by teaching 21st century work skills. This includes designing programs that have future workforce needs in mind and providing continuing education to upgrade skills as economic forces change what and how jobs are managed.

“The future of the North Bay workforce will be determined not only by quality training and education, but by how well we’re working with our workforce investment boards and economic commissions to track and understand data. We also must be prepared to respond to that data with what’s needed to keep the North Bay competitive,” says Frances White, superintendent/president of College of Marin.

“International, national, state and local factors will always provide challenges, but can also provide opportunities that keep the region on the cutting edge of innovation and solutions.”

Local educational institutions are doing their part. In response to an increasing interest in the nursing profession (due to outreach efforts by hospitals, schools and the Hospital Council), both Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University have doubled the capacity of their nursing programs since the turn of the century. In 2000 and 2001, the two colleges combined couldn’t recruit enough students to fill their combined capacity of 40 nursing students. Today, the schools are planning to graduate a total of 105 nurses in 2007 and have waiting lists into the hundreds.

“I think it’s important to look at the nursing shortage in the long term,” warns Stephanie Thompson, director of occupational education and services for Santa Rosa Junior College. “Word has gotten out that nursing is a career with competitive wages and great opportunities, so there are more and more people applying to the nursing program. But when you look at how many nurses we’re going to need over the next 10 years, we’re going to be hard pressed to keep up.”

Not every qualified individual is accepted into a nursing program due to limited capacity at local educational institutions and the limited number of clinical sites in the North Bay. Clinical internships are required before entering the nursing field, and competition for available clinical placement can be fierce. And the increase in nursing salaries has made it tougher to recruit nurses away from the hospitals and entice them to teach.

Dominican University is currently building a 35,000-square-foot science and technology center that will help the school meet the demand for science and mathematics teachers in the state’s elementary and high schools as well as increase the number of nurses, scientists and doctors it graduates. In addition, Dominican has opened a state-of-the-art nursing simulation lab, which will provide nursing students with clinical experience in a risk-free, virtual reality environment. Dominican also added a master’s program in geriatric nursing in fall 2005 and is involving its undergraduate students in sophisticated research projects, including stem cell research, to prepare them for work in the Bay Area’s growing biotechnology arena.

“The North Bay workforce needs to respond quickly and in a sophisticated way to the changes occurring in the world because of globalization and technology. It also needs to respond to the demographic changes taking place in California and provide for the needs of the society we’re dealing with,” says Dr. Fink of Dominican University. “We’ve responded by expanding our enrollment at the institution—we now have about 2,000 students—and we’ve also responded by diversifying the institution, so now about one-third of our students are from traditional minority populations.”

Policies of inclusion

Demographics in the North Bay are changing significantly, and those changes are affecting both our educational system and, ultimately, our workforce. According to the California Department of Finance, 45 percent of California’s growth is due to a “natural increase” (that is, the number of births over deaths), and 55 percent is due to net migration, both from other parts of the country and internationally. About 40 percent of the children born in California are Latino, and it’s estimated the percentage of Latinos graduating from high schools in Sonoma County will jump from about 13 percent in 2005 to more than 30 percent in 2015.

“In the North Bay, population growth can be attributed more to an influx of people who are new to the country—immigrant populations or first-generation Americans who really need educational opportunities,” says Fink. “They normally wouldn’t be able to come to a school like [Dominican University] because it’s expensive, so we raise money. We give away more than $10 million a year in financial aid and scholarships.”

When people ask why Dominican University should diversify its student population and give lower income and/or immigrant students the same educational opportunities as other native Californians, Dr. Fink likes to quote former New York Governor Mario Cuomo: “If you don’t want to educate the poor for reasons of compassion, educate them for reasons of common sense.”

Fink explains, “If you don’t educate immigrant populations and get them into the workforce, you’re going to be paying in other ways. As a community, we must invest in programs that will support immigrant populations and first-generation students in their efforts to get an education. For example, the James Irvine Foundation gave us $1 million several years ago to help us provide financial aid to minority students.”

Santa Rosa Junior College addresses the needs of the county’s changing demographics by printing all promotional materials in both English and Spanish, hiring faculty and counselors who are bilingual, altering its outreach programs to include whole families and increasing the number of English as a Second Language (ESL) courses to keep up with escalating demand.
Besides changes in cultural demographics, SRJC has also seen an aging demographic shift among its student population as more retirees return to school to help them transition from a career to a meaningful retirement.

Chuck Robbins, director of economic and workforce development for Santa Rosa Junior College, says, “Based on our research, we think that, while a lot of these people may be stopping their primary job, a lot of them are going to want to do other types of things—be more involved in the community, start a new business or even go to work for another company—so we’re trying to assess how we can provide programs that are useful in helping them make that transition.”

While current and future workforce issues will continue to keep North Bay educational institutions, local governments and businesses on their toes, the future looks bright, thanks to the strong collaborative community we’re continuing to build upon. Granted, there’s much to be done, but knowing there are passionate and committed leaders in our community who have dedicated their time and resources to ensure the future security of our workforce should bring some peace of mind.

“What’s unique about the North Bay is that it’s probably the most collaborative area in the state,” says Ron Smith of the Hospital Council. “Everybody is working so together to meet these needs. It’s wonderful.”