Visits and Interviews
Interviews
and visitations are typically made to educational and training
institutions located within the region. These visits may include
vocational training centers, community colleges, and four-year
universities. Inquiries are made relative to student enrollment,
acceptance qualifications, attendance, graduation rates, and job
placement numbers. Any information available relative to graduate
follow-ups, employer interviews, and continuing educational activities
is also collected and integrated into the labor analysis. To the extent
the educational facilities may offer programs or courses specifically
related to the skill or knowledge sets sought by the company,
interviews will be conducted with the individuals who teach or
administer the programs for direct feedback on the quality and
performance of the students.
One of the best sources of information
from both an applied and firsthand perspective comes from interviewing
existing business and industry representatives. These interviews
typically focus on the actual experience that existing companies have
had since locating into the region. It is common to interview companies
that have recently located into the region as well as companies that
may have been in the region for five, 10, 15, or more years. A key
focus of the interview is a discussion of the following critical
factors:
• Labor availability - the ability to recruit specific
types of individuals based on skill, knowledge, or experience
requirements
• Labor trainability - the ability to train employment
candidates in specific skill or knowledge sets related to company
performance requirements
• Productivity - characteristics of the
work force related to turnover, absenteeism, re-work, cost, and
efficiency, both locally and compared to other company operations in
other geographical locations
• Drugs in the workplace - results
related to the use of pre-employment drug screening, random testing of
employees, and discovery of drug paraphernalia on the company's property
•
Training - use of local vocational training facilities, community
colleges, or other training and educational facilities to assist in
screening, training, and selecting a qualified work force (Similarly,
the experience of the company in recruiting and training its own work
force and the trainability of employment candidates should be
evaluated.)
• Commuting patterns - a review of the general commuting
patterns and locations of origination for existing employees, including
work schedule impact caused by congestion, accidents, and weather
conditions
Narrowing the Focus Further
Companies
that may require higher levels of technical skills or higher levels of
a knowledge base within their work force will extend the labor analysis
to focus on these specific requirements. These higher-level skill or
knowledge-based jobs may include mechanics, technicians, engineers,
technical operators, supervisors, or managers. Most of these types of
skills are normally developed through extensive educational programs
offered at postsecondary educational facilities. For most companies,
however, these higher skill levels are only required within 15 to 20
percent of the work force, with the balance of employees capable of
being trained in-house or through structured, short-term training
programs.
In the final analysis, availability of skilled labor
is only one element of a comprehensive labor evaluation. It is
typically examined only for short-listed communities, but it certainly
can become an overriding factor in a site location study if it is
determined that the geographical region cannot support recruitment of a
work force with the requisite skill or knowledge base requirements of
the company.
