June 25, 2026 • 37 mins
Katie Ralston Howe, Deputy Commerce Commissioner
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Dakota Mornings. I am your host,
Michael Bell kf y R five fifty AM nine A
nine point seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia production and
I am joined in studio by Katie Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner,
North Dakota Department of Commerce. My friend Katie, Good morning.
Thank you for taking the time to come in studio
(00:20):
and join us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
We're going to talk about the world which is the
North Dakota Department of Commerce, but we're going to focus
on workforce. But i'd like to I'd like to start
out just very simply if you could give us the
breakdown on the Department of Commerce, the different business units
that you have and how those business units align. Sure.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So, the North Dakota Department of Commerce is designed to
lead efforts to attract, retain, and expand wealth and talent
in North Dakota.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And wealth and talent okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So we are the state's economic development agency, and so
we have the big task of attracting businesses to the
state and helping establish businesses stay in North Dakota. So
we also have our Division of Community Services in order
to have a thriving business community. You have to have
(01:15):
thriving communities that are able to support growth and support
their businesses. We have our Tourism and Marketing Division, and
so they're promoting the state of North Dakota. They're saying, hey,
they're telling the world why North Dakota is such a
great place to visit and live and work. And so
they're promoting North Dakota. They're attracting visitors, workers, and businesses
(01:39):
alongside our Economic Development, Community Community Development, and then our
Workforce Development Division, which is the division that I've been
leading since twenty nineteen, and our job is really to
support employers in their effort to attract, retain, and upskill
their talent. And we work alongside state agency partners from
(02:01):
all across North Dakota, and so we're really kind of
the convenor, the hub of the state workforce system.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I like you characterize that the convenor.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yes, yes, So we're the ones that are bringing everybody
together to set the set the strategic vision for North
Dakota's workforce development strategy and then leading the execution of
that strategy. Outside of those four kind of public facing divisions,
we also have an administrative division that is making sure
that the trains are running on time, that funding is
(02:30):
being used appropriately, and that we're we're getting grant dollars
out the door.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And that has to be one of the more rewarding
aspects of the leadership. And Commerce is moving these this
really important grant money out the door, not only from
a workforce perspective, from a traveling tourism perspective, from even
you know, an investment perspective, and and and the lure
of the Department of Commerce and the lure of North Dakota.
(02:58):
It seems like it would be an easy It was
for me anyway, but there's a lot of work that
goes in the background.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it takes a full team effort
to coordinate and execute the programs that the legislature has
entrusted with us. And then you know, we're also kind
of the we get to be that the lead execution
arm for the governor. With any governor comes in and
they've got great ideas for how they want to grow
(03:26):
North Dakota, for how they want to improve North Dakota,
and Commerce gets to play a leading role in executing
the governor's vision. So it's really an honor to be
at Commerce and to do the work that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well. We know the Governor loves North Dakota. He loves
being in North Dakota. He is incredibly proud of North Dakota.
And to that end, there are a couple of different
things that he's done that are a bit unique.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, the Governor had a great vision
when he came into office and he developed a variety
of sub cabinets that are aligned with his core price authorities,
workforce being one of them. And so I've been you know,
I've had the great privilege of leading the Governor's Workforce
sub cabinet for about the last year and we've been
doing some pretty amazing work to start shifting our workforce system,
(04:15):
aligning efforts differently, and really digging in really deep to
understand where investments exist, how they're being utilized, which populations
they're serving, to ensure that we have alignment across the system,
that we're not duplicating efforts or spending. And I would
say that we have a clearer picture today than we
(04:35):
did one year ago of who's doing what, what they're doing,
and how they're utilizing the resources that they have available
to them. So we've done some pretty amazing work throughout
the last year, and I'm excited to talk about that
with you.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Guess yeah, And that goes to one of the things
that I and part of the reason why I'm so
glad you took this opportunity to join us this morning,
is there are metrics to success for every single program.
And that gets really into the weeds on the return
on investment that the legislature has entrusted and that the
(05:09):
governor is executing his vision.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yes. Absolutely, and actually I would say equally as important
as programmatic metrics for success are the shared measures that
we have Because up until several months ago, I would
say last fall is when we started doing this work,
every pro every workforce program would speak to their measures. Yes,
(05:34):
so I can tell you how this program, that program
or measuring success. But when we have thousands of open
jobs and you're going, okay, well you've got you know,
a thousand interns in that program, what are you doing
to fill the other jobs, We're not telling the story
across the entire workforce ecosystem saying hey, across workforce programs,
we are serving this many participants, we are serving this
(05:58):
many businesses aross the system, and so now we're starting
to do that. We're establishing those shared measures of success
across all of our workforce programs. Now, not every program
can feed into each measure. We all measure different things,
and we should be because we're all meeting different needs.
But we're also we're finding where we can align and
we're going to be telling a much more comprehensive story
(06:22):
around what we're doing as a state, not as individual programs,
to impact our workforce, to grow our workforce, to upscale
our workforce and keep them in North Dakota. So that
work has been across agency collaboration. We've had I think
we've got about a dozen agencies on the Governor's Workforce.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Okay, so yeah, we are.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We're pulling everyone in and we're digging deep into everybody's
program saying what are you measuring? And oh okay, so
we all seem to be measuring these things. How do
we now develop some data sharing agreements to make sure
we're pulling all all of that information into one central place.
And that dashboard that we're creating is going to live
on a new website that we're building right now that
(07:09):
is going to share all of the state's workforce resources
in one spot, rather than having, you know, an individual
have to know why I have to go to job
Service for this question, and then I've got to go
over to Commerce, and then I have to go to
Health and Human Services. It's all going to be in
one landing page where I can say I'm a job
seeker and I'd like to find a job or i
(07:29):
would like to find training. So I'm just going to
click on these resources rather than knowing, well, I have
to go to job Service for that question, and now
I've got to go to Train and D for this one.
It's going to centralize it into one spot.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I knew you guys were doing a lot of good work.
I didn't realize the depth and breadth of how you're
doing more with less.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah. Absolutely. I Actually I'm glad you brought that up
because one of the things that we have dug into
is actual investments in workforce. We have a lot going
on in in workforce in North Dakota, but I don't
think that we had necessarily a real clear picture of
how much or where it existed up until recently, and
(08:10):
so we did a data call with all of the
agencies on the Workforce Subcabinet this spring to understand the
federal and state funding that they're implementing in their agencies.
And so currently this biennium in North Dakota, we have
one hundred and sixty one million dollars invested in workforce
programs that are in eight agencies and supporting sixty six programs.
(08:33):
Twenty eight of those programs are state funded with fifty
eight million dollars, twenty six of them are federally funded
with one hundred and three million dollars, and then we
have twelve programs that are blending both state and federal dollars.
So within commerce alone we have eleven million, but we're
actually coming in third. The university system and health in
(08:54):
human services have more in workforce programming than we do
within commerce. And that's fine doing really coo. Yeah, yes, absolutely,
but that is that's what we have invested. You know,
we've got we've got a lot of we have a
wide variety of programs that are all meeting different needs,
and so it's been really great to align on that
(09:15):
and just have a better understanding of the resources that
are actually invested.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, and and I like the fact that you. You
know you're you're so prepared that you came in and
you're talking specific numbers with with underlying data. I know
that there's a lot of collaboration. We just have just
about thirty seconds here. There's a lot of collaboration with
industry within North Dakota. You know three of our sponsors,
UH the University of Mary Sandford Health, the North Dakota
(09:41):
Petroleum Council. They're doing a lot of really good collaborative
work with the Department of Commerce. And I want to
dig into that a little bit when we come back
from this commercial break. This is Dakota Mornings. I am
your host, Michael Bell k f y R five fifty
AM and a nine point seven f M. We are
and iHeartMedia production. And we are joined in studio by
my friend Katie Rawlston How, Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department
(10:04):
of Commerce. Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I'm your host,
Michael Bell kf y R five fifty am, not a
nine point seven f M. I am joined in studio
by North Dakota Deputy Commissioner of Commerce, Katie Ralston How.
And I love I love having you on because I
just say go and then you hit it all yourself
and I don't have to say anything.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, that might be the patchant girl in me. Oh,
you just you give me a microphone and I'll do
my thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You want to sing the national anthem?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh, I don't think anyone wants that.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Okay, that's fair, that's perfectly fair. So we were talking
about before we went to break. We were talking about
the investments that not only the federal government has made,
but the state, the legislature, and in these timely agency interventions,
about how all that is coordinated and effectively dealt with.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So, you know, you mentioned the variety of programs and
resoarch that we have, and it's really important to note
that we need investment in a variety of program and
service areas in order to meet the state's needs. I
think workforce development goes so far beyond career in technical education,
which I think is where a lot of our minds
(11:16):
go because we think, Okay, we want to get them
while they're young, give the career exposures sure and work
based learning, and that's so valuable, and that's really the
entrance into the pipeline. So, in addition to career and
technical education. We've got our job seeker services, our unemployment system,
and supporting those dislocated workers who are looking for new
(11:37):
opportunities or are needing to pursue training. So we've got
upskilling and reskilling programs. We have services for justice involved populations,
for individuals with disabilities, for tribal populations. We have internship programming.
We've got programming to support the development of locally led
(11:59):
workforce strategies, putting industry in the driver's seat. We are
working to remove barriers to accessing childcare, to housing, to transportation.
I mean, the list goes on and on. Recruiting and
retaining talent to North Dakota. North Dakota is a small state.
We are growing, our workforce is growing, which makes it
(12:21):
critically important to have comprehensive strategies to keep talent here.
But despite all that growth, we still do not have
enough workers to fill our jobs, and so we have
to recruit from outside of the state. And it's important
to have i say, eggs in every basket because once
you remove one piece of the strategy, you put pressure
(12:42):
on every other part of the system to start meeting
a need that they're not equipped to meet. Sure, maybe
their funding doesn't allow for it, maybe their subject matter
expertise is just not in that area. And so it
really takes all of these different strategies to work together
in order to have a really effective, comprehensive unified workforce strategy,
(13:05):
which is what we've been building throughout the last year.
It's been a collaborative effort between the Governor's Workforce sub
Cabinet and the North Dakota Workforce Development Council, which is
an industry led state workforce board. So they're bringing in
that private sector perspective helping us understand what industry really needs.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
We have a couple of sponsors of Dakota Mornings that
are intimately involved in collaborating at the highest level with
the Department of Commerce on workforce initiatives. And I'm talking
about Sandford Health. Todd Shafer is going to be in
here ten thirty to talk about some pricing transparency. But
there's always a focus, you know, the University of Mary,
(13:48):
We've got Court Energy, the North Dakota Petroleum Council, Thelignate
Energy Council, all of them are working in collaboration with
you on their needs. And then you guys are take
removing the silos and flattening it while keeping very good
track of all the metrics the dollars spent.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yes, absolutely, and so actually two of the two of
the entities that you mentioned are on the Workforce Development Console.
So it's great to have that industry perspective, both from healthcare,
oil and gas, and variety of other industries. But I
want to mention that it's not when when we're working
with companies from a workforce perspective, we're really trying to
understand what does the industry need, not just not just
(14:30):
what does company A need? What do you need? Let's
meet just meet your needs? No, no, no, we want to
help you company A, who's who's working with us? But
we also want to help others in your industry sure
to make sure that you know all all I'm terrible,
figures of speech, all ships, a rise in high Yes,
thank you, Yes, that's there, it is, We got there.
(14:51):
So so that's that's really our focus is wanting to
make sure that we're helping to elevate all industry and
all all the employers that we're working to serve. And
so you mentioned the metrics. We do track a variety
of KPIs to help measure our key performance indicator. Thank
(15:11):
you acronym. You caught me. So you know, we're working
to understand you know, how many how many companies are
we serving? And of those companies, how many are returning
to us, how many have utilized our resources before? How
many are new? That's so, how many new companies are
we are we recruiting to our workforce programming? And where
(15:34):
are they? What part of the states are they in
do we have do we have a lot in the east,
a lot in the west, a lot in rural or urban?
We want to understand where they are because we want
to make sure that we're getting the messaging out statewide.
And so if we're seeing a certain part of the gosh,
this part of the state doesn't seem to be participating
as much, what do we need to do differently to
(15:55):
make sure that they're more aware of our resources? And
maybe there isn't a line and okay, well what shifts
do we need to make sure in order to make
sure that we're meeting the needs that you have? And
so we use that data that we're collecting from all
of our programs not only to help inform funding decisions,
but also to inform programmatic decisions. Maybe the scope of
(16:15):
maybe the scope just isn't isn't what what employers are
needing right now? Okay, what should we be doing differently
right And I.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Like the fact that there's a constant conversation and constant
chattering about how can we do better? How can we
you know, with these with these key performance indicators, how
can we make them more effective and more like a
surgical knife as opposed to a blunt instrument.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yes, yeah, I like that. So you know, we're utilizing
this not just in workforce but across commerce to iterate
we're a living organism.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You know, we're a living machine.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know, we're we're always working to learn and to
improve so that we're constantly meeting the needs of North
to Cote employers today and laying the foundation for the future.
Because one of the things that you know, I've carried
with me from the Governor's Workforce Summit last year was
that old recipes for success might not have the same impact.
(17:12):
So what we were doing twenty years ago maybe needs
to evolve. Yeah, the world around us has evolved, and
we need to do the same.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I want to do. I'm going to delve more into
that when we come back from this commercial break. This
is Dakota Mornings. I'm your host, Michael Bell, kf y
R five fifty AM, BEN and nine points seven FM.
We were joined in studio by North Dakota Deputy Commissioner
of Commerce Katie Ralston How. We're talking about the great
efforts and the laser like focus there that they bring
to workforce discussions and we will continue this conversation after
(17:45):
we come back. Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I'm your host,
Michael Bell, kf y R five fifty AM, none of
nine point seven FM, and joined in studio by Katie
Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce. We
were talking about the what I find to just be
a great approach and the Governor's approach with the sub
cabinet is just it's it's unique in the collaboration between
(18:10):
industry which is so strong here in North Dakota and
the government and really makes this one of the things
I talk about all the time is companies want to
move to North Dakota despite the weather. They want to
move to North Dakota because of the strength of our workforce.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah. Well, North Dakota has a strong economy, We have
a great business community.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
We do have it active.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yes, yes, absolutely, North Dakota is the best state to
start a business. And if we're going to be the
best state for business, we also need to be the
best state for.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Workforce at perfect parallel.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yes, So in order to do that, we need to
make sure that we're providing meaningful programs and services for businesses,
for students, for job seekers and employees. And so you
mentioned the sub cabinet. About a year ago, Commerce produced
a report that was really born out of this idea
(19:04):
that you know, we've never mapped our workforce system. Who's
doing what, where do they exist? We had a general
sense Artcota's a small enough stay where you know, I
know Bob over at that agency and Sue over there,
But we need to we need more detail and if
Bob or Sue leave, will then who do I talk to?
And so we did this, this this scan and produce
(19:27):
a report last year and had some really interesting findings
that were not interesting but not surprising in a lot
of ways. First, our structure within our workforce is relationally driven.
So I just used an example, I know, I know
so and so over job service in that person at
HHS and yeah, I'll get you connected, but if they
or if I leave, well, then who do you talk
(19:50):
to if I am gone? And so we need to
establish a system that isn't based on who you know,
but where it exists and knowing where different resources exist,
and so creating a system that isn't just based on
knowing people. But I mean, we love we love.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That connection things relational aspect for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So it is a strength, but also when it comes
to navigating a complex system, it can also be a weakness, sure,
because it's not sustainable. So other things that came from
that study. We've got a lot of programs We've already
talked about that, but access can be limited, especially in
rural areas. So how do we make sure that we're
getting information and resources out to rural communities from rural Yes,
(20:36):
for sure. Absolutely. Another key finding was that there's misalignment
in our labor in our labor market between available workers
and employer opportunities. We know this. We know that we
have more jobs available, but it's not just a numbers game.
It's also a skill set game, so that we have
we have people who are interested in working. They are working,
(20:59):
but what what are the skill deficits? Do they have
the technical skills? And then here's here's what I was
excited about. Employers ranked for US. We did employer survey.
They ranked what are the skills that they're looking for
and that they're missing in the job seekers that they're
that they're interviewing for jobs. Soft skills Can you communicate?
(21:20):
Was number one? They're seeing they're seeing it a lack
in soft skills from especially younger workers coming into the workforce. Second,
are those functional skills? Can you show up on time?
Can you manage your schedule appropriately? Manage your time appropriately?
Can you send an email? Functional?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah? Look at your time? Is your time as a resource?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yes, yeah, for sure. And then you know, just can
you show up by eight? And yes, there.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Wouldn't it wouldn't be something that I did think would
be a problem here in North Dakota.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, you know, it's it's one of those things that
I think we assume that everyone just knows. But sure,
maybe we need to teach that and help help especially
younger folks understand some of those just workplace norms.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, and it's a function of you know, but we
assume that that everybody knows it, but as demonstrated by
the wild success of this show, you know it's more
important to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yes, absolutely, if you're going to have an expectation, you
need to communicate that. So good lesson for us. And
then the third was technical skills related to their job.
A lot of what I hear a lot of employers
say is send me the workers, I will train them. Okay,
but those workers need to have the saft skills. They've
got to be able to communicate with their colleagues, with
(22:38):
their customers, the critical thinking problem solving. Those are all
really important skills to have, and so that means we've
got to work with our education partners to make sure
that we've got programming that's helping students develop those skills.
And then the last the last finding there there were
a handful of others, but the STY could benefit from
a more unified leadership vision. Right now, I say we
(23:00):
are all fairly aligned. If you asked any one agency
in the workforce system, hey, what's the mission or vision
of the system, we would have generally the same response,
but it would come through the lens of our own
work as an agency. So that was The first thing
the Workforce Subcabinet tackled is that we identified a shared
vision for the workforce ecosystem, which is a skilled workforce
(23:22):
that fuels North Dakota economy. It's short and sweet, but
embedded within that are some pretty pretty big areas of focus.
So we want to continue driving skilling or upskilling and reskilling,
removing barriers to participation. Also embedded within this division is
meeting job seekers, students and workers at any point in
(23:43):
their journey. Maybe they're just starting, maybe they're they're looking
at a second act and they want to try something new.
Maybe yes, yep. Anticipating needs of the future. It's really hard.
No one has a crystal ball, but we can make
sure that we're establishing a wrong foundation now that's going
to be nimble as we move into the futures, that
(24:04):
we're able to shift and meet the need the evolving
needs of North Dakota employers. And so that's also a
part of a part of this and supporting, you know,
the attraction of new employers in industry to the state,
so that we have programming available to help say, hey,
we can train workers. We've got all these different companies
that are interested or new industries looking at North Dakota,
(24:26):
We're able to meet your needs with our workforce.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
One of the things that I want to highlight here
for a second is in this you know, we clearly
obviously have a workforce issue here in North Dakota. It
is not insurmountable. It is a figure outable, as I
like to characterize things. But one of the impressive components
is that North Dakota has the fastest growing gross domestic
product of any state in the country. And there's a
(24:50):
reason for that. It's the collaboration between education partners, industry partners, government,
it's the alignment of all of those.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yes, and commerce is such a key player and bringing
all of those partners together. And that's really the beauty
of having economic development, workforce development, tourism, community development all
and under one roof, is because we're able to keep
keep a really good pulse on what's going on, what
are the needs, which partners do we need to bring in.
There's so much value in that. And so the strategy
(25:21):
that we have that has led to that excellent GDP
is that we're bringing all We've got the right people
around the table, and half the time we're not even
around a table. We're out in the field working with
those partners. You know, we're we're hitting the pavement, we're
getting out and we're working directly with the partners where
they're at to make sure that we're meeting their needs.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
And what is particularly impressive is the thought that goes
in in you guys executing the governor's vision of what
it looks like ten years from now as opposed to
you know, what it looks like a year from now.
You're thinking every single day, what is what is the
durability of this?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yes, so you know, our our workforce and our opportunities
for workers are growing. You know, we've had we've had
we've had growth in our workforce throughout the last five years.
In fact, right now, our our unappoyment numbers just came
out recently. North Dakota's unappoyment rate is one point nine percent.
(26:23):
That's that's the second lowest in the nation behind South Dakota,
which is one point eight percent. Okay, so really low
unemployment we have truly, you know, we have about nine
hundred people who are on unemployment and looking for work.
Nine hundred.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
That is not a lot, No, that is that is
easily sustainable too, right.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
So we I mean, we we have we don't have
enough workers for the jobs that we have available. We
know this, But we also have had an increase in
our workforce. So the fact that we have a low
unemployment rate, we also have a really high labor participation rate.
So we've got four hundred thretty two thousand workers in
our workforce right now, and that is up two hundred
(27:04):
excuse me, that is up two thousand workers from this
time last year.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Okay, so year over year, there's that that, you know, yeah,
and and and growth that is entirely manageable because of
the time and effort that you know, good government agencies
operating in good faith are able to deliver.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
One of the things that that I find fascinating and
the Traveling Tourism Department at the Department of Commerce, they
you know, I had Sarah Audie Coleman on I think
it's like a year ago, and she was talking about
how the underlying metrics that return on investment is the
is the key watch point for that. That part of
(27:45):
the Department of Commerce. They do a great job of
allocating UH and and determining a metric on every dollar
they spend, which is truly impressive.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yes, so Sarah's Sarah's team does excellent work, and there's
they're so good at quantifying and you know, calculating the
dollar months invested. I mean, tourism I think is our
third largest industry in North Dakta, which.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Just truly impressive and a testament to the hard work
that these folks have put in Sarah and her great
team over the course of the last ten years.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yes, absolutely, So.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We have a little bit of a party that's going
to be going on July fourth. I don't know if
you know this, but we're going to have a couple
of people. They're going to show up, Yeah, a.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Couple people, maybe a couple thousand people. You know, we've
got a lot of people coming to North Dakota next week.
And that effort wouldn't be possible. I don't think without
the great work of our tourism team and all of
their partners. They've built this X. They've done all of
this groundwork for the last several years on promoting North Dakota,
(28:47):
helping the world see what makes North Dakota such such
a special place, and that really helped the leaders of
the Theodore Roosevelt Library, communicate with others, why in North
Dakota is the place for such a special for such
a special library, and such a special tribute to one
of our greatest presidents. And so I think that it
(29:09):
was definitely a collaborative effort in order to get that here.
And I'm so thrilled that it's finally opening. It's finally
going to be available for the public to see. And
so you know, my my plug and I you know,
not sponsored, if you haven't, if you haven't planned your
you're a trip to Medora this summer. You got to
get out there, you got to see it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I could not I could not echo that strongly enough.
One of the you know, we characterize I characterize Medora
on July fourth as America's front porch to the two
hundred and fiftieth celebration. This is this is a unique opportunity,
and I, you know, I feel a responsibility to highlight
(29:49):
all the great work that has gone on at the
Department of Commerce. But this is what good government looks like.
You don't see it, you don't hear about it, you
don't you don't focus on it, you don't think about it.
There's no drama involved. There's just really good people doing
their freaking job.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah. You know, I always think that our role is
to work in the background, but our job is to
enable the success of the individuals, the businesses, the industries
that we're serving. And so if we can help set
you up for success, we don't need the accolades. Our
job is done if you if you're if you were
(30:26):
able to come to our agency or any agency and
your needs were met, you're off and running. And you
can say that was actually pretty easy. Yeah, our job
is done.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And and you know Kelly Kelly Leban, Sheriff Kelly Liban,
talks about he made the comment on this show a
long long time ago that his best recruiters are his deputies,
and his and and the folks working at the jail,
and those are his best recruiters. And I think that
that speaks volumes to the Department of Commerce. Your best
recruiters for permanent location to North Dakota or visiting North Dakota,
(30:59):
your best recruiters are your industries.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
When you go to commercial break, this is Dakota Morning Zime,
your host Michael Bell KFYR five fifty AM, not nine
point seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia production and we
are joined in studio by Katie Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner
nor Koda Department of Commerce. Welcome back to you Dakota Morning.
Is ZIME Your host Michael Bell kf YR five fifty Am,
not nine point seven FM. I'm joined in studio by
(31:25):
Katie Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce.
We're talking about what good government looks like and how
y'all tend to fade into the background at really important points.
And I appreciate that because the scope of you know,
the scope of the Department of Commerce here in North
Dakota is wide, it is deep, and you're accounting for
(31:47):
a in a real way on a spreadsheet, on an
Excel spreadsheet, every dollar that spent.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yes, absolutely, And one thing I want to clarify is
even if we're in the background, we're still doing the work.
So we always joke that, you know, we're the ones
that are in the back of the ribbon cutting photo
like you can't quite see us, but we were, so
we were part of the work. Yes, yes, we're doing
we're doing the work. We're supporting. Uh, we're are our constituents, businesses, industries, communities, workers, visitors.
(32:15):
You know, we're we're doing a ton of work to
support all of those folks. But yeah, you know, we
we really aligned under a new strategy when Commissioner Shilken
came in under the Armstrong administration. And so we've identified
a ton of a ton of metrics that we're tracking quarterly.
You know, we're we're sitting around a table saying, right,
how are we doing? What do we need to be
(32:36):
doing differently?
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Regular? Yes, yep, yep, we're like a one off, once
a year type of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Nope, not at all. And you know, it's not just
it's not just our our leadership team, division directors, it's
everyone in the agency. Our our staff's goals are aligned
with those metrics that the agency is tracking. So okay,
what are you doing and what are you doing to
make sure that your work is helping us achieve the
goals that we've set forth and then we're tracking it,
(33:03):
like I said, quarterly. And it's and that that coordination
has been so meaningful because what comes of those conversations is, oh, well,
have you thought about, you know, trying this or have
you thought about talking to that partner and oh gosh,
I haven't thought about it. Now we're working together in
a different way, and so it's bringing that collaboration to
another level. And I think we're we're continuing to move quickly.
(33:26):
We're doing really good work. We're tracking it and we'll
have a great story to tell next legislative session.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
So yeah, and that's part of it too, is that
there's been a bit of a rocky go in the
course of the last four or five years. I get it,
these these things, these things happen. It's how do you
overcome them, which is to me the most important thing.
But but your coordination with the legislature is really strong
as well.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, you know, I think so we've got great legislative
we have great relationships with legislators, I should say, But
you know, not everyone is going to agree with everybody else,
you know, And so I think it's I think having
conversations with those who pushed back a little bit are
so meaningful because they help they help us become better,
you know. They they give us feedback, feedback that we
(34:11):
can use. Or maybe you have a conversation with someone
that you thought maybe they didn't like a certain program
that you were doing. Then you find out, oh, maybe
they just have some questions about it. Sure, and now
we've got this opportunity to have an open dialogue to
help them understand and and maybe we convert some to
two champions, and maybe we don't. Either way, we walk
away with some really meaningful, meaningful conversation and feedback that
(34:35):
we can use.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
One of the things that I think we're going to
find after November's election. We just had a pretty big
primary election, then we have a general election in November,
I think we're going to find that there are the
legislature is much more eager to solve problems as opposed
to highlighting them. And I think that that's something that
that you're really looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah. Absolutely, I really enjoyed that. I enjoy the legislative process.
I enjoy working with.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Well, your husband's a former legislator, so I certainly hope
you appreciates my wife is a former legislator as well.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
And they have great ideas and they are very solution oriented,
and I appreciate that. And when you can have a
conversation around you know, we both want the same thing
and how do we how do we get there? For
the benefit of North Dakota, and that's really what personally
I'm focused on. I love North Dakota and my focus
(35:33):
is on doing good work for the state that I love.
And I think there's this too.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more. And but we'd
be remiss if we didn't talk about the summit.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
The summit this fall, yes, Okay, so glad you brought
that up. Governor's Workforce Summit last year was our inaugural
Workforce Summit with Governor Armstrong, and we are so excited
to do a second summit coming up this fall September
twenty third. Registration is not open yet, that'll come in
about a month, but our safe dates are going out
(36:02):
hopefully this week or early next. But this summit is
going to bring together leaders from government agencies, industry, education,
community based organizations, lawmakers to really align around our shared
vision for strengthening North Dakota's talent pipeline and long term
economic competitiveness. And so we're going to have a fireside
(36:24):
chat with Governor Armstrong where he'll get to talk a
little bit more about his vision for North Dakota's workforce
and what we're doing to achieve that. Good.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, is there really going to be a fake fireplace there?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
We should get one.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Actually, I have thought about that. I September. Maybe cold
enough to actually have.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
A fire, right, someone should donate that we would we
would use it.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, I agree, we need to go. Katie Ralston how
Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce, Thank you so
much for joining us this morning on Dakota Mornings.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
This is Dakota Mornings. I'm your host, Michael Bell KFYR
five fifty AM and nine point seven FM, and we
will be back after this short commercial break.
Good morning, and welcome to Dakota Mornings. I am your host,
Michael Bell kf y R five fifty AM nine A
nine point seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia production and
I am joined in studio by Katie Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner,
North Dakota Department of Commerce. My friend Katie, Good morning.
Thank you for taking the time to come in studio
(00:20):
and join us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
We're going to talk about the world which is the
North Dakota Department of Commerce, but we're going to focus
on workforce. But i'd like to I'd like to start
out just very simply if you could give us the
breakdown on the Department of Commerce, the different business units
that you have and how those business units align. Sure.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
So, the North Dakota Department of Commerce is designed to
lead efforts to attract, retain, and expand wealth and talent
in North Dakota.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
And wealth and talent okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
So we are the state's economic development agency, and so
we have the big task of attracting businesses to the
state and helping establish businesses stay in North Dakota. So
we also have our Division of Community Services in order
to have a thriving business community. You have to have
(01:15):
thriving communities that are able to support growth and support
their businesses. We have our Tourism and Marketing Division, and
so they're promoting the state of North Dakota. They're saying, hey,
they're telling the world why North Dakota is such a
great place to visit and live and work. And so
they're promoting North Dakota. They're attracting visitors, workers, and businesses
(01:39):
alongside our Economic Development, Community Community Development, and then our
Workforce Development Division, which is the division that I've been
leading since twenty nineteen, and our job is really to
support employers in their effort to attract, retain, and upskill
their talent. And we work alongside state agency partners from
(02:01):
all across North Dakota, and so we're really kind of
the convenor, the hub of the state workforce system.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
I like you characterize that the convenor.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yes, yes, So we're the ones that are bringing everybody
together to set the set the strategic vision for North
Dakota's workforce development strategy and then leading the execution of
that strategy. Outside of those four kind of public facing divisions,
we also have an administrative division that is making sure
that the trains are running on time, that funding is
(02:30):
being used appropriately, and that we're we're getting grant dollars
out the door.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
And that has to be one of the more rewarding
aspects of the leadership. And Commerce is moving these this
really important grant money out the door, not only from
a workforce perspective, from a traveling tourism perspective, from even
you know, an investment perspective, and and and the lure
of the Department of Commerce and the lure of North Dakota.
(02:58):
It seems like it would be an easy It was
for me anyway, but there's a lot of work that
goes in the background.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it takes a full team effort
to coordinate and execute the programs that the legislature has
entrusted with us. And then you know, we're also kind
of the we get to be that the lead execution
arm for the governor. With any governor comes in and
they've got great ideas for how they want to grow
(03:26):
North Dakota, for how they want to improve North Dakota,
and Commerce gets to play a leading role in executing
the governor's vision. So it's really an honor to be
at Commerce and to do the work that we're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well. We know the Governor loves North Dakota. He loves
being in North Dakota. He is incredibly proud of North Dakota.
And to that end, there are a couple of different
things that he's done that are a bit unique.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Yeah. Absolutely. You know, the Governor had a great vision
when he came into office and he developed a variety
of sub cabinets that are aligned with his core price authorities,
workforce being one of them. And so I've been you know,
I've had the great privilege of leading the Governor's Workforce
sub cabinet for about the last year and we've been
doing some pretty amazing work to start shifting our workforce system,
(04:15):
aligning efforts differently, and really digging in really deep to
understand where investments exist, how they're being utilized, which populations
they're serving, to ensure that we have alignment across the system,
that we're not duplicating efforts or spending. And I would
say that we have a clearer picture today than we
(04:35):
did one year ago of who's doing what, what they're doing,
and how they're utilizing the resources that they have available
to them. So we've done some pretty amazing work throughout
the last year, and I'm excited to talk about that
with you.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Guess yeah, And that goes to one of the things
that I and part of the reason why I'm so
glad you took this opportunity to join us this morning,
is there are metrics to success for every single program.
And that gets really into the weeds on the return
on investment that the legislature has entrusted and that the
(05:09):
governor is executing his vision.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yes. Absolutely, and actually I would say equally as important
as programmatic metrics for success are the shared measures that
we have Because up until several months ago, I would
say last fall is when we started doing this work,
every pro every workforce program would speak to their measures. Yes,
(05:34):
so I can tell you how this program, that program
or measuring success. But when we have thousands of open
jobs and you're going, okay, well you've got you know,
a thousand interns in that program, what are you doing
to fill the other jobs, We're not telling the story
across the entire workforce ecosystem saying hey, across workforce programs,
we are serving this many participants, we are serving this
(05:58):
many businesses aross the system, and so now we're starting
to do that. We're establishing those shared measures of success
across all of our workforce programs. Now, not every program
can feed into each measure. We all measure different things,
and we should be because we're all meeting different needs.
But we're also we're finding where we can align and
we're going to be telling a much more comprehensive story
(06:22):
around what we're doing as a state, not as individual programs,
to impact our workforce, to grow our workforce, to upscale
our workforce and keep them in North Dakota. So that
work has been across agency collaboration. We've had I think
we've got about a dozen agencies on the Governor's Workforce.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Okay, so yeah, we are.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
We're pulling everyone in and we're digging deep into everybody's
program saying what are you measuring? And oh okay, so
we all seem to be measuring these things. How do
we now develop some data sharing agreements to make sure
we're pulling all all of that information into one central place.
And that dashboard that we're creating is going to live
on a new website that we're building right now that
(07:09):
is going to share all of the state's workforce resources
in one spot, rather than having, you know, an individual
have to know why I have to go to job
Service for this question, and then I've got to go
over to Commerce, and then I have to go to
Health and Human Services. It's all going to be in
one landing page where I can say I'm a job
seeker and I'd like to find a job or i
(07:29):
would like to find training. So I'm just going to
click on these resources rather than knowing, well, I have
to go to job Service for that question, and now
I've got to go to Train and D for this one.
It's going to centralize it into one spot.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I knew you guys were doing a lot of good work.
I didn't realize the depth and breadth of how you're
doing more with less.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Yeah. Absolutely. I Actually I'm glad you brought that up
because one of the things that we have dug into
is actual investments in workforce. We have a lot going
on in in workforce in North Dakota, but I don't
think that we had necessarily a real clear picture of
how much or where it existed up until recently, and
(08:10):
so we did a data call with all of the
agencies on the Workforce Subcabinet this spring to understand the
federal and state funding that they're implementing in their agencies.
And so currently this biennium in North Dakota, we have
one hundred and sixty one million dollars invested in workforce
programs that are in eight agencies and supporting sixty six programs.
(08:33):
Twenty eight of those programs are state funded with fifty
eight million dollars, twenty six of them are federally funded
with one hundred and three million dollars, and then we
have twelve programs that are blending both state and federal dollars.
So within commerce alone we have eleven million, but we're
actually coming in third. The university system and health in
(08:54):
human services have more in workforce programming than we do
within commerce. And that's fine doing really coo. Yeah, yes, absolutely,
but that is that's what we have invested. You know,
we've got we've got a lot of we have a
wide variety of programs that are all meeting different needs,
and so it's been really great to align on that
(09:15):
and just have a better understanding of the resources that
are actually invested.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yeah, and and I like the fact that you. You
know you're you're so prepared that you came in and
you're talking specific numbers with with underlying data. I know
that there's a lot of collaboration. We just have just
about thirty seconds here. There's a lot of collaboration with
industry within North Dakota. You know three of our sponsors,
UH the University of Mary Sandford Health, the North Dakota
(09:41):
Petroleum Council. They're doing a lot of really good collaborative
work with the Department of Commerce. And I want to
dig into that a little bit when we come back
from this commercial break. This is Dakota Mornings. I am
your host, Michael Bell k f y R five fifty
AM and a nine point seven f M. We are
and iHeartMedia production. And we are joined in studio by
my friend Katie Rawlston How, Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department
(10:04):
of Commerce. Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I'm your host,
Michael Bell kf y R five fifty am, not a
nine point seven f M. I am joined in studio
by North Dakota Deputy Commissioner of Commerce, Katie Ralston How.
And I love I love having you on because I
just say go and then you hit it all yourself
and I don't have to say anything.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, that might be the patchant girl in me. Oh,
you just you give me a microphone and I'll do
my thing.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You want to sing the national anthem?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Oh, I don't think anyone wants that.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Okay, that's fair, that's perfectly fair. So we were talking
about before we went to break. We were talking about
the investments that not only the federal government has made,
but the state, the legislature, and in these timely agency interventions,
about how all that is coordinated and effectively dealt with.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So, you know, you mentioned the variety of programs and
resoarch that we have, and it's really important to note
that we need investment in a variety of program and
service areas in order to meet the state's needs. I
think workforce development goes so far beyond career in technical education,
which I think is where a lot of our minds
(11:16):
go because we think, Okay, we want to get them
while they're young, give the career exposures sure and work
based learning, and that's so valuable, and that's really the
entrance into the pipeline. So, in addition to career and
technical education. We've got our job seeker services, our unemployment system,
and supporting those dislocated workers who are looking for new
(11:37):
opportunities or are needing to pursue training. So we've got
upskilling and reskilling programs. We have services for justice involved populations,
for individuals with disabilities, for tribal populations. We have internship programming.
We've got programming to support the development of locally led
(11:59):
workforce strategies, putting industry in the driver's seat. We are
working to remove barriers to accessing childcare, to housing, to transportation.
I mean, the list goes on and on. Recruiting and
retaining talent to North Dakota. North Dakota is a small state.
We are growing, our workforce is growing, which makes it
(12:21):
critically important to have comprehensive strategies to keep talent here.
But despite all that growth, we still do not have
enough workers to fill our jobs, and so we have
to recruit from outside of the state. And it's important
to have i say, eggs in every basket because once
you remove one piece of the strategy, you put pressure
(12:42):
on every other part of the system to start meeting
a need that they're not equipped to meet. Sure, maybe
their funding doesn't allow for it, maybe their subject matter
expertise is just not in that area. And so it
really takes all of these different strategies to work together
in order to have a really effective, comprehensive unified workforce strategy,
(13:05):
which is what we've been building throughout the last year.
It's been a collaborative effort between the Governor's Workforce sub
Cabinet and the North Dakota Workforce Development Council, which is
an industry led state workforce board. So they're bringing in
that private sector perspective helping us understand what industry really needs.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
We have a couple of sponsors of Dakota Mornings that
are intimately involved in collaborating at the highest level with
the Department of Commerce on workforce initiatives. And I'm talking
about Sandford Health. Todd Shafer is going to be in
here ten thirty to talk about some pricing transparency. But
there's always a focus, you know, the University of Mary,
(13:48):
We've got Court Energy, the North Dakota Petroleum Council, Thelignate
Energy Council, all of them are working in collaboration with
you on their needs. And then you guys are take
removing the silos and flattening it while keeping very good
track of all the metrics the dollars spent.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yes, absolutely, and so actually two of the two of
the entities that you mentioned are on the Workforce Development Console.
So it's great to have that industry perspective, both from healthcare,
oil and gas, and variety of other industries. But I
want to mention that it's not when when we're working
with companies from a workforce perspective, we're really trying to
understand what does the industry need, not just not just
(14:30):
what does company A need? What do you need? Let's
meet just meet your needs? No, no, no, we want to
help you company A, who's who's working with us? But
we also want to help others in your industry sure
to make sure that you know all all I'm terrible,
figures of speech, all ships, a rise in high Yes,
thank you, Yes, that's there, it is, We got there.
(14:51):
So so that's that's really our focus is wanting to
make sure that we're helping to elevate all industry and
all all the employers that we're working to serve. And
so you mentioned the metrics. We do track a variety
of KPIs to help measure our key performance indicator. Thank
(15:11):
you acronym. You caught me. So you know, we're working
to understand you know, how many how many companies are
we serving? And of those companies, how many are returning
to us, how many have utilized our resources before? How
many are new? That's so, how many new companies are
we are we recruiting to our workforce programming? And where
(15:34):
are they? What part of the states are they in
do we have do we have a lot in the east,
a lot in the west, a lot in rural or urban?
We want to understand where they are because we want
to make sure that we're getting the messaging out statewide.
And so if we're seeing a certain part of the gosh,
this part of the state doesn't seem to be participating
as much, what do we need to do differently to
(15:55):
make sure that they're more aware of our resources? And
maybe there isn't a line and okay, well what shifts
do we need to make sure in order to make
sure that we're meeting the needs that you have? And
so we use that data that we're collecting from all
of our programs not only to help inform funding decisions,
but also to inform programmatic decisions. Maybe the scope of
(16:15):
maybe the scope just isn't isn't what what employers are
needing right now? Okay, what should we be doing differently
right And I.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Like the fact that there's a constant conversation and constant
chattering about how can we do better? How can we
you know, with these with these key performance indicators, how
can we make them more effective and more like a
surgical knife as opposed to a blunt instrument.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Yes, yeah, I like that. So you know, we're utilizing
this not just in workforce but across commerce to iterate
we're a living organism.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
You know, we're a living machine.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
You know, we're we're always working to learn and to
improve so that we're constantly meeting the needs of North
to Cote employers today and laying the foundation for the future.
Because one of the things that you know, I've carried
with me from the Governor's Workforce Summit last year was
that old recipes for success might not have the same impact.
(17:12):
So what we were doing twenty years ago maybe needs
to evolve. Yeah, the world around us has evolved, and
we need to do the same.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I want to do. I'm going to delve more into
that when we come back from this commercial break. This
is Dakota Mornings. I'm your host, Michael Bell, kf y
R five fifty AM, BEN and nine points seven FM.
We were joined in studio by North Dakota Deputy Commissioner
of Commerce Katie Ralston How. We're talking about the great
efforts and the laser like focus there that they bring
to workforce discussions and we will continue this conversation after
(17:45):
we come back. Welcome back to Dakota Mornings. I'm your host,
Michael Bell, kf y R five fifty AM, none of
nine point seven FM, and joined in studio by Katie
Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce. We
were talking about the what I find to just be
a great approach and the Governor's approach with the sub
cabinet is just it's it's unique in the collaboration between
(18:10):
industry which is so strong here in North Dakota and
the government and really makes this one of the things
I talk about all the time is companies want to
move to North Dakota despite the weather. They want to
move to North Dakota because of the strength of our workforce.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah. Well, North Dakota has a strong economy, We have
a great business community.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
We do have it active.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Yes, yes, absolutely, North Dakota is the best state to
start a business. And if we're going to be the
best state for business, we also need to be the
best state for.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Workforce at perfect parallel.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Yes, So in order to do that, we need to
make sure that we're providing meaningful programs and services for businesses,
for students, for job seekers and employees. And so you
mentioned the sub cabinet. About a year ago, Commerce produced
a report that was really born out of this idea
(19:04):
that you know, we've never mapped our workforce system. Who's
doing what, where do they exist? We had a general
sense Artcota's a small enough stay where you know, I
know Bob over at that agency and Sue over there,
But we need to we need more detail and if
Bob or Sue leave, will then who do I talk to?
And so we did this, this this scan and produce
(19:27):
a report last year and had some really interesting findings
that were not interesting but not surprising in a lot
of ways. First, our structure within our workforce is relationally driven.
So I just used an example, I know, I know
so and so over job service in that person at
HHS and yeah, I'll get you connected, but if they
or if I leave, well, then who do you talk
(19:50):
to if I am gone? And so we need to
establish a system that isn't based on who you know,
but where it exists and knowing where different resources exist,
and so creating a system that isn't just based on
knowing people. But I mean, we love we love.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
That connection things relational aspect for sure.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
So it is a strength, but also when it comes
to navigating a complex system, it can also be a weakness, sure,
because it's not sustainable. So other things that came from
that study. We've got a lot of programs We've already
talked about that, but access can be limited, especially in
rural areas. So how do we make sure that we're
getting information and resources out to rural communities from rural Yes,
(20:36):
for sure. Absolutely. Another key finding was that there's misalignment
in our labor in our labor market between available workers
and employer opportunities. We know this. We know that we
have more jobs available, but it's not just a numbers game.
It's also a skill set game, so that we have
we have people who are interested in working. They are working,
(20:59):
but what what are the skill deficits? Do they have
the technical skills? And then here's here's what I was
excited about. Employers ranked for US. We did employer survey.
They ranked what are the skills that they're looking for
and that they're missing in the job seekers that they're
that they're interviewing for jobs. Soft skills Can you communicate?
(21:20):
Was number one? They're seeing they're seeing it a lack
in soft skills from especially younger workers coming into the workforce. Second,
are those functional skills? Can you show up on time?
Can you manage your schedule appropriately? Manage your time appropriately?
Can you send an email? Functional?
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah? Look at your time? Is your time as a resource?
Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yes, yeah, for sure. And then you know, just can
you show up by eight? And yes, there.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Wouldn't it wouldn't be something that I did think would
be a problem here in North Dakota.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Well, you know, it's it's one of those things that
I think we assume that everyone just knows. But sure,
maybe we need to teach that and help help especially
younger folks understand some of those just workplace norms.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, and it's a function of you know, but we
assume that that everybody knows it, but as demonstrated by
the wild success of this show, you know it's more
important to talk about it.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yes, absolutely, if you're going to have an expectation, you
need to communicate that. So good lesson for us. And
then the third was technical skills related to their job.
A lot of what I hear a lot of employers
say is send me the workers, I will train them. Okay,
but those workers need to have the saft skills. They've
got to be able to communicate with their colleagues, with
(22:38):
their customers, the critical thinking problem solving. Those are all
really important skills to have, and so that means we've
got to work with our education partners to make sure
that we've got programming that's helping students develop those skills.
And then the last the last finding there there were
a handful of others, but the STY could benefit from
a more unified leadership vision. Right now, I say we
(23:00):
are all fairly aligned. If you asked any one agency
in the workforce system, hey, what's the mission or vision
of the system, we would have generally the same response,
but it would come through the lens of our own
work as an agency. So that was The first thing
the Workforce Subcabinet tackled is that we identified a shared
vision for the workforce ecosystem, which is a skilled workforce
(23:22):
that fuels North Dakota economy. It's short and sweet, but
embedded within that are some pretty pretty big areas of focus.
So we want to continue driving skilling or upskilling and reskilling,
removing barriers to participation. Also embedded within this division is
meeting job seekers, students and workers at any point in
(23:43):
their journey. Maybe they're just starting, maybe they're they're looking
at a second act and they want to try something new.
Maybe yes, yep. Anticipating needs of the future. It's really hard.
No one has a crystal ball, but we can make
sure that we're establishing a wrong foundation now that's going
to be nimble as we move into the futures, that
(24:04):
we're able to shift and meet the need the evolving
needs of North Dakota employers. And so that's also a
part of a part of this and supporting, you know,
the attraction of new employers in industry to the state,
so that we have programming available to help say, hey,
we can train workers. We've got all these different companies
that are interested or new industries looking at North Dakota,
(24:26):
We're able to meet your needs with our workforce.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
One of the things that I want to highlight here
for a second is in this you know, we clearly
obviously have a workforce issue here in North Dakota. It
is not insurmountable. It is a figure outable, as I
like to characterize things. But one of the impressive components
is that North Dakota has the fastest growing gross domestic
product of any state in the country. And there's a
(24:50):
reason for that. It's the collaboration between education partners, industry partners, government,
it's the alignment of all of those.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Yes, and commerce is such a key player and bringing
all of those partners together. And that's really the beauty
of having economic development, workforce development, tourism, community development all
and under one roof, is because we're able to keep
keep a really good pulse on what's going on, what
are the needs, which partners do we need to bring in.
There's so much value in that. And so the strategy
(25:21):
that we have that has led to that excellent GDP
is that we're bringing all We've got the right people
around the table, and half the time we're not even
around a table. We're out in the field working with
those partners. You know, we're we're hitting the pavement, we're
getting out and we're working directly with the partners where
they're at to make sure that we're meeting their needs.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
And what is particularly impressive is the thought that goes
in in you guys executing the governor's vision of what
it looks like ten years from now as opposed to
you know, what it looks like a year from now.
You're thinking every single day, what is what is the
durability of this?
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yes, so you know, our our workforce and our opportunities
for workers are growing. You know, we've had we've had
we've had growth in our workforce throughout the last five years.
In fact, right now, our our unappoyment numbers just came
out recently. North Dakota's unappoyment rate is one point nine percent.
(26:23):
That's that's the second lowest in the nation behind South Dakota,
which is one point eight percent. Okay, so really low
unemployment we have truly, you know, we have about nine
hundred people who are on unemployment and looking for work.
Nine hundred.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
That is not a lot, No, that is that is
easily sustainable too, right.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
So we I mean, we we have we don't have
enough workers for the jobs that we have available. We
know this, But we also have had an increase in
our workforce. So the fact that we have a low
unemployment rate, we also have a really high labor participation rate.
So we've got four hundred thretty two thousand workers in
our workforce right now, and that is up two hundred
(27:04):
excuse me, that is up two thousand workers from this
time last year.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
Okay, so year over year, there's that that, you know, yeah,
and and and growth that is entirely manageable because of
the time and effort that you know, good government agencies
operating in good faith are able to deliver.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:24):
One of the things that that I find fascinating and
the Traveling Tourism Department at the Department of Commerce, they
you know, I had Sarah Audie Coleman on I think
it's like a year ago, and she was talking about
how the underlying metrics that return on investment is the
is the key watch point for that. That part of
(27:45):
the Department of Commerce. They do a great job of
allocating UH and and determining a metric on every dollar
they spend, which is truly impressive.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Yes, so Sarah's Sarah's team does excellent work, and there's
they're so good at quantifying and you know, calculating the
dollar months invested. I mean, tourism I think is our
third largest industry in North Dakta, which.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Just truly impressive and a testament to the hard work
that these folks have put in Sarah and her great
team over the course of the last ten years.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yes, absolutely, So.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
We have a little bit of a party that's going
to be going on July fourth. I don't know if
you know this, but we're going to have a couple
of people. They're going to show up, Yeah, a.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Couple people, maybe a couple thousand people. You know, we've
got a lot of people coming to North Dakota next week.
And that effort wouldn't be possible. I don't think without
the great work of our tourism team and all of
their partners. They've built this X. They've done all of
this groundwork for the last several years on promoting North Dakota,
(28:47):
helping the world see what makes North Dakota such such
a special place, and that really helped the leaders of
the Theodore Roosevelt Library, communicate with others, why in North
Dakota is the place for such a special for such
a special library, and such a special tribute to one
of our greatest presidents. And so I think that it
(29:09):
was definitely a collaborative effort in order to get that here.
And I'm so thrilled that it's finally opening. It's finally
going to be available for the public to see. And
so you know, my my plug and I you know,
not sponsored, if you haven't, if you haven't planned your
you're a trip to Medora this summer. You got to
get out there, you got to see it.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
I could not I could not echo that strongly enough.
One of the you know, we characterize I characterize Medora
on July fourth as America's front porch to the two
hundred and fiftieth celebration. This is this is a unique opportunity,
and I, you know, I feel a responsibility to highlight
(29:49):
all the great work that has gone on at the
Department of Commerce. But this is what good government looks like.
You don't see it, you don't hear about it, you
don't you don't focus on it, you don't think about it.
There's no drama involved. There's just really good people doing
their freaking job.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Yeah. You know, I always think that our role is
to work in the background, but our job is to
enable the success of the individuals, the businesses, the industries
that we're serving. And so if we can help set
you up for success, we don't need the accolades. Our
job is done if you if you're if you were
(30:26):
able to come to our agency or any agency and
your needs were met, you're off and running. And you
can say that was actually pretty easy. Yeah, our job
is done.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
And and you know Kelly Kelly Leban, Sheriff Kelly Liban,
talks about he made the comment on this show a
long long time ago that his best recruiters are his deputies,
and his and and the folks working at the jail,
and those are his best recruiters. And I think that
that speaks volumes to the Department of Commerce. Your best
recruiters for permanent location to North Dakota or visiting North Dakota,
(30:59):
your best recruiters are your industries.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
When you go to commercial break, this is Dakota Morning Zime,
your host Michael Bell KFYR five fifty AM, not nine
point seven FM. We are an iHeartMedia production and we
are joined in studio by Katie Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner
nor Koda Department of Commerce. Welcome back to you Dakota Morning.
Is ZIME Your host Michael Bell kf YR five fifty Am,
not nine point seven FM. I'm joined in studio by
(31:25):
Katie Ralston How, Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce.
We're talking about what good government looks like and how
y'all tend to fade into the background at really important points.
And I appreciate that because the scope of you know,
the scope of the Department of Commerce here in North
Dakota is wide, it is deep, and you're accounting for
(31:47):
a in a real way on a spreadsheet, on an
Excel spreadsheet, every dollar that spent.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Yes, absolutely, And one thing I want to clarify is
even if we're in the background, we're still doing the work.
So we always joke that, you know, we're the ones
that are in the back of the ribbon cutting photo
like you can't quite see us, but we were, so
we were part of the work. Yes, yes, we're doing
we're doing the work. We're supporting. Uh, we're are our constituents, businesses, industries, communities, workers, visitors.
(32:15):
You know, we're we're doing a ton of work to
support all of those folks. But yeah, you know, we
we really aligned under a new strategy when Commissioner Shilken
came in under the Armstrong administration. And so we've identified
a ton of a ton of metrics that we're tracking quarterly.
You know, we're we're sitting around a table saying, right,
how are we doing? What do we need to be
(32:36):
doing differently?
Speaker 1 (32:37):
Regular? Yes, yep, yep, we're like a one off, once
a year type of thing.
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Nope, not at all. And you know, it's not just
it's not just our our leadership team, division directors, it's
everyone in the agency. Our our staff's goals are aligned
with those metrics that the agency is tracking. So okay,
what are you doing and what are you doing to
make sure that your work is helping us achieve the
goals that we've set forth and then we're tracking it,
(33:03):
like I said, quarterly. And it's and that that coordination
has been so meaningful because what comes of those conversations is, oh, well,
have you thought about, you know, trying this or have
you thought about talking to that partner and oh gosh,
I haven't thought about it. Now we're working together in
a different way, and so it's bringing that collaboration to
another level. And I think we're we're continuing to move quickly.
(33:26):
We're doing really good work. We're tracking it and we'll
have a great story to tell next legislative session.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
So yeah, and that's part of it too, is that
there's been a bit of a rocky go in the
course of the last four or five years. I get it,
these these things, these things happen. It's how do you
overcome them, which is to me the most important thing.
But but your coordination with the legislature is really strong
as well.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Yeah, you know, I think so we've got great legislative
we have great relationships with legislators, I should say, But
you know, not everyone is going to agree with everybody else,
you know, And so I think it's I think having
conversations with those who pushed back a little bit are
so meaningful because they help they help us become better,
you know. They they give us feedback, feedback that we
(34:11):
can use. Or maybe you have a conversation with someone
that you thought maybe they didn't like a certain program
that you were doing. Then you find out, oh, maybe
they just have some questions about it. Sure, and now
we've got this opportunity to have an open dialogue to
help them understand and and maybe we convert some to
two champions, and maybe we don't. Either way, we walk
away with some really meaningful, meaningful conversation and feedback that
(34:35):
we can use.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
One of the things that I think we're going to
find after November's election. We just had a pretty big
primary election, then we have a general election in November,
I think we're going to find that there are the
legislature is much more eager to solve problems as opposed
to highlighting them. And I think that that's something that
that you're really looking forward to.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Yeah. Absolutely, I really enjoyed that. I enjoy the legislative process.
I enjoy working with.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Well, your husband's a former legislator, so I certainly hope
you appreciates my wife is a former legislator as well.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
And they have great ideas and they are very solution oriented,
and I appreciate that. And when you can have a
conversation around you know, we both want the same thing
and how do we how do we get there? For
the benefit of North Dakota, and that's really what personally
I'm focused on. I love North Dakota and my focus
(35:33):
is on doing good work for the state that I love.
And I think there's this too.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah. I couldn't agree with you more. And but we'd
be remiss if we didn't talk about the summit.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
The summit this fall, yes, Okay, so glad you brought
that up. Governor's Workforce Summit last year was our inaugural
Workforce Summit with Governor Armstrong, and we are so excited
to do a second summit coming up this fall September
twenty third. Registration is not open yet, that'll come in
about a month, but our safe dates are going out
(36:02):
hopefully this week or early next. But this summit is
going to bring together leaders from government agencies, industry, education,
community based organizations, lawmakers to really align around our shared
vision for strengthening North Dakota's talent pipeline and long term
economic competitiveness. And so we're going to have a fireside
(36:24):
chat with Governor Armstrong where he'll get to talk a
little bit more about his vision for North Dakota's workforce
and what we're doing to achieve that. Good.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Yeah, is there really going to be a fake fireplace there?
Speaker 2 (36:33):
We should get one.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Actually, I have thought about that. I September. Maybe cold
enough to actually have.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
A fire, right, someone should donate that we would we
would use it.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Yeah, I agree, we need to go. Katie Ralston how
Deputy Commissioner, North Dakota Department of Commerce, Thank you so
much for joining us this morning on Dakota Mornings.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
This is Dakota Mornings. I'm your host, Michael Bell KFYR
five fifty AM and nine point seven FM, and we
will be back after this short commercial break.
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