New Ulm Medical Center President Toby Freier, Bank Midwest Market President Shannon Hillesheim, ISD 88 Superintendent Sean Koster, Schell’s Brewery Vice President Kyle Marti, and Minnesota Valley Funeral Homes Director and City Council member Eric Warmka were the five CEOs that made up the panel.

Eric Bode of BoCo Real Estate acted as the MC for the night, serving up questions for the experienced panel members to answer.

He first asked what key challenges each panelist faces to operate successfully in New Ulm. Marti said it is difficult to find skilled workers to operate new machinery brought in. He said there is a serious brain drain in this area, where people who grow up here leave and stay in the cities. For some positions, he said prospective employees are not interested in moving to this area.

Hillesheim said there is a lot of economic uncertainty right now. Factors include the upcoming election, inflation, supply chain issues, and increasing credit card debt. She said people and banks were flush with cash due to COVID-19 payments. In the years since she said that cash has been used up and liquidity is now a huge problem.

Ann Perry (center) used her time to speak about the youth of New Ulm and their strengths.

With these problems in mind, the next question Bode tackled was how to retain talent and have a positive workplace.

Freier said the location of his employees has changed significantly since he first started.

“We’re up to nearly 800 doctors and staff,” he said. “We had 500 when I came 19 years ago; significant amount of growth. Back up 10 years ago, we didn’t have a single doctor outside of New Ulm. Everyone lived here. Now 50% of our staff commute to New Ulm to take care of patients.”

The focus for Freier has been on attracting prospective employees early, including coordination with Koster and ISD 88. Freier said there are 60 different departments in a hospital, which means many different ways to recruit local talent for positions that fit their interests.

Koster said a lot of staff retention in his world is convincing new teachers and staff that New Ulm is a place to take root. He said ISD 88 has around 20 new staff members each year, and some are fresh from Mankato.

“They graduate from Mankato, might still be driving from Mankato,” Koster said. “Can’t find a place to live, don’t have an apartment, don’t have a house. We have to look at that and say ‘What can we do to retain them?'”

On the topic of employee trends, Marti said now they need to see a path for upward mobility before committing to a job. He said they want more from employers now, and the days of employees clocking in and staying in the same position are long gone.

“Now it falls on the business to essentially convince people to stay,” he said.

Warmka said a trend he’s seen dividends from is local schools emphasizing looking at local careers. He said three years ago New Ulm High School approached him about an internship class for seniors looking for experience in potential careers.

“I didn’t think there’d be any funeral directors signing up for that one,” Warmka said. “I’ve had three.”

With Minnesota Valley Funeral Home at capacity, Warmka said all three have become funeral directors elsewhere, with one in Sleepy Eye.

The floor was then opened for comments from the audience. Attendee Ann Perry said as the businesses are struggling, the next generation is as well. She said she has heard many places say they are hiring, but her kids in high school and finished with college rarely get responses from the places they apply to.

“We’ve got to get better and communicate with high schoolers and tell them what we expect from them because they will do it,” Perry said.