Woodville, Wisconsin - Family Friendly Workplaces (FFW), a nonprofit organization focused on addressing western and northwestern Wisconsin’s workforce shortage, announced today that they have been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) in support of FFW’s efforts to strategically address the region’s long-term workforce shortage.

The grant will help determine what mix of message and marketing will be most effective for western and northwestern Wisconsin as the region works to attract talent to address its workforce shortage.

“Addressing our workforce shortage is key to taking full advantage of the economic opportunity available in every community,” said Neil Kline, Executive Director of FFW. “This grant will help ensure that talent attraction efforts are based on sound data.”

The labor shortage currently being experienced by St. Croix, Pierce, and Polk counties is not unique to the region, and is projected to worsen before slight improvement by 2040. A primary tool to help address this workforce shortage is attracting people to move to western and northwestern Wisconsin.

“As our state looks to attract and retain workers, it’s critically important for employers here to identify workplace best practices that will enable their businesses to stay competitive,” said Missy Hughes, WEDC secretary and CEO. “FFW collects and provides that essential data to businesses so they can ensure the economic well-being of their employees.”

FFW is unique in Wisconsin and nationally for its approach to addressing the workforce shortage. Their core program is the Family Friendly Workplaces Certification, which recognizes employers who provide robust family-supporting benefits. While some areas of the country have similar programs, none are taking the approach of leveraging family-friendliness into a large-scale, talent attraction tool.

“We believe this region of the state is well positioned to strengthen its economy through robust talent attraction, and this grant helps us with exactly that kind of effort,” said Kline.

An important component of this strategy is implementing a marketing program that can flow from the data collected. FFW is excited to be seeking support from local employers and others to pool resources in support of a follow-on advertising effort through their Talent Attraction Partnership (TAP). To learn more about TAP and how you can participate, please visit www.familyfriendlyworkplaces.org/tap/.

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Family Friendly Workplaces works to address western Wisconsin's workforce shortage, and strengthen western Wisconsin families, by certifying businesses as Family Friendly, and encouraging the adoption of Family Friendly practices. For more information, visit www.familyfriendlyworkplaces.org or follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/familyfriendlyworkplaces.