.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Principal Financial Group Inc.’s announcement that it would guarantee jobs to students who complete a Des Moines Area Community College program has inspired other financial institutions to look at similar options. At the same time, Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. is ramping up recruiting efforts to fill hundreds of positions as it expands, and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. is starting a high school mentorship program to introduce young people to the insurance industry.

Concern over a looming worker shortage and natural business growth have forced these and other Greater Des Moines companies to become creative in luring workers from the limited talent pool graduating from college each year.

“I think it’s always good to be proactive to remain competitive and to be the employer of choice in a community that’s as small as ours, and we have a lot of financial service companies,” said Kathleen Souhrada, assistant vice president of recruiting and diversity at Principal.

“We have been able to consistently hire for our needs, so currently we aren’t experiencing any shortages,” said Mike Palmer, a Nationwide spokesman. However, “we definitely share the same concern that if we’re not able to continue to attract people to stay or move to Central Iowa, that the situation would change. As of today, we recruit proactively.”

Class to office

Many businesses are starting to look at ways of attracting recent college graduates to their companies.

Principal’s program through DMACC, which will start this spring, guarantees students who go through one of two tracks a job as an associate business analyst in the information technology department or as a client service assistant or individual investor trainee in the company’s retirement and investor services division.

“We started to look at opportunities to build that pipeline, especially in some of the areas that are very high incumbent (where the company consistently hires several employees at a time) and we know we’re going to continue to experience growth in,” Souhrada said.

Forty-one students have applied for the program so far. Principal plans to accept about 20 people for the retirement and investor services track by Nov. 1 and has delayed acceptance into the business analyst track until the fall 2008.

Drew Gocken, DMACC dean of business management and information technology, said the college thought the program would be a hard sell, but rather, “in this case there is a bit of an avalanche. It’s turned out to be very popular.”

The retirement and investor services program is the same as the one leading an associate degree in business administration, but specifies the elective courses students must take.

On the business analyst track, Principal is customizing two courses, one on the rapid unified process, a system designed for speed and efficiency in work, and the other on project management, after seeing a need for new employees to have more technical skills. The courses are taught by DMACC faculty members, using examples and issues related to Principal, as well as offering training in software programs Principal uses. Gocken said it’s not unusual for companies to ask for classes with specific training, especially in project management where companies have a set style and programs that they use, but it’s rare for them to create a whole degree program.

Principal will guarantee students a job if they graduate with a 3.3 grade point average and complete the designated coursework in two years. It will hire its first class of employees in the retirement and investor services division this summer.

“It’s been a win-win-win situation,” Souhrada said. “It’s a win for DMACC because it boosts their enrollment. It’s a win for Principal because we get a group of qualified employees, and then it’s a win for the student because in addition to knowing they have employment as soon as they graduate, we then allow them through our regular employee benefit program to begin working on their bachelor’s degree.” Principal provides up to $5,000 a year for continuing education, which Souhrada hopes will be a perk that helps with employee retention. In the future, Principal may consider expanding its DMACC program to other divisions.

“It’s a pipeline of viable candidates,” Souhrada said. “We’ll know what their GPA is, more about the candidates, and we’re expecting them to have a positive impact on retention.”

Interest is growing

Principal’s program has led at least one other financial institution to look at similar options with the community college, said DMACC Vice President Kim Linduska.

“I don’t know if there’s a gap between what we’re teaching and what they need as much as there’s a workforce shortage and they need good employees,” she said. “If they work with us and we identify the students to participate in the program, they have access to a pool of potential employees right here.”

John Deere Des Moines Works and Accu-Mold LLC, both of Ankeny, have already created similar programs through DMACC. Deere started its program more than five years ago, training students in a variety of manufacturing areas before hiring them. As demand for new employees tapered off, it put the program on hold.

Meanwhile Accu-Mold’s tool and die training program is just getting under way. The company has accepted six people in two years, paying for the students’ education and requiring them to work for the company for one year when they graduate. The company will continue to accept four people a year as it grows and is looking at expanding its training efforts through a new program in automation and maintenance.

“We’ve been able to pretty much satisfy the needs as we’ve grown,” said Accu-Mold CEO Roger Hargens. In return, the partnership has helped revive DMACC’s declining tool and die program, he said.

As companies look to collaborate more with colleges, they are offering more input on what should be taught in those schools’ regular curriculums. Many companies have members of their executive team sit on curriculum advisory boards and provide case studies instructors can use in class.

Drake University is formally meeting with several Greater Des Moines executives for the first time as it develops its next five-year strategic plan to ensure that Drake’s vision is in line with their goals, said Drake President David Maxwell.

“I don’t think it’s unusual,” he said. “For one thing, there’s a much more robust discussion in the last couple of years on the national scale about the public responsibilities of colleges and universities and how we serve our communities.”

Real experience

Internships have become an important way to connect Drake students to companies, Maxwell said, with nearly 80 percent of students participating in an internship before they graduate. “It gives them the chance to make the connection between the academic work and the world of professions,” Maxwell said.

Drake’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication has gone a step further by offering an apprentice program at Meredith Corp., where each semester, five students work 15 to 20 hours a week for nine weeks on a Meredith magazine while being supervised by a Drake professor. This is in addition to Meredith’s 10-week paid summer internships.

“It helps area college students develop into young professionals and helps us grow local talent to add as full-time employees down the road,” said Jenny McCoy, a Meredith spokeswoman.

Most major companies in Greater Des Moines agree that internships are an effective way to introduce people to the industry and company culture.

With few college programs actually focusing on insurance, Nationwide’s Palmer said, “we find [internships are] a great way to get college students to know more about the insurance industry and career opportunities available here. And we have had some good successes in turning those workers into full-time associates.” Nationwide hires about 40 interns a year, and nearly half are later hired for full-time jobs.

New employees hired in claims and underwriting throughout the country also go through a training program at the company’s Des Moines offices. Nationwide has about three to five classes of 20 people a year.

Needing to fill more than 400 new positions this year, and most likely the same number again next year, Pioneer is not as focused on training new people as simply getting more younger students interested in science. It has invested in community efforts to encourage children to experience science and recently started a scholarship program at Purdue University giving two $25,000 fellowships a year to support graduate students in the university’s agronomy department.

More campus visits

Pioneer also has ramped up recruiting efforts, visiting twice as many college campuses as in the past and interacting more with students on each visit, said Brian Bowman, talent acquisition manager at Pioneer. This year, the company also hosted its first open house at its Johnston headquarters, which attracted more than 400 people. A similar event at a smaller facility attracted 70 people, 10 of whom were hired, Bowman said.

“It takes longer to fill positions,” he said. “It takes more recruitment efforts with different Web sites, expanding campus relations efforts, taking more efforts to find the people we’re looking for.”

Nationwide has participated in the Four Hire! program every year since its inception three years ago. With a format similar to that of the television show “The Apprentice,” the competition awards each of the four college graduates who win a position at one of the four sponsoring companies. In addition to hiring one of the winners, Nationwide also has hired people who don’t make it to the finals.

Because attendance at career fairs has been declining, Principal has started Principal Days, where a large group of employees visit a target campus for the day, conducting information sessions on everything from Principal’s benefit packages to the company culture and job opportunities.

“The setting is so much more intimate than a career fair, and we have a captive audience, so when they come, they are truly coming to hear about the Principal,” Souhrada said. “For us, there’s not competition from another employer.”

Principal also is in the process of creating a group page on the Facebook social networking site, after its interns found that about 85 percent of college students have a Facebook account and 60 percent log onto it for an average of 20 minutes a day.

“I think we’re always looking at innovative ways to find new candidates,” Souhrada said.