HIA-LI, one of Long Island’s largest business advocacy organizations, has created a Workforce Development Task Force that will focus on maximizing employee training opportunities to support the employers at the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge (LI-IPH).
As the largest business park in the Northeast, the 1,400 companies in the LI-IPH employ approximately 55,000 people. One in 20 jobs on Long Island is dependent upon the park, which delivers an annual economic output of $13 billion.
The task force was formed in response to a problem widely viewed as Long Island’s most significant business challenge: finding skilled workers and filling the talent pool of today and tomorrow. Its mission is to align resources to meet the needs of business – and to seek solutions in recruiting and developing the skills required for high-demand careers in industry sectors driving Long Island’s economy.
Its approach will be to help connect business, educational institutions, and workforce development organizations to attract, train, and retain the park’s talent pool.
The task force will be chaired by Rich Humann, President and CEO of H2M Architects & Engineers, and Dr. Edward Bonahue, President of Suffolk County Community College. Both are members of the HIA-LI board of directors.
As an example of the type of academia-business partnerships the task force aims to promote, its organizers cite Suffolk County Community College’s recently launched Solar Installer Certificate Program, a hands-on training course taught by industry experts that includes a paid “externship” with SuNation Solar, a solar company based in the LI-IPH.
“No single entity in Nassau or Suffolk surpasses the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge when it comes to job creation and economic impact,” said Carol A. Allen, President and CEO of People's Alliance Federal Credit Union and Chairperson of the HIA-LI board. “Long Island’s long-term business health is heavily dependent upon this park. This new task force will help ensure that our employers will be able to count on access to a properly skilled workforce.”
“As Long Island continues to come back from COVID, business owners and organizations say that one of their biggest issues is the availability of a talent pool that’s suited to their immediate and future needs,” said Terri Alessi-Miceli, President and CEO of HIA-LI. “This task force will help align the efforts of key private-sector and public sector players to deliver the kind of skills training that will benefit the Long Island economy well into the future.”
“At Suffolk County Community College, we’ve taken strategic steps to shape our curriculum so that our graduates will have the skills necessary to enjoy promising careers with the businesses of the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge, and other employers,” said task force Co-Chair Dr. Edward Bonahue. “Our Solar Installer Certificate Program serves as a perfect illustration of the kind of customized workforce development programs this task force aims to create.”
“There’s a void today between businesses who need workers with certain kinds of talent – and workers who possess the right skills to fulfill these needs,” said task force Co-Chair Rich Humann. “Fortunately, HIA-LI is an excellent position to help fill this void because of its strong relationships with business, academia, local and state government, and workforce development organizations. We can serve as a hub that helps to unify these key players.”
The task force will commission the New York City-based James Lima Planning consulting firm to undertake an “LI-IPH In-Demand Skills Assessment” – and conduct stakeholder meetings – to identify current and future skill sets needed for park occupants post-Covid.
The skills set analysis and stakeholder meetings will be funded by a grant from the Workforce Development Institute, a statewide, non-profit organization that promotes the expansion of workforce opportunities. The $15,000 grant – applied for in partnership with the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency (Suffolk IDA) – will be supplemented with additional funding from HIA-LI and the Suffolk IDA.
The results of the assessment will be shared with academia to help it better connect to the business sector – and to develop future programs that will best prepare graduates to thrive in the Long Island economy of tomorrow. The assessment will also be presented at a future HIA-LI workforce development conference to be attended by the region’s key business and institutional leaders.
Task force organizers note that as technology has become more commonplace, the region’s businesses need to develop talent in technological disciplines that may not exist today. Thus, one key goal of the task force is to recognize the future needs of Long Island’s workforce.
They note that smaller businesses in particular are likely to have more difficulty in predicting their future needs with respect to job skills. HIA-LI, the Suffolk IDA, and James Lima Planning will engage with business park tenants to help them better judge where these small firms need to be in the future – and what skills will be required to get them there. Future workforce development programs will then be tailored to train the park’s workers in these needed skills.
“The Workforce Development Institute works actively statewide to increase opportunities for all New Yorkers to succeed in the workforce while earning family-sustaining wages,” said Robyn Fellrath, Long Island Regional Director of the Workforce Development Institute. “We’re proud to support the efforts of HIA-LI and the Suffolk IDA in ensuring that the members of the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge workforce are well-positioned for success.”
“Attracting and retaining skilled workers is one of the biggest challenges facing Long Island businesses, especially in high-demand industries like manufacturing and the trades,” said Kelly Murphy, Acting Executive Director of the Suffolk County IDA. “Regional employers have been experiencing a brain drain because of such factors as the high cost of living and the shortage of affordable, attractive housing for young people. This task force will help us overcome these big challenges.”
“The success of our regional economy depends heavily on the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge and the skilled workforce it attracts,” commented Joe Campolo, Chair of HIA-LI's Long Island Economic Development Task Force. “The Workforce Development Task Force's report will augment our LI-IPH sustainability study and to prioritizing workforce development as a critical strategy for ensuring that businesses in the park have access to the trained professionals they need to thrive, and for attracting new companies to the region.”
The task force’s work will complement the regional component of a statewide, $350-million initiative launched last year under Governor Kathy Hochul that aims to improve workers’ skills to match jobs that employers are having difficulty in filling. The statewide program, managed in Nassau and Suffolk counties by the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council, was created by Empire State Development, the state’s primary economic development agency.
The regional council issued a report in cooperation with Ernst & Young last November that spelled out a strategy for forward-looking workforce development approaches for the region that dovetail with the new task force’s agenda, noting that “aligning the many assets and partners on Long Island is key to solving the workforce challenges of today and the future.”
In 2019, Newsday and The Rauch Foundation conducted a survey showing the degree to which young workers are planning to exit Long Island. Based upon 1,800 interviews with people between 18 and 34 years of age, 67 percent of those surveyed said they planned to leave Long Island within the next five years.