Webinar: Pivot Strategies for the Great Resignation: A Panel Discussion with Local Business Leaders

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Our business partners are the real heroes in today’s workforce success stories.  As most businesses will tell you, workforce shortages are present across industries and unless companies take action to close skills gaps, recruiting and hiring efforts might remain frustrating.

Employers looking for candidates with solid skills are creatively responding to build and shape the workforce of today and tomorrow. In this webinar, our regional business leaders engage in a roundtable conversation to share their insights and success in recruiting, training, and retaining talent during an intensely challenging economic and workforce climate.

Watch the replay to learn how our panelists are working to achieve the following objectives:

  • Describe how training and development has helped you attract, recruit, and retain talent for your organization
  • List hard and soft skills that are in demand and how you are working to close the skills gap
  • List the benefits within your organization of taking this approach to building talent

Watch the On-Demand Replay Today


Meet the Panelists

Kim Jenkins is the President/CEO of both Genesis Home Improvement, LLC and Genesis Restoration, LLC. She has successfully grown Genesis Home Improvement from a startup in 2014 to over 20 employees with annual revenue increases of 20%. Kim has over 22 years of banking, finance, insurance, and leadership experience, holding her Class A Residential and Commercial Contractor licenses, Property & Casualty, Life & Health Insurance licenses along with several IICRC licenses for restoration services. Kim enjoys helping others achieve their goals through leadership and coaching, and has spoken in local high school business classes, facilitated board retreats, and coached small business clients about systems, processes, and organizational improvement. She has a future goal of assisting more small businesses with system implementation, process creation, and organizational improvement. Kim has four children and enjoys spending time with them, taking family vacations, and volunteering in the community.

Earnie Bliss has been in the plastics industry for over 20 years and is currently the Plant Manager of Berry Global Winchester since 2019. Previously he serves as the General Manager-Europe for Plastipak International and was responsible for 15 manufacturing sites in 9 countries, including Safety, Quality, R&D, and New Product Development. He authored Plastipak’s “Lean Journey” strategy to leverage U.S. capabilities in a difficult European competitive environment. This innovation prompted dramatic improvements in Operations, Supply Chain and Customer-centricity. Earnie has become known for his passion for developing systems and people, and dozens of his direct reports are now Plant Managers, General Managers and members of senior management.

He is a retired U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, and served in several Special Operations roles, including Hostage Rescue and Naval Special Warfare Command – Europe. He served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. He has earned 3 MBAs from the University of Toledo, and was a Distinguished Graduate, and holds certifications as a Quality Engineer, Packaging Engineer, Manufacturing Technologist, Quality Technician, and Six Sigma Black Belt. Earnie is a member of Rotary International, past Chair of the University of Toledo MBA program, and a member of the University of Toledo Board of Trustees. He lives in Winchester with his wife, Patricia, who is a Bi-Lingual Studies educator.

Jennifer Cramer, SHRM-CP, PHR, is the Director of Human Resources for Wagman. She has extensive experience working in the construction industry, with 17 years of HR experience, including talent acquisition, employee relations, training and development and employee engagement. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and maintains her Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Society for Human Resources Professionals (SHRM-CP) certifications.

R. Kevin Barrett is the Vice-President of Human Resources at Winchester Equipment Co. for the past 16 years. He holds Senior Professional Human Resources certifications for SPHR and SCP, and has over 32 years Human Resources, Recruitment, and Training/Development experience in the manufacturing, retail and hospitality industries. He and his wife of 28 years, Amy, have 2 daughters and one son-in-law.

Born in the hills of Pennsylvania with a loud voice and a talent for sitting, Andy Gyurisin exceeded the expectations of his family when he managed to combine his hobbies into careers, including head of the Car Sales division of Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Illinois, co-owner of the Winchester Book Gallery, Small Business Advisor for the SBDC, promotions for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, and his current position, connecting the local community with ways to give back to Laurel Ridge through giving as a Development Officer in the Foundation. He’s also announced the Apple Blossom Festival’s Firefighter’s Parade, honored Matthew Modine with a 10-film retrospective, and tries to read 40 books a year. Andy is this webinar’s panel moderator.

Listen to the Podcast!

Today’s conversation with Guy Curtis, Director of Marketing for Laurel Ridge Community College and Carlene Hurdle, Director of Corporate Training for Laurel Ridge Workforce Solutions centered around an upcoming webinar: Pivot Strategies for the Great Resignation.

We talked about how our workforce has changed on a national AND local level and the importance of recognizing and implementing change to stay relevant for today’s workers.

Carlene gave us some statistics and explained how the webinar will work. It will be an interactive community conversation with a panel of local business owners sharing their creative ideas for attracting and keeping new employees.