Winn-Worth Betco News

More than 75 percent of the companies responding to a recent survey from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) expect the COVID-19 pandemic will have a financial impact on their business, with more than 50 percent anticipating changes to their operations. Prior to the pandemic many manufacturing companies had design and constructio...Continue Reading

Years ago in this column, I reminded readers that January is named after the Roman god Janus — the one looking backward and forward at the same time. The cover on this January issue seems the perfect illustration of that notion. We were determined to not focus again on th...Continue Reading

COVID-19 didn’t just upset the established model of corporate site selection in 2020; the global pandemic obliterated it. Site Selection Magazine’s annual survey of site selection consultants, conducted in late November, revealed five ways in which the global outbreak of coronavirus significantly altered how companies choose their business facility locations: Instead o...Continue Reading

For the last five years, Emsi has been tracking how communities are faring in their efforts to attract and develop talent. Our Talent Attraction Index equally weighs six metrics: migration, growth of jobs and skilled workers, regional competitiveness, job openings, and education attainment to rank each county and create ou...Continue Reading

Joensuu, a city of 76,000 in Eastern Finland, is home to the European Forest Institute, appropriately enough. It’s also the home base of Valamis, a leading IT company specializing in the digitalization of learning. That may not be a new discipline, but it will take on greater urgency as remot...Continue Reading

The multi-year transformation of a former lumberyard into a community events center in downtown Northwood is nearly complete. The Timbers – Northwood’s Event Center at 512 Central Ave. will host its first event, a dance recital, on Sunday. “Thank you to the community, (Worth County Development Authority) and the city for al...Continue Reading

History on the Project Enhance Iowa Board awards more than $1.3 million in CAT grants to three communities  October 2, 2020 (DES MOINES) – The Enhance Iowa Board awarded $1,303,000 in Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grants to projects in Cedar Rapids, Northwood and Maquoketa.  The details  are as follows:  Project Name: Vikings Activity Center, Northwood Total Project Cost: $5,357,730 Amount Awarded: $453,000 Project Description: This project will include the construction of a 37,100-square-foot facility ove...Continue Reading

Over recent weeks, the Worth County supervisors proceeded with the next steps to provide a tax incentive to allow a developer to qualify for state funds. In September of last year, the board of supervisors was approached with word that Sukup Manufacturing planned to expand in the Manly Logistics Park, nort...Continue Reading

Sprung from the lush forests of Oregon just 15 years ago, a different breed of outsourcer has found small town America to be a vital talent resource. FCR (derived from First Call Response) got its start in the legacy timber town of Roseburg, a community of 21,000 that today is hom...Continue Reading

Texas enters 2021 as the world’s ninth largest economy, proof of the success of a long-term strategy to make Texas the best place to start or relocate a business, said Robert Allen, President and CEO of the Texas Economic Development Corporation. “This is more than just a statistic,” Allen said. “Th...Continue Reading

Texas enters 2021 as the world's ninth largest economy, proof of the success of a long-term strategy to make Texas the best place to start or relocate a business, said Robert Allen, President and CEO of the Texas Economic Development Corporation. "This is more than just a statistic," Allen said. "The fact that ou...Continue Reading

Governor Reynolds allocated $40 million in federal CARES Act funds to provide financial relief for eligible restaurants and bars impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Iowa Restaurant and Bar Relief Program will assist many Iowa establishments that were among the most directly and hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and associate...Continue Reading

Why would my community want to attract a REMOTE WORKFORCE? -- To grow your economy, of course! The coronavirus pandemic has affected U.S. workplaces in many ways, including transitioning many employees to remote work. As some businesses begin to welcome employees back to the office, many remote workers, about two-thirds t...Continue Reading

Lichtsinn RV and its team of employees donated more than $27,000 to select organizations for the 2020 calendar year through the Lichtsinn RV WE CARE Charitable Giving Program. The WE CARE Program is the giving arm of Lichtsinn RV, the closest RV Dealer to Winnebago Industries, located in Forest City. Accordin...Continue Reading

The world as we all knew it changed earlier this year with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seemingly overnight, everything that we used to think was normal had changed, and things that once were deemed impossible for the workplace became the “new normal.” Now, seven months later, most o...Continue Reading

AD: Can you define people analytics for our readers? Williams: People analytics is described as the method of analytics which can support leaders as they make decisions about their employees and workforce. This method applies statistics, technology, and expertise to large sets of HR data, which should result in better business and managemen...Continue Reading

As someone who lives in a city (albeit not a large one), I am perhaps not the most qualified to discuss the topic of rural economies. On the other hand, both my parents were raised on wheat farms in eastern Washington. Consequently, one of the most pressing issues in rura...Continue Reading

Many executives are increasingly weighing the impact of environmental changes and catastrophic weather — which already have devastated communities — on their businesses and future needs. Examples include the millions of acres that have been scorched in California and Colorado this year, and hurricane damage in the Gulf States. Louisiana...Continue Reading

They’re the words Iowa manufacturers have been waiting all year to hear: “Things are looking up.”  Iowa manufacturers expect increased sales, employment and capital investments in the first quarter (January-March), according to the results of the latest ABI Quarterly Iowa Business Survey. “The survey results are incredibly positive for Iowa’s economy,” sai...Continue Reading

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed our lives, and each one of us likely has a personal story to tell that underscores that fact. But there are also stories to be told of sweeping changes that virtually all of us have felt. One of those is the altered state o...Continue Reading

AD: How has COVID-19 changed the employee experience in manufacturing, and what facets of this should organizations retain going forward? Zenk: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, employees have been experiencing a drastically different work environment. Thousands of manufacturers across the U.S. and around the world were deemed essential during the pandemic...Continue Reading

As a small business owner, you have many responsibilities to uphold to keep your company running efficiently. One of them is ensuring you have sufficient security measures in place to protect organizational and employee data from fraudulent scams. Unfortunately, online scams are becoming increasingly pervasive: as of 2018, 82% of businesses reporte...Continue Reading

Our Rural Commitment. 900 Grants. $18 million. As part of our continuing commitment to elevate our impact in rural America, LISC is inviting small business owners in rural locations across the country to apply for the LISC-Lowe's Rural Relief Small Business Grants program. The next grant application period opens on January 26th. Learn more!Continue Reading

Renewed site selection activity, cautious optimism on foreign direct investment (FDI), continued skilled labor shortages and a shakeup of the global supply chain are among key findings of a 2021 outlook survey on corporate location trends. The findings were released today by the Site Selectors Guild, the only association o...Continue Reading