Q. INSIGHTs & INTUITION

from Prairie Business December 2021

by Grand Forks Herald

Houston Engineering’s Minot team relocates to new office

What is something you have learned in 2021 that will benefit your organization as it prepares for 2022?

In 2021 the most valuable thing learned in our office was flexibility is the key to a successful future.

& Owner

High Plains Dental Dickinson, N.D.

The team at our office had to learn to be flexible with scheduling and rescheduling due to COVID-19 related complications in our patients and with some of our vendors. Our supply chain was disrupted at times, but the flexibility we all learned helped the office to run more seamlessly.

Our patients were also very flexible and were understanding of short notice schedule changes. The world has changed because of COVID-19, but with flexibility we will happily prepare for 2022!

2021 provided the opportunity for our team to learn how to adapt to the evolution of collaboration throughout the pandemic. This year we learned that by actively listening to each other, we can have meaningful communication that enables us to succeed and develop innovative solutions together.

Customer interactions, employee work experiences, and how business is conducted rapidly changed within the banking industry. This challenge taught us how to remain agile and prepared to meet the present and future needs of our customers.

The resilience of our customers, teams, and neighbors is inspiring and drives us to continually work toward improving the quality of life and economic viability of the communities we serve well into the future.

Jay Lies President & Chief Commercial Officer Choice Bank North Dakota Fargo, N.D.

Though seemingly obvious, the first thing that comes to mind is the importance of flexibility. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are far reaching and continue today, causing disruptions to supply chains across the world. As architects, we must be especially nimble when developing project schedules and cost estimates to accommodate for these disruptions and be proactive about developing creative solutions to mitigate issues. Similarly, we must ensure that we offer our team flexibility for their own unique needs to remain competitive in attracting and retaining the best talent. COVID-19 may have expedited the implementation of certain technologies to achieve this level of flexibility, but it has resulted in improved workflows and communication that will last long into the future. As we look to 2022, flexibility will continue to be a key factor in our ability to deliver on our core values of creative solutions and proven service – both internally to build a strong team as well as externally to deliver our clients an exceptional experience.

Lisa VandeVoort Principal Business Manager Architecture Incorporated Sioux Falls, S.D.

I’ve learned that the teams at Jamestown Regional Medical Center continue to exceed my expectations. Even during the most difficult times of this pandemic – and all the other times, the hip replacements, the chemo infusions, the new babies, etc. – our teams remain legendary.

I am grateful for them and can’t wait to see how they exceed expectations next year.

Unemployment Rate

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 531,000 in October, and the unemployment rate edged down by 0.2 percentage point to 4.6%, according to the latest data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Job growth was widespread, with notable job gains in leisure and hospitality, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in transportation and warehousing. Employment in public education declined over the month.

Airline Workers

U.S. airlines employed 718,111 workers in September 2021, which is 814 (0.1%) fewer workers than in August 2021 and 24,289 (3.3%) fewer than in pre-pandemic September 2019. According to the latest data by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the industry-wide numbers include 615,352 full-time and 103,459 part-time workers, an increase from August of 753 full-time workers and a decrease of 1,567 part-time workers.

Workforce Illness

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Labor Productivity

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity decreased 5% in the third quarter of 2021, as output increased 1.7% and hours worked increased 7%. This is the lowest rate of quarterly productivity growth since the second quarter of 1981, when the measure decreased 5.1%.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says there were some 2.7 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses reported by private industry employers in 2020, down from 2.8 million in 2019, a decrease of 5.7%. The decline was due to a drop in injury cases,but total reported illness cases more than quadrupled to 544,600 cases, up from 127,200 in 2019. In 2020, the incidence rate of total recordable cases in private industry was 2.7 cases per 100 full-time equivalent workers. The increase in illness cases was driven by a nearly 4,000% increase in employer-reported respiratory illness cases in 2020.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

CONGRATULATIONSTO

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2021 40 UNDER 40 HONOREES

The University of North Dakota is proud to recognize the 2021 class of 40 under 40.