Retailers Wage ‘War for Talent’ in Advance of Holidays
It’s only fall, but the holiday hiring frenzy is in full swing. For proof, just walk through the mall: “We’re hiring and we’d love to meet you,” signs outside Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids said on a recent weekday at Tysons Corner Center, a sprawling northern Virginia shopping mall just outside Washington. “Make our house your home,” offered White House Black Market. “Join our team of outsiders,” urged L.L. Bean. The clothing...
SCORE Stories: Fred Thomas, an Enterprising Skipper With a Voyage Beyond Comparison
When Fred Thomas recently made his way to SCORE’s Upper Valley Lebanon office for a meeting, he exited the elevator self-assuredly, with purpose and a kick in his step. He appeared to be all business. The 91-year-old Thetford resident’s stride might have been aided by a recently replaced hip, but the titanium enhancement alone is not what keeps Thomas on the go. Over the course of his life, he has consulted for entrepreneurs and...
On the Hunt for Help: Upper Valley Employers Fight for Workers
The signs are everywhere, and are hard to miss. Now hiring. Help wanted. Jobs available. Apply online. All positions needed. They appear outside manufacturing plants, stuck in the ground at fast-food establishments and big-box retailers or posted just inside the door. They can be spotted on rural roads with no surrounding buildings, or along a town’s main thoroughfare. Applications for employment are prominently displayed as customers...
As Joblessness Falls, Skilled Workers Might Be Harder to Find
Are America’s employers at risk of running out of skilled people to hire? The U.S. economy has become a seemingly perpetual job-generating machine, having steadily added workers for nearly eight years. Even with the unemployment rate now at 3.7 percent — its lowest point since 1969 — hiring hasn’t stalled. So far this year, job agrowth has averaged a robust 208,000 a month, up from a pace of 182,000 for all of 2017. The trend has...
Leadership Upper Valley: Employers Tap Into Program to Equip Workers, Bolster Community
Employers and their workers have lots of choices when it comes to investing in professional development. Workshops, conferences, degree programs, mentoring — there’s a range of opportunities locally, regionally and beyond to help employees build their job and leadership skills, and companies are increasingly seeing the value in investing in their employees. But there’s more to professional development than the hard skills necessary to...
The Business of Agriculture: Female Farmers Lead the Way in New Hampshire
A young child wearing a pink dress, fairy wings attached to her back, watering seeds in the family greenhouse. That is Forrest Barker’s favorite photograph of herself. Now 23, she may not have the fairy wings, but Barker’s passion for the farmland on which she grew up has only swelled. She took that zeal to Cornell University to study agricultural sciences, and returned after graduation to the multiple-generation farm off Route 33 in...
The HR Pro: Fear Is the Wrong Response to #MeToo
It’s become known as the Mike Pence rule, but some men see it as a way of protecting themselves from potential sexual harassment accusations. The vice president never eats alone with a woman other than his wife, according to a Washington Post article last year, and he won’t attend events featuring alcohol except in her company. “It was really unhelpful when he said that,” W. Brad Johnson, a psychology professor at the United States...
A New Future for Mount Ascutney
Brownsville — With the Ascutney Outdoor Center under construction, a new tubing hill and lift set to open this winter and plans underway for the installation of a T-bar to service about nine ski trails, West Windsor is poised to step out from the shadows of the bleak and uncertain future it faced eight years ago when the Ascutney Mountain Resort ski area closed. Standing outside the center on a warm spring morning, Steve Crihfield,...
A Region for All Seasons: In the Upper Valley, Recreation Is a Serious Business
Summer on Mount Sunapee is in full swing as the town of Sunapee prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary in August. On the slopes, visitors can enjoy an expanding array of warm weather activities like three-dimensional archery, mountaintop yoga and guided hiking. The Adventure Park features rope courses and rock climbing, and the newly opened Evolution Bike Park offers 5 miles of lift-served mountain biking trails with names like...
Video: Life on the Farm in Grafton County
Click the image below to play Valley News video by Carly Geraci and Maggie Cassidy. Read more about the Grafton County Farm from our story in the spring edition of Enterprise.
