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As president and
chief executive officer of Employment Resource Group Inc. in
Appleton, Sharon Hulce works daily with organizations seeking to
fill open positions. She talks about bringing new people to the
Fox Cities and what interests them most.
Q: What’s the first thing you say when candidates ask “There’s possibly a job for me, where?” A: I tell them that we’re 30 miles south of Lambeau Field since most people have heard of that. I then call out the perceptions about Wisconsin and correct them. We’re not all about Packers and brats. In the Fox Cities, we have a vibrant business community with amazing business leaders who live here and built their companies here. I then rattle off the billion-dollar companies with locations between Green Bay and Fond du Lac such Kimberly-Clark, Thrivent Financial and Oshkosh Truck and they see this place isn’t only farmland. Q: You moved here yourself 14 years ago. Do you talk about that? A: Yes. I tell people you don’t have to be from here to be accepted here. That’s a concern for some people. They worry they will stand out. I tell them how accepting the Fox Cities is and how people are always friendly and open. Q: For someone coming from a larger area, they may be concerned there’s nothing to do. A: I talk a lot about the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. That is the crown jewel of our vibrant arts community. That place has made a huge difference in attracting prospective hires. I also mention our wonderful schools and how you can’t go wrong where you live since all of the schools are so good. We also have a fabulous health care system with hospitals named among the Top 100 in the nation and then there are intangibles such as the way people take care of each other here. There’s not a lot that you can’t find here whether it’s about kids, sports, healthcare, shopping or recreation. Q: Safety is another area where the Fox Cities stands out, right? A: Most definitely, especially with the number of people moving back to the area. It’s fairly evident it’s a safe place and that people watch out for and take care of each other. Q: For many people, they think Wisconsin and immediately cold temperatures and big snowdrifts pop into their minds. How do you address that? A: It’s a perception vs. reality thing. I focus on the fact we have four very different seasons. Yes, it gets cold here and it snows, but nowhere near what people perceive it to be. You just need to look at the statistics and see that we don’t get as much snow as other places and we don’t get as much snow as we once did. Again, I like to talk about our fabulous summers and our beautiful falls. If we talk about the positives of having four seasons and how great the summers are, then it takes the attention and focus off of the snow. Q: When you bring a prospective employee in, where are some of the places in the Fox Cities you take them to see? A: Our vibrant downtowns, the riverfront in Neenah, the shopping in Grand Chute, Lawrence University, the new developments around Appleton North (High School.) We also find out their interests are and make sure they see things of interests. Do they have children — then here’s the Girl Scout facility. Are they into sports? Here are some of our indoor and outdoor facilities. I want people to get a sense of the variety of options available to them if they choose to make the Fox Cities their home.
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