Heating the right proportions of oil, flour and spices for just the right amount of time seems much simpler than it actually is. Still, countless denizens of Lousiana are adept at combining these simple ingredients every day without a second thought. They know from years of practice the exact moment when the color of their roux is an exact match for the taste in their mind. When next a diverse medley of bell peppers, onions and celery (known as the the holy trinity) is added to the roux, the resulting preparation sometimes causes grown men and women to moan aloud and wonder if they have died and gone to heaven.
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Today, one year later, the City of New Orleans,the State of Louisiana, and the US Federal government are still working on the proper proportions each needs to supply before the heated mixture is palatible to folks in the region. While it is doubtful that the moans we read about are of the heavenly variety, the good news is they are still practicing on getting it right.
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Leaving the politics to the politicians I want to see what staffing lessons might be learned here. What are employers doing to attract and retain employees? What are the longer term unintended employment consequences of Katrina?
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Newark Airport, NJ- 7am 6 ]/ F; _4 j! o  a% [2 I. _
It's definitely too early- especially since I returned home from Long Island late last night and barely have had three hours sleep. The plane is not full but several elite status road warriors have more Continental mileage than I. Still, I've got a seat by the door with lots of extra leg room by going online 24 hours in advance.
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7 \: J) g$ A. X1 ONew Orleans Airport Avis Counter- 9:45am4 x& ?. q/ b' X( h5 }$ X/ l- P
I'm wondering if I should have turned down the proferred insurance for the sub compact I just rented. It was $45 a day! More than the rental! Also noted that I was the only person in line at Avis and no other rental company even had someone to form a line.
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New Orleans, Hilton 11:00am
- E  f6 T$ b, e# N3 tConfirmed this afternoon's appointment at 3 and promised to meet up with Libby Sartain in the French quarter at two and walk over to the meeting on Carondolet. Have a dozen calls to make to confirm meetings tomorrow and one PR hack concerned about what I'm going to ask his staffing manager. He needs a another life. Checking in was quiet and personal. Sean, my desk manager went out of his way to offer half a dozen suggestions. No one else was around.
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: Z- r6 v3 m8 O$ O' xNew Orleans, Bacco (a Brennan's Restaurant near W in the French Quarter on Chartres.) 12:30pm, e2 K9 L7 S; H
Sitting at the bar for lunch in this high-end bistro, you wouldn't know they were hurting for tourists. It was busy and David, the bartender, was sharp, efficient, humorous and knowledgable. He came to New Orleans 6 months before from Connecticut to work as a supervisor for contractor working on one of the levees. Forty years old, David looks and acts like an accountant with a personality. A college graduate with a dozen jobs under his belt ranging from construction supervisor and bartender to bicycle shop owner and computer network specialist with even a stint in recruiting, David was still looking for his career muse. When his construction employer stopped paying his workers around April, David quickly picked up the job at Brennans. He said he was going to get back into the the construction game at the first opportunity though and had already made several key connections while working the bar. It was apparent that he wasn't the only employee recently arrived. David kept a running conversation with a half dozen patrons and filled every order quickly and without a hitch. His advice about a spicy creole shrimp lunch was spot on and his insistence that a network.

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Good to see Libby, Yahoo's chief of HR, who in addition to helping me run a couple interviews was visiting family and hanging out with her daughter, a medical student at Tulane. Libby grew up in the University's Uptown section of New Orleans and, it turns out also went to high school with Dan Hilbert of Valero fame. Small world., h& |. v9 [$ u% h

1 q3 ~" g4 L/ ~/ J; S$ rNew Orleans, University of New Orleans Downtown Campus 3:00-5:000 e3 ~# E% i7 {+ [# o0 }9 p! o
Lee Crean, Director, Workforce Initiatives and Partnerships has been in his current post only a year but he has a lifetime of knowledge and insight that started 60's in Indiana working on the war on poverty. I'm still digesting the two hours of discussion but several items surfaced I want to think about:' {$ D# O) ~( V4 R0 @

5 Q: U; i* H/ N! P- Even before Katrina most Fortune 500 employers had moved the bulk of their operations and facilities out of Louisiana. At most small branches were left behind but no headquarters or large critical operations. The "employment brand" of the gulf region and especially the New Orleans environs- at least in the minds of many outside the region, is extremely negative. One company, for example, studied whether to put a customer (phone) service center in the suburbs near the airport and concluded that the people in the region "just didn't want to work that hard". Entergy may be the lone representative of large scale employers.
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- The demographic changes in New Orleans' population are truly staggering. From 600,000 before to 250,000 after (depending of course on which demographer is presenting). Racial and ethnic shifts are also significant with some speculation that the Latino population may soon account for 1/4 of the new New Orleans- and permanently absorb large numbers of non-exempt hotel industry positions in addition to the less permanent construction work that has been written about. One offset however is that a large contingent of people have come back but have not returned to New Orleans and instead moved to more viable suburbs like Jefferson Parish, Baton Rouge etc. One bank recognized the trend and supported vans and busses to accomodate the longer commutes. 0 u! }. B  x- I& _" \( p# m

1 m5 B% G  G" C0 r: q/ y- The U of New Orleans, Tulane, Xavier, etc. are all operating below break even having lost as much as 40% of their student population. Only three of seven hospitals have reopened7 _6 _3 Q* e8 {% b
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- An unintended consequence of a smaller population base where the poor and unemployed are less likely, less able to return is that the city could actually begin to see a reverse migration from the suburbs- especially as developers begin to access the land. This in fact is causing much of the angst since the city has literally hundreds of activist neighborhoods all pushing their separate agendas.
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# u* f. n% h, p5 I" d0 k- Image is everything and when one of the first conventions returned to the city, many of the hotels imported hundreds of their more experienced personnel from elsewhere in the US to ensure the customer experience of their guests would be high.