A Champion’s Perspective: Curiosity is the skill set

George Brooks, CEO of Crema, is a KC TechBridge Champion and one of the Kansas City employers sharing an on-the-ground perspective to help shape how this region understands workforce and talent.

“We've been a company focused on creating a brand that draws talent instead of having to source it," Brooks says.

His perspective on hiring, skills, and what small employers actually need from workforce partners is a useful reality check

“We're almost exclusively hiring in KC in the future," Brooks says.

It's a meaningful shift for a company whose work has long been national in scope. And it puts Crema squarely back inside the Kansas City talent market. The same market KC TechBridge is working to map, measure, and strengthen.

For local workforce partners, it's also a signal worth paying attention to. When established employers focus hiring in their home market, the local talent ecosystem has to be ready.

The skill that matters most isn't a skill

Ask Brooks what he wants from workforce partners, and the answer comes back fast: knowing what employers actually need.

“There's an honest conversation around the people and technical skills," he says. “Curiosity is the training mostly needed. Skills can be developed, since they change so quickly."

That framing runs counter to how many workforce programs are designed. Most are built around credentials and discrete technical competencies: the things easiest to teach and easiest to measure. Brooks is pointing at something more nuanced but, in his view, more durable: a person's appetite to keep learning when the tools around them keep changing.

In an industry where the tech stack rotates every few years, curiosity isn't a soft skill. It's one that compounds.

The quiet barrier

Brooks is candid about what keeps smaller employers out, his answer is one most founders nod at:

“Mostly administrative time."

It's a barrier that doesn't show up in dashboards or policy briefs. Programs designed to help small businesses can struggle to reach them for the simplest reason: the people they're built for don't have the bandwidth to participate.

Why it matters

Crema's story is a useful reminder for anyone shaping a tech workforce strategy in Kansas City. The employers you most want to engage often have the least time to engage you. The qualities they value most in talent, curiosity and adaptability, are the hardest to quantify.

KC TechBridge exists to close those gaps. Hearing directly from champions, including George Brooks, keeps that work grounded in what employers actually need.