Talent Recruitment and Retention

By Katie Thomas, Project Associate

Across the country thousands of recent college graduates are gearing up to enter the labor market. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that at the end of February, there were roughly 5.4 million job openings, and a new survey from CareerBuilder recently reported that 67 percent of employers plan to hire recent college graduates[1]. This year’s college hiring outlook is the highest it’s been since 2007. Further, 37 percent of employers reported that they plan to offer graduates higher starting pay than the previous year, a sign of the growing competition for talent. The most in-demand graduates include those from Business, Computer and Information Sciences, and Engineering programs, with 76 percent of employers surveyed citing them as the most sought-after at their firms. 

In East-Central Wisconsin, the Fox Cities Regional Partnership has taken an innovative approach to ensuring that the region’s employers have the talented employee base they need to grow and prosper in the Fox Cities region. In 2015, the partnership, a division of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce, launched the Talent Upload program to connect college students with local employers. After a series of business retention and expansion visits with local employers, entry-level IT and engineering talent were identified as workforce gaps. In response, the program is offered to computer science, IT, and engineering students and provides a three-day, all-expenses paid trip to students at select universities to visit the Fox Cities region. Understanding the importance of quality of life, the program aims to familiarize students with the community and showcase its offerings as a place to live for young professionals. Additionally, it connects soon-to-be graduates with local employers and engages them early-on with the goal of retaining those students once they graduate. 

In South Dakota, the unemployment rate has been less than four percent since 2012, and in April 2016, the state had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.5 percent. In response to a tight labor market and a shortage of talent, the Build Dakota Scholarship Fund was launched. The program provides full-ride scholarships in high-need career areas at the state’s technical institutions. In exchange, scholarship recipients commit to working full-time in their field of study in South Dakota for a minimum of three years following graduation. In the first five years, 300 scholarships are projected to be awarded annually. The goal of the program is to grow the state’s workforce and alleviate some of the workforce shortages in order to support economic growth in key industries. Additionally, the hope is that after spending five years working and living in South Dakota, retaining those workers will be easier.

As our founder and CEO, J. Mac Holladay, highlighted last month, the availability of talent, quality of place, and quality of life are the new top site selection factors. Given the growing trend of millennials choosing a place to live before finding a job, quality of life and place factors ultimately can have a large impact on the region’s economic opportunities, as we continue to see more and more examples of companies following the talent. As such, communities across the country are stepping up and implementing a variety of new and innovative strategies to compete for talent, increase their region’s educational attainment rate, and ensure that there is a sufficient supply of talent for employers. In addition to quality of life and place improvements, new efforts are needed to develop – and retain – the existing residents, as well as attract and import new talent to the region. Even when the quality of life aspects are in place, regions like the Fox Cities are going the extra mile to expose young professions to the type of life they can enjoy if they choose to live there. As the economy continues to recover, there will continue to be more competition for talent, and therefore, it will be even more necessary to ensure that there is the type of environment that people want to live and work in, and one that has the talent and workforce to support job creation and economic prosperity. 

[1] CareerBuilder (2015). College Hiring Outlook Highest in Nearly 10 Years, According to CareerBuilder Survey [PressRelease]. 

Choices and real changes: Quality of life and place now top executive wish list

By J. Mac Holladay, founder and CEO.

On February 9, 2016 the Wall Street Journal ran an article by Eliot Brown titled “Office Glut Strains Suburbs.”  Brown reflected on many corporate headquarters “moving out of the leafy campuses and moving to downtown high-rises.”

He noted that the old Western Union campus in Saddle River, New Jersey, 30 miles from Manhattan last occupied by Pearson Education moved to Manhattan, New York and Hoboken, New Jersey.  The reasons: to be near “public transportation and a younger urban-dwelling workforce.”

General Electric left Fairfield, Connecticut for Boston and Con Agra went from its Omaha, Nebraska campus to downtown Chicago.  Weyerhaeuser left its huge campus in Federal Way for downtown Seattle, Washington, which is about a 30 minute drive north.

Closer to home, we see the same pattern being followed in Atlanta.  Kaiser Permanente moved its 900 person IT operation to midtown Atlanta.  Their Chief Information Officer, Dick Daniels, said this: “it was important to have a great location with the ability to walk to restaurants and shops and a location that was close to public transportation.”

NCR Corporation is moving its headquarters and 1000 people to be close to Georgia Tech and MARTA.  Mercedes is building its new headquarters next to the Sandy Springs MARTA station and State Farm moved operations to be near the Dunwoody MARTA station.  Veraforce, a leading insurance software provider, is moving to midtown from the suburbs.  Its location in One Midtown Plaza takes advantage of their internship program at Georgia Tech and the Technology Association of Georgia.  Veraforce’s Vice President of Development, Neil Snowdon, said “Midtown Atlanta is an ideal location for meeting with East Coast clients and strengthening our position within Atlanta’s dynamic tech community.”

After reading the various articles reporting these moves mentioned above, an interesting thing happened when I reviewed the 30th Annual Corporate Survey from Area Development magazine a few weeks ago. Even though the mix of corporate executives in the survey still represents many “traditional” sectors, the results of the survey tell a very different story than past years.  

Hopefully, to no one’s surprise the “availability of skilled labor” came out as a strong number one. Almost 93% of these executives rated it as important or very important, with over 58% ranking it as very important.

Highway accessibility came in second, but the real surprise is in the third slot is Quality of Life. Just barely below the highway number (88% to 87.6%), Quality of Life vaulted up to the third spot. That is FAR AHEAD of corporate tax rate (#7), state and local incentives (#9), and tax exemptions (#11). None of those were within 10 points of Quality of Life on importance to corporate executives. What was in days of old a key factor, right to work, came in a distant 16th a full 20 points behind Quality of Life.

These numbers reflect the reality that quality of PLACE AND LIFE is now at the top of most executive’s wish list along with the quality of the workforce. I am hopeful that Area Development and others will acknowledge that there needs to a much broader analysis of all the factors that make up quality of life. They certainly include health care access and affordability, public safety, open space and recreation options, downtown attractiveness, and quality public schools. As the recent headlines have proven, it is also vital to have an open and welcoming community and state. Discrimination will not be tolerated by the nation’s CEOs.

The message is clear.  Quality of place matters.  So does talent, openness, and access to public transportation.  These are becoming the top considerations for the best jobs in the economy.  Just another real change along the way.

Are State School Takeovers the Best Option?

By Ranada Robinson, Research Manager

Last month, a few Market Street staff participated in the Southern Education Foundation webinar, The Facts about State Takeovers of Public Schools. The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools and Center for Popular Democracy were co-hosts and provided presenters. We were interested in this webinar because an increased number of states across the country have passed or are considering legislation to allow the state to take control of local low-performing schools and/or school districts. This webinar presented statistics regarding the three states that have already done so in an effort to improve results: Louisiana, Michigan, and Tennessee. According to the research, the takeovers have not been successful in improving low-performing schools but have further disenfranchised minority students. Here are some high-level takeaways from each speaker’s presentation, including a few alternative solutions with positive track records.

 

State Takeover Districts – A Growing Threat: Katherine Dunn, Southern Education Foundation

States that have passed legislation to take control of individual schools by removing them from the local jurisdiction and placing them in a “state school district” are:

• Louisiana (2003) – The Recovery School District
• Tennessee (2010) – The Achievement School District
• Michigan (2013) – The Education Achievement Authority
• Nevada (2015) – The Achievement School District (No data available yet)
• Georgia will face this issue via ballot in November 2016.
• Similar legislation is under review or pending in: Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 

The Targeting of State Takeovers in African American and Latino Communities: Keron Blair, Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools

In August 2015, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools released a report entitled Out of Control: The Systematic Disenfranchisement of African American and Latino Communities through School Takeovers as a commemoration of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.

Within the current operational takeover districts examined, tens of thousands of students are in schools that are under state control. After a school has been placed under state control, elected school boards and voters have no governance. These takeovers tend to occur in urban centers that have high concentrations of minority population—in Louisiana, 63 of the schools in the Recovery School District are in New Orleans, compared to 12 in Baton Rouge. In Tennessee, 27 of the state’s 29 Achievement School District schools are in Memphis, with the remaining two in Nashville. In Michigan, all 15 schools in the Education Achievement Authority are in Detroit. Combined, there have been 101 schools placed in state control, and of the 47,596 students enrolled in those schools, 97% are African American. Eighty-nine of the schools have been converted to charter schools.


The Academic Record of State Takeovers: Kyle Serrette, Center for Popular Democracy

In February 2016, the Center of Popular Democracy released its State Takeovers of Low-Performing Schools: A Record of Academic Failure, Financial Management, & Student Harm report that debunks the theory that making the structural change of taking over a school at the state-level will lead to strategic changes that will result in higher performing schools. The overarching issue is that many of the states have not created mechanisms to help struggling schools move from an F to a D to a C, and so forth, leaving many states to just close the school eventually. Additionally, high expectations are set, but inadequate support is given to help meet those expectations.

In Louisiana, over 21,000 children are in D and F rated charter schools. The state has spent over $700 million on these schools. However, in the 2013-14 academic year, 42% of charters are still D & F rated.

In Michigan, 10,000 students are in the 15 Detroit schools placed in the Education Achievement Authority. The Michigan Educational Assessment Program results indicated that a high majority of these students are stagnating in reaching math and reading proficiency or are falling even further behind. The chancellor of the Authority recently stated that, “three years into this, achievement hasn’t improved.”

In Nashville, the goal was to “turn the state’s bottom five percent of schools to the top 25% in five years.” Results from 2014 indicate that reading scores were lower in the Achievement School District schools than they were before the state took them over in 2012. Good news, though, is that math scores have increased by more than five points.

 

A Real Strategy for School Improvement: Sustainable Community Schools: Ken Zarifis, Education Austin

In 2007-2008, Austin had two schools in danger of closing: Webb Middle School and Reagan High School, but the community came together to prevent the closure and started with three questions:

• What do you love about your schools?
• What creates barriers to your success?
• What resources do you need to overcome those barriers?

The plan for the schools addressed attendance, mobility, and social needs. A Family Resource Center was established. Eight years later, these schools are top performers with the same neighborhood students. Enrollment at both schools has doubled, and student mobility decreased from 35% to 25%. Graduation rates have increased from 48% to 85%, and Webb has earned five state academic distinctions in 2013-2014 and three in 2014-2015. The Early College High School program offers up to 60 college credits.

Wraparound services are a key component to support the students, but this alone isn’t enough—a strong academic model is also necessary. Now, Education Austin’s goal is to make Austin School District a community school district. Both the City of Austin and Travis County support and have made investments. Five of 8 elementary schools have developed plans, and the second middle school is currently developing its plan. Education Austin continues to work with courts, health and human services, and other public departments to address student needs. They are also pursuing legislation at the state-level to support community schools.

Talent continues to be the #1 issue in economic development, and winning communities know that their talent pipeline includes their pre-K through 12 programs. No matter what is best programmatically in specific communities, it is important to make well-informed, research-based decisions. According to the Southern Education Foundation, to date, there is no evidence that state takeovers are effective. However, their research indicates that the following factors are associated with stronger outcomes:

• Access to high quality early childhood and pre-K programs
• Collaboration and stability in school leadership
• Good teaching by experienced educators
• A learning environment focused on students, and positive and restorative discipline practices rather than zero tolerance
• A rigorous curriculum that is broad, engaging, and culturally relevant
• Wraparound support services, like health services and after-school activities, for both students and the broader community
• Deep parent, community, and school ties
• Consistent investment in schools, not constant budget cuts

For more information about community schools and the aforementioned best practice factors for better outcomes, please download Investing in What Works: Community-Driven Strategies for Strong Public Schools, published in 2015 by the Southern Education Foundation and the Annenburg Institute for School Reform, and Community Schools: Transforming Struggling Schools into Thriving Schools, published in 2016 by the Center for Popular Democracy, Coalition for Community Schools, and Southern Education Foundation.

Millennials: Cities and Suburbs

By Evan Robertson, Senior Project Associate

It’s 5:39 pm on a Saturday in late March. The sky is overcast and broody which pairs well with the mocha I just ordered from Dancing Goats Coffee, a shop located at the corner of Glen Iris and North Avenue or as everyone now calls the area: Ponce City Market. Given the area, a stone’s throw away from the Atlanta Beltline and directly in one of the Beltline’s biggest coups (sure there is an argument to be made that Ponce City Market would have been redeveloped without the Beltline; it is one to which I don’t particularly subscribe), that I sit down to read Ryan Gravel’s new book “Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure For a New Generation of Cities.” After all, it was Gravel’s thesis and strong support from local Atlanta councilwoman, Cathy Woolard, that would spur the massive 22 mile redevelopment project along Atlanta’s old railway corridors that, as of the time of this writing, has already transformed a two mile stretch of Atlanta from Monroe Drive to Irwin Street. And by transformed, I mean truly transformed almost to the point of being unrecognizable to this long time Atlanta resident who has vivid memories of driving past old City Hall East and going to concerts at the Masquerade, wondering if the car I just parked in a then open lot would be there upon my return.

Today, the Masquerade no longer sits next that lot where I parked my car years and years ago or across from a foreboding City Hall East. In the parking lot’s place is Atlanta’s most ecologically innovative park, the Historic Fourth Ward Park, whose Clear Creek Basin serves as a storm water runoff reservoir alleviating flooding that plagued the district for some time. If you look carefully around the basin, the 50 and 100 year flood plains are marked with white stone on the walls that enclose the walking path and reservoir. City Hall East is now, the far less menacing, Ponce City Market. 

But I digress. As an Atlanta resident, the first chapters of Gravel’s novel are refreshing. For once an urban planner is not hammering on all the “fatal” flaws of Atlanta and showcasing why the city is doomed to failure, usually with emphasis placed on the untenable situation of Atlanta’s transportation infrastructure and, most notably, its lack of public transit. Instead, Where We Want to Live is almost a celebration of Atlanta, both its central city as well as its suburbs. In all my years of studying urban planning, including a master’s degree in city and regional planning, I’ve never (and I stress the never) read the following words “there’s nothing wrong with sprawl,” at least not sequentially.

But there they were, “there’s nothing wrong with sprawl” – a whole chapter is dedicated to the historic value and virtue of suburban development in a book about one of the nation’s most ambitious, city-centric planning projects. There is, however, an important caveat that soon splashed cold water on the refreshing chapter on sprawl and suburbs, to quote Gravel:

“Ensuring that conclusion [the end of the suburban era], of course, is the destructive nature and obsolescence of sprawl. Its advantages, like cheap land and cheap houses, were also built on a less robust and less efficient network of infrastructure, leaving them now at a clear disadvantage. As the true costs of sprawl are being realized, characteristics like geographic isolation, demographic homogeneity, and visual uniformity that previously were considered advantages are now threatening the economic value of real estate stuck in sprawl. This territory is going to have a hard time adapting to new market conditions. The negative economic, health, and environmental consequences of sprawl are well documented elsewhere, as are the ways in which we subsidize it. Similarly demographic and generational shifts that suggest sprawl is not likely to be a competitive structure for our future economy are duly noted.”

Ah, well, it is an urban planning novel after all. Perhaps “there was nothing wrong with sprawl” is a more fitting title to the chapter. Gravel goes on to point at the inflexibility of suburban development, the sheer economics of redevelopment in suburban locations, and the more generous economics of locating new development farther and farther along the suburban fringe as impediments to their capacity to adapt. As I read the last line of the quote, however, I couldn’t help but think how deeply that insight impacts my professional life and its implications for the communities in which we work. That the demographic and generational shifts suggest that sprawl, and by association suburbs, are no longer competitive for our future economy.

Market Street unquestionably prides itself on the diversity of communities in which we work. Over the course of our introduction of who we are, we almost invariably say we’ve worked in 160 communities across 34 states. They are not all central cities: they are suburbs and rural areas – from towns of 21,000 people to diverse suburban communities nearing 900,000 in population to metropolitan regions with 2 million or more residents. To declare that demographic and generational shifts suggest that suburban development is no longer competitive for our future economy, directly writes off a large swath of the nation as well as many of our client communities, communities we have a vested interest in seeing succeed. It does, however, point to the central question in community and economic development at present: where will millennials want to live? Where will the generation after that want to live? Or more appropriately: where will both groups decide to settle?

As with any projection into the future, I can only go with my gut. And it is this: For decades, suburbs were the soup de jour, America’s population had an almost unquenchable taste for suburban living. Pulled by its safety, quality school systems, and spacious housing, America flocked farther and farther out on the fringes of the central city – suburban growth, at least in the American context, seemed as though it was a natural law. Betting against it, would be akin to betting against gravity. Consequently, central cities tended not to be able to compete with their suburban counterparts in attracting and retaining residents, thus, the vast majority became job centers with stagnant or dwindling residential populations. Today, growth between the two has evened out. The “suburban development can’t compete rhetoric” is, in my humble view, an overreaction to the re-emergence of central cities as a destination for people to live. Not necessarily the wholesale decline of suburban areas. 

Latest Population Estimates Show the Might of the Sun Belt

By Ryan Regan, Project Associate

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released the latest population estimates for localities in the United States, and in keeping with trends from recent years, metro areas across the Sun Belt continue to flourish. 

Given that everything is bigger in Texas; it is most appropriate that the Lone Star State is adding new residents in significant numbers, thanks primarily to the state’s metropolitan growth. The Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio metro areas collectively added 412,467 people between 2014 and 2015. These metros by themselves added more people than any state in the country over the past year except for Texas itself. 

Below is a listing of the top-ten metros (out of 381) by one-year and five-year population growth rates. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL metro unseated the Austin, TX metro as the fastest growing metro in the country. Austin previously occupied that position for each of the past four years.

 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates

As indicated in the table, the fastest growing metro areas in the country are concentrated in Sun Belt states – namely Florida, Texas, and the Carolinas. Of the 20 fastest growing metro areas over the past year, a whopping 15 of them were in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, or North Carolina.

This dynamic is even more pronounced when one-year and five-year population growth rates are isolated to metro areas with at least 1 million residents.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates

The population growth figures speak for themselves, but another additional layer of the population growth conversation is where these new residents are coming from. The U.S. Census Bureau tracks the components of population change in terms of natural growth (births minus deaths) and both international and domestic migration. 

Domestic migration is especially critical to track because it is indicative of how much more desirable certain places within the United States are over others. Domestic migration captures those people who have chosen to move from one city to another. People move between places for an assortment of reasons – job opportunity, retirement, military orders, etc. – but domestic migration is primarily an indicator of economic opportunity, since that is a central reason why and where people move. 

The following table again shows the dominance of the Sun Belt region as an increasingly attractive place to live and work. The top metros in the country over the past year and the past five years by measure of domestic migration is a who’s who list of some of the top-performing metro areas in the Sun Belt region. 

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates

The Sun Belt’s rise can be primarily attributed to the growth of industries like aerospace, defense, auto manufacturing, and oil & gas[1] all of which have thrived in the Sun Belt in recent years. Companies in these industries and others have taken advantage of the low involvement of labor unions in the region, as well as the robust portfolio of transportation assets – ports, railways, highways, and airports – that make many Sun Belt states attractive places for major manufacturing companies to invest. 

According to data from Economic Modeling Specialists Int’l (EMSI), 58.04 percent of the nation’s total job growth from 2005 to 2015 was captured by the following twelve Sun Belt states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California. These states also accounted for 61.2 percent of the nation’s population growth over the same time period. 

The Sun Belt region’s rapid population growth has also led to the region’s increased political influence. Since 1970, Sun Belt states have gained over 25 electoral votes and many of the region’s states are evolving into ‘purple states’ as rapid diversification remakes the political landscape in the region. 

Much has been made about the declining populations of rural communities across the United States, many of which constitute a large portion of the Sun Belt region. However, as recent population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate, the region’s metropolitan areas are cementing themselves as booming population hubs that continue to attract new residents in droves. 

[1] The downturn in the oil & gas industry and its impact on major Sun Belt metros like Houston is not captured in the recent population estimates. It will be interesting to see if there is any evidence in coming years of the oil & gas industry’s downturn thwarting some of the significant population gains being experienced in that part of the country.

Political Reality

By J. Mac Holladay, Founder and CEO

I have always believed that the work of community and economic development required all of us in the work to be professionally non-partisan. When I served four different Governors from both parties, my job was to make that individual and the state look as good as I could. The professional staff in each state worked together across all lines to accomplish what we could.

It has concerned me that over time many states have chosen to appoint political operatives to key economic development positions. While the individuals may be intelligent, experienced, competent people, they have no experience in the field. This is no time for "on the job training."

The reality of the Great Recession and its aftermath is that the game has changed, and that we must be flexible and creative to move our organizations forward.

The history of state level "public private" partnerships is mostly bleak. While Enterprise Florida, the longest standing organization, still exists, it is a far different organization than years ago. It now resides inside the Governor's office and he/she hires and fires the CEO. That privilege was the Board's and the funding was then 50-50 public and private. That is no longer the case. Most of these efforts have lasted only one or two terms and many have conflicted directly with major metro areas’ private sector funding efforts and activities. The recent drastic changes to the strong North Carolina Department of Commerce is a prime example. Whether that state's new "partnership" can be effective or successful is an open question.

As The Metropolitan Revolution reported, the real creativity and actions are coming from Mayors and local chambers and economic development organizations. The relevance of state level programming and operations has fallen to an all-time low. The drastic budgets cuts in most states combined with the lack of professional leadership and extreme partisan politics have combined to produce this reality.

Frankly, it makes me sad since I believe this team sport of community and economic development needs leadership from the state level combined with consistent local public and private leadership to produce the great results we all want.

I am hopeful that we can return to a time when all that really matters is real progress and that partisan politics again takes a back seat to improving the lives of all our citizens. A competent committed professional staff at the state level is a good place to start.

Bridging Generational Gaps through Best Practices

By Ranada Robinson, Research Manager

Last Thursday, I was afforded the opportunity to lead a session entitled Understanding and Bridging the Gap across Generations at the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. (ABC) Workforce Week Conference.

My presentation was composed of three sections. In the first segment, I discussed characteristics and stereotypes of each generation, from the Greatest Generation to the Millennials. After pointing out differences, many of which are well-known to most, I talked about similarities that can be leveraged in communities, including public design elements, social opportunities, and basic human needs like respect. The main takeaway of the first section was that the differences between generations need to be considered, but the generations aren’t as different as it sometimes seems. The similarities are just as important.

The second part of the presentation, Workforce Sustainability in Construction, was research-heavy. I provided employment projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as well as dependency ratios for various construction occupations. Dependency ratios are simply the ratio between “young professionals,” or workers in a given occupation between the ages of 25 and 44, and experienced professionals nearing retirement between the ages of 45 and 64. This is one of the most basic ways to evaluate workforce sustainability, by measuring whether there are currently enough young professionals in an occupation to eventually replace the retirees. If the ratio is over 1.0, there are enough younger workers to replace older workers, in sheer numbers (not taking skills and knowledge into consideration). If the ratio is less than 1.0, the given sector or occupation is at risk. Nationwide, the construction sector (NAICS 23) is sustainable with a ratio of 1.13. Construction occupations that are at risk nationwide include tool and die makers (ratio of 0.42), model makers (0.49), construction and building inspectors (0.59), and civil engineering technicians (0.81). There are several currently sustainable occupations, including drywall and ceiling tile installers (1.66), cement masons and concrete finishers (1.51), electricians (1.32), brickmasons and blockmasons (1.31), and architectural and civil drafters (1.24). It is important to note, though, that these occupational age dynamics vary by community.

Because the overall purpose of the presentation was to convey the importance of bridging the gap between generations and ensuring that younger workers have clear career paths and career advancement opportunities, the last segment focused on best practices. There are only two ways for communities and similarly, businesses, to have the talent they need to fill current jobs: talent attraction and long-term talent development. Building talent pipelines is vital. Here are just a few best practices I highlighted.

Leadership Programs

Leadership programs, both at the firm and community levels, are important for giving young workers the opportunity to network, learn skills, and gain experience that will prepare them for future job opportunities and promotions.

- Firms such as Procter & Gamble, General Electric, IBM, and Deloitte have designed leadership programs to assist their employees with mentorship and training opportunities, particularly their most recent hires. These companies consistently rank on Chief Executive’s Best Companies for Leaders list because they have made it their priority to ensure that the talent they hire receives guidance, is challenged, and is well prepared for future positions. Current leaders and managers are expected to coach and develop those who report to them.

- Community young professional leadership groups are also tools to encourage and empower young professionals. TYPros in Tulsa, the largest YP network in the nation with over 8,000 members, is a great example. With a platform, young professionals can make a profound impact on communities. Through its Business Development “Bring It to Tulsa” program, they have successfully attracted Trader Joe’s and Uber to the community. An effort to promote Next Gen Leadership, the Board Internship program provides training to YPs, then matches participants to a board within the community where they receive experience serving on a board without financial obligations or voting rights.

Industry Promotion Programs

For business sectors that may be at risk of not having enough young workers to replace those nearing retirement, promotion programs are helpful in exposing existing and future talent to jobs that are available in a community.

- Manufacturing Day is a nationwide (and beyond) observance that promotes manufacturing as a viable business sector by addressing misperceptions and connecting with younger generations. Communities and businesses across the nation host events that foster conversations about opportunities and challenges within manufacturing, including events at schools.

- Women in Construction Week highlights opportunities for women in the construction sector, including both executive/administrative and hands-on opportunities. It also celebrates contributions that women have made in the sector. National Association of Women in Construction chapters host events nationwide during this week. 

 

 

Career Exposure Programs

While filling existing jobs is, of course, a priority, it is also important to reach the youth to prepare them for future jobs. Higher exposure increases a student’s perception of possible careers and is a way to connect future job projections to future homegrown talent.

- Southwire 12 for Life public-private partnership formed by Southwire and Carroll County Schools in Georgia to address the community’s dropout rate. This initiative has served multiple purposes—not only has the program helped with increasing the community’s graduation rate and number of students going on to pursue college, but it has also provided high school students with valuable part-time jobs and mentorship and full-time employment opportunities after graduation.

- In Decatur-Morgan County, Alabama, the SWeETy (Summer Welding and Electrical Technology) Camp gives high school girls the opportunity to learn hands-on about nontraditional, high wage technical careers. The program has been a huge success, with such high demand that the program has expanded over the years.

Successful communities and companies recognize the value of talent of all ages. At the end of the day, people want to be respected and acknowledged for what they bring to the table. By building on strengths and bridging the gap between the generations, talent pipelines can be fortified so that communities and companies have the workers they need.