Attracting, retaining talent key piece of economic development strategy - bizjournals:

qalymeled.wordpress.com
The price tag for the total effort in terms of dollars allocatedis small, less than $300,000 last year in a more than $8 millionn budget. Only two of the six group that are part of Goal E got directt funding from the Memphis Fast Forwardsteeringg committee, and the Leadership Academy. But the impacy of the effort is huge and ultimately could be the grease that keepd the economic engine say those in economic development The past has been about the future isabout people. “The mindseyt is and will become even more soa buyer’sd market,” says Reid Dulberger, administrator for the MemphisEsD program.
“We’re in the middle of a massive labore shortage temporarily derailed bythis ’s Nancy Coffee agrees. “Evemn in tough times top talenthas choices,” she says. To hear leaders of groups likeMPACT Memphis, Leadershipp Memphis and the Shelby Farms Park or experts in the field like Caroll Coletta tell it, there is no bigger task than figuriny out how to recruit and retaim the best and brightest. “If developing, attractinyg and retaining talent is notthe No.
1 economic developmeng strategy, then you don’t have an economic development says Coletta, president and CEO of Chicago-based CEOs for Coletta is the former partner of the Memphies public relations firm and later presidentg of , and is currentlh host of the nationally syndicated radio program Smarg City. Says Coffee: “Recruiting talent under-girds every piecr of the plan. You can’yt really support the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship unlesss you have the talentr eager and engaged to brinbfresh perspectives.” Companies, they say, will go where the taleny is.
The most recent and cleare example came in pitches made byseveral Mid-Southh communities to get to locate its $1.3 billion assemblyg plant three years ago. “The primaru reason Toyota selected Tupelp was the quality of the work force and the leadership inthis community,” Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbou r said when the project announcemeng was made inFebruary 2007. MemphisED’s strategy for addressingv the work force issue tilts heavil to retaining and developinglocal talent, Dulberger says. It’se pure economics and economic developmentrcommon sense.
“With talent, like conventional economivc development, it is easier to keep what you’ve got than attractf new,” he says. “It’s not as but it’s more cost effective.” The effortd of organizations like MPACT Memphies and theLeadership Academy’s Connectionw program are about anchoring people to the communitgy by weaving them into the city’s social, politicalk and cultural fabric. MPACT Memphis executivde director Gwyn Fisher saysher organization’ target audience is age 21-40, with most of its 140 eventx a year appealing to that age The events range from happy hours to talkzs by business and politicall leaders to volunteering events.
Membershipl has grown 91% to 454 members since August 2008 whenFishefr joined. The average member is single and comes from a largre cross section of but with a heavy dose of smalkl businessand media, she says. 65% of the memberzs have been in Memphis less than 18 so it’s crucial to get them connectede and engaged, she says. “They want to meet and be exposee to placesand possibilities,” Fishetr says. Just as crucial to keeping talent is developing it to the next the mission of groups like the Leadership Academy andLeadershi Memphis.
Leadership Memphis’ FastTrack Leadership created in response to MemphisED in the spring of 2008 and in partnershi withMPACT Memphis, specifically targets the MPACTT demographic and is a condensed, four-month versionj of Leadership Memphis’ core nine-month says David Williams, president and CEO of Leadership Some 140 people have graduated from the program in threwe semesters, he says. The goal of the FastTracki program is to get participants to recommir to Memphis by getting them to understanx thecomplex problems. “They see they can be part of the Williams says.
“The challenge is big, but therw is a piece for them — they just have to say they own Making these youngprofessionals active, not passive means they are much more likely to stickj around, he says. “Whenh people complete this program, I’ve heard it over and Williams says. “Those ‘I need to get out of they recommit to stayingin Memphis.”