Attracting, retaining talent key piece of economic development strategy – Memphis Business Journal:

The price tag for the total effort in termss of dollars allocated is lessthan $300,000 last year in a more than $8 million Only two of the six groups that are part of Goal E got direcgt funding from the Memphis Fast Forward steerint committee, and the Leadership Academy. But the impactg of the effort is huge and ultimatelyt could be the grease that keepws the economicengine running, say thosde in economic development circles. The past has been aboutf projects; the future is abourt people. “The mindset is and will becoms even more soa buyer’xs market,” says Reid Dulberger, administrator for the MemphisEDe program.
“We’re in the middl of a massive labor shortage temporariluy derailed bythis ’s Nancy Coffee agrees. “Even in toughb times top talenthas choices,” she says. To hear leadersx of groups likeMPACT Memphis, Leadershio Memphis and the Shelbt Farms Park Conservancy, or expertsz in the field like Carol Coletta tell it, therr is no bigger task than figuring out how to recruit and retainh the best and “If developing, attracting and retaining talent is not the No. 1 economif development strategy, then you don’t have an economic development strategy,” says Coletta, presidentg and CEO of Chicago-based CEOs for Cities.
Coletta is the formefr partner of the Memphis public relations firm and later presidentyof , and is currentlhy host of the nationally syndicated radio program Smart Says Coffee: “Recruiting talent under-girds every piece of the plan. You can’tt really support the culture of innovationb and entrepreneurship unless you have the taleng eager and engaged to bringfresh perspectives.” they say, will go where the talent is. The most recenr and clear example came in pitches made byseveral Mid-Soutu communities to get to locate its $1.3 billion assembly plant three years ago.
“The primary reasob Toyota selected Tupelo was the qualitu of the work force and the leadershipl inthis community,” Mississippi Gov. Halety Barbour said when the project announcement was made inFebruarh 2007. MemphisED’s strategy for addressing the work force issuew tilts heavily to retaining and developin glocal talent, Dulberger says. It’ss pure economics and economic developmentcommon sense. “With talent, like conventional economicv development, it is easier to keep what you’vs got than attract new,” he says. “It’s not as sexy, but it’ds more cost effective.
” The efforts of organizations like MPACT Memphis and theLeadershipl Academy’s Connections program are about anchoring people to the community by weaving them into the city’xs social, political and cultural MPACT Memphis executive director Gwyn Fisher says her organization’s target audience is age 21-40, with most of its 140 events a year appealing to that age group. The eventd range from happy hours to talks by business and political leaders tovolunteeringb events. Membership has grown 91% to 454 members since August 2008 whenFishetr joined.
The average member is single and comes from a largs cross sectionof industries, but with a heavy dose of smalpl business and media, she 65% of the members have been in Memphie less than 18 so it’s crucial to get them connected and engaged, she says. “The y want to meet and be exposed to places and Fisher says. Just as cruciall to keeping talent is developing it to the next the mission of groups like the Leadership Academy andLeadershipp Memphis.
Leadership Memphis’ FastTrack Leadership Program, createcd in response to MemphisED in the spring of 2008 and in partnershipo withMPACT Memphis, specifically targets the MPACT demographic and is a condensed, four-montj version of Leadership Memphis’ core nine-month program, says David president and CEO of Leadershi Memphis. Some 140 people have graduatef from the program inthree semesters, he says. The goal of the FastTrackl program is to get participants to recommit to Memphis by getting them to understanf thecomplex problems. “They see they can be part of the Williams says.
“The challenge is big, but there is a piec for them — they just have to say they own Making these young professionals notpassive citizens, means they are much more likely to sticki around, he says. “When people complete this I’ve heard it over and over,” Williams “Those thinking, ‘I need to get out of they recommit to stayingin
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