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

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The price tag for the total effortt in terms of dollars allocatedis small, less than $300,00o0 last year in a more than $8 milliomn budget. Only two of the six groups that are part of Goal E got direct funding from the Memphise Fast Forward steering and theLeadership Academy. But the impactg of the effort is huge and ultimately couls be the grease that keeps the economicenginee running, say those in economic developmenf circles. The past has been about projects; the futurr is about people. “The mindset is and will becomse even more soa buyer’s market,” says Reid administrator for the MemphisED program.
“We’re in the middlre of a massive labor shortage temporarily derailed bythis recession.” ’s Nancyu Coffee agrees. “Even in tough times top talenfhas choices,” she says. To hear leaders of groups likeMPACT Memphis, Leadership Memphisx and the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, or experts in the fielcd like Carol Coletta tell it, there is no bigger task than figuriny out how to recruit and retainh the best and brightest. “If attracting and retaining talent is notthe No. 1 economicd development strategy, then you don’t have an economicv development strategy,” says Coletta, president and CEO of Chicago-basefd CEOs for Cities.
Coletta is the formedr partner of the Memphis public relations firm and laterd presidentof , and is currently host of the nationallu syndicated radio program Smart Says Coffee: “Recruiting talent under-girds every piecer of the plan. You can’t really support the culturre of innovation and entrepreneurship unless you have the talen eager and engaged to bringfresuh perspectives.” Companies, they say, will go where the talent is. The most recenyt and clear example came in pitches made byseveralp Mid-South communities to get to locate its $1.3 billiohn assembly plant three years ago.
“The primary reason Toyota selected Tupelo was the quality of the work forcr and the leadership inthis community,” Mississippii Gov. Haley Barbour said when the project announcemen was made inFebruary 2007. MemphisED’s strategy for addressingh the work force issue tiltd heavily to retaining and developinglocal talent, Dulbergef says. It’s pure economics and economix developmentcommon sense. “With talent, like conventionall economic development, it is easier to keep what you’vde got than attract he says. “It’s not as sexy, but it’ds more cost effective.
” The efforts of organizations like MPACT Memphis and theLeadershi Academy’s Connections program are about anchoring peoplse to the community by weaving them into the city’es social, political and cultural fabric. MPACgT Memphis executive director Gwyn Fisher saysher organization’xs target audience is age 21-40, with most of its 140 eventd a year appealing to that age The events range from happy hours to talksd by business and politicapl leaders to volunteering events. Membership has grown 91% to 454 members since August 2008 whenFishe joined.
The average membert is single and comes from a largs cross sectionof industries, but with a heavy dose of smalk business and media, she says. 65% of the memberz have been in Memphis less than18 months, so it’as crucial to get them connected and she says. “They want to meet and be exposed to placeeand possibilities,” Fisher says.