Expanding the Talent Pool Attracting and Keeping the

Expanding the Talent Pool: Attracting and Keeping the Best and the Brightest Wayne Strickland SERDI Annual Conference Charleston, SC May 2011

Forget Richard Florida and just think creative employees �The landscape of hiring is changing. �Traditional print media was a good way to bring folks in but now it is the internet. �How do we attract the best young workers and how do we keep them.

How do Generation Y folks describe themselves? �Free spirits (flexible) �Idealistic �Short attention span – immediate gratification �Environmentally focused

What are Gen-Y workers looking for in their work? �A job that has value and has tangible results. �Balance between the job and life outside work – not a 60 hour work week (unlike young lawyers or doctors. ) �Empowered to make decisions about their work.

What benefits are attractive to Gen-Y workers? �Being able to make a positive contribution to the organization. �Planning profession was one of the 30 best careers in government according to Newsweek magazine. �Want to have a good working environment – with good supervision. �Working with community leaders

How do you supervise Gen-Y workers? �Supervisor and planner is like relationship between student and professor (mentoring). �Like to know what is expected when pursuing a project – want to clearly understand task and performance requirements. �Not as much face-to-face discussion – emails work fine. �Like to be empowered to take on the task and allowed to take some risks.

Other perspectives about Gen-Y workers �Suburban upbringing may result in a distorted view of community – not exposed to different ways of life. May not have experienced much “diversity” growing up. �May have a “constrained” perspective on life (e. g. , they may advocate public transportation until they actually ride a bus everyday). �Some are haves and others are have-nots – some did not work in college while others had to work.

Thoughts about attracting and keeping creative employees �Flexible scheduling: �Consider project based rather than schedule based work. �Work on projects whenever they need to – not just between 8: 30 am to 5: 00 pm. �Iphones, Ipads, etc. allow work that is not attached to a specific time. �More flexibility is the key.

Incentives – money is not always the answer �Incentives could be cheaper than salary increases. For example transit incentives, gym memberships, etc. ; discount rates on some things. �Incentives support lifestyles choices that creative workers are likely to make (for example, outdoors, access to technology, etc. )

Recruiting – Are traditional notices in newspapers the answer? �Use social media to recruit new talent (for example, internet, video applications, etc. are ways to be where creative people are already hanging out). �In our region, 80, 000 people subscribe to the newspaper while 140, 000+ are on Facebook!)

How do you link work program projects to “creative” projects? �Establish some formal way to incorporate “creative” efforts – beyond the traditional approach to developing an annual work program. �Pay workers to volunteer in the community to help the community and encourage their creativity.

Work location is important �How do you create space where people like to work? �Green buildings – access to daylight/outside views and “green” gathering spaces. �Promoting places where creative workers can make art, park their bicycles, grow plants, or allow them to find ways to express themselves -- this helps to establish a bond between creative workers and their jobs.

Questions or Comments?