Part 5 of 5
Compensation and benefits are certainly crucial factors, but not the only ones. How are your employees benefitting beyond that? What are you doing to make the workplace somewhere people want to go in the morning or whenever their day starts? Are you keeping the jackasses around? Are you offering leadership opportunities for the growth of your talent? A paycheck and air conditioning alone (at least right now in Wisconsin) won’t keep people.
With a strategic effort in keeping people, your talent attraction will increase. Your employees are your best spokespeople for not only what you do but who you are as a company. By retaining employees, you create a recruitment workforce that shares the positive qualities of your organization. They create a culture and that word spreads fast.
Education of the workforce is a key ingredient. That relates to talent and the businesses in the community. In our case, we have strong K-12 public and private systems, along with a technical college that is growing and a four-year university. Lots of potential there.
There are a host of other attributes that site selectors and businesses will look at to locate (or expand) in your community. Incentives and exemptions, along with corporate tax rates, are certainly important. The availability of buildings and land is necessary. Are industrial parks available? How available is that information for others to review? Is it part of your community data effort? Utilities and infrastructure in the community must be readily available. The general business climate and future trends, as best known, fit into the equation.
Will site selectors and businesses see your community as investor worthy? In those areas where you can make an impact, like talent attraction and retention, what is your strategy? Have you assessed and/or revised it? If nothing changes, then nothing changes!