Think Local – Hire Local

Businesses are seeking talent for vacant positions.  Why not consider hiring the person who is bagging your groceries or someone who holds the door for you? We come in contact with great people everyday, yet we turn to job boards to determine who we might employ. Instinctually, we know a good person when we meet them and for entry-level positions and, maybe, mid-level positions it might be more beneficial to your company and your community to think local.

If you need specialized training or skills for your employees turn to the education providers in your community. These local training providers will serve you better and for a fairer price then  “big-box, little content” degree mills that steal, money from the student and the opportunities from your community. If you work with the local education providers, they will help you to create a workforce pipeline that will serve your needs in the future and they will reduce your talent acquisition costs and even improve employee retention rates.

Try contacting your local workforce development teams and even get involved with projects in your community. Local groups offer community-based projects that are reimagining talent development and provide win-win solutions that benefit the employee and the employer.

Technology is cool, but it is only one of many tools that solve the worlds problems. Dream2Career believes that companies should start using collective impact solutions to bring back small town America.  This means using data, but also using logic and intuition. If something makes sense, it doesn’t need to be backed by years of research. It’s time to step back from technology and find new ways to inspire hope and innovation in the next generation workforce.

If you would like to discuss collective impact opportunities for your organization, contact Dream2Career.

Dream2Career (D2C) is a women-owned RPO agency that reimagines talent acquisition and optimizes the system for candidates and employers. D2C provides human-centric solutions that filter-in candidates who exceed expectations in the workplace.

Investment in Talent Pays Off For Businesses

Here are a few reasons to consider investing in talent during this time of record low unemployment.

  1. Using education to attract and retain talent is cost-effective. Paying job boards to post an entry-level, site-base position to reach candidates across the nation, wastes time and resources. Because job boards are keyword driven, they are designed to filter candidates out rather than filter candidates in. Only 35% of career seekers find their job using the position title, which is the main filter when using job boards. Because of the pandemic, candidates are searching for remote positions and the job boards can’t handle this search request uniformly, meaning quality candidates get missed and don’t become part of your prospective applicant pool. A better solution is to work directly with local educational providers when on ramping new talent. Not only can the educational system provide a talent pipeline, but it can also provide motivated candidates who want to grow with your organization. These prospective employees are also invested in the local community making them more likely to stay and thrive within the company.
  2. Here is a link to five studies, conducted in collaboration with the Lumina Foundation, that show talent development is worth the investment for businesses. Education related solutions offer a 5X ROI and inspire hope by upskilling current workers, which builds a community around education.
  3. Communities can work together using education to provide “collective impact”. Organizations have a shared mission to attract and retain qualified talent and organizing locally helps to streamline the messaging by illustrating career onramps that simplify outreach to students and career seekers. Harvard Business Review, recently conducted research with 73 business leaders, and they uncovered the need for this type of collaborative process which includes a “common agenda, explicit goals, metrics to measure success, and a funded “backbone” organization to ensure continuity.” This process can also benefit from a shared communication strategy like the one provided by the Horizontal Industry Framework.
  4. The most innovative companies are using education as a strategic talent advantage. InsideHigherEd and CNBC show how companies like Chipotle, FedEX, and Walmart are using education to attract and retain top talent. These companies are not only using education programs, they are expanding their offerings with new employee-focused training solutions. These companies are offering their workers something more than a paycheck, they are on ramping them into dream careers and providing their employees with a strong sense of belonging. By taking an interest in their employees’ personal and professional growth, they now have loyalty in the culture which provides an opportunity for relationship building in fun and engaging ways, consequently, helping employees to live their best life.

If you would like to discuss opportunities for your organization to use education as a strategic advantage, contact Dream2Career.

Dream2Career (D2C) is a women-owned RPO agency that reimagines talent acquisition and optimizes the system for candidates and employers. D2C provides human-centric solutions that filter-in candidates who exceed expectations in the workplace.