Great Jobs, Close to Home
In Cleveland County, N.C., for example, a marketing initiative called Charlotte’s Backyard targets millennials in hopes of attracting young talent to the county’s thriving manufacturing sector.
“Our community has had tremendous success recruiting advanced manufacturing operations to our community – 75 in the last 12 years – but have been struggling with providing those companies the talent needed to sustain their operations,” says Kristin H. Reese, executive director of the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership. “We found that because of our low unemployment rate, along with a general lack of awareness of the opportunities available with local manufacturers, this was preventing us from maintaining a strong talent pipeline.”
Reese’s team developed a strategic plan to rally stakeholders and develop a talent attraction campaign geared specifically to share the benefits of living and working in Cleveland County and provide millennials with the resources and information they need to make the move to a career in manufacturing.
“We developed a brand that used messaging that played up Cleveland County’s proximity to Charlotte encouraging millennials to ‘Find your dream job in Charlotte’s backyard,’" Reese says. "And since we know jobs are the biggest selling point for talent, we worked to change perceptions of manufacturing jobs, highlighting the fact that these jobs come with good pay and great benefits and range from marketing to machine operation.”