The ability to attract and retain highly skilled talent is a pervasive challenge often shared by CenterState CEO members. In response to this growing demand for talent across multiple industry sectors, we partnered with the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council and the New York State Department of Labor to launch a talent task force to […]
The ability to attract and retain highly skilled talent is a pervasive challenge often shared by CenterState CEO members. In response to this growing demand for talent across multiple industry sectors, we partnered with the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council and the New York State Department of Labor to launch a talent task force to gather data and recommend strategies for our community to adopt.
As part of its research, the talent task force found that 100 percent of surveyed Central New York employers say that, while they’re growing, they have difficulty filling positions. Notably, 40 percent said that attracting diverse professionals to Syracuse is especially challenging. And recent and potential hires surveyed cited a lack of diversity and amenities in Syracuse among their concerns about moving to the area.
A diverse, highly engaged, and welcoming community strengthens our local workforce and supports regional attraction and retention efforts. Companies with diverse and inclusive teams are also consistently more successful.
With this in mind, CenterState CEO and the Downtown Committee, with $10,000 in seed funding generously provided by M&T Bank, have launched Generation Next. This new initiative seeks to foster social engagement, job placement, and career advancement among diverse young professionals in Central New York. Generation Next will work to provide targeted grants to increase diverse ownership of small businesses in an effort to create a community that is attractive to a broad range of young professionals. Generation Next will create content for Good Life CNY, a new quality of life and talent attraction initiative coming soon for the region. It will also provide a platform for diverse young professionals to connect with business and community leaders in an effort to cultivate a new generation of leadership. Additionally, Generation Next will support employers by making representatives available to meet with prospective job candidates or trailing spouses.
There are several ways [CenterState CEO members] can be involved in this effort, including following M&T Bank’s lead in contributing to this important initiative by donating to the Generation Next fund. Those supporting Generation Next will help enable the creation of social programs and spaces that reflect the diversity of our community. Businesses and organizations can also host or sponsor networking and engagement events, or connect their employees to this effort. To find out how, contact Dr. Juhanna Rogers or Heather Schroeder at GenerationNext@centerstateceo.com.
Robert M. (Rob) Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This viewpoint is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter that the organization sent to members on Sept. 5.