Recruiting and Retaining Talent

[Jim Clinton]
In Louisiana and other Southern states, it was common to hear legislators complain about the state's substantial monetary investment in educating locals students who graduate and then go elsewhere for a career. The Southern Technology Council has and continues to demystify the 'brain-drain' argument. Based on the council's 1998 report, 'Where Have All the Students Gone?', we found minimal information that could either reinforce or counter the argument. The truth paints a more complex picture than the 'brain drain' theory. Yes, recent graduates moved away from the area, but they also returned home or circled back after working in another city for a while. But now we're working on a strategy to retain local talent from the start. For example, the STC is exploring programs that have worked to keep young talent in other areas. The poorer regions of the South are looking for possible solutions, so the STC is working to report on some of the best model practices. The '98 report identified where the students are going and so forth, but it didn't answer the crucial question: Why are they leaving? What can we do to encourage more young, skilled workers to build careers, build lives, and build wealth and capacity close to home?

[Tim Ryan]
Retaining young, local talent is a problem across the South. It's less of a problem in New Orleans because New Orleanians never want to leave this place. But the real key to keeping them here is to provide attractive job opportunities. So, our challenge is to ensure that we have an ample number of good jobs for our graduates. We've had times when we were unable to provide enough of those opportunities, but if we don't make it a priority to guarantee those jobs, then we're going to lose smart people -- especially the educated black students who usually move to Atlanta for economic opportunity. It boils down to the overall strategy of economic development: You just have to make jobs available.

[Bob Gayle]
One of the biggest challenges facing New Orleans is retaining local talent. We certainly have the talent here, but a lot of times, high-tech workers think the grass is greener in Silicon Valley. People don't think the opportunities are here, but the opportunities are growing. We just have to get the word out. We've got to make sure that we're well connected to our universities so our students know what is available to them. I think a lot of communities, not just the New Orleans area, face the challenge of 'brain drain.' One of our missions at the Chamber of Commerce is to enhance the business climate so that companies will choose to locate here. If a city can set itself apart by offering high-quality, customized training unique to that region of the county, then that area can create a market niche and be more competitive. Initiatives such as that are currently in the works here.

If you can convince businesses to stay here, locate here and grow here, that creates a recruiting environment for graduates of high school, community college, and universities who might otherwise seek out opportunities elsewhere. But again, we must create the kind of business environment that makes companies want to locate and stay here.

[Kimberly Williamson]
I've met a lot of new professionals who've been recruited into the area. The community is making efforts to seek out the best talent that it can find for available positions. In the past, there was a strong commitment to hiring locally. And, obviously, that's changing. It's a sign that the community is at least willing to look outside of the region for talent - when you want to grow, you sometimes have to venture outside of your own garden.

[Carla Fishman]
The Board of Regents is Louisiana's higher education governing board. Some years ago, they took monies that resulted from an oil and gas royalty settlement, and put it aside to realign funding priorities for Louisiana. One, they funded research for emerging young faculty. If someone is on the brink of being a nationally competitive researcher, but needs some data to get that first research program off the ground, the Board of Regents will fund that. They also had a program directed at industrial ties, and are willing to fund research with an industrial focus that could be important in Louisiana. They also recognize that you can't live in a knowledge-based economy unless you are able to attract and retain the best talent, so they will advance money for endowed shares that allow the universities here to hire superstars. Along the same lines, another extremely important initiative has been the funding of programs to recruit superior graduate students.