Hamilton County Touts Talent Attraction Initiative
Noblesville is the county seat of Hamilton County
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Hamilton County Economic Development Corp. says a talent attraction effort launched in January is showing early success. The organization partnered with Indianapolis-based TMap last year to identify professionals who would be interested in connecting with employers and potentially relocating to Hamilton County. Since its launch, the initiative has identified more than 5,000 people who expressed interest in relocating and now the effort has turned to finding employers to connect with that talent.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, HCEDC Vice President for Workforce Strategy Mike Thibideau said the goal of the initiative is to market the county as more workers consider relocation.
“We know we have a quality product to sell in Hamilton County life,” said Thibideau. “We know that we have great employers and great quality of living and we were pleasantly, I would say, even surprised by the great response rate that we saw from throughout the country.”
The HCEDC says the initial partnership with TMap identified individuals who graduated from high schools in Hamilton County and used the TMap platform to find them and see if they’d be interested in returning to the county. TMap also works with universities throughout Indiana, as well as big data and marketing technology to target people who Thibideau says would be in a “prime position” to relocate to Hamilton County.
Using publicly-available data, more than 21,000 local graduates were identified.
While the partnership will continue to look for prospective workers, Thibideau says they are now looking for more employers.
“I believe we’re one of the few places right now that can say that we’ve got talent that’s available looking to connect to work versus the other way around, which is kind of where I feel like most people are finding themselves, which is with a lot of jobs looking to connect to talent,” he said. So, we feel very excited about that prospect.”
The partnership was made with funding granted by the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners and Council. The organization says the efforts will continue through the rest of this year and 2022 thanks to local government support.
“I think as long as it’s performing, we are going to continue moving [the initiative] forward,” said Thibideau. “We will continue to work with our partners at the state, with our cities and our towns to make sure that we’re meeting the business needs that they’re attracting and enabling our community to serve as a blueprint for what that kind of high-wage recruitment can look like.”
Another key focus for the county is attracting remote workers, an area where Thibideau says other communities like Charlotte, North Carolina and Boise, Idaho have seen success.
“Our community has been ranked one of the best remote working communities in America and we want to make sure it stays that way and we think that’s a trend we will be able to capitalize on and really build out quality of life,” he said. “We know that for every new resident we attract, with them comes about $10,000 in tax revenue in the first year and within the first year, we see about $60,000 per individual in return on investment for spending within the local economy.”
Thibideau says the goal of the initiative is to market the county as more workers consider relocation.