Tag: workforce

Choose Southern Indiana introduces new employer incentive program

Posted on by Radius Indiana

BEDFORD, Ind. (April 5, 2023) – Choose Southern Indiana, a population attraction program, will expand its talent attraction efforts by introducing a new initiative this spring – the Employer Incentive Program.

This new incentive program will be utilized by local economic development organizations (LEDOs) in the Radius Indiana region to further assist businesses in the area with attracting new talent. Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Martin, Orange, and Washington County economic development organizations will participate in this program by providing incentive payments to new, out-of-state employees hired by local businesses.

“This investment in talent that our businesses need will help them maintain and improve their productivity and competitiveness,” said Christy Johnson, population attraction program coordinator for Radius Indiana. “This will be a limited test of the incentive program to allow our LEDOs and Radius to evaluate if this is an effective way to support our businesses and communities.”

Previously, Radius partnered with Indianapolis-based MakeMyMove, an online platform that offered opportunities to market to remote workers seeking to move to new locations. MakeMyMove’s platform and marketing services help communities pitch their wares and attract new residents, as well as provide key data and analytics.

Talent attraction focuses on recruitment from the talent pipeline outside of a given community, while workforce development aims to further an individual’s ability to grow their skills and develop the tools they need for business success in their community. The Radius program has specified that it is targeting the attraction of talent from outside the state of Indiana, in order to avoid depleting talent in other Indiana communities.

“The initial remote worker response to Choose Southern Indiana exceeded expectations and we are excited by this opportunity to find new ways to attract talent to join our workforce,” said Jeff Quyle, president and CEO of Radius Indiana. “Attracting talent to the region is a critical part of growing the local workforce, and we are grateful to be able to help our local businesses undertake this task.”

To learn more and apply to the relocation incentive program, visit www.choosesouthernindiana.com.

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ABOUT RADIUS INDIANA: Radius Indiana is a regional economic development partnership representing eight counties in Southern Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, and Washington. Formed in 2009, Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane. It leads regional collaboration by leveraging the diverse assets of Southwest Central Indiana to drive attraction, retention, and expansion of business, thereby increasing employment and investment opportunities and quality of life within the region.

 

Radius Indiana announces dates for 2022 economic development conference

Posted on by Radius Indiana

BEDFORD, Ind. (Jan. 31, 2022) – Radius Indiana announced the dates for its fifth annual Economic Development for Community Leaders conference, coming to the French Lick Resort Conference Center May 17-19, 2022.

Attendees at the two-and-a-half-day course will participate in educational sessions on topics including real estate development, population attraction programs, business retention and attraction, workforce, marketing, business finance and incentives, and community development and business district revitalization. The course is open to local and state officials who are interested in learning more about economic development. 

The format of this year’s event will offer attendees the opportunity to choose between session topics for parts of the conference to create a more personalized experience. Communities should consider sending more than one representative to attend in order to gain information from all the relevant topics that will be covered at the conference. 

“We are grateful for the continued opportunity to host this conference for community leaders in our region and throughout southern and central Indiana,” said Radius Indiana President and CEO Jeff Quyle. “Each year we are striving to outdo our conference from the previous year, and we believe a change in structure will help us achieve that.”

Speakers from state agencies, site selection companies, secondary education institutions, and financial firms will share best practices and offer perspectives on local and regional economic strategies. Topics are focused on the day-to-day functions of economic development and are designed to help leaders weave an economic development perspective into their daily responsibilities.

Scholarships will be available from local partners in the program. Local Economic Development Organizations and those interested in attending are encouraged to contact the Radius Indiana office to learn more about scholarship opportunities in their area. Registration for the course will remain at $450 for Radius region officials and $500 for other local officials, covering the cost of all classes, materials and meals.

Registration for the Radius Indiana Economic Development for Community Leadership Program will open February 14. Registration information will be available on the Radius Indiana website.

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ABOUT RADIUS INDIANA: Radius Indiana is a regional economic development partnership representing eight counties in Southern Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, and Washington. Formed in 2009, Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane and leads regional collaboration by leveraging the diverse assets of Southwest Central Indiana to drive attraction, retention and expansion of business, thereby increasing employment and investment opportunities and quality of life within the region.

Radius Indiana Works to Bring Veterans to the Region’s Workforce

Posted on by Radius Indiana

BEDFORD, Ind. (Nov. 13, 2020) – Southwestern Indiana’s labor force provides an ongoing stream of new talent and skill that businesses in the region rely on to increase their growth and productivity, but sometimes the local labor force may need to be bolstered with the arrival of additional individuals who bring unique skills and experience. That realization has led regional economic development organization Radius Indiana to experiment with high tech campaigns to recruit military veterans and retirees to move from outside Indiana to join the local population and workforce.

The need for economic development groups to support workforce growth efforts has become abundantly clear in recent years. It was no surprise when Radius’s newest strategic plan, revised by the Board of Directors in 2018, directed the organization’s staff to support new approaches to ‘Workforce/Talent Retention and Attraction’.

“Attracting talent to the Radius region is important now more than ever. We know that the rural setting with a strong quality of place and patriotism is attractive to veterans and their families transitioning out of service,” said Radius Indiana Vice President of Talent Retention and Attraction Keeley Stingel. “Radius looks forward to welcoming the new residents and workforce in the region.”

Beginning in 2019, Radius began studying and implementing new programs to help local workers meet the talent needs of companies in the region. That same year, Radius began working with Magnitude Agency, an Indiana-based digital marketing and advertising firm, to conduct a series of social media and digital marketing campaigns with the goal to connect distant military veterans with southern Indiana defense contractors looking to expand their workforce.

“Recruitment is not a traditional part of economic development, but it’s growing increasingly important for us to practice recruitment, along with our programs to help upskill and support the existing workforce that lives in our region,” said Radius Indiana President and CEO Jeff Quyle. “Our hope is to continue using these tools to expand our recruiting efforts to help all of our counties and industries.”

Radius’s on-going campaign is now in its third round. The first two flights of the campaigns focused on geotargeting military bases and cities where many veterans live and routing users to a website specifically created for the campaigns. Evaluating the results of previous campaigns have allowed Radius and Magnitude to modify and improve each succeeding effort.

The newest campaign launched October 28 and is taking a new approach. The latest effort focuses on the specific needs of two defense businesses, Artisan Electronics and TRISTAR, and connects veterans directly with the job opportunities they have available.

In addition to producing regional efforts for veteran recruitment, Radius and the regional companies are also closely partnering with a state-level veteran recruitment program called INVets.

“At INvets, part of Indiana’s Next Level Veterans Initiative, we have benefited greatly from the proactive work that Radius has done to market Hoosier careers and communities to the veteran population,” said INVets Executive Director Wes Wood. “Our efforts to attract and retain veterans to Indiana, as a whole, is complementary to the work Radius has been conducting in Southern Indiana. We could not be happier to partner with them to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of both our efforts.”

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ABOUT RADIUS INDIANA: Radius Indiana is a regional economic development partnership representing eight counties in Southern Indiana: Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, and Washington. Formed in 2009, Radius Indiana also serves as a point of contact in Indiana for Naval Support Activity Crane and leads regional collaboration by leveraging the diverse assets of Southwest Central Indiana to drive attraction, retention and expansion of business, thereby increasing employment and investment opportunities and quality of life within the region.