News

Thanks to Jeremy Park and the Memphis Daily News for featuring The Academy in this article about talent retention efforts in Memphis.

This article was originally published in the Memphis Daily News on November 21, 2011.

We All Play Part in Retaining Talent
by Jeremy Park

Last week we considered an upgrade to Secret Santa 2.0, blending traditional gift giving with a model of pooling resources to make a larger impact in our community. I am happy to report that our company is now operating on the 2.0 platform, so our $10 donations will be pooled together and split between two nonprofits this year.

This week let us refocus on something very critical for the success of our city: attracting, developing and retaining knowledge workers and leaders.

We have discussed this topic before and highlighted certain organizations for the role they are playing in the effort. As a community, we must realize that we are only as strong as our leaders and the conviction and pride we all have for our city. Ideas and vision are today’s currency and, in a world rapidly driven by technology, knowledge workers and college educated employees set the stage for growth and development. We all win when we can attract global talent, develop our tremendous potential and then retain individuals with opportunities to succeed.

This was evidenced recently at the Leadership Academy’s Board of Governors Meeting, where the economic impact of retaining around 800 knowledge workers in Memphis was estimated at over $54.5 million. That number is just the economic impact, not even factoring the social benefits derived from their civic engagement and leadership.

Thanks to the many great organizations, educational institutions, companies and individuals focused on this effort. Kudos to Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. for being innovative and launching the Office of Talent and Human Capital, led by Dr. Douglas Scarboro, which is focused on this initiative. Recently, we have spotlighted groups, like the Leadership Academy, Leadership Memphis, the University of Memphis and its LEAD, MILE and Academic Internship programs. Our public, charter and private schools play a key role not only in developing our future leaders, but also attracting world class teachers and talent.

The key is to realize that no one group can do it alone and it takes each of us doing our part for Memphis to succeed. We need business leaders to step foot onto school campuses and let students know they are needed – that we want them to stay and will do what it takes to keep them here and show them opportunities. There is a “disconnect” between the momentum and opportunities we see and what students think exist. It is up to us to change that “disconnect.”

Just as critical, when new families relocate or move to Memphis, we need to personally help them engage. We need to refer them to organizations, like mentioned above, that have pipelines and resources to help. Our job is to make it easy and understand we each play a part with our actions and words. So, let’s make them count!

Jeremy Park, director of communications at Lipscomb Pitts Insurance and director of the Lipscomb Pitts Breakfast Club, can be reached at jeremyp [at] lpinsurance [dot] com.