Roanoke Businesses Need to Step Up
July 25th, 2007 by Biz2Biz
Will work for food, gas, rent… I am a young college graduate from southwest Virginia looking for employment in Roanoke. I am looking for a professional job to pay for food, gas and rent. If you are hiring please call me for an interview.
Sound familiar? This is a scenario familiar to our young professionals living and wanting to stay in Roanoke. But, without years of experience how many Roanoke businesses will give them a chance? This is a sad situation in our current local job market. We are losing talented young adults to areas within a 3 hour drive of Roanoke. They are relocating to NC and Northern Virginia.
Brandon Turner touched on the situation in his article in the Roanoke Times. Turner wrote "Here is a question for businesses: How do you realistically expect my generation to gain experience if nobody will hire us?" So what can we do to retain these young professionals in the Roanoke area? Stuart Mease offered a perspective of the job seeker on his blog, Connecting People.
Roanoke businesses need to rethink their employment strategy. Hiring and training college graduates allow the region and the workforce to grow and build a sustainable workforce. The solution is in your hands!!
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 8:27 am and is filed under Young Professionals, Roanoke Business News, Employment, Community, Entrepreneur, Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 15th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
[…] on our blog an article asking businesses to step it up. I would be interested to know what your business is doing to help retain these young […]
August 15th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
All businesses in the Roanoke region need to step up to the plate. Who will run these companies in 20 years when the boomers are out of the workforce and the younger generation has left the city? Granted, there are young professionals thriving in the Roanoke area, but their numbers are low. Will Roanoke be able to recruit young professionals in 2025 from cities such as Raleigh, Richmond, or NOVA? Should businesses hire only young professionals…absolutely not. But studies have proven that the most successful businesses have a variety of employees…seniors with experience and the youth with fresh educational experience. If you hire my demographic now, we will be more apt to stay in the region in the future as we settle down, get married, and raise families in this beautiful area.
August 18th, 2007 at 8:42 am
Brandon, you are absolutely right! Area young people want to stay here and our businesses need to look ahead and see the long range benefits. Thanks for your comment and best of luck to you!