Industry Pulse: Connecting with Military Talent, Wages & Benefits Survey & More....

The e-newsletter for Catawba County's Existing Industries

Vol. 13, Issue 4: June & July 2021

Greetings!

The pursuit and retention of talent seems to be every organization's most-pressing need right now.

The EDC, along with other workforce and economic development partners, is accordingly putting a significant amount of energy and focus on this issue daily.

This month's newsletter highlights a number of these efforts - opportunities to partner or information to assist in your company's talent retention and recruitment.

However, this information barely scratches the surface of the resources and partner organizations tackling this need; we would encourage you to contact our office for a "deeper dive" or to arrange a company visit with a panel of workforce development partners. We have already conducted several such "team" visits, which appear to have been very helpful for the requesting company.

Thank you for your consideration, and we look forward to assisting you.

Nathan Huret, nhuret@catawbacountync.gov ; 828-244-3085

Scott Millar, smillar@catawbacountync.gov

Julie Pruett, jpruett@catawbacountync.gov

Donna Lacicer, dlacicer@catawbacountync.gov

Tim Bolick, tbolick@catawbacountync.gov

2021 Wages & Benefits Survey Report

Pay and benefits are important components in your talent retention and recruitment efforts, and we want to ensure you have fresh new data in-hand to deal with what seems to be constantly changing dynamics and a very competitive talent landscape.

For this reason, our EDC office, along with the Chamber of Catawba County, Catawba Valley Community College and the Western Piedmont Workforce Development Board recently conducted our 2021 Wages and Benefits Survey, the first of its kind within the county.

Thanks to the nearly 90 companies that participated (representing nearly 18,000 Catawba County employees), survey participants recently received a summary report of the data, which offered a very detailed look at our area’s compensation levels and a nearly real-time means of comparison against the local market.

If your company participated, but has yet to receive your copy of the report, please let us know. We want to ensure your valuable time for participating is justly rewarded.

Likewise, if your company did receive the report but has additional questions about the data or would like more detailed analysis on a subject, please let us know.

If your company did not participate in this year’s survey, we would invite you to participate in the future and receive a copy of that report for your participation.

Given the overwhelmingly positive feedback from this year’s survey, the partner organizations do intend to continue this survey next year as well, presumably in April/May 2022.

HKY4Vets: Connecting to Military Talent Pipelines

At a time when the demand for talent is at peak levels, HKY4Vets (www.hky4vets.com) is offering Catawba County employers a chance to fish for talent in another "pond".

It just so happens the pond is stocked with the best of the best in talent - transitioning military and military spouse talent courtesy of the United States military.

HKY4Vets is searching for organizations to join in this effort - and is looking for initial partner commitments for our fifth year of this effort by July 15th.

Want to learn more?

Click here for a recorded presentation

of our 4-pronged talent strategy (6/24)

Click here for a copy of the 6/24 presentation

Click here to learn about our partner funding levels ($1,000 - $12,000)

No one company can target the military talent pipeline effectively on their own without considerable expense and time, but the HKY4Vets partnership has the ability to succeed because of you and our collective efforts to attract this highly-talented population.

We are very happy to announce some early commitments from two great local companies, HSM and Corning Optical Communications.

We cannot wait for you to jump on board as we seek to make this happen for your company, these individuals and our community. Reach out to Nathan Huret (828-244-3085 - cell) for a 1-on-1 conversation or to commit.

Industry Cluster Study: The Pandemic's Impact on YOUR Supply Chain

Once you look beyond talent, it seems like an ongoing issue for so many companies has been their supply chain and how everything from the pandemic to ice storms has strained those connections over the past year.

The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance is currently working with the Centralina Economic Development District on an industry cluster update for the Greater Charlotte Region. A critical part of that study is a supply chain survey that seeks to collect a snapshot of how the pandemic specifically impacted the supply chains of Catawba County manufacturers.

To learn more and to take the 15-minute survey, please click here.

The survey will close on Friday, July 9^th, and we appreciate your participation on behalf of our community.