Guide to Employer Engagement

The Council on Competitiveness has published a report called Engage: A Practitioner’s Guide for Effective Engagement of Business Leaders in Regional Development. The report comes out of learnings from the ETA's WIRED initiative:

Engaging the business community has been one of the most significant challenges in creating regional leadership in WIRED initiatives. Experience has shown that business leaders are usually most active in those development efforts which they themselves have initiated. In regional initiatives like WIRED though, business leaders are typically not the originators, nor can they act independently. Instead, they must collaborate with public, non-profit and educational entities that operate very differently. Distinct motivations and expectations, as well as differences in organizational culture, often result in difficulty recruiting and retaining business leaders in regional development initiatives.

WIRED is occurring at a dynamic time in the evolution of the role of business in society. Principles of corporate social responsibility are being integrated in businesses throughout the country. Many business leaders are starting to consider environmental, social and economic issues, including regional economic and workforce development, as strategic factors in the long-term success of their firms. As the link between business strategy and social issues becomes more accepted, firms are incorporating plans to address social needs into their core operations. Accordingly, appeals to corporate social responsibility offer an increasingly viable way to attract business participation.

The guide offers principles for recruiting and retaining regional business executives and suggests the approaches that can be most appropriate for different types of business leaders. Highlighted throughout the guide are case studies and examples of regions that have successfully engaged business leaders in development efforts.