Lexington, KY - I was struck by Tom Martin's December 12th article ("Mantra for 2009: Less talk, more walk in downtown Lexington"), when he referred to placing "progress on lay-away at the expense of Ö civic engagement and momentum," leaving Lexington "unprepared for the upswing that will come." I'd had lunch a few days earlier with Kathy Hillyard, manager of corporate citizenship and inclusion at Lexmark, and learned how they are showcasing downtown vitality as a recruitment tool, or "walking the walk," as Martin would call it.
"Times have changed in the recruiting business," Hillyard said. "In the past, we'd do all the college recruiting in the fall, hoping to secure seniors and entry-level engineers for the following spring, after they graduated. No more! We've backed up our recruiting outreach by several months because we found that seniors had already committed to other schools by September or October."
Lexmark made other changes to their recruiting outreach program to ensure they could attract the best young engineers, with top GPA scores. In the past, Lexmark would bring students in, one at a time, go through a series of interviews, put them up in a hotel on the outskirts of town, take them to dinner, make an offer or not, and hope for the best. According to Hillyard, "It wasn't working as well in recent years. I'd heard the same complaint from other business recruiters, and we realized we needed to get ahead of the curve, find out who these students were, what they were looking for, not just showcasing what Lexmark had to offer."
One of the first steps was a collaboration with Toyota to determine why so many companies were having difficulty recruiting young professionals to the Lexington area. Hillyard and her colleagues at Lexmark anticipated that the area's lack of racial diversity would be the biggest issue in competitive recruiting, but the outcome of the study was quite different. The students they queried were more interested in the lifestyle and culture offered: affordable and appropriate downtown housing, more music, art and restaurants.
Lexmark's vice president for customer services, Linda Hollembaek, summarized the findings in a report to City Council members last month: "Companies like ours," she said, "need young, diverse talent to effectively compete in the global marketplace. The young professionals we're trying to recruit no longer go to wherever the job is, they pick a place they want to live and then find a job. One of the primary requirements they have is for a vibrant downtown with appropriate entertainment options. Lexington must recognize that meeting those requirements is not just an important social issue; it is a business-critical economic development issue."
Hillyard concurs: "We already had a cooperative education and internship program at Lexmark that we could 'tweak' and start engaging potential recruits earlier to make it more user-friendly for potential recruits, but we needed to showcase the community as much as Lexmark." The Lexmark team went to work on both internal and external strategies. They benchmarked other companies like Boeing to determine further changes needed in their internal orientation/interviewing system. They established 6-8 month projects, with three different types of engineering assignments that entry-level engineers could rotate through. "Often, graduating students don't know exactly what they want to do in their field," Hillyard observed. "This way, they are exposed to various engineering projects where they work with different managers and teams. It gives them - and us - - a chance to discover what they like and what they do best."
Their first recruitment effort brought in 17 students for a full day of interviews (small groups and individual); a club-stopping tour of downtown; meeting with local entrepreneurs and time with the vice-mayor, Jim Gray. "A team of young interns was given the assignment of showcasing downtown Lexington, and they knew exactly which clubs, music venues and restaurants we needed to visit. My job was to drive the van!" Hillyard said with a laugh.
Rather than taking these students to a restaurant for lunch, interns planned a tailgating party at Keeneland. Later, Phil Holoubek hosted a reception for the group at one of his condos on Main & Rose, giving them a taste of downtown living. He and council member Jay McChord spoke of the changes taking place in Lexington, why we need more young professionals, and how they can make a difference in Lexington. Vice-mayor Jim Gray arrived wearing his sweats and made it clear that if any of them moved to Lexington, he, Mayor Newberry, and the Council would be accessible to them. "Now, how many towns can promise you that?" Gray kidded.
"This first group went home very excited," Hillyard tells me, "and we'll keep doing this until we get 12 commitments, which is the number of openings we'll have in the spring. We've already extended a few offers and gotten a couple of seniors signed on. We've also received wonderful e-mails from this group, saying how much they enjoyed being here. The buzz about Lexington and Lexmark has already started on campuses and at recruitment fairs around the country."
Lexmark's commitment to supporting Lexington's business and cultural vitality is a great example of recognizing the economic value of paying forward - - no lay-away at Lexmark!
Janet Holloway is president of j. holloway & associates and co-founder of Women Leading Kentucky. A national columnist for womenentrepreneur.com, she can be reached at jhollow@insightbb.com.