Who are you designing your talent attraction and retention program for? You might say, “For everyone!” And you might mean that - in today’s tight labor market, being able to keep and attract a great workforce means widening the definition of “talent”.
We know that the economic development profession is overwhelmingly caucasian, and, especially in areas of leadership, skews male.
When talent attraction and retention programs are designed by older, white males, then the community enters into a loop of marketing the program right back to the same audience. This is known as “cognitive bias” and it shows up in every field. A startling example of this comes from the U.S. auto-industry’s all-male teams of engineers. They designed the earliest air bags for test subjects that resembled themselves, the result of which killed many women and children whose smaller bodies were not accounted for.
To be fair, the stakes for talent attraction and retention campaigns are not quite as high, but we know that companies are increasingly making operating and relocation decisions based on the availability of a strong workforce. The more educated and talented these workers are, the more competitive a community’s case will be. Rather than focusing your strategy on “everybody” perhaps it is time to target one of the largest sectors of the talent market - Millennial women.
Sisters are doing it for themselves
Why millennial women? Millennial women are highly educated, high earners, and entrepreneurial.
Consider the following statistics:
About 36% of women ages 25-34 have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with about 28% of men who are the same age.
Though there is still a gender wage gap, women’s wages are rising; between 1975 and 2016, the share of young women earning less than $30,000/yr plummeted from 79.6 percent to 58.1 percent.
Women are starting about 1,821 new U.S. businesses per day, a significant uptick from an average of 952 between 2012 and 2017. There are more than 9 million women owned businesses in the US today.
There are many reasons why women are playing a larger role in the economy, not including the relaxed expectations for women to immediately enter traditional marriages.
One reason for their increasing role is, ironically, due to traditional gender roles. Because of sexism in blue collar jobs, women have more of a need for education than men to earn comparable salaries. Of the jobs that do not require a college degree, the highest paying ones typically go to men. Plumbers, electricians and truck drivers have higher wages than female-dominated jobs that don’t require a degree such as secretarial work, child care or restaurant-industry jobs. This has resulted in women seeking out higher education more often than men and has created a pool of young, female knowledge workers.
The impact of women on your community
Attracting more women impacts your community favorably, both economically and socially.
Furthermore, women control a lot of money and spending. Globally, women are responsible for 85% of consumer spending: the average woman is making purchases for herself, her husband or partner, her children and her elderly parents. That translates into a powerful economic force in your community.
One industry in particular that has benefitted from more women in the workplace is the wellness economy. From 2015-2017, the wellness economy grew from $3.7 trillion to $4.2 trillion, or by 6.4% annually, a growth rate nearly twice as fast as global economic growth. This includes sectors such as Wellness Tourism ($639 billion) Personal Care Beauty & Anti-Aging ($1,083 billion) and the Spa Economy ($119 billion). More women in your community means more jobs for those in the health and beauty industry.
Additionally, a report from the Bureau of Labor statistics shows that women volunteer at a higher rate than men, across all age groups, educational levels, and other major demographic characteristics. Think of all the aging non-profit boards in your community - attracting young women is a way to ensure the continuity organizations and supplement their leadership!
Millennial women, between the ages of 25 and 35, are reaching a point in their careers where they need to make a decision about where to locate more permanently. Due to lower rates of marriage and childbirth, this population is mobile. But they need a good reason to call your community home. Designing your marketing strategy so it speaks to women’s needs and wants will ultimately determine if they choose to relocate and exercise their social and economic abilities in your community.
How to reach these women where it will impact them?
When marketing to millennial women, like any group, it is important to target their key motivations and speak to their values in a way that resonates. Showing, rather than telling, that your community's values align with theirs can influence decision making.
To attract women, you should speak to the following:
Their Wallets
While millennials in general are not buying homes at the same rate as previous generations (hello student loan debt!), single women are buying homes and condos at nearly twice the rate of single males.
Personally, this statistic aligns with my lived experience. I moved from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh partially because I could afford to purchase my own home. And when comparing the status of many of my closest friends in each place, a majority of my Pittsburgh friends own homes, whereas only a couple of my D.C. friends did.
Does your community have plentiful and affordable housing available for purchase? Make sure it is highlighted in your marketing efforts.
And let's not forget the pay gap. On average, women make 80% of what men make. (Www.aauw.org). That's due to a lot of factors but it's a fact that women are very aware of. Showcasing businesses that are committed to equal pay, or making the case that your money goes further in smaller communities speaks to women's concerns about lower wages.
Their Hearts
Illustrating your community’s commitment to family connections is also a relevant message for millennial women. The responsibility to care for aging parents often falls to women because of gender norms around emotional labor. As parents grow older, millennial women will be increasingly called upon to address their care. Conversely, if a woman has children, being close to her parents often provides a built-in support system and potential child care benefits.
Attracting young families back to your community has the added benefit of keeping their parents in place. In some communities we have seen the “Double Brain Drain” wherein retired grandparents move to be closer to their grandchildren. Bringing young families to town ensures the older populations don’t move away.
Marketing Tip
Social media marketing allows for very targeted ad campaigns. Facebook is a relatively inexpensive way to target specific populations, including new parents. And, even without paying for advertising, a viral campaign about how your town is family friendly might catch some eyes.
Their Ambition
Young women have flocked to larger cities for a number of reasons - more things to do, better restaurants to try, more impressive scenery for their mental health (and instagram photos). But more often than not, what they are seeking is opportunity.
The more you can show women rising to success in your community, the more women will be interested in seeking opportunity there. If you look around and don't see women owning businesses or in corporate leadership, ask yourself why not. Is there a need to start an incubator for women and minority owned companies? Do your corporate partners have a diversity program or mentor ship option? Once these programs get off the ground, highlight them in your marketing materials.
Marketing Tip:
Be Authentic! Don’t try to play this marketing angle without actually having the programs to back it up. Promoting a false commitment to equality can backlash.
Their Health (Social, Emotional and Physical)
It's not enough to have a yoga studio. Every city and town has a yoga studio. What you really need is free yoga. Preferably combined with alcohol.
Young women need to make friends and build a community to choose to make a place a home. But (as I covered in a past blog post) young people are not interested in boring business after hours networking events. Yoga is a high value activity - classes cost between $10-20, but if you can, encourage a local organization (think: library, nonprofits) to do free/donation based events. Adding a happy hour afterwards gives the chance to form relationships. Holding the class in an interesting space, like a museum, provides something to talk about. For extra credit, you can incorporate adorable baby animals.
Marketing Tip:
Make sure to highlight health-oriented and social activities in your marketing plans to pique women’s interest and draw them to your community.
Men will follow
The title of this post is flatteringly adapted from our friend and collaborator David Feehan’s excellent book “Design Downtown for Women - Men Will Follow” which delves into how downtowns can be made into a better experience for women, which in turn, creates a better experience for all.
Men will follow. In the most literal sense, they will follow their partners/girlfriends/wives in their decision to move to your community. But on a greater scale, communities that attract women will grow stronger through more resilient community organizations, more diverse companies, and more tightly knit social networks, and thereby attract people of all ages and gender. The outcome of targeting your talent attraction and retention strategy on young women is a better value proposition for all those who might call your community home.