Global Massachusetts 2015

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HR Leaders Discuss Talent Retention Strategies

Liberty Mutual, Boston, August 17, 2006 – Massachusetts needs a coordinated strategy to retain both new college and university graduates and 22-30-year-old working college graduates, according to human resource and higher education leaders gathered at a Mass Insight Global Massachusetts 2015 Human Resources Advisory Committee meeting.

Committee members said talent losses for Massachusetts firms are particularly acute in the first five-to-seven years out of college, and for some companies the tenure of 20-something employees is typically just one-to-two years. The Human Resources Advisory Committee, chaired by Raytheon Senior Vice President Keith Peden, has organized to inject the expertise of HR executives into policy debates.

At the meeting, hosted by Liberty Mutual Senior Vice President Helen Sayles, HR executives and state Secretary of Economic Development Ranch Kimball agreed that there is a mismatch between the skills available in the workforce and those needed by employers.

Skills mismatch results in job vacancies
According to Secretary Kimball, job vacancies are currently the biggest economic problem the Commonwealth faces. Massachusetts unemployment is down to 4.7%, and even manufacturing employment is picking up. But the job vacancy rate – the number of positions that remain open because companies can’t find people with the appropriate skills to fill them – has edged up to 2.6%.

Collaborative training model proposed
With a growing number of vacancies in support jobs like fund accountants in financial services, nurses and technicians, companies are increasingly interested in contracting with four-year and community colleges to provide the specialized training they need. But unlike some other states, Massachusetts does not subsidize those community college training programs. “Tailoring our curriculum to provide specialized training is like a capital investment for us,” said Middlesex Community College President Carole Cowan. “Spending $300-$400,000 represents real financial risk.”

One way to reduce the risk would be for a number of small and medium-sized companies to form training collaboratives. While a large company might be able to guarantee a community college that it will hire 50 graduates, the needs of smaller companies are less predictable. According to Zoltan Csimma, chief human resources officer for Genzyme, in biotech, even a company like his often needs just a few individuals with specialized skills in each of several areas. Collaboratives would reduce investment risk for community colleges and spread the cost of training among several employers.

One solution would be to set up a private sector board with high-level HR executives representing different sized companies to identify training needs. The Commonwealth could then provide public and private colleges with access to incentive-based training funds to scale up the collaboratives.

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