Has your company experienced significant issues attracting and recruiting talented young people? If you're in America, and you said yes, chances are your business isn't located on one of the coasts. The new book, Hollowing Out the Middle: The Rural Brain Drain and What It Means for America, by Patrick Carr and Marie Kefalas, asks if it matters that the best and brightest leave small towns for big ones and never come back. You can read a great review of the book by Jonathan Liu here at one of my favorite blogs, GeekDad.
Here's a blurb from the book's website:
In Ellis [the town the researchers/authors studied], Carr and Kefalas met the working-class “stayers,” struggling in the region’s dying agro-industrial economy; the high-achieving and college-bound “achievers,” who often left for good; the “seekers” who head off to war to see what the world beyond offers; and the “returners,” who eventually circled back to their hometowns. What surprised them most, was that adults in the community were playing a pivotal part in the town’s decline by pushing the best and brightest young people to leave, and by under-investing in those who choose to stay, even though these young people are their best chance for a future.
Since we're talking about Talent Acquisition 24/7, why not check out one of our unique programs or blogs this week? Here's what we have coming up.
- On Tuesday, a live webcast on Candidate Sourcing, presented by Lennart Sloof from Deloitte in the Netherlands, will discuss how to create and capture a talent pool using technology.
- We'll also have a new Guest Blogger, Gustavo Alba from Booz & Co., looking five years ahead in recruiting.
- Wednesday will feature a blog from Adam Zak, one of our resident experts on executive search.
- Another new guest blogger, Tom Cairns, will write about why we need more Henrys on Thursday.
- And we'll wrap up with week on Friday with a look at Employer Brand from Jason Lauritsen.
Image: KevinLallier
