Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Blog

The brain gain -- Retaining our precious talent

By Jenny Floren

“Our people are our most important assets.” There’s a reason why this phrase is ubiquitous: It’s true. Every economy and organization depends on its workforce to deliver brainpower and muscle to make things happen. In knowledge economies, the team with the best people wins. Here in Massachusetts, we have a significant competitive advantage when it comes to building teams with the world’s best talent.

Each year, 470,000 students walk through the doors of the 124 Massachusetts colleges and universities, a third of them come from other states or countries. As home to many of the best schools in the world, Massachusetts is a magnet for talent. We mint 103,000 new degrees and certificates yearly. This should be an ace up our sleeve when it comes to our state’s economic growth. 

The challenge — and the opportunity — is to keep these stars here. We must do more to encourage our highly skilled talent to stay. According to a report by the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 50 percent of New England’s recent college graduates are leaving the area to pursue jobs elsewhere. Letting our educated, skilled talent exit the state hurts our economy. The knowledge economy we depend on here in the Commonwealth needs the crème de la crème of educated, skilled talent.

One of the ways we lose talent is by sending foreign students home who graduate with college or advanced degrees but have a difficult time staying in the U.S. due to the cost and limited supply of work permit visas. Policies that deter foreign-born educated talent from contributing to the U.S. workforce hurt our country’s ability to compete (as we send the best and brightest back to other countries to compete against us). They particularly hurt Massachusetts, given that our primary industry sectors like biotech, education, engineering and health care rely on highly skilled talent more so than other industries.

Too many of our American students are leaving our talent pool as well. Companies from other states lure our students away with the “cool” siren calls of Silicon Valley or Wall Street. We need to raise our voices to let students know why they should stay in Massachusetts. When students are encouraged to begin careers in Massachusetts, and are given the chance to plant the roots of their professional networks here, they are more likely to stay. The better talent we have, the more successful the Massachusetts economy, and all organizations within it, will be.

Several important efforts are underway to raise awareness among Massachusetts students that our economy is booming with exciting opportunities for those who stay. The Mass Technology Leadership Council and our 400-plus members have joined forces with the Commonwealth Marketing Office, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Experience.com, and colleges across the state to create an internship platform that connects students with exciting employers ready to welcome the next generation of talent to their teams (www.massitsallhere.com/stayhere). Offering students the opportunity to learn, network, be mentored, and contribute to our organizations not only improves their skills, but will also encourage them to stay and join the talent pool all of our organizations need to succeed.

Economic growth and its resulting jobs are driven by innovation. Innovation comes from talented people. Last year, CNBC named Massachusetts the No. 1 state in education and No. 2 in access to capital. We must work together and do everything possible to earn the No. 1 spot in retaining talent as well. Our success, and the future success of the Commonwealth, depends on it.
   
This entry is part of a series of articles by members of the Mass Technology Leadership Council, outlining its action plan for fulfilling its “2020 Challenge,” — adding 100,000 new tech jobs by the end of the decade. Jenny Floren, CEO of Experience.com, is author of The Innovation Generation, and a trustee of the Mass Technology Leadership Council.