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Welcome Putting the Business Back in Business Retention SmartBusiness – The Smart Way to Help Halifax Businesses Relationship-Building and Business Retention Making the Most of Statewide Business Retention, Expansion, and Modernization Efforts Chicago’s New Direction: Leading the Race in Global High-Performance Manufacturing Five “Musts” for Business Incubator Success Growing and Keeping Your Region’s College-Educated Workers Learning to Learn: What to Do Different in the New Modern World Competing in a Global Age: New Skills for Our Nation’s Students Business Retention on a Budget: Billings’ BEAR Program Leverages Volunteers  Subscribe
About Economic Development America
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SmartBusiness – The Smart Way to Help Halifax Businesses (cont.)
SmartBusiness leaders believe that the credibility of our outreach staff is critical to effective business retention. A core group of business development specialists, our Account Executives, work closely with local businesses to identify obstacles and opportunities.We look for Account Executives who are skilled at building trust and rapport quickly. They understand how a business operates: the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet; where a business is in its life cycle; what’s driving that sector; the differences in culture between an IT organization and a manufacturing firm. They have to do much more than read survey questions. Account Executives have to be skilled at probing – even reading body language to learn where to pull more – and getting to the heart of what’s going in a business. The Partnership takes the role of its Account Executives so seriously that we engage them in a mock CEO interview as part of the hiring process. They are given the name of a real local company and are expected to find out everything they can about the company and its industry before the “interview.” During the interview, we throw out clues to key issues that the potential Account Executive should pick up on, because this is exactly what a CEO will do: They will test the person who comes to talk to them about their business issues to make sure their visitor knows what they’re talking about. Account Executives are the face of our organization. If they don’t carry well in front of the business, then our brand equity suffers. Once a company raises an issue with an Account Executive, the problem is entered into our data management system and routed to one of the Action Team members, a group of 26 senior business people and government officials who have the resources to respond to issues faced by local businesses. These agencies or service providers include a telecommunications company, a credit union, city hall, Nova Scotia Community College, the workers’ compensation board and an immigrant settlement services agency, among others. To ensure that these organizations are responsive to businesses, SmartBusiness has identified an individual at each one who acts as a champion within the organization. These individuals know what SmartBusiness is about, and they have the senior-level support to take a problem to the right people in the organization and get it addressed immediately. For example, Halifax city government is a big organization, so the Partnership doesn’t have the ability to identify all the city staff who could potentially be helpful to businesses. Instead, we sold the idea of one point of contact to the city council, mayor and city manager, and now one person is responsible for catalyzing the city’s response to business issues.When he comes down the hall to a city department, looking for assistance, he is coming with a SmartBusiness referral that has the full support of the leadership. To ensure a high level of engagement from the Action Team, Account Executives meet one-on-one each quarter with each Action Team member in an effort to continuously learn about the products and services offered to businesses. The Partnership also publicizes the successes that come out the Action Team’s response to business issues. The team member that solves a business’s problem is recognized in the media, and it builds a positive peer pressure – other Action Team members want to be recognized for their contributions as well. By the end of 2004, we were working with the Action Team on more than 200 referrals (view chart). About 60 percent were information-based, handled by linking businesses to the right resources, agencies and advisors to help them move ahead. Another 40 percent were project-driven, involving specific issues. These efforts helped retain approximately 800 jobs and created another 500. In 2005, we had a direct impact on retaining or growing about 1,000 jobs. Last year, we worked with companies throughout Halifax that together employ more than 33,500 workers.
In addition to dealing with company-specific issues, we regularly identify and address issues common among companies in our market. For example, our consultations revealed that work ethic and employee attitude were areas of significant concern among area employers. In fact, almost one in five companies visited listed these attributes as deficient in employees today. Our research concluded that companies looking to hire are finding that job seekers’ expectations are too high, leading to a disconnect between employee and employer in terms of what is offered and what is expected. |
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