THE OPPORTUNITY
Out-migration is a serious issue and directly impacts the vitality and economic stability of a community. The factors for this migration vary, but sometimes the solution can be as simple as reminding local residents what opportunities exist – right under their nose. Grey County Department of Economic Development, Tourism & Culture needed a strategic way to strengthen employment attraction, while ensuring they were focusing on the best audience, using the ideal channels and messaging to ensure the info stuck.
THE PROCESS
Grey County hired BC Hughes to develop an innovative solution to tackle resident and employment attraction. The program proposed the creation of audience specific micro-campaigns and recruitment tactic(s) and recommended the development of an overarching system that could be leveraged by each of the county’s individual municipalities. The system would ensure that communities wouldn’t waste resources on a recruitment campaign which would see them directly competing with their neighbouring municipalities, allowing for a collective platform and approach.
THE OUTCOME
Grey County was provided with a strategic plan that defined:
- who to recruit to relocate to Grey County, based on industry gaps and needs
- where to target specific segments and how to ensure they took notice
- what tools to leverage and which would lead to actions
- how the system could work to support member municipalities’ efforts for resident and employment recruitment tactics