Kansas City Public Sector Talent-to-Industry Exchange
In Kansas City, the Mid-America Regional Council uses the proven Talent-to-Industry Exchange (TIE) methodology to gather real-time industry and labor market information and inform strategies for growing the region’s talent pool.
In 2021, with support from the Volcker Alliance, leaders in the KC G2U Network applied the TIE to analyze the workforce composition and talent needs of governments in the region in a holistic way. It also helped G2U Partners identify high-need positions to promote through the 2021 Public Service Career Expo and in their public service video campaign.
Key Insights:
- Higher education career services centers should be the primary connector between higher education institutions and public sector employers.
- There is tremendous desire by government stakeholders to expand opportunities for experiential learning.
- Recent hires chose to work in the public sector because they have an intrinsic desire to contribute to the public good.
- Recent hires expressed dissatisfaction with the pace and complexity of the hiring process.
- Hiring managers agreed that it can be difficult to compete with the private sector on salary and benefits for certain jobs, but that was not identified as the primary barrier to finding qualified applicants.
- Both federal and local hiring managers agreed that it is difficult to know the right person to contact for experiential learning partnerships in higher education.