Doing our part to make our city the best place to work and live

| By The Chamber Edge

Phenomenal outdoor experiences, an impressive arts and cultural community, exceptional higher education programs, diversity in housing communities and growing industry sectors are common drivers for bringing people to Tucson. In fact, Tucson's been getting more national recognition for why it's a fantastic place to live, work and place, such as "hot spot for technology and innovation" (AZ Big Media), one of "The 12 Best Places to Live in 2019" (Outside Magazine) and "3rd Fastest Growing Technology Metropolises in US" by Oliver Wyman and in 2017 ranked "Hippest Cities in the US for Under 30" by Business insider. We have soaring growing entrepreneurship programs supported by Startup Tucson, Startup Unidos and the University of Arizona Center for Innovation.

I came here from Texas for my undergraduate and graduate degrees and our Board Chair, Barbi Reuter, moved here from the East Coast when she was a tween. We have both developed roots by raising our families here. But now that we're in our current roles at the Tucson Metro Chamber, we're motivated to do our part to get the word out that Tucson is an exceptional place to start your career, grow a business or relocate your company.

Nationally, reports show that employers universally have concerns related to attracting, retaining and growing talent. We have championed this issue in a variety of ways. You may have already heard about the impressive 66% hiring rate we had from the two hiring events we facilitated. We have partnered with veterans group, the University of Arizona and Pima Community College on ways to engage talent, develop curriculum to address industry needs, and retain talent in Tucson after they graduate. Our workforce innovation summit proved to be a powerful collaboration among many high-level representatives from companies that are all dedicated to developing our talent, starting as early as middle school, to ensure we have the talent to fill all of the emerging needs across many industry platforms. The overarching takeaway is that we have learned that once these connections are made magic happens, Therefore, the Chamber will continue to centralize people, industry and job trainers with the goal of growing the talent pipeline long into the future.

As talent attraction becomes even more competitive, the Chamber will introduce programs for employers and community members to utilize and solidify the necessary relationships between each other and the workforce. As an example, internship programs are proving the key to retaining graduating talent.

The Chamber will continue to grow strategic relationships between our higher education institutions, training partners and employers. We KNOW Tucson is a fantastic place to innovate, grow and evolve.