Supporting Workforce Attraction

GFMEDC Leads Regional Workforce Attraction Campaign

With more than 8,000 open jobs in the larger region, successfully attracting talent is a critical strategy to support a vibrant and growing economy. With a large grant thanks to the ND Department of Commerce, the GFMEDC is leading the region’s largest comprehensive workforce attraction campaign.

With 4.5 million impressions, 369,000 completed video views and more than one million social media impressions (September through December 2023), the GFMEDC-led campaign has been hitting its marks. Aligning with grant guidelines, the campaign targets manufacturing and healthcare workers. The campaign includes advertising in states surrounding us and, thanks to our robust data tools, targeted MSA’s that our data shows a surplus of workers plus a wage differential that favors moving to the metro.

The campaign will run through June of 2024 (with plans to extend into 2025 and beyond) marketing to potential candidates with the goal of recruitment to our region. The campaign connects people to our website with a robust jobs board, pulls potential candidates into an automated email campaign and provides an opportunity to connect to local champions to ask questions or get more information.

More than half a dozen vendors have collaborated to lead the regional workforce attraction campaign.

The campaign started September 2023 with a test launch and was fully launched in October 2023.

The first few months of the campaign focused on brand awareness with the overall objective to capture email information to continue to educate and inform people on the region and all it offers. Ultimately, our aim is to connect candidates to jobs or to local “Ice Breakers” or “Champions” so they can learn more about the area.

For more info or to see the results from the campaign, see our talent attraction page.

 

Live in Fargo site launched in December

When marketing the region, it’s important to have an online presence with a comprehensive overview of life and work because choosing a place to live is a big decision.

With that in mind, part of the Talent Attraction Campaign included a full redesign of the Live in Fargo site. The award-winning site includes a robust jobs board, lots of images including 360-degree scenes, a map to show potential candidates some of the many cool things we offer as well as ways to engage with local champions to learn more about the region and answer their questions.

Check out the site

And speaking of our brand, as part of the campaign we’ve created a brand identity video.

Brand Identity Video

Created to give a glimpse of the amazing life you can create in the region, the award-winning video’s theme is “You Just Have to Look.” It’s a fitting theme because we often find that candidates considering the metro simply need to look. Once folks have moved here, they’re often our biggest ambassadors.

Go ahead, Just take a Look

 

ND Workforce Innovation Grant

Recruiting candidates into the manufacturing field can be a challenge and the lack of talent creates a barrier to growth. Our organization has teamed up with Be More Colorful and Golden Path Solutions to create a totally unique experience that guides a potential candidate through a virtual tour of jobs and the work environment at more than a dozen companies that have signed on to be part of this first-of-its-kind experience.

Started in the fall of 2023, our organizations are collaborating to create a microsite with virtual tours to help candidates see the great opportunities available in our market.

The website will include an overview of the manufacturing industry with pages specifically highlighting the 17 companies involved. Through virtual reality experiences, the user will get a glimpse of each company highlighting two jobs.

The user will also be able take an assessment to determine what positions they are a good fit for.

This project is supported by the State of North Dakota’s Workforce Innovation Grant.

17 companies have signed on to participate.

Aldevron	Prinsco
American Crystal Sugar	PRx Performance
Amity Technology	Standard Industries
Appareo	TrueNorth Steel
Doosan Bobcat	Cardinal IG
ComDel Innovation	CorVent Medical
Elinor Coatings	Marvin
McNeilus Steel	Packet Digital
Precision Equipment Manufacturing