How Charities in Cities Large and Small Sell Their Quality of Life to Job Seekers

JOB MARKET

By Peter Panepento

When the Van Andel Research Institute began recruiting a team of cancer researchers to work at its newly founded laboratory during the late 1990s, it faced a big problem: how to attract top scholars and science administrators to live in Grand Rapids, Mich., an address that didn’t seem enticing to its top prospects, many of whom were working in large cities like Boston, New York, and Washington.

Knowing it ran the risk of losing out on some top talent, the institute took an unconventional step. It tapped Rick Chapla, a local economic-development specialist, to meet with the finalists in their home cities and talk to them about the virtues of living and working in Grand Rapids.

“These were intelligent, educated people who were making decisions about where they are going to put down roots for the rest of their lives,” says Mr. Chapla, vice president of the Right Place, a nonprofit economic-development organization in Grand Rapids. “I don’t think people would have come if they didn’t get a good feel for the community.”

The aggressive recruitment effort paid off, bringing in more than 175 researchers and staff members — including professionals who hailed from both coasts and 12 countries, according to Linda Zarzecki, the institute’s human-resources director.

Selling a city or town is an often-overlooked part of the recruitment process for nonprofit groups. While charities spend considerable time selling their missions to out-of-town job candidates, they sometimes fail to paint an accurate and attractive picture of their communities. As a result, many organizations lose strong candidates who would have been willing to accept a move if they had had more information about the locale, says Sharon D. Randaccio, president of Performance Partners Management, a recruiting firm for nonprofit organizations in Buffalo, N.Y.

“Nonprofits have sold themselves short,” Ms. Randaccio says. “All of that is changing, so the process has to change. The process has to be more professional.”

Selling Locale

Typically, the failure to connect comes early in the process, when the nonprofit organization makes its initial pitch to a prospective candidate, says John Isaacson, an executive recruiter in Boston who conducts searches for nonprofit clients nationwide. If the candidate is turned off early, he says, the organization often loses its chance to state its case in person. “It’s rarely a deal killer at the end,” Mr. Isaacson says. “But you can lose 20 to 25 percent [of applicants] at the very beginning.”

To avoid missing out on some of those potential candidates, he suggests recruiters highlight the positive aspects of their towns during their first discussions. After all, he notes, while each region has drawbacks, it also has selling points.

Smaller cities or economically distressed towns may not have the opportunities for spouses and may not offer enough nightlife for single people. But they often boast attractive neighborhoods, low crime, and a substantially lower cost of living than metropolitan areas.

Larger, trendier cities often have nightlife, excitement, and opportunities. But they are typically much more expensive, Mr. Isaacson says. “The most important and the strangest part of how American economic development has changed over the last generation is the disparity between how cities are hot and how cities are not,” he says. “It’s radical. The big and prosperous places are very attractive places to go to. The paradox is they also have the worst housing markets.”

But cost of living alone won’t usually sway a candidate. Less tangible factors like quality of life, climate, and opportunity often seal a decision. Charities that give candidates a full, accurate picture of their locales, recruiters say, will have the most success in landing their top choices. “You have to think bigger than your organization,” Ms. Randaccio says. “And it isn’t just driving candidates through neighborhoods. They also need to understand the fabric of the community.”

To fully state their cases to applicants, recruiters in lower-profile cities need to find out what each candidate values. If, for instance, an applicant is interested in schools for his or her children, it is important to relay information about the quality of local public and private options during early conversations. Then, if the candidate comes to town for an interview, recruiters should allow time for the candidate to meet with principals and teachers in key school districts.

Making Contacts

In many cases, organizations don’t have to spend big money to sell their communities, says Ms. Randaccio, but rather need to invest time in making their candidates feel comfortable.

When the United Way in Hattiesburg, Miss., was looking for a new executive director to lead its organization, it paid for its top choice, Mark Barber, to travel to the city from Houston — not only to interview him for the job, but also to immerse him in the community. Mr. Barber, who has three children, wanted to learn about the schools and make sure Hattiesburg would provide a stable community for his family, and that his wife would feel comfortable there.

To give him a taste of Hattiesburg, the United Way encouraged Mr. Barber to bring his family to town for four days, to tour the area, meet with school officials, and learn about the United Way’s role in the city.

“They really won me over with that,” says Mr. Barber, who accepted the job in May. “It’s a big adjustment for my family. But the community is a great community — Southern hospitality all of the way. Putting us in that relaxed setting, where both parties were at ease, really helped me learn about the people and the community.”

Often, taking the extra step and getting candidates to meet people in the community helps them feel more at ease with relocating — even if they had never considered living there before. By enlisting Mr. Chapla, the Van Andel Institute was able to convey the true flavor of Grand Rapids to its candidates. But it was by no means an easy sell. With many candidates, Mr. Chapla had to reverse negative impressions about his city.

Grand Rapids, a small Midwestern city beset by cold winters, can put off candidates who crave the sizzle of big-city life, says Mr. Chapla. But in pitching the city to job candidates, he cast Grand Rapids’ size in a positive light — talking about short commutes, a low cost of living, and friendly neighbors. He used the snowy winters as an example of the region’s change of seasons, a place where residents could head to the beaches of Lake Michigan in the summer, pick apples in the autumn, and go ice fishing in the winter.

If the finalists were intrigued, they were invited to visit Grand Rapids and learn more. While there, Mr. Chapla again helped the applicants and their families, offering to show them whatever they wanted to see. “I went to great lengths to introduce candidates to people who were like them and had made a move to this community,” he says. “Who better to talk about this community than someone who has already made the decision to live here?”

David Crum faces a similar challenge when he recruits scientists to work at the McLaughlin Research Institute, in Great Falls, Mont. The nonprofit institute, which studies genetics, must compete for talent with big-city universities such as Harvard and Stanford.

But metropolitan Great Falls, a community of about 80,000 people on the Missouri River, offers its own attraction — the great outdoors. The community is a hotbed for fly fishing, hunting, and skiing, and Mr. Crum, the institute’s assistant director for operations and development, often takes job candidates on fishing trips or skiing excursions when they come to be interviewed. “If you want the opera, you’re not going to get it in Great Falls,” he says. “But if they fish, we’ll take them out on the Missouri River.”

Cost-of-Living Challenges

Organizations located in larger cities face their own set of hurdles. For example, while Boston is considered a prime destination for academics and executives, Northeastern University still must invest considerable time in helping out-of-town candidates feel comfortable with the city’s culture, says Katherine Pendergast, the university’s vice president of human resources management.

Candidates and their families are given plenty of opportunities to tour neighborhoods, visit schools, and meet their potential colleagues, she says. “There is a constellation of issues that have to be dealt with,” she says. “This is probably the most complicated factor in recruiting executives, because it’s a very personal decision. It is also a family decision.”

In the past, relocation decisions were largely on the shoulders of the professional, she says; the employee’s family simply followed along. But today, with more dual-career couples, Mrs. Pendergast says organizations need to also make the entire family feel welcome.

If the candidates have working spouses or partners, the recruiters at Northeastern often begin working to find jobs in Boston for them.

They also help candidates understand the cost of buying real estate — an important factor considering Boston’s high prices. In some cases, that cost is simply too high.

Mrs. Pendergast recalled working with a candidate from the Southeast who owned a large piece of real estate on a river. Because of Boston’s real-estate market, the candidate would not have been able to afford a similar home if he took the job at Northeastern. “There was no way that person would be able to create that same setting — and he really wanted to,” Mrs. Pendergast says.

Although Northeastern lost out on a strong candidate, its willingness to give the candidate all of the facts headed off what could have been a larger problem, Mrs. Pendergast says: Had the candidate made the move to Boston, but ended up unhappy with his living arrangements, he likely would have been unhappy at work too.

In the end, a good fit on paper may not be the right fit when it comes to actually living and working in a particular locale. “If they’re not comfortable,” Mr. Chapla says, “they are not going to be a good employee.”

Still, an aggressive effort to sell their home cities to out-of-town candidates can help charities recruit nationally, and a bigger pool of applicants will likely bring better hires. “You have to think bigger,” Ms. Randaccio says. “The more you can pull from, the better off you’ll be.”

Does your organization recruit out-of-town job candidates? What do you do to sell them on your community? Offer stories and tips in the Job Market online forum.