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Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) responded to a house fire on Duvall St., off of W Deer Park Rd. in Gaithersburg at approximately 5am on Wednesday morning.
Talent is one of the most important factors influencing where companies choose to invest, expand, and grow. As competition for skilled workers intensifies, employers are embracing a broader talent strategy: one that leverages partnerships. Last week, almost 120 business leaders, elected officials, and members of Montgomery County’s business community attended the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation’s (MCEDC) panel, “The Talent Advantage: A Growth Strategy for Companies in Montgomery County, Maryland,” to hear how local businesses are capitalizing on the County’s world-class academic institutions, innovation ecosystem, quality of life, and economic development resources to attract and retain top talent.
Moderated by Dr. Anne Khademian, Executive Director at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG), the panel included executives from businesses and institutions across industries, including Lockheed Martin, TrilliumBIO, Thales Defense & Security, Johns Hopkins, Montgomery College, and AstraZeneca, who discussed their companies’ strategies for developing their workforce.
Talent as a Business Strategy
For companies competing in highly specialized industries like the defense industry, access to talent directly influences where they choose to locate and grow. For Lockheed Martin, which employs nearly 1,000 people in Montgomery County, talent is one of the primary reasons the company chose to be headquartered here.
“Talent is in the top one or two reasons why we are in the County,” said Todd Cohen, Senior Lead of Strategic Workforce Development, Lockheed Martin.
According to Cohen, Lockheed Martin begins working with partners to develop their talent pipeline well before students enter the workforce, including partnering with Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) on programs such as coding challenges. Lockheed Martin also maintains close relationships with local higher education institutions, including the Universities at Shady Grove (USG).
That local talent pipeline is also an important factor for AstraZeneca, which employs more than 5,000 employees and contractors in Montgomery County. According to Tiffany Lukis, Director of STEM and Community Engagement at AstraZeneca, the company often taps into its alumni base from Montgomery College (ranked #26 nationally among community colleges) and USG (which offers nine different public universities onto one campus), and other local institutions to fill highly technical roles.
Local Companies Are Developing Talent and Not Just Finding It
According to the panelists, investing in existing employees is just as important as recruiting new ones.
At Suburban Hospital, workforce development is closely tied to talent retention. The hospital partners with local educational institutions to provide employees with opportunities to gain new skills and advance their careers. Programs include a Certified Nursing Assistant program through Montgomery College and English as a Second Language classes.
“A huge part of our talent strategy is to prioritize holding on to our top tier talent,” said Corey Lewson, MSW, Program Manager, Workforce Development, John Hopkins Medicine.
For smaller companies, developing talent internally can be especially valuable. Lane Edwards, Vice President of Operations, TrilliumBIO, a biomarker discovery company with fewer than 20 employees based in Rockville, described the challenge of balancing the need for highly specialized expertise with the realities of building a team at an early-stage company.
“When it comes to hiring, we have to be very strategic,” Lane said. “Do we have someone who has the expertise or someone that we can build on?”
With October being National Energy Awareness Month and 52% of Americans saying that protecting the environment should be prioritized above economic growth, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2024’s Greenest Cities in America, to identify the places where people prioritize living sustainably and protecting our environment. Washington DC came in ranked #2 in the country.
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Montgomery County Police responded to a shooting at Seek Lane Neighborhood Park in Silver Spring on Tuesday, October 1. Police provided an update stating the incident is now being investigated as a homicide. (more…)
When I moved back to Northern Virginia after several years in New York, most of my old friends had moved away. I found myself rebuilding a social circle from scratch.
I had plenty of people I could connect with online, but that wasn’t translating into anyone to grab a beer with after work, play trivia with, or text when I wanted to get out of the house. Making new friends as an adult required far more deliberate effort than I remembered.
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The Triumph Trek at the Rio is the ultimate celebration of strength, recovery and hope — and everyone is invited.
On Sunday, September 20, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., Adventist HealthCare Rehabilitation and Adventist HealthCare Home Care Services will gather at Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg for an untimed walk-or-wheel around the accessible lakeside path. This is not a race. Scooters, wheelchairs, walkers, strollers and every pace are welcome, and no one finishes last.
Governor Wes Moore issued the following statement on Tuesday, October 1: (more…)
According to District 3 Montgomery County Police Department (MCPD) Commander Jason Cokinos, officers apprehended an intoxicated man who was armed with an illegally possessed handgun in White Oak after responding to a 911 call on Thursday afternoon. (more…)
Kura Revolving Sushi has announced it will be opening on Saturday, October 5th at 12266 Rockville Pike in Federal Plaza (Rockville). The conveyer belt, revolving sushi spot is taking over part of the space that was recently home to Chuy’s and previously home to Ruby Tuesday next to the recently opened Torchy’s Tacos.
Members from the Maryland Car Rally Task Force, working in collaboration with the Maryland State Police Special (MSP) Operations Division, and allied police agencies disrupted twelve unlawful exhibition driving events throughout multiple Maryland counties, including Prince George’s, Anne Arundel, Howard and Baltimore, Saturday night.
Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) is facing a system-wide network outage affecting Wi-Fi, public computers, and other services due to an underground fire in Baltimore that damaged fiber optic cables, although all branches remain open for material checkouts. (more…)
California Tortilla announced it has signed an agreement with a new franchise group to open a new location in Montgomery County by early next year. The group consists of former Olney location employee, Erin Bila, her husband, Rogerio, and a business partner (more…)
A tractor trailer crash has closed two lanes of I-495 westbound at the I-270 spur, according to information shared by Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) on Tuesday afternoon.