The City of Gaithersburg’s Department of Public Works will be conducting road construction work on all of Kentlands Blvd., all of Booth St., Main St. from Kentlands Blvd. to Midtown […]
MileOne Autogroup has announced the recent opening of its newest dealership, MileOne INEOS Grenadier, located at 3141 Automobile Blvd., Silver Spring, MD 20904. The dealership, one of only 20 INEOS Grenadier dealerships in the […]
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?”
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MOM’s Organic Market has set an opening date of Friday, September 20th, for its Silver Spring location at 8789 Georgia Avenue, according to Source of the Spring.
MCPS shared this week that art teacher Jonathan Roth recently wrote his seventh children’s book with his eighth coming out on October 1st. We caught up with the longtime Ashburton art teacher and asked him a few questions about his recently released book “Almost Underwear: How a Piece of Cloth Traveled from Kitty Hawk to the Moon and Mars” and what he enjoys most about MoCo.
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BETHESDA, YOUR SATURDAY MORNING PLANS JUST GOT MORE CREATIVE.
Join Craft Cart at Coffee Republic on Saturday, September 26, from 11:00 AM–1:00 PM for a beginner-friendly faux stained glass experience filled with creativity, coffee and connection.
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Bangkok Garden has leased the space that was the longtime home of Good Fortune Cafe in Kentlands Square. Good Fortune Cafe, which has been serving the area since 1994 (according to its website), closed in August and is planning to return to a new location (news coming soon).
Palacio De Peru is set to open at 19222 Montgomery Village Ave in the Montgomery Village Center, taking over the space previously occupied by Moe’s Southwest Grill, which closed at the end of August.
MCPS High School Sports Scores for Sep 13, 2024:
Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown and a coalition of 16 attorneys general are urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate civil rights violations related to recent raids by the Texas attorney general’s office, which targeted Latino voting rights organizers, candidates, and volunteers. (more…)
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) are asking for the public’s assistance in locating Stephanie Delgado-Portillo, a missing 12-year-old from Silver Spring. (more…)
In 2011, ISI Elite Training founder Adam Rice opened his first facility in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Adam selected the name ISI Elite Training based on Proverbs 27:17: “Iron Sharpens Iron, as one person sharpens another.” Now, the training facility has signed on to open its first Montgomery County location in the Traville Village Center in Rockville.