Colleges and universities partner to attract, retain talent

Updated 10:00 AM October 1, 2007

Colleges and universities partner to attract, retain talent

By Joe Serwach
News Service

Twenty-three public and private Michigan colleges and universities have banded together to launch the Michigan Higher Education Recruitment Consortium to share information and resources to attract and retain talented faculty and staff.

The three University Research Corridor leaders, President Mary Sue Coleman, Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon and outgoing Wayne State University President Irvin Reid, jointly invited the state's other public and private colleges and universities to form the Michigan HERC.

"Working together makes it easier for us to keep the best workers in the state and to attract new talent to the state,'' says Michigan HERC Executive Director Linda Berauer. "Regions known for their large pools of knowledge workers already have similar organizations and this will make Michigan's colleges and universities more competitive.''

After an organizational meeting at MSU last spring, the group quickly set up a dues structure and grew to 23 public and private colleges and universities of all sizes. HERC recently hired Berauer with plans to launch a Web site connecting their job opportunities together in the fourth quarter of 2007.

With a growing number of two-income couples, human resource staffers often struggle when they pursue a talented worker whose spouse is in a field where they might not have an opening. Often they need to look to other potential employers within the region.

The consortium is designed to make it easier to recruit or retain talented faculty and staff by helping spouses find openings at nearby universities within the same region, to create networking opportunities and share best practices among member institutions through regular meetings, and to reduce costs through joint purchasing arrangements.

The Michigan HERC institutions are: Alma College, Central Michigan University, College for Creative Studies, Concordia University, Cornerstone University, Davenport University, Delta College, Eastern Michigan University, Ferris State University, Grand Rapids Community College, Grand Valley State University, Henry Ford Community College, MSU, Mott Community College, Oakland Community College, Oakland University, U-M-Ann Arbor, U-M-Dearborn, U-M-Flint, Washtenaw Community College, Wayne County Community College District, Wayne State and Western Michigan University.

The first HERC began in northern California, the home of Silicon Valley, in 2000 and now includes 46 member institutions. There now are HERCs in other competitive areas where talent is at a premium, including southern California, metro New York/southern Connecticut, New Jersey, upstate New York and New England. HERCs also are planned for the Chicago region and metro St. Louis. Plans are underway to create a national HERC that will establish itself as an independent nonprofit organization and provide services to all the regional HERCs.

Michigan HERC Executive Director Berauer, who earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois and a master's degree in anthropology from U-M, worked for the University 1989-2007 as an editor, recruiter and program manager for the Population Fellows Programs in the School of Public Health, a federally funded project that provided two-year post-master's degree international field placements.

For more on HERC, go to www.norcalherc.org/home/index.cfm?site_id=730.

Colleges and universities partner to attract, retain talent

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