2016 LEDC/City Visits

• Participants

• Employers

• Action Items

• Learnings

• Member Visits

2016 LEDC/City Visits

• Opportunity to introduce new City Manager & Mayor to Large Employers

• Opportunity to begin to rebuild trust between The LEDC & City of Lakeland

• Opportunity to begin to rebuild trust between Lakeland’s Private & Public Sector

• Opportunity to identify issues effecting Lakeland’s largest employers

City/LEDC Participants

• CITY OF LAKELAND

– Howard Wiggs, Mayor

– Tony Delgado, City Manager

• LEDC

– Brian Philpot, Chairman

– David Hallock, Vice Chair

– Todd Baylis, Secretary

– Wesley Beck, Treasurer

– Jeff Chamberlain, High Skill High Wage Chair

– Steve Scruggs, President

– Claudia Tritton, VP, Business Development

Large Employer Participants

• Amazon

• DS Services

• Fed Ex

• GEICO

• IGT

• Lockheed Martin

• Marriott

• Pepperidge Farm

• Rooms To Go

• Saddle Creek

• Southern Wine

• Summit

• Stryker

• Sykes

• The Ledger

• WellDyne

70 Corporate Executives

7,500 Employees

7,000,000 Square Feet

Learnings

• Talent Recruitment & Retention– Lockheed Example

• YLakeland

• City

• Downtown

• Transportation

• Public Education

• Colleges & Universities

• Hotels & Meeting Space

• Food & Entertainment

• Amenities

Talent Recruitment & Retention

• GENERAL COMMENTS– Hard place to find a life partner

– Hard place to recruit single to

– Hard place for young people to meet people their age

– Nothing to do in Lakeland

– Perception of Polk (not Lakeland) being redneck, backwards, slow & uneducated

– “Lakeland must meet the needs of the 20’s, 30’s & 40 somethings or we won’t be

able to attract talent we need to grow our Corporate Headquarters or we will be forced to move.”

• RECRUITING – Large percentage of employees live in Tampa, Valrico, Brandon, Fish Hawk, Temple

Terrace, Plant City, Clearwater, Orlando

– Hard to recruit IT, Supervisors, Managers, PLC & Maintenance & Electro Mechanical

– Hard to recruit & keep minorities

– Hard to keep MBA’s

– “40% of our new hires came from Hillsborough County last year.”

Minority Feedback

– Didn’t move here because the Polk County public school system scared me

– Everyone I talked to before moving here said ”Don’t move to Polk County, that is where all the Rednecks live.”

– Lakeland lacks minority and ethnic lifestyle options

– Would like a section on YLakeland that is dedicated to their interests, ethnic restaurants, activities, etc.,

– Want email notifications of events, activities and info about ethnic restaurants and markets in, or coming to, Lakeland. We don’t know what Lakeland has to offer and when.

– Create a Lakeland Intern Day with events, etc., where they can meet each other

– YLakeland needs to reach out to High Schoolers, like us, they don’t know what Lakeland has to offer

– Want to know where they can meet other minorities other than church and work

– Would like to help other companies in Lakeland create ERG’s and then connect with them and each other, including events, etc.

Millennial Feedback

– Like Lakeland better than tourist (Daytona, Kissimmee, New Port Richey, etc.,) and retirement communities they grew up in

– Like being a big fish in a small pond, FSC & Lakeland

– Like running into people I know around town

– Lakeland is missing a cool concert venue

– Create & Host quirky events like Yoga Day, Pics on the Promenade, need more places & events where young people can congregate, meet, etc.

– Would love to be able to connect to other young people in Lakeland that didn’t go to my college

– Connecting to young people their age outside of work

– Colleges & Universities did not do a good job of exposing them to Lakeland and all it has to offer

– Missing Retail & Restaurants & Entertainment – Sephora, Lush, Express, Urban Outfitters, Apple Store, REI, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Blaze Pizza, Cheesecake Factory, 4 Rivers & Improvisation Comedy Club.

– 90% of Millennials preferred local vs. chain

Millennials

• 35 Participants

• 31 LIVE IN LAKELAND – 4 others live in Tampa, Winter Haven & Plant City

• COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY– SEU – 10

– FSC – 8

– USF – 4

– UCF – 2

– A&M – 2

– PSC – 1

– UF – 1

• FLORIDA CITIES – Lakeland, Palatka, Daytona, Brandon, Tallahassee, Clearwater, Winter Haven, Kissimmee, Cocoa Beach, Ft. Myers, New Port Richey, Plant City, Bartow, Miami, Beverly Hills, Jacksonville

• OUT OF STATE OR COUNTRY – Germany, London, NYC, Upstate NY, Long Island, Detroit, NJ, Iowa, Ohio, Portland, Birmingham, Washington State

YLakeland

• YLakeland doesn’t do a very good job reporting on what is happening in the market

from a daily entertainment perspective, links don’t work, hard to use, etc.

• YLakeland should send text messages regarding events.

• Lockheed will invite YLakeland to attend their vendor fair events onsite.

• SLP plays a key role in recruiting and retaining talent for participating employers

City

• City needs to make going through the permitting process easier

• Frustrated that the City never implemented take backs from City Visits

• Lakeland Center is too expensive for small meetings

Downtown• Downtown is dead at night, no young people, not hip or happening, make downtown

attractive to young people

• Downtown needs a Master Plan Update

• What is the City’s plan for Talbot House?

• Need to have sites ready for development downtown

• How do we move forward with creating a Design Center?

Transportation

• Parking

– More parking in general

– When & where is Lakeland going to build parking garages?

– A number of large companies would consider moving Downtown if parking was revenue

neutral

• Need Valet service for restaurants downtown

• Trolley Downtown

• Better Uber service

• Citrus Connection service needs upgrading near Countyline Road

Public Education• New employees moving to the area do research on our public schools prior to moving here,

they know how our schools perform, grades, graduation rates, etc.

• New employees move to Tampa, Valrico, Brandon, Fish Hawk, Temple Terrace, Plant City, Clearwater, Orlando for better public education options.

• New employees moving to the area cannot get their children into the magnet and charter schools, the waiting lists are too long, and therefore, they choose to move to other cities, primarily in Hillsborough County.

• “48% of our 1,200 employees don’t live in Lakeland”

Colleges & Universities

• In general, its hard to find degreed people

• Hard to find good business, finance & accounting students coming out of our local

colleges & universities

• Local Colleges & Universities do not have good internship programs

• Employee retention rate is significantly higher when we hire students from our local

colleges and universities

Hotels & Meeting Space

• Need more upscale meeting space & event venues

• Need more upscale hotels

Food & Entertainment

• Need more food options

• Need more upscale restaurants with private dining rooms

• Need more nightclubs (without smoke)

• College kids come home and drive to Tampa & Orlando to hang out

Amenities

• Need restrooms at Lake Hollingsworth

• Don’t want to be known as a cheap place to live

• Willing to pay more for amenities