Recruitment and Retention of BIPOC Millennial Workforce in Local Government

Abstract

This project was completed as part of a partnership between the City of Bloomington and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). Although residents of color make up 30% of Bloomington’s population, of the City’s full-time employees, only 90 out of 561 (16%) identified as part of the Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) community. Bloomington project lead Pa Dao Yang worked with students in Dr. Abdifatah Ali's HRIR 5222: Creating and Managing Diversity and Inclusion course in spring of 2023 to identify strategies to recruit and retain a diverse millennial (born 1980–1998) workforce within the City of Bloomington. Five teams of students investigated diverse strategies, including performance-based pay, peer-exchange programs, marketing strategies, career ladder roadmaps, and recruitment and hiring strategies, and provided recommendations to the City to implement each strategy. The student teams’ final reports and presentations are available.