Talent attraction efforts expanding in southern Indiana

A talent attraction program in southern Indiana is widening in scope. Bedford-based regional economic development organization Radius Indiana said Wednesday it is expanding the Choose Southern Indiana initiative with a new incentive program for employers.

Choose Southern Indiana launched in July 2021 as a means to attract remote workers to relocate to Dubois or Orange counties. The program has since expanded to include Crawford, Daviess, Green, Martin and Washington counties.

The new Employer Incentive Program will allow local economic development organizations to provide incentive payments to new, out-of-state employees hired by local businesses.

“This investment in talent that our businesses need will help them maintain and improve their productivity and competitiveness,” Christy Johnson, population attraction program coordinator for Radius Indiana, said in a news release. “This will be a limited test of the incentive program to allow our LEDOs and Radius to evaluate if this is an effective way to support our businesses and communities.”

To participate, employers must submit a grant application on the Choose Southern Indiana website, showing it has made an offer to a prospective employee.

The job being offered must have a minimum salary of $50,000 per year, and the employee must agree to live in the region for at least two years.

If the application is approved, the employee will receive a $5,000 incentive, with $3,500 being paid by Radius and the remainder being paid by either the employer or the local economic development organization.

Radius said it is specifically targeting talent from outside Indiana in order to avoid depleting talent from other Indiana communities.

“The initial remote worker response to Choose Southern Indiana exceeded expectations and we are excited by this opportunity to find new ways to attract talent to join our workforce,” Radius CEO Jeff Quyle said. “Attracting talent to the region is a critical part of growing the local workforce, and we are grateful to be able to help our local businesses undertake this task.”

The Choose Southern Indiana program continues to partner with Indianapolis online platform MakeMyMove to attract remote talent as well.