WayFinders is a turnkey Community Onboarding program for chambers and economic developers.
Gain the tools you need to welcome, engage, and retain incoming talent.
Recruiting and retaining talent is the number one obstacle to success for employers in communities across the country. WayFinders provides intentional, established, and precise procedures for actively onboarding new community members. Employers want and need this service, and economic developers and chambers can be the ones to answer the call.
What is Community Onboarding?
Community Onboarding is the proactive process of engaging and anchoring a new or prospective resident to a place. It’s the final piece of the talent attraction puzzle that is arguably the most important, and the most often overlooked. Getting a new resident to your community is only part of the work. Now, the job of economic developers, chambers, and WayFinders is to welcome — or onboard — them into the community.
What is a WayFinder?
WayFinders are the welcomers, the first friends, the concierges of relocation. A WayFinder is a current resident who helps a new or prospective resident understand — on a deep level — what it means to live in a new place. To help them build a network. To connect them with careers, events, hangouts, and whatever else they need to make their new city home. Your community is full of WayFinders already. We’ll help you activate them.
Who is this for?
There are a few different ways to answer that question. A WayFinders program can be implemented by a chamber of commerce, economic development organization, or CVB. But who is a WayFinders program really for?
WayFinders is for newcomers to your community who need help meeting likeminded people and feeling a sense of belonging.
WayFinders is for incoming candidates who need to experience and envision what life would be like in a new place, and ask questions that won’t be covered in a job interview.
WayFinders is for your employers who need help selling the community so they can focus on selling their company and job opportunities.
WayFinders is for you to meet the needs of these different groups and stakeholders, and set your community apart.
What does a WayFinders program include?
RoleCall has been coaching Community Onboarding for years, and we’re thrilled to deliver our comprehensive platform and gameplans to economic developers. Every WayFinders program includes the following deliverables:
A customized website explaining the program, introducing the community’s WayFinders, and collecting information about newcomers and potential new residents
A map to success that includes training for the chamber or economic development team, employers, community WayFinders, and partners
Formal procedures to welcome two subsets of people: new community members and future new residents & candidates
Access to a national network of Community Onboarding practitioners
A mentor to help guide you on your way to success through 1-on-1 coaching
Ready-to-go plans for events, engaging influencers, trailing spouses and families, and diverse & immigrant populations
A WayFinders logo to use on your website and social media platforms customized with your colors and branding
Community-specific social media worksheets and plans
Access to a Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM) to track, manage, and communicate with newcomers & potential new residents
Hands-on consulting and support from the RoleCall team
Questions, answered:
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How long does it take to build and launch a WayFinders program?
It takes roughly six weeks to build and another 3-4 weeks to train and onboard the team and community.
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What if I already have something like this?
Perfect! We’ll help you formalize, track, and prove the success of your current program. We’ll still connect you with other practitioners. We’ll still build you a website to provide the structure that helps propel your current program. Oh, and you can keep the name you already have.
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How much work will this be for my staff?
The program is a perfect mix of off-the-shelf and custom. It still needs to be yours, but we also know the work that it takes to make it successful. We’ll do the building and train and coach you through the implementation. It will definitely take staff time and dedication, but we’re here to help. You can count on somewhere between 5-10 hours of staff time per week once the program is operational.
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I don’t want a cookie cutter program. Will my WayFinders program look like everyone else's?
We don’t want that either! We’ll help you highlight what makes your community special as we’re building the program. The strategy will remain constant, but you get to choose many of the details.
"RoleCall has emerged as a disruptive, results-oriented talent attraction agency at the perfect time. Cities and states are grappling with unprecedented workplace and migration shifts. Talent attraction was important before the pandemic. Now it's absolutely essential. Winona and Tim are bringing their years of economic development and place marketing experience to provide critically important talent attraction strategies and tactics."
-Joshua Wright, EVP of Community Insights, Lightcast
We could talk about talent attraction all day. And we do.
