By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Grow Hays, an economic development organization dedicated to Ellis County, is set to grow itself, with the creation of a director of recruitment and retainment position.
"Essentially, when we approached the city and the county and our funding partners this year, we asked for a little bit of an increase because we want to add a position to put somebody on board who can focus on recruiting new businesses — whether it be retail, industrial distribution, ... commercial," said Grow Hays Executive Director Doug Williams. "We want to up our game in that area and put a little more focus on the recruitment of new businesses to our community."
He said the role would also help retain existing businesses.
"And then we also want to spend more time with existing businesses, making sure we're a resource to them," Williams said. "And make sure we retain the businesses we have. ... If they have expansion thoughts, and they want to grow, we want to have somebody that can engage with them and help them in those areas."
A frequently touted part of keeping existing businesses by Williams is succession planning, and he said this role would help with that as well.
"We want to make sure that our local business owners have given some thought to succession and what happens when they decide they want to leave the business or if there's an untimely exit from the business," he said. "So we've got a position open, we've advertised it, we are looking for applicants, and we're going to leave that open until Oct. 15, at which time, we will close applications and make a decision sometime in the next two weeks after that."
Williams said the position is open to anyone but he suspects local applicants will be the bulk of the interested parties.
"And that's OK. I think there's a there's an advantage for somebody local that has a little bit of a feel for the community and an understanding as to how our community works and what our community's assets are," he said.
But Williams said having an outsider's perspective could also be valuable.
"Sometimes it's really good as well, Williams said. "So I'm not going to rule out either one. But I think we'll probably have more local applicants than out-of-town applicants for sure."
Either way, he said, understanding the needs of smaller communities like the ones found in Ellis County is vital.
"The limitation sometimes that a small community has — but also the culture that small communities have and the way we look at things here — might be a lot different than the way they look at it in a larger community."
No matter where the final selection comes from, Williams said the focus will be on getting business into and staying in Hays.
"Day to day, they're going to be responding to RFPs that are put out by companies that are looking to expand. They're going to become familiar with the inventory of commercial space in our community — whether it be retail or commercial," Williams said. "They're going to be soliciting franchisees who maybe have other operations in other communities and are likely expansions to our community, whether it be restaurants or retail outlets of another sort. They're going to be reaching out to existing businesses that talking to them as to what their challenges are, what they need to see and how we can help. So it'll be a busy position, for sure."
For more about the position, click HERE.