By Elizabeth Caudill McClain, Senior Vice President, Talent Strategies
Registration for the inaugural cohort of the Dallas Regional Chamber’s Talent Labs is open, launching in January 2025. This brand-new, six-month program is designed specifically for senior talent and HR professionals looking to drive innovative talent and workforce strategies at their company.
Talent Labs program builds on the strategic elevation of ‘Talent’ as a key component of the Education, Talent, and Workforce focus area in the DRC’s 2024-2026 strategic plan and is made possible by investments in the DRC’s Tomorrow Fund and with support from Dallas Thrives. Participants will dive deep into talent concepts such as designing jobs to retain talent, attracting talent through company and regional branding, and upskilling and reskilling.
Why Talent Labs?
With the growing economic energy in our region, talent is critical to future prosperity. The need for talent professionals to come together to design innovative talent strategies is more important than ever. Talent Labs will provide that space.
The DRC is partnering with Jobs for the Future (JFF) as a thought partner to assist in curriculum development, bringing in national data and best practices on the talent lifecycle. JFF will also assist cohort participants who are ready to begin implementing new talent strategies in their organizations through individualized design and implementation of those programs.
Program participants can literally bring their real-life talent opportunities and challenges to the table and workshop solutions and strategies with their peers and experts from the DRC and JFF.
What to expect in the Lab
Talent Labs will dig into pressing topics to refine and elevate your talent management practices. Each hands-on session is focused on critical areas such as:
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- designing a job description to retain talent
- creating an internal culture to retain talent
- building a brand to attract talent
- defining internal pipelines and upskilling programs to develop talent.
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Coupled with these sessions, participants will be charged with developing talent action plans to implement within their companies. These action plans can be centered around one of three core talent management objectives: Talent Retention, Talent Attraction, or Talent Development.
Join Talent Labs
Each cohort is limited to 50 participants to ensure impactful discussions and meaningful connections. Here’s the class schedule:
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- 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 23 – Design a job to retain talent
- 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27 – Create an internal culture to retain talent
- 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursday, March 27 – Build a brand to attract talent
- 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursday, April 17 – Define internal pipelines to develop talent
- 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursday, May 22 – Train your talent for the skills of tomorrow
- 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Thursday, June 26 – Program Conclusion and Wrap-Up
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To learn more and register for the program, please contact talent@dallaschamber.org. Submissions to join the inaugural cohort are due Friday, Jan. 17.