PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2023

S P O T L I G H T

CHOOSE GREATER PEORIA New recruitment push hopes to lure 25 new executives to a central Illinois that organizers believe has a lot to offer

BY LINDA SMITH BROWN

P eoria is putting out the word: Won’t you be my neighbor? In May, Peoria business lead ers launched a $1.6 million effort to recruit employees in other cities throughout the Midwest to consider the Peoria area for home and career. Named Choose Greater Peoria, the effort is largely a digital marketing campaign, the result of asking local CEOs what their most critical needs are right now. Their resounding answer was attracting new hires and selling them on living in Peoria. Choose Greater Peoria is powered by money from the Gilmore Foundation, which has made a three-year commit ment to the endeavor. Gilmore, a Peoria native and president of Caterpillar from 1977 to 1985, established the founda tion in 2009. He died in 2020, at the age of 100. “Bob wanted to get the business community together and identify one high-priority need for the community,” said Laura Cullinan, president of the Gilmore Foundation. “That’s how this whole thing started.” The campaign has met its goal of $800,000 in business donations and the foundation has matched it. Doug Oberhelman, chairman of the Gilmore Foundation Board and a former Caterpillar CEO in his own right, said

when business leaders were asked about their most pressing challenges, “it came up over and over again: ‘Look, we can sell our company. We’re having trouble selling Peoria,’” said Oberhelman. “We realized maybe we ought to think about helping Peoria and its image a little bit.” ‘THE OPPORTUNITIES HERE ARE INCREDIBLE’ The Choose Greater Peoria web site (choosegreaterpeoria.org) is the centerpiece of the campaign, with a listing of available job openings and a showcase of the area’s amenities under the headings of “Work. Live. Play.” The site includes multiple oppor tunities for visitors to fill out a brief information form. Within 24 hours, a representative of the campaign will call the person to build a profile and discuss next-step options with poten tial employers. “We’re almost trying to change the mindset about how people look for jobs,” said Misty Dykema, co-owner of Simantel Group Ltd, the local marketing firm hired to develop and execute the campaign. “You can go to Indeed or whatever website and apply for a job. But hey, if you fill out this form on our website, we’re going to get you in touch with every H.R. manager in the region who may have a job consistent with your needs and skill set.”

“The opportunities that we have here are incredible,” Cullinan said. “We have some incredibly high-paying jobs where you can have a leadership posi tion as a relatively young person. Those positions might not present themselves so early in other, larger communities.” A DESIRE FOR WORK/LIFE BALANCE Since the pandemic, many people are looking for a better work/life balance, and that is one of the biggest selling points of Choose Greater Peoria, said Cullinan. Peoria’s average 18-minute commute to most anywhere in the city is a big part of that balance, giving employees more time outside their cars and with their families, where they can take advantage of the largest park district in the state of Illinois, with 50 miles of hiking trails and a riverfront. Dykema said visitors to the Choose Greater Peoria website are clicking on the “Play” messages more than the “Work” ads. Central Illinois’ affordable housing and a lower cost of living compared to other cities across the country also is a selling point, say local leaders. Besides attracting new talent to the area, Choose Greater Peoria also endeavors to improve the area’s image with the people already living here.

22 SEPTEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE

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