Jobs With Purpose: Municipal Workforce Development Initiative was launched by GMA in 2021 with the goal of helping local leaders across the state proactively address their workforce development needs.

Georgia Municipal Workforce Development Strategy and Playbook

Along with the leadership of the Municipal Workforce Development Advisory Council, GMA partnered with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia to conduct a municipal government workforce needs assessment and to use the results to guide the development of a workforce strategy for GMA, GCS, and Georgia cities.

The needs assessment process identified several potential focal areas for addressing workforce challenges and leveraging opportunities for advancing workforce development efforts. Members of the Municipal Workforce Development Advisory Council analyzed the needs assessment data and prioritized the top items they felt would make substantive progress in workforce development.

Council members identified two tracks for addressing the needs assessment findings:

1. the development of statewide partnerships, resources, and pilot funding opportunities by GMA and GCS, and
2. potential action items for cities organized into four strategy areas:
   1. Employee Recruitment
   2. Employee Retention
   3. Pay and Benefits
   4. Planning and Strategic Partnerships

This report both serves as a summary of the work to date and also provides a roadmap for GMA, GCS, and cities to proactively address their workforce needs through investment, planning, and strategy implementation.

Starts with Me Campaign Resources

GMA's "Starts With Me!" workforce development campaign was developed for use by Georgia's cities. This campaign was created to help address the growing talent acquisition and retention challenges faced by Georgia's cities and focuses on the heartwarming side of working in city government. It helps cities detail the benefits that come from city positions that support and strengthen the community.

The campaign is based on the research completed by the GMA Municipal Workforce Development Task Force, interviews with over 50 stakeholders representing different sized cities across Georgia, surveys of recently hired municipal employees and partner organizations.

The printed and digital assets found in the campaign are available for city officials and are ready to be used by your designer in both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. To learn more, reach out Pete Pyrzenski.