Last night, EA hosted our 13th annual EA Connects, a gathering of women EA worked with over the past year to relocate to Cleveland or Akron. Knowing that making friends during your first few years in town can be the difference between loving a new city or eagerly looking forward to the next relocation, EA works to jumpstart their social connections once they are settled in our region. We lovingly call it “girlfriend time”!
Intimate by design, these small gatherings allow each woman to share their story: what job brought them here (either theirs or their significant others), who came with them, what city they relocated from and the neighborhood they chose to settle in.
These are busy women and taking the time to invest in friendships often falls to the wayside as their days are filled with big jobs, or raising kids, unpacking boxes, driving around trying not to get lost.
Hosting these events in private homes helps to showcase the Midwestern friendliness that we all brag about and often it’s one of their first invitations to a non-work related social event at someone’s home and that makes us happy.
While all of the women have relocated multiple times, the cities they came from on this move were:
- Austin, TX
- Rochester, NY
- Columbus, OH
- Birmingham, AL
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Memphis, TN
They (or their spouses) were recruited for senior level jobs at:
- FirstEnergy Corp,
- University Hospitals Health System
- Eaton Corp.
- Case Western Reserve University
- Case School of Medicine
Some of the women had school age children and others were empty nesters, but they all chose to invest in girlfriend time last night. Some are renting, waiting for the right house to come along and others are happily settled in a home. They neighborhoods they are currently residing in include:
- Shaker Heights
- Cleveland Heights
- Downtown Akron
- Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood
- Solon
- Akron’s Merriman Valley
Before the group departed, plans were being made to reconnect with a walking tour thru University Circle hopefully still this fall – we could feel the beginnings of friendships forming….just what we hoped for from this happy hour.
Starting over again in a new town with no friends ranks high on the stressor scale and so Executive Arrangements works to create connections for each newcomer, not only during their EA Day prior to their move, but afterwards, when the boxing are unpacked and they are ready to socialize. Retention rates dramatically improve if your new hire (and their significant other) grow roots, make friends and start to feel like members of the community. That is why what EA does is so important in the talent attraction and onboarding process. If this sounds like something that could benefit your organization’s candidate experience, call us at 216.231.9311. EA is proud to be part of the global mobility platform of Relocation Horizons, a subsidiary of Howard Hanna Real Estate.