All great marketing is rooted in research – so it’s only natural that two of the economic development industries’ leaders in talent research and marketing are coming together to give community leaders a smarter way to approach talent attraction and retention. Lightcast, the global leader in labor market analytics, has teamed up with DCI, the leader in marketing places, to revolutionize how cities and regions win the battle for talent.

In this article, learn how Lightcast and DCI will transform your talent strategy. Whether you are looking to better understand how to retain students or where exactly to target external talent to fill open jobs in your region, we offer a range of flexible solutions designed to arm you with the data and tools you need to meet your talent pipeline growth goals.

By combining best-in-class data on jobs and skills with audience insights and targeting strategies, Lightcast and DCI will take your talent strategy to the next level.

Below is a breakdown of our solutions–or get in touch to discuss a custom proposal. Find out more about the partnership in our press release.

Tier One: Recruiter Package

Understanding Your Employer Needs

Smart talent programs should be designed to serve the needs of area employers. To help you understand the hiring needs of employers as well as identify fertile ground for recruitment, we’ll  execute the following: 

• Talent Migration Dashboard: Leveraging Lightcast’s best-in-class data, the Talent Migration Dashboard provides insights to help communities understand workforce needs as well as where target talent segments are located. Specifically, the dashboard demonstrates net migration, retention, attrition and attraction trends; highlights migration by demographic, occupation and education; and identifies the MSAs or states from which your community loses or gains talent. 

• Internal HR Study: DCI will conduct an online survey of human resources professionals and recruiters in your region or state to understand their hiring needs, common barriers to recruiting external talent and other key information to inform your talent attraction strategy.  

• One complimentary copy each of Lightcast’s Talent Attraction Scorecard and DCI’s Talent Wars 

Timeframe: 2-3 months 

Tier Two: Learner Package

Student & Talent Retention Insights

Talent programs must focus not only on the attraction of new talent assets, but also on the retention of existing assets. In many ways, student and talent retention is “low-hanging fruit” for communities to address. This package includes: 

• Talent Migration Dashboard: Leveraging Lightcast’s best-in-class data, the Talent Migration Dashboard provides insights to help communities understand where their alumni and talent are going and, ultimately, how to retain or attract them back. Specifically, the dashboard demonstrates net migration, retention, attrition and attraction trends; highlights migration by demographic, occupation and education; and identifies the MSAs or states from which your community loses or gains talent. 

• Internal Talent & Student Retention Study: DCI will conduct an online survey of talent living and working in your region as well as students at regional post-secondary institutions to understand perceptions of the area as a place to live and work and intent to stay in the region long-term or post-graduation. The results of the study will provide a framework for retention of existing talent resources and where efforts should be focused. 

• One complimentary copy each of Lightcast’s Talent Attraction Scorecard and DCI’s Talent Wars 

Timeframe: 2-3 months 

Tier Three: Talent Insight Package

Understanding Your Needs, Audiences and Current Perceptions

To ensure your talent marketing is focused on the right audiences and to allow for the greatest ROI for your marketing efforts, Lightcast and DCI will work to “best bet” audiences for external recruitment and then conduct a perception study to understand and benchmark perceptions of your community as a place to live and work. This package includes: 

• All above benefits (Talent Migration Dashboard, Internal HR Study, Internal Talent & Student Retention Study) 

• Target Market Identification: The next step is to determine where your community will be most successful in attracting talent. Lightcast will benchmark and analyze several key migration, alumni, and wage metrics to identify the markets you are most likely to appeal to, helping focus your marketing on areas with the best chances of success.

• External Talent Perception Study: Building upon Lightcast’s data analysis, DCI will survey working-age individuals in up to five markets identified through the target audience ID exercise. The goal will be to assess and benchmark current perceptions of your community as a place to live and work, as well as to determine the messaging and channels that will be most effective in reaching your target audiences. Ultimately, the study will determine areas of opportunity, gaps in messaging and key marketing channels to effectively attract target talent to your community. 

• One complimentary copy each of Lightcast’s Talent Attraction Scorecard and DCI’s Talent Wars 

Timeframe: 3 months 

Tier 4: Talent Momentum Package

Insights and Alignment to Drive Your Talent Strategy Forward

Collaboration is at the core of any successful talent attraction and retention program. Take your talent strategy to the next level by rallying your regional stakeholders together around key insights and objectives and determine a road map for unified action. This package includes: 

• All above benefits (Talent Migration Dashboard, Internal HR Study, Internal Talent & Student Retention Study, Target Market ID, External Perception Study) 

• Custom Stakeholder Workshop: Talent attraction and retention can’t happen in a silo. It is crucial that major employers, higher education, tourism and other key regional stakeholders are engaged and bought-in to these efforts. In addition to identifying community workforce needs and uncovering target audience and perception insights, Lightcast and DCI will facilitate a strategic planning and marketing workshop with representatives from your region’s organizations. During the approximately three-hour workshop, Lightcast and DCI will present the findings from our custom research, with key takeaways for what this means for your community, followed by a highly interactive and engaging discussion on how to identify areas for growth and collaboration, perceived easy wins and reach goals, ideal roles and responsibilities and more. 

• Up to 10 complimentary copies each of Lightcast’s Talent Attraction Scorecard and DCI’s Talent Wars 

Timeframe: 4 months

Tier 5: Talent Roadmap Package

A Strategy Framework to Attract Talent and Measure Success

Ready to take the data and turn it into action? This package is for you. Beyond providing the data and facilitating a framework for collaboration, Lightcast and DCI will work with you to provide a blueprint for marketing your region to talent and a comprehensive dashboard to track progress toward your population growth goals. The package includes: 

• All above benefits (Talent Migration Dashboard, Internal HR Study, Internal Talent & Student Retention Study, Target Market ID, External Perception Study, Stakeholder Workshop) 

• Three-Year Marketing Strategy: Leveraging all of the data gathered in the first phase, DCI will develop a three-year marketing strategy. The strategy will include a summary of the research findings, goals, audiences and specific tactics to reach your objectives. Not meant to sit on the shelf, the strategy will also include KPIs and a budget so that you can begin implementing it immediately. 

Timeframe: 6 months  

More Info

Essential Talent Intelligence

Looking for more ways to engage with our work to elevate your talent attraction and retention work? Lightcast’s Talent Attraction Scorecard and DCI’s Talent Wars and are two of the leading reports influencing talent attraction strategies across North America. Lightcast and DCI are partnering together to provide a variety of offerings to make your talent strategies smarter. In 2025, our offerings include:

• A hard copy of each report, mailed to you.

• A one-hour virtual session with Lightcast and DCI leaders covering high-level talent intelligence from the Talent Attraction Scorecard and Talent Wars. 

• A customized data package featuring insights from the Talent Attraction Scorecard and Talent Wars, localized to your state/region.

• A one-hour, in-person speaking engagement with Lightcast and DCI leaders covering high-level talent intelligence from these sources and what it means for your location.

A customized, in-person workshop with talent attraction and retention stakeholders in your region featuring a presentation of the Talent Attraction Score Card and Talent Wars, followed by a highly interactive and engaging workshop featuring polling and group exercises.