Affinity recruiting: Bringing talent back home

Imagine tapping into a talent pool already familiar with your region's culture, values, and challenges. This scenario is the core idea behind affinity recruiting, a strategy where communities and businesses actively target former residents, alums, and individuals with a genuine connection to the area. These initiatives aim to entice them for job opportunities, entrepreneurial ventures, leadership roles, or investment. As regions increasingly recognize the value of "boomerang migration," (SSTI Digest, March 20, 2025), integrating these strategies with broader talent initiatives may be a cost-effective way to revitalize workforces, bolster local economies, and strengthen community bonds. This article will explore the potential of affinity recruiting, examine successful examples, and address the inherent challenges in its implementation.

Dr. Gary Spanner, who formerly worked in economic development in the southeastern region of Washington State, recently shared insights into an affinity recruiting program that was in place for several years until his retirement in 2015. “We had the anecdotal insight that people tend to have an affinity for places in which they have lived at some period in their past,” he said. “We also realized that these people tend to want to be supportive of their past locations.” 

Based on these insights, Spanner and others working on economic development initiatives developed several means to increase engagement with people who had migrated out of the area. These efforts included building a database of successful former residents from the local area, creating an award which the local chamber of commerce gave to former residents for business success, distributing a monthly newsletter to keep the former residents informed of happenings ‘back home,’ sending targeted invitations to speak at local events, appeals for charitable contributions, and informal meetups in their current locations.

Spanner nurtured connections with high-level engineers who cycled through the region but stressed that they also nurtured connections by working with local high school reunion committees to identify successful former residents and encouraging the local business journal to publish profiles of them. According to Spanner, “Our objectives were to encourage entrepreneurs to found or move companies back home, to encourage philanthropic contributions, to receive business guidance from them, and tap into their business connections to help our existing companies grow and create jobs for our community.”

Hawaii currently has an affinity recruiting program, Kamaʻaina Come Home. Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, with support from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, leads a community-supported partnership to build skilled talent pipelines for high-growth industries such as engineering, where Hawaii’s universities annually produce only about three-quarters of all the engineers needed to fill industry positions. The Kamaʻaina Come Home program helps recruit engineers with ties to Hawaiʻi and provides career support tailored to their needs, including a LinkedIn group, networking events, informational resources and a 1:1 mentorship program that matches Hawaiʻi-born engineers with local professionals.

South Dakota’s Department of Labor and Regulation has operated Dakota Roots for more than 15 years. Dakota Roots Job Advisors use a statewide database of employment opportunities to match a potential recruit's skills and experience with the right opportunity in the right South Dakota community. They also assist with application and interview processes and provide moving and housing resources.

Other affinity recruitment efforts have died on the vine or withered away due to lack of measurable success or priority changes. In the late 2000s, the Commonwealth of Virginia used a small portion of tobacco settlement funds to encourage former residents through a Return to Roots program in southwest Virginia, but the initiative lost support with a change of administration in 2010. 

The allure of returning home isn't always straightforward. The Montana Free Press reported in 2022 on a critical tension inherent in attracting newcomers, even those with past ties. Long-term residents expressed concerns that encouraging an influx of people would exacerbate the state's already strained housing market. This sentiment underscores the need to balance economic development and affordability for existing and potential returning residents. The rise of "Zoomtowns" during the pandemic, with cities like Bozeman and Billings experiencing significant population growth due to remote workers, further amplified these concerns, highlighting the complex interplay between amenity-driven migration and local housing dynamics.

Affinity recruiting is a strategy states may want to consider to bolster their workforce and stimulate their economies by tapping into a readily engaged talent pool. Successful initiatives are likely those that are well-resourced, strategically focused on specific needs, and sensitive to the concerns of both existing and returning residents, fostering a truly welcoming and sustainable environment.