Comprehensive Community Attributes Study Underway

August 2011: OrthoWorx eNewsletter

Not only is the orthopedic industry changing rapidly—increasingly global, complex and technologically sophisticated—the nature of an employee’s relationship to his or her employer is changing rapidly as well. Employees today increasingly value work-life balance, so the environment in which they live, play and raise their families is often as important as the job itself (and is likely more important than the pay, as well).

In response to those trends, one OrthoWorx signature project is a comprehensive Community Attributes Study that intends to identify what civic and cultural amenities would make the greatest impact on quality of life in the region. Interviews with corporate and community leaders have been conducted by the Building Better Communities group at Ball State University, and an online survey of employees will be launched soon.

The 2009 BioCrossroads study that led to the formation of OrthoWorx captured the issue in this way:

“Increasingly, the engineering, marketing and manufacturing know-how required in this globally positioned sector requires people who crave more economic and cultural amenities than the Warsaw region can offer. This may include people who have professional spouses who also need jobs, people who are single and desire diversion, or people whose religion or ethnic backgrounds can make them feel isolated.”

Some struggle with the notion that we need to change. We enjoy a terrific quality of life. However, the people who will drive employment in our region’s future may have a different set of expectations. Unless we are sensitive to and accommodate those interests, those employees—who are highly mobile and have many choices of where to live—will go elsewhere.

We have tremendous assets to work with; by augmenting those with new attributes, we can enrich the entire Kosciusko County community. We look forward to sharing the results of our Community Attributes study and to working with other community stakeholders to implement the initiatives that are launched as a result.