This presentation took place at The 2024 OPEN MINDS Institute For Operational Excellence. Sharon Hicks, MSW, MBA Senior Associate, and Thomas Starling, Ed.D., Executive Vice President at OPEN MINDS, discuss a deep dive into today’s workforce climate and peer into future outlooks. Our faculty shared strategies for recruiting and retaining a skilled workforce and ways to improve organizational performance to support today’s workforce. Executive attendees learned the following how to determine the best strategy for recruitment and retention, how to develop a performance-based model to use with staff, models for employee flexibility, how technology can improve the employee experience, and how to become an “Employer of Choice”.