Slices of Strategy: Bringing the Talent Conversation to Campus
By Corinne Breton-Benfield
Executive Director, Stay Work Play New Hampshire
Over the last several months, Stay Work Play convened more than 275 young professionals across eight regions of New Hampshire through our Policy & Pints listening series.
We heard pride.
We heard love for place.
And we heard urgency.
Young people want the classic New Hampshire dream , community, nature, stability, opportunity. But they also told us clearly: the pathway to build that life here feels narrower than it did even a few years ago.
Our Quality of Life Survey data reinforces what we heard in every brewery:
85% of young people say New Hampshire is worse on housing than other places.
58% say it’s worse for meeting people and dating.
75% say it’s worse for nightlife and entertainment.
From Nashua to the North Country, the themes were consistent: housing affordability, childcare access, wage growth, social connection, and a desire for greater intergenerational empathy in decision-making spaces.
Policy & Pints captured the lived experience regionally and translate it into actionable insight for employers, lawmakers, and community leaders. Check out the full results here!
But it also made something very clear:
If we wait until the mid-20s to late 30s to understand why young people leave, we are already behind and at a disadvantage.
Introducing Policy & Pizza: A Strategic Next Step
We’re excited to announce the launch of Policy & Pizza — a campus-based expansion of the Policy & Pints model designed to integrate student voice directly into New Hampshire’s talent strategy.
Policy & Pizza brings the same facilitated, solutions-oriented format to New Hampshire college campuses, beginning with SNHU and UNH. Instead of breweries, we’re meeting students where they are, in classrooms, student centers, and campus spaces, asking the same foundational question:
What would it take for you to build your future in New Hampshire?
Policy & Pints captured the voice of early-career young professionals already navigating the workforce. Policy & Pizza moves upstream into the talent pipeline.
Together, they create a more complete picture of retention dynamics across age, region, and life stag in NH.
Why This Matters — And What Comes Next
New Hampshire is in a 50-state competition for talent.
Our employers feel it. Our policymakers see it in workforce data. Our communities experience it in aging demographics and shrinking pipelines of young workers.
Policy & Pizza is about foresight. By engaging students before graduation, we gain real clarity on what shapes their decision to stay or leave — housing affordability, salary expectations, childcare access, social connection, and whether meaningful career pathways feel visible here.
This isn’t theoretical. It’s formative.
Student insight strengthens our advocacy at the State House, sharpens our Quality of Life research, and informs how we partner with employers and community leaders to build stronger retention strategies. It moves the conversation upstream from reacting to outmigration to proactively shaping belonging.
At Stay Work Play, our work is intentionally integrated: research, regional listening, campus engagement, leadership development, and direct advocacy. Policy & Pizza is the newest link in that chain, ensuring the next generation’s voice informs today’s decisions.
We are at a critical moment. Demand for workers is high. So is the cost of living. The desire to stay is strong but feasibility is strained. If we want young people to build lives here, we must create pathways that feel realistic, visible, and attainable.
We’ll be sharing insights from our first campus stops in the coming weeks and we invite you to be part of what comes next.
Because loving New Hampshire shouldn’t feel like a tradeoff. And retention shouldn’t start after they’ve already left.
