Meet the new Chamber of Commerce hire who aims to grow business across York County
Celeste Tiller will take on a new role aimed at growing business across York County.
The York County Regional Chamber of Commerce announced Tiller as a new hire, starting July 18. Tiller’s vice president of talent and workforce development role is a newly-created one.
“One of our top priorities for 2022 is to develop a comprehensive talent and workforce development approach that addresses every business’s number one challenge — qualified talent,” Chamber President Dean Faile said in announcing the hire. “Celeste has a proven record of success in this area.”
Tiller is a Winthrop University grad, with both Bachelors and Master’s degrees in business administration there. Tiller comes to the Chamber from her most recent role as director of external relations for Winthrop’s College of Business Administration.
The new role will see Tiller lead talent attraction, development and retention efforts while overseeing the Chamber’s nonprofit foundation. The new role is part of a three-year strategy by the Chamber to address workforce challenges in York County.
“She has already established strong relationships with workforce development providers, local education entities and businesses through her years at Winthrop,” Faile said of the hire, “all of which will allow us to have an immediate impact in this work.”
Finding, attracting and keeping workforce talent has long been a stated goal for area business organizations. Those efforts took on new significance two years ago when COVID-19 shutdowns led to widespread unemployment across the area, state and nation. South Carolina went from record low to record high unemployment levels within weeks.
York County saw the same trend South Carolina did. Unemployment claims skyrocketed in April 2020 to unprecedented levels. At its peak, more than 3,300 unemployment claims were filed in York County in a single week.
State and county unemployment claims returned to and largely have remained at pre-pandemic levels since mid-2021.
State and federal economic data from fourth quarter 2021 show there aren’t as many people working in York County or South Carolina as there were prior to the pandemic. But, the data shows, there are more businesses now than there were then. Which further creates need for businesses to find and keep top talent.
The Chamber includes more than 700 members and is the largest business organization in its four-county region of South Carolina. It serves Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Tega Cay, York and surrounding areas.
This story was originally published July 10, 2022 at 12:00 AM.
