Business Customers

Building A One-Stop System to Serve Businesses: Creating and Organizing Your Roles, Partnerships and Services

The new workforce system recognizes businesses as prime customers and partners, and is refocusing resources and services to meet their needs. This workshop session is for WIB Members, WIB Staff and One-Stop partner staff to discuss a one-stop system for businesses, the roles, and how to effectively fulfill them at the system and labor market area levels. You will learn how colleagues across the country are developing and offering business services and how delivery responsibilities are distributed among the WIB, the One-Stop centers, and programs. Discover the importance of identifying businesses and industry clusters that are key to local economic development; first steps for getting started or building on your current activities; and much, much more. Leave with ideas for developing a local plan to effectively create, organize, and deliver business services in your community.

Business Champions: Designing and Delivering Responsive Business Services

Businesses are vital customers of the local One-Stop delivery system. Some workforce areas have formed integrated business service teams to provide comprehensive business services and many are striving to do so. When you shift to true business services -- in addition to "employer services "-- you focus on much more than just getting job orders and marketing your menu of services. System business representatives (1) listen to needs and develop responsive, system-wide customized solutions; (2) provide meaningful workforce intelligence so businesses can meet their human resource needs; and (3) act as champions of change to ensure service delivery responds to aggregate business demand. This workshop helps you create or improve your business services team; clarify roles of your system business service representatives; and give practical suggestions to make businesses true partners.

Marketing and Outreach Strategies: Tips and Tools to Make Businesses Your Customers

Some of our very limited time is well spent on developing a "brochure" that describes your many services to employers. But, true marketing is a comprehensive business tool that extends beyond the brochure. Participants learn about marketing strategies that make the most effective use of limited time and resources. Topics include: "the five P's of marketing"; how to target the business market; effective "packaging" of workforce services, and proven low-cost promotion and outreach tips -- including best-bets for brochures. In addition to strategies, we review and discuss: a nine-step marketing process that has been proven to work; why the first visit should not be a sales visit and what it should be; and, how to promote tag-on products after initial satisfaction to retain and upgrade the relationship.

Strategies for Developing and Maintaining Relationships with Local Businesses

Local workforce development systems are developing long-term relationships with local businesses to increase their influence and to improve service delivery in their communities. At this workshop you learn about effective strategies for building relationships: (1) differentiate between employer services and business services -- and when to offer each; (2) use an effective account management system to help you determine how to target businesses in key industries; (3) know how to "sell" to business customers so you are the preferred provider of employment services; (4) be able to apply the key principles of various sales tactics to promote the One-Stop system; (5) increase repeat usage of multiple services; and, 6) track and improve the satisfaction of business customers so that you can attain and retain a larger base.

Building Business Relations: The Role of the Business Representative

Business Services Reps are more than "job developers" and "job order solicitors" -- they are the One-Stop System representatives to the business community and representatives of businesses within the One-Stop System. It's a big responsibility! This session helps Business Reps: (1) use the key research on what businesses really want from us; (2) adopt relationship management strategies to make businesses lifelong partners and customers; (3) understand the thirteen elements that strengthen relationships; and (4) the four elements that transform business customers to business partners. Benchmark your efforts by examining the twenty roles Business Reps play in One-Stop Systems across the country, and leave with tips and tactics for continuous improvement!

Know Your Local Economy and Use Labor Market and Workforce Information -- for Business Success

Think of this session as a "primer" for non-economists who need to understand -- and more importantly, put to use -- the vast array of data on the economy, employment and workforce. In this interactive, (and, yes, "lively") session we simplify the terminology and interact with the data, statistics, research and publications to open the door to a wealth of information. Participants leave with hands-on knowledge of the comprehensive labor market information produced by state agencies and other complementary data sources. Once we know where to access the data, we take the "numbers" down to day-to-day customer transactions -- for example, clarifying the best sources for answers to common questions (e.g., "What do I have to pay someone for this job?"). This session is for anyone who wants to be a professional consultant to the business community.

Business Services Academy

Are you ready to implement a comprehensive business services strategy? Do you need to standardize practices across program partners and don't know where to start? Do you need to bring business services representatives from multiple program partners together to form a team, collaborate, and share leads? Do you want to support your Workforce Investment Board's strategic goals by measuring and reporting all services provided to businesses?

In order to strategically address all of these comprehensive issues, a full complement of the Greg Newton Associates training can be customized into a "Business Services Academy." Your Business Services teams meet with a Greg Newton Associate over the course of several months for a hands-on experience that engages them in the development of comprehensive business plans while fostering a collaborative approach to business service delivery. These customized sessions combine facilitation and training to help teams design comprehensive strategies including:

1. Creation of a business customer list (targeted customer lists)
2. Description of services to be delivered
3. Development of a sustainable approach for managing business accounts
4. Creation of standardized policies and procedures that will be used by all members of the business services team
5. Creation of measures of success
6. Development of short-term and long-term goals and strategies

Helping Businesses Recruit and Retain the Best and Brightest

All businesses struggle to find and keep skilled employees. And, local businesses want the One-Stop business consultants to help them find solutions to their hiring and turnover problems. In responses, local One-Stop staff need to offer solutions and best practice ideas -- especially for small and mid-sized companies that do not have human resource departments. This workshop helps you: (1) understand the facts related to recruitment and retention challenges, (2) design customized solutions for local companies, and (3) develop action plans for distributing recruitment and retention information (e.g., workshops, newsletters, resources, onsite visits).

Helping Businesses Implement Training for Incumbent Workers

One of the greatest frustrations of today's business community is the gap between the skills workers have and those needed to efficiently do their jobs. The One-Stop system can help local companies respond to this challenge by offering training services that ensure the continual skills upgrading. Not only is this service beneficial to businesses and their employees, but the service also helps the One-Stop system meet rising performance expectations. Participants will: (1) understand how incumbent worker training services fits the One-Stop vision; (2) be prepared to deliver training services for incumbent workers; (3) be able to offer consulting services to help companies design and delivery the training (e.g., needs assessments, resource information, training trends); (4) assist companies with the development of multiple strategies for targeting critical skill shortages; and (5) develop a menu of training services as well as a list of potential customers from industry clusters.

Reaching Out to Small and Mid-Size Businesses with Human Resource Services

Small and mid-size businesses are primary customers of many workforce areas. Because of their size many of these businesses do not have Human Resource (HR) staff and often ask the One-Stop system for help in fulfilling these responsibilities. Business services staff can, at a minimum, offer a compendium of resources to meet these needs. Progressive One-Stops, however, have begun to augment their referrals and advice with the delivery of HR services. Participants learn: 1) the need for HR services; 2) how to develop a compendium of HR resources that can be used by small and mid-size businesses; 3) how to offer customized HR services to businesses (e.g., human rights and labor law information, development of employee handbooks, development of performance appraisal systems); and, 4) develop a strategy for offering HR services based on the expressed needs of local companies.

Successful First Meetings: Turn a Business Prospect into a Customer

Reaching out to new, potential business customers is a challenge. How should you make contact? What should you do before the first face-to-face meeting? How do you establish initial credibility? What are the questions you should ask? What are your lead and tag-on products and services? How do you follow-up to convert the first contact into first service use? This session provides a step-by-step guide to making contact, having a successful first meeting, and expanding your business customer base. Leave with ideas you can use today!

Powerful Presentations: Creating Demand for Business Services

Increasingly, business services staff are required to make presentations to local businesses as well as community organizations. To enhance key business relationships, business services staff need to master the art of positive presentations. Attend this session to learn how to: (1) sell workforce services to businesses by applying tips and techniques for the preparation of your presentation; (2) determine customers needs; (3) create effective materials (e.g., handouts, PowerPoint) to enhance your sales pitch; (4) use proven techniques to effectively deliver presentations; and (5) evaluate your presentations and conduct other follow-up activities to ensure continuous improvement of your One-Stop presentations.

Public Relations: Building A Positive Brand to Promote One-Stop Services

Public relations is a critical but underutilized marketing tool in the one-stop system. Business services staff can enhance their relationships with key business customers by utilizing the key concepts of good public relationships. Participants in this session will understand the distinctions between marketing and public relations, be able to use the principles of public relations to strengthen relationships with the local business community, understand how to leverage positive relationships with key businesses to build a strong positive brand and increase business contacts, and apply the dos and don'ts of good public relations to daily work activities.