Staff Development

**NEW** Job Getting Is Changing: Are You?

Applying for and getting a job ain't what it used to be! Just think about some of the major changes in the last few years -- online and kiosk applications, electronic submission of resumes with keyword searches, upfront skills and honesty testing of applicants, and highly structured, multiple and team interviews. How are you reinventing your advice and services to job seekers to help them meet the new challenges of the new world of job search? This session will help you consider the key changes, offer tactics to increase the odds of successfully finding a job in this changing world, suggest how you may want to change your job search advice, and recommend new services and workshops you can offer to help your job-seeking customers succeed.

Adult Assessment, Career Counseling, and Employment Plan Development

Career counseling is an important core and intensive service and should be rooted in a meaningful assessment of skills and interests. This session will share thoughts on the reemerging importance of these services at One-Stop Centers and in partner programs. Those attending will discuss: current assessment practices and how they can be improved; pre-referral testing that reflects the increased pre-employment testing by many employers; the importance of career counseling at all service levels; the use of ONET, career ladders, and other tools to develop labor market responsive career plans; and the development of effective individual employment plans that increase the odds for success. Come with your ideas and learn from your peers.

Every Job Referral Comes with a "Good Talkin' To..."

Job seekers prize your One-Stop Center's job listing and referral services and love to find out about jobs they didn't even know existed. Some customers, though, demand to be referred to jobs for which they are not qualified, do not even contact the employer after the referral, and even if they do show, they do not convert the referral into a job offer. In this workshop, you will find out what you can do to meet these challenges by giving them the "good talkin' to" they deserve to increase the odds for successful job-getting. Learn: the three questions you must ask (even if you have limited time); the value-added service you can provide to increase the odds of post-referral job getting; and, how to set the appropriate expectations for job referral and follow through.

One-Stop Team Works: Building and Operating Effective Teams in Your One-stop Center

Staff from a variety of workforce development programs and providers have been brought together into common one-stop centers to deliver services to customers. Key to the progress from "co-location" to "integration" is the capacity to do more than just "work together." Staff must understand and value each other's work, and form and operate as cohesive, well-structured teams with common goals. In this session, learn about the dynamics of teams, different types of individual motivation, and how to synergize these different styles into teamwork. Apply the required components of effective teams, with time to develop guiding rules, clarify roles and responsibilities, and most importantly, develop and work toward common goals.

Coaching the Self-Directed Job-Search

Whether you are a case manger, employment service representative, job search workshop presenter, resource room specialist, or job developer -- you are the one the job-seeking customer counts on for a successful job search. Due to the limits on your time, you must have an arsenal of job-seeking tips and tactics that you can rapidly suggest that are customized to the uniqueness of each job-seeker's situation. This workshop: adds to your arsenal of job-search techniques; suggests ways to provide meaningful job-seeking advice; and gives specific ideas for handling tricky application questions. While the ideas are appropriate for all job seekers, special attention will be given to those with employment barriers.

Success Begins at the First Customer Meeting

There are ten key elements for success at your first one-on-one meeting with a new customer. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and this meeting is key to relationship building, successful service intervention, and customer retention and satisfaction. This workshop looks at each of these ten elements, makes recommendations for success with each, and shows how to start using them in your job today. Just some of what you learn: (1) learning how to market your program's and the system's services without over-promising; (2) setting (and, where appropriate, re-setting) expectations; (3) communicating the true value of your services; (4) determining the basis for the satisfaction of your customer; (5) discovering how to plan the next steps for the customer while increasing the odds that s/he follows through; and (6) figuring out when (and how) to approach the completion of required forms.

Placing More Job Seekers: Job Development and Business Relationship Building Strategies

When training people to job search within the private sector business community, self-directed job placement works for some customers but is not enough for others. Therefore, staff must take the lead and seek out job openings, "market" to employers the benefits of hiring their job seekers, and maintain good relationships with the business customer both before and after placement. Learn an easy-to-implement, step-by-step process for developing the linkages with the private-sector business community so that you, too, can place more job seekers.

Labor Market Information Can Make Your Job Easier, and Your Customers More Successful!

With common employment, wage gain, and retention goals driving performance, staff must base their advice to job seekers and training candidates on current knowledge of the local economy, trends and projections. This session is a "primer" for non-economists, and participants learn how to access, understand and use the vast array of data on the economy, employment, and workforce. Based on an interactive, practical and relevant approach, the session includes best sources for answers to common questions (e.g.,"What I have to pay for this job?"); simplification of the terminology; interaction with the data, statistics, research, and publications -- and opens the door to a wealth of information.

Delivering Quality Customer Service Yields Customer Satisfaction

Customer service and customer satisfaction are not the same - but both are equally important in the delivery of workforce services. This session goes beyond some of what has been called (by staff) "smile" training to deliver top techniques customized for staff in publicly funded programs. Topics include the collection and analysis of customer feedback, defining and delivering quality services, setting appropriate customer expectations, and tips and tools for ensuring that the customer rates you as more than "satisfactory."