Despite spending most of my day (work and personal time) on a computer, I'm a skeptic about the promises of world-changing web applications. I think MySpace is for kids and I figure that 99% of videos on Youtube are better off not seen. I follow people on Twitter, but don't tweet myself as I don't think my employer would approve. Of course, I do blog.
Still, I think these are all great tools for workforce development. Here's a roundup of the most hyped sites and thoughts on their potential in our field. Real life examples reveal the early adopters and some hiccups with blogs that were suspended after three posts or social networking profiles with zero friends.
Twitter
Basic:
1. Announce Events
2. Celebrate successes.
Advanced:
1. Connect to employers.
2. Advertise specific candidates.
-Workforce Solutions Heart of Texas tweets.
-Workforce Solutions Lower Rio Grande tweets.
-Wise (VA) Workforce Center tweets.
-Worksystems Inc (Portland, OR) tweets.
Youtube
Basic:
1. Recruiting/Informational Brochures
2. Event Recaps
Advanced:
1. Self-produced (targeted) training
2. Employer interviews/profiles
-Workforce Solutions (Houston-Galveston-Gulfcoast) application and interviewing videos on Youtube.
MySpace/Facebook
Basic
1. Announce events.
2. Recruit.
Advanced:
1. Maintain follow-up contact.
2. Connect participants to other resources.
-Workforce Solutions Heart of Texas Myspace.
-Columbia-Greene Workforce NY Myspace.
-Worksource Vancouver (WA) Myspace.
Other examples:
Workforce Solutions Gulf Coast blog.
Huron County (OH) employment specialist interview by the Toledo Blade on Youtube.
Cumberland County (NC) Workforce Development montage on Youtube.
WorkOne Southeast (IN) youth commercial on Youtube.
Wise (VA) Workforce Center podcasts.
Showing posts with label Podcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Podcast. Show all posts
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
More Job Development
Here are additional resources from job development consultants, training organizations, and state agencies:
Allen Anderson articles at Dover Training Group & Employment Management Professionals. Check out the whole site. I like this from the DTG-EMP About Us page:
Job development powerpoint presentation to Oregon Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (OVRS).
Additional materials from OVRS.
Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) podcast, What Do Employers Want?
ICI article, Increasing Placement Through Professional Networking
Allen Anderson articles at Dover Training Group & Employment Management Professionals. Check out the whole site. I like this from the DTG-EMP About Us page:
- Job seekers do not have to be job ready to go to work. Plenty of people who were not job ready are working.
- A linear path works for the most able and a nonlinear path for the less able.
- We respond to the job market; the job market does not respond to us.
- Job development is sales and marketing, not education or counseling, although education and counseling are often sales and marketing.
- Employer needs are the keys to jobs, not candidate skills.
- Failing at a job is a good beginning, not a poor ending.
- The employer is the linchpin to jobs - gain control here and all is possible.
- The only absolute must in going to work is the motivation to work.
Job development powerpoint presentation to Oregon Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (OVRS).
Additional materials from OVRS.
Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) podcast, What Do Employers Want?
ICI article, Increasing Placement Through Professional Networking
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Word on the airwaves
Kai Ryssdal spoke with New York Times columnist David Leonhardt on Marketplace today about the distribution of job losses in the current recession.
Despite the focus on investment bankers and other financial positions, the numbers show the highest job losses are in fields like construction and retail which require less education.
The report asks the question, "Who's hit the worst by the recession?" and answers that it is the less-educated, men, and Latinos.
Despite the focus on investment bankers and other financial positions, the numbers show the highest job losses are in fields like construction and retail which require less education.
The report asks the question, "Who's hit the worst by the recession?" and answers that it is the less-educated, men, and Latinos.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Temp to perm: becoming indispensable
One of the surprises I encountered in job developing is the number of businesses that hire exclusively through temporary/placement agencies, including surprises such as retailers. In the office, I've heard many complaints from colleagues and customers that follow two general paths:
1. Staffing firms get paid X amount of dollars and only pay you half of it.
2. Staffing firms have it easy, because they can pick and choose their customers
These attitudes reflect mixed feelings about how staffing firms relate to government and non-profit employment programs. Many of us think that they are competitors. Others, including myself on objective and optimistic days, think they are a resource that is essentially the same as any other employer. They have the potential to be even better than a direct-hire employer, because they also have an incentive to make sure job seekers are hired.
These podcasts on employment retention from Express Employment Professionals demonstrate that staffing firms are also committed to making sure that job seekers find job security. Staffing firms need their employees to succeed, because they are part of the product being sold to clients.
Now we're back to the rivalry confusion. Staffing firms are selling their talent. As workforce development agencies, we are selling our talent. The difference is that we can sell our talent to the staffing firms. There is a relationship similar to wholesale and retail, or manufacturer and distributor. Staffing firms benefit from our talent due to the development we have already invested in them as job seekers: training, support services, career counseling and they deserve those benefits as all employers do.
1. Staffing firms get paid X amount of dollars and only pay you half of it.
2. Staffing firms have it easy, because they can pick and choose their customers
These attitudes reflect mixed feelings about how staffing firms relate to government and non-profit employment programs. Many of us think that they are competitors. Others, including myself on objective and optimistic days, think they are a resource that is essentially the same as any other employer. They have the potential to be even better than a direct-hire employer, because they also have an incentive to make sure job seekers are hired.
These podcasts on employment retention from Express Employment Professionals demonstrate that staffing firms are also committed to making sure that job seekers find job security. Staffing firms need their employees to succeed, because they are part of the product being sold to clients.
Now we're back to the rivalry confusion. Staffing firms are selling their talent. As workforce development agencies, we are selling our talent. The difference is that we can sell our talent to the staffing firms. There is a relationship similar to wholesale and retail, or manufacturer and distributor. Staffing firms benefit from our talent due to the development we have already invested in them as job seekers: training, support services, career counseling and they deserve those benefits as all employers do.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
All you really need to know pt. 2
I don't believe that this means that programs such as job training and GED preparation are useless. I agree though that they will not work without instilling fundamental social and behavioral skills in participants.
One challenge I have encountered as an Employment Specialist concerns resume development with job seekers who have erratic work histories. While exploring their experiences, common threads include a lack of lasting relationships with supervisor and coworkers, an indifference to details such as dates and addresses, and an inability to articulate job duties and accomplishments.
Where resume advice states to highlight outstanding achievements, these job seekers draw blanks.
If they bother to list references on applications, they only have personal ones to choose from.
As a tactic to pull out more information, give them an informal job interview. Rather than a mock interview, lead a conversation that asks questions such as "what were you proudest of at your last job?" or "what was hard about that position?" and follow-up until you get an answer that can be translated into an application, resume, and cover letter.
Inc.com has some good questions in their Top Job Interview Questions slideshow. My favorites:
How have you handled the last few difficult customers you've come across?
What is the most significant presentation you've given to clients?
With some tweaking, they can be directed at most job descriptions, and they give your customer the chance to talk about good things they've done.
By casually working through these kinds of questions, you will also begin preparing customers for interviews in a non-threatening manner. Customers should become comfortable speaking about their past jobs and sell themselves without trying to.
It is also important to review soft skills, such as showing up early, saying please and thank you, and writing thank you notes during the application process. For job retention, work on willingness to try new things and take direction, as well as building professional relationships.
Finally, I recognize some overlap between the traits Heckman finds important and the traits that Pixar looks for in their staff.
One challenge I have encountered as an Employment Specialist concerns resume development with job seekers who have erratic work histories. While exploring their experiences, common threads include a lack of lasting relationships with supervisor and coworkers, an indifference to details such as dates and addresses, and an inability to articulate job duties and accomplishments.
Where resume advice states to highlight outstanding achievements, these job seekers draw blanks.
If they bother to list references on applications, they only have personal ones to choose from.
As a tactic to pull out more information, give them an informal job interview. Rather than a mock interview, lead a conversation that asks questions such as "what were you proudest of at your last job?" or "what was hard about that position?" and follow-up until you get an answer that can be translated into an application, resume, and cover letter.
Inc.com has some good questions in their Top Job Interview Questions slideshow. My favorites:
How have you handled the last few difficult customers you've come across?
What is the most significant presentation you've given to clients?
With some tweaking, they can be directed at most job descriptions, and they give your customer the chance to talk about good things they've done.
By casually working through these kinds of questions, you will also begin preparing customers for interviews in a non-threatening manner. Customers should become comfortable speaking about their past jobs and sell themselves without trying to.
It is also important to review soft skills, such as showing up early, saying please and thank you, and writing thank you notes during the application process. For job retention, work on willingness to try new things and take direction, as well as building professional relationships.
Finally, I recognize some overlap between the traits Heckman finds important and the traits that Pixar looks for in their staff.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
All you really need to know pt. 1
James J. Heckman is a Nobel Prizewinning economist at the University of Chicago.
From his bio: "His recent research deals with such issues as evaluation of social programs, econometric models of discrete choice and longitudinal data, the economics of the labor market, and alternative models of the distribution of income."
Heckman is featured in a This American Life episode, "Going Big", in reference to a social program in New York City that is trying to solve urban poverty through early childhood intervention.
Heckman's work is cited in "Going Big" for his finding that traditional approaches to poverty such as job training are ineffective. Correspondent Paul Tough states:
"The premise behind job training is that young people who can't find a good job are just missing one particular skill or body of knowledge; teach them that and they'll be fine. What Heckman found is that the people in these programs had a much bigger problem. There were some very basic skills and abilities that they had never learned. And it was hard for them to absorb anything new without those skills."
Heckman reports that the missing skills included "the ability to communicate, to solve simple mathematical puzzles, to understand how to even read the newspaper, as well as the non-cognitive: self control, motivation, the ability to get out of bed, to show up at work on time, to engage and be open to ideas. These traits were in very serious short supply for individuals that I was looking at."
From his bio: "His recent research deals with such issues as evaluation of social programs, econometric models of discrete choice and longitudinal data, the economics of the labor market, and alternative models of the distribution of income."
Heckman is featured in a This American Life episode, "Going Big", in reference to a social program in New York City that is trying to solve urban poverty through early childhood intervention.
Heckman's work is cited in "Going Big" for his finding that traditional approaches to poverty such as job training are ineffective. Correspondent Paul Tough states:
"The premise behind job training is that young people who can't find a good job are just missing one particular skill or body of knowledge; teach them that and they'll be fine. What Heckman found is that the people in these programs had a much bigger problem. There were some very basic skills and abilities that they had never learned. And it was hard for them to absorb anything new without those skills."
Heckman reports that the missing skills included "the ability to communicate, to solve simple mathematical puzzles, to understand how to even read the newspaper, as well as the non-cognitive: self control, motivation, the ability to get out of bed, to show up at work on time, to engage and be open to ideas. These traits were in very serious short supply for individuals that I was looking at."
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