A Hamburger Today...or Two on Tuesday?

I'm catching up on the July posts that I promised! If you're having trouble waiting, there is bad news in store. Self-control and delayed gratification may be connected to success in life, according to a long-term study described in this New Yorker article by Jonah Lehrer.

In May, I accompanied a job seeker on a job hunting trip. We picked some employers in a nearby neighborhood and hit the sidewalk with resumes in hand. She was dressed nicely, business casual with a spring flair, and she had taken the time to fix her hair and makeup. It was a noticeable effort that I complimented. Then, she said, "And I can't smoke, right?"

That's right!

The next hour and a half was a battle over an extreme example of self-control: resisting nicotine addiction. She made it to 7 businesses before I let her have her cigarette reward. At that point, she looked through her purse and found that she had lost her last one.

Along the way on our trip, she found a twenty dollar bill on the sidewalk. That made the lost cigarette a minor disappointment.

While cigarette cravings are not the type of impulse referenced in the New Yorker article, the situation helped me link the study with employment services. What kind of impact, I wondered, could an inability to delay gratification have on a job seeker?

Some ideas:

1. Unrealistic expectation of a short job search; frustration grows as time goes on.

2. A lack of long-term planning; no investment in training, education, or working oneself up from entry-level.

3. Disassociation between the effort necessary to apply and the reward of being hired; there may be too large a gap between the action (targeted resume and cover letter, fully completed application, follow-up calls or visits, interviewing) and the result (job offer).

This is where an employment plan with short-term goals -make a big deal about checking them off- can pay off.

Employment specialist, unplugged

The New Yorker is emerging as my main source for ideas that can be adapted to workforce development. It's fitting since I love Malcolm Gladwell.

This article by John Colapinto (also good), "Brain Games, The Marco Polo of neuroscience," is a fun look into contemporary research on autism, atemnophilia (a compulsion to amputate healthy limbs), and other conditions. The research is described as evidence of the brilliance of Dr. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran. He is certainly smart. The details of how he works are the most interesting part:

"Ramachandran listened closely as Jamieson talked about his condition. In a specialty that today relies chiefly on the power of multimillion-dollar imaging machines to peer deep inside the brain, Ramachandran is known for his low-tech method, which often involves little more than interviews with patients and a few hands-on tests -an approach that he traces to his medical education in India, in the nineteen-seventies, when expensive diagnostic machines were scarce. 'The lack of technology actually forces you to be ingenious," he told me. 'You have to rely on your clinical acumen. You have to use your Sherlock Holmes-like deductive abilities to figure things out."

Job seekers need computers: resumes and cover letters, craigslist, indeed, employer websites, email contact, linkedin, etc.

Employment specialists need computers: tracking databases, matching job seekers to openings, skills assessments, reading blogs, etc.

But can we get by without them?

Now that I'm working in Supported Employment, I'm encouraged/required to get out of the office and work with customers in other settings: meet with employers, going out to submit applications together, onsite job coaching. It's still hard to get away from the computer, and I realize there are things that I do in my cubicle that don't have to be done there.

Employment plans, reviewing job leads, resume reviews, mock interviews, counseling... Really, if a jobseeker is computer literate (word processing and internet), all employment specialist-job seeker interaction can take place without a computer nearby. The exception would be assisting individuals who cannot edit their own resumes or submit online applications (even then there are other options for applying). The only currently essential task that requires computers is data entry for internal program reasons, not for direct services.

By interacting with the jobseeker free of the computer distractions, one of Ramachandran's techniques pops up: you can listen more closely.

Getting away from the computer also prevents one of my professional fears: that my role as an employment specialist becomes simply a middle-man for craigslist posts and support services.

Something else came to mind as I reread the piece for this post. Ramachandran frequently uses mirrors to manipulate how a subject perceives him or herself. I wonder how having mirrors present would affect discussions about the proper way to dress for job searching and interviewing. Mirrors may also have an impact in building self-awareness and hopefully self-esteem.

Rags to Riches in 15 days!

I recently read Get Hired Fast: Tap the Hidden Job Market in 15 Days by Brian Graham, which I acquired as an impulse buy at FedEx Office. I bought it after skimming through and seeing that it focused on cold calling, which is a common deficiency in job searches. It is taxing to make enough cold calls to get good at it, and people generally stay away from doing things they are not good at, which leads to few cold calls.

According to Get Hired Fast, it is a mistake to shy away from cold calls, and I agree. The book's strong suit is its support for cold calling as the focus of a job search strategy, from researching employers to developing a script for calls. It's all part of a regiment that prescribes a short (3 weeks) but concentrated (150 calls) calling campaign.

There are 2 things I've started to tell job seekers lately. The first is that job search is what they do outside of my cubicle (meaning that they need to be active outside of our visits). The second is that of all the job seekers who have found jobs while in our program over the last year, only 1 has gotten a job from online-only sources. All the others have used personal contacts (including job developed by employment specialists), walk-in visits (including in-person visits to employers advertising online), or cold-calls to find open positions that they've applied for and gotten.

Get Hired Fast corroborates this position that job seekers need to get away from the computer as much as possible. Unfortunately, cold calling is only the subject of half the book. The rest of the pages are repeats of standard job seeking advice about interviewing and responding to job offers. This highlights the difficulty with cold-calling; even a book about cold-calling needs a little sugar to help the medicine go down. Instead of this generic advice, I wish it would have included more about script writing and more about dealing with rejection. It honestly states that there will be a lot of rejection.

Get Hired Fast is also like a guide to losing 10 pounds or quitting smoking. It tells you what to do and it tells you how to do it. It doesn't make it easy or fun, though, and the hard work is up to you. If you're advocating for job seekers to make cold calls, I recommend checking it out from a library; it is not essential to have it permanently on your bookshelf.

As a bonus, it can help with job development, where cold calling skills are useful.

The employment specialist world of tomorrow, expanded

Michele Martin presented a workshop on Using Free Internet Technologies to Support Customer Job Searches and Provide High Quality Services at this year's Garden State Employment and Training Association Conference (GSETA). It's a great how-to for following through with using social media and other web tools for workforce development services. Check the conference wiki for the handouts to the other workshops as well.

Here is the outstanding GSETA blog.

Labor Pains

"We have declared war on work..."

I watched this TED video featuring Mike Rowe ("Dirty Jobs" tv show host) a few weeks ago. As I was trying to come up with a way to fit it into a post, last Sunday's New York Times Magazine came out and featured a related story on blue collar work.

In the TED video, Rowe describes things he has learned from interviewing and working alongside blue collar workers. He also discusses the need to promote vocational training in order to supply the next generation of skilled labor. Be prepared for a story about sheep castration (dirty job); the story is told cleanly enough for the professional TED crowd.

The above quote is followed by 4 points from Rowe:
1. Hollywood and other media have a history of devaluing jobs such as plumbing
2. Advertising sells a leisure attitude that paints work as something to escape.
3. Government can promote/impede access or growth of industries
4. Tools (tech) are changing.

In the New York Times story, Matthew Crawford recounts his experiences as a Ph.D in political philosophy who works as a motorcycle mechanic. He also adds to his first person account a discussion of the decline in trades and vocational education.

Along with recent government pushes for infrastructure improvement projects and green manufacturing jobs, it is interesting to see media promotion turning to less glamourous jobs, which is what Rowe calls for.

2nd Opinions

Last month, we had a recruiter from Comcast speak to a group of jobseekers about HR's perspective in the job search process. The jobseekers gave their full attention as she spoke about many of the job search strategies we try to teach every day. The fresh voice, and the recruiter's power to hire, helped the lessons sink in.

An unemployed accountant I worked with (college degree plus 20 years of experience) was disillusioned with the lack of feedback from employers he interviewed with, so I pointed him to a book on "insider secrets" from an HR veteran.

Today, I was exploring online and found some more advice from the recruiting field. Punk Rock HR led me to Peopleshark, where Carmen Hudson wrote some Cold, Hard Truth for Jobseekers in January.

What struck me most: "If you don't have a real network of people you know, have lunch or drinks with, who know your work, you're up a creek without a paddle."
I've met many jobseekers with such poor ties to their job history that they can't remember supervisors' names for their applications, and they never stayed in a job long enough to form real relationships with coworkers.

Also, from the comments on that post: "Some jobs that are posted or advertised are destined to be filled internally; advertising was just for show and you never had a chance."

Recent News Round-up

Onestops continue to be swamped across the country.

Schenectady, NY: Residents wait hours — and sometimes more than half a day — in lines that stretch to the door. (Also a cautionary tale about service consolidation)

San Bernardino, CA: Harmsen said the number of job seekers coming to the county's workforce investment board center's has more than doubled since last year.

Butler County, OH: In August 2008, an average of 194 people came to the Workforce One's WIA orientations. In January, a record-setting 272 people attended orientations, which are held twice a week. In February, that record was broken when 324 people attended, and in March it is estimated that as many as 450 people attended Workforce One's WIA orientation.

Muskogee, OK: Workforce Oklahoma job skills facilitator Jessie Keenon said her weekly job search classes are attracting 24 or 25 people when they used to attract five to 10 people.

Maricopa County, AZ: Last month, Maricopa Workforce Connections had more than 13,500 customer visits, up 100 percent compared to last year and the numbers are expected to continue to rise.

Rick Wagoner, Call Michigan Works!

This New York Times article over the weekend got me thinking about a couple of things. First, it raised an employment specialist crisis of faith. These happen occasionally when I read about millionaires who are younger than me or professionals who dropped everything to become rafting guides or, in this case, private career coaches who work with CEO's. One CEO's severance package included $40,000 towards job placement services. He could hire an employment specialist for a year at that price.

At first hearing, it sounds like an easy task: find work for someone who has years of prior success.

Thinking further, though, I looked at it from optimistic and pessimistic views in relation to working with "universal customers."

Quick brainstorming:

What CEO's bring that can help:
1. Networking contacts and references
2. Verifiable experience
3. Advanced education/training

What CEO's bring that can hurt:
1. High expectations (title, responsibility, salary, success)
2. Pride
3. Fewer options (narrow career fields, fewer openings)

In fact, the article argues, “The higher up you are,” said Dr. Madaus, whose company employs 6,000, “the longer it takes to find a new job.”

I also thought about what onestops would have to offer a CEO. The article mentions benefits to CEO's from their job search firms that sound very similar to the onestop benefits in last week's MSNBC article on Worksource Portland Metro East:

1. Social connections
2. Ongoing motivation
3. Sense of normalcy
4. Coaching

Workforce development serves a variety of populations that seem unique but frequently overlap and ultimately share attributes and needs: youth, adults, homeless, dislocated, transitioning, offenders, migrants, veterans, seniors, immigrants, etc.

Finally, contemplating how I would work with a CEO recalls a case management exercise I've used informally, Celebrity Job Search. Name a celebrity or fictional character and then complete an assessment and employment plan based on their known strengths and weaknesses.

Wanted: More Sunny Days In Portland

Here's a good article on what it's like in onestops these days: Job center struggles with massive need. Even better, its from my (new) hometown workforce system.

Reporter Allison Linn does a good job of covering the toll on staff, the broad mix of customers, the blend of hope and uncertainty, and the variety of benefits available (from the obvious - training and job leads - to the overlooked - a place to be social and escape the loneliness of unemployment).

Reminder: Worksystems, Inc. has a blog, too.

And we're back: Self-Motivation and Employment Services

While on vacation and reading through old magazines, I found an article in a 2008 Men's Health about motivation that can be applied to onestop customers.

The article, The Psychology of Motivation, compares the techniques of a successful college football coach with self-determination theory first articulated and later refined by psychologists at the University of Rochester.

The article highlights three factors of self-determination theory that can be applied to program planning and case management:

1. Autonomy: "the choice to do it was made by you, not somebody else." Self-motivated individuals will do better than those who are simply serving a parole/probation officer, case manager, or fulfilling other requirements imposed on them by others. Part of assessment should be to gauge what motivates a customer. Is it external or internal, or a combination of both? Program language, materials, and activities should emphasize the personal benefits of employment and training.

2. Competence: "you know what you're doing, or at least are becoming better at it." Job-search is a challenging activity with many opportunities for feeling like a failure, such as rejection letters and tough interviews. Customers need to feel prepared for the challenge, and need practice that will build confidence. Verbal praise, achievable short-term goals, and other confidence boosters will help customers stay motivated.

3. Relatedness: "the activity connects you in some way to the other people." Unemployment and job-search are isolating activities. Self-directed work in a onestop can continue that feeling of being on one's own. Tools to combat this by providing interconnectedness include case management (with a consistent relationship between staff and customer) and group activities: workshops, networking, training, etc. Jobseekers who are part of a group will push each other to work harder and can create rewarding relationships that bring another motivation to continue in the group.

Another interesting item from self-determination theory is the idea that outside influences can undermine intrinsic motivation. Incentives and support services need to be carefully distributed in order to hold their value as tools for jobseeking.

Also, a major point of the article is that a person is more likely to do something if they consider it fun than if they find it to be a chore (makes sense, doesn't it?). The challenge for employment specialists is to turn job search into something fun.

Keep on truckin'

The current job market and poor economy overall will equal stressful times for Employment Specialists working directly with frustrated job seekers. In addition to the hard work of motivating and counseling job seekers as the job search stretches onward, Employment Specialists face the burden of feeling like their efforts are not yielding results. All of these factors put Employment Specialists at risk of burning out.

I did some searching and found information on burnout in jobs such as human services, teaching, and counseling. I also found tips for avoiding burnout.

The Addiction Technology Transfer Center (established by SAMHSA in 1993) dedicates part of their website to Burnout and Compassion Fatigue, including definitions, signs/symptoms, and self-care. The site also provides management tips for keeping staff content and productive.

Social Work Burnout provides an overview and links to resources provided by an MSW with firsthand and research knowledge of burnout.

Fried Social Worker is less formal in design but has serious content. It also has lots of self care, humor, and relaxation content.

There is also an interesting journal article (and likely many more) from the Journal of Counseling & Development. Here is the abstract:

The Relationship of Work Environment and Client Contact to Burnout in Mental Health Professionals.
Explored the relationship of the work environment and client contact to scores of mental health professionals on the Emotional Exhaustion, Personal Accomplishment, and Depersonalization subscales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Work environments associated with low levels of general burnout were those in which workers were strongly committed to work, coworker relationships were encouraged, and supervisory relationships were supportive.

Journal access is required to read the article. I went through the ERIC database via my Multnomah County Library membership. Haven't visited a library in a while? In addition to saving money vs. buying books, many now provide services such as online journal access and streaming movies and audio.

The findings in this article about commitment to work, coworker relationships and supervisory relationships remind me of an organizational assessment from Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in Breaking All the Rules.

Questions they ask are:
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I recieved recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?

And you can get it, if you try

Last week's New Yorker included a good primer on employment and wages during recessions.

James Surowiecki writes about wages increasing in the midst of layoffs, which is a constant he traces back to the Great Depression.

One difference he finds in recent years is that productivity has risen even as employment has fallen. He cites the just-in-time economy -a major shift in recent manufacturing and trade- as allowing increased production without increased investment in labor.

An Oregon workforce analyst recently told a group of Employment Specialists about "jobless recovery" that economists have observed in recent recessions: the economy bounces back more slowly and with fewer jobs than there were before the recession. Surowiecki notes in this article that "while the economy grew at a respectable rate for much of this decade, hiring did not."

For Employment Specialists, this means the long-term challenge of limited opportunities for job seekers, with a small silver lining in that those who find jobs and keep them are likely to see earnings increases over time.

Natural Born Job Developer

One of my fellow Employment Specialists brought a take-out sandwich back to the office last week, and she started raving about how good it was as soon as she took the first bite. What was the first thing she did after she finished her lunch? She called the restaurant and told them how great the sandwich was.

Another time, we received poor service at a nearby pizza place, and she politely reported that she was used to much better at that restaurant. She didn't make them feel bad or threaten to take her business elsewhere, and she even tipped.

Any time we walk down the street or visit a public place, she runs into 2 or 3 people she knows, because she's met people everywhere and she meets more every day.

She's great at approaching employers, because she really values the work they do and is not afraid to let them know this.

Her personal interest in everyone reminds me of posts I've seen from the Sales by 5 blog. Sales by 5 was one of the consultants working on rebranding a workforce investment board I interacted with in Texas. The team there is also not shy about having meaningful interactions with the places where they shop, eat, and play. Here are some related posts on how they react to good and bad service:
Smart Phones - A Slacker's Enemy
An Open Letter to Steve Wynn And Joy
What Happens After a Mistake Matters Most
Systems Need to Make Sense

Sales by 5 also has advice on getting past the gatekeeper, which can translate from sales to job developing.

Changes

Friday's New York Times article "Job Losses Hint at Vast Remaking of Economy" has me thinking about the workforce of the past.

It begins with this assessment of the present:

“These jobs aren’t coming back,” said John E. Silvia, chief economist at Wachovia in Charlotte, N.C. “A lot of production either isn’t going to happen at all, or it’s going to happen somewhere other than the United States. There are going to be fewer stores, fewer factories, fewer financial services operations. Firms are making strategic decisions that they don’t want to be in their businesses.”

And says:

"This dynamic has proved true in past recessions as well, with fading industries pushed to the brink during downturns before others emerged to create jobs when economic growth inevitably resumed."

My questions are:

1. Aside from manufacturing (which is a huge loss), what industries have been lost in the past 50 or 100 years?
2. What were the 10 largest industries (by percent of employment) at regular intervals during the past 100 years?
3. Once we identify those industries that have been lost, which were lost to competition/trade (such as manufacturing moving overseas) and which were lost to obsolescence?

I would appreciate suggestions of workforce history resources that could help answer these questions.

Senior Class '09

Here's a Wall Street Journal article on the growing ranks of unemployed senior citizens, which coincides with more older people staying in the workforce.

The article mentions the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) and service providers Experience Works and Senior Employment Center (Cleveland).

Writer Clare Anberry reports on the difficulties that seniors have in finding employment, mentioning that seniors have a hard time convincing others that they can work, but she also focuses on physical ailments that limit the abilities of those workers featured in the article. Readers may judge that these seniors aren't working because they aren't capable of fulfilling their job duties. Also, while the article states that the SCSEP only has enough funding to serve 1% of the citizens who may be eligible, there is a larger focus on workers who have spent years in SCSEP programs without progressing to unsubsidized employment.

Older workers are part of the changing workforce, but workforce initiatives such as retraining, IT jobs, and green jobs don't always include objectives for serving the oldest workers.

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.

Check, please.

A stack of clipped articles on my dresser includes The Checklist by Atul Gawande, a New Yorker article from December 2007 about the lives saved in hospitals that implemented checklists to follow for routine procedures.

It is a process similar to pilots' pre-flight checklists which have existed since the 1930's according to the article. The checklist did not start its jump to acceptance in hospital ICU's, however, until 2001, when Peter Provonost started a checklist to tackle a specific infection at Johns Hopkins. Buoyed by strong results (meaning lives saved), Peter has become a champion of checklists. In essence, they work because if you make sure to do all the little steps correctly, the larger goal is completed. Skip one step in a series, however minor, and the project is in jeopardy. Gawande writes:

"...you have a desperately sick patient, and in order to have a chance of saving him you have to make sure that a hundred and seventy-eight daily tasks are done right—despite some monitor’s alarm going off for God knows what reason, despite the patient in the next bed crashing, despite a nurse poking his head around the curtain to ask whether someone could help “get this lady’s chest open.”"

I kept the article for several reasons.

1. A case management checklist can ensure that staff complete their tasks while having the freedom to work without a supervisor looking over their shoulders. Think you can expect staff to do everything they need to with all their customers every time? In his first study, Provonost asked nurses to record doctors' actions in the ICU. They reported that "in more than a third of patients, they skipped at least one [step]."

2. Consistent case management is part of great customer service, and customers should receive equal access to services. Individualized service should be based on the needs and goals determined through standardized assessments and procedures.

3. Workforce development has high stakes. Onestops, community colleges, basic education programs, and other partners can make life-changing impacts on job seekers, employers, and communities.

Better working through chemistry

Someone recently told me about an interview she conducted where the candidate gave many intimate details of her life and was horrifyingly candid about her past employer. The candidate was eliminated due to the performance, but the Program Manager conducting the interview was so concerned about the candidate's frankness that she contacted the candidate afterwards to advise her never to do that in an interview again.

Last fall, a job seeker reported to a colleague after an interview that the hiring manager told him on the way out that he shouldn't be so nervous and shy in the future.

Both applicants were lucky to get feedback, because most employers disappear like a bad date.

"I'll call you."
"Don't call us, we'll call you."
"You should hear something in the next week or two."

Susan Kreimer explores the dating metaphor in an article on interview chemistry.

It touches on being personable without being too personal, as well as the focus for "getting the right fit" when hiring.

In this job market, and when working with populations with severe barriers to employment, we need to be generous when determining the right fit: it includes complementary work styles and backgrounds and doesn't mean that all staff are from the same mold.

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.

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."