KCSpeaks

For many years, I worked directly with job seekers doing case management, job development, and general helping of people so to speak. Everyone had a story. Each customer came in with a different theory as to why he was not employed. Some stories were great stories- passionate tales of true crime, conspiracies, discrimination, missing skill sets, and the ever popular blaming of congress.   I have heard so many, but why can’t some people get a job offer?   It doesn’t matter what your position is at the One-Stop, everyone’s job is to help people become employed. That means figuring out why someone can’t seem to get a job. The list can be endless, but this feat usually requires detective work.   The questions, the analytics, the labor market information, could all be part of the equation in my calculation, but nothing that I have ever done to figure people out has helped me as much as having been part of hiring myself.   Since making the transition to middle ma...

Employment Plan (EP), Individual Employment Plan (IEP) - whatever you call it should be eliminated from workforce development policy. Do you think that’s a bold statement? Here's why. The nature of an Employment Plan calls for a case management staff to sit down with a job seeker and tell the job seeker what he has to do to get a job. The steps are all laid out. Once a job seeker gets job, the Employment Plan is useless. Goal achieved. Another plan would have to be created for any future career goals and again, they have the start and end dates. Plan over. So where does that leave the newly employed person? Helpless and set up for failure. Why is this? Because the nature of the employment plan does not give the person the tools to be successful on the job. It does not showcase what an employee needs to do be successful. In my one stop, many of the folks that visit the center can get a job, but how many can keep a job? How are employment plans helping people develop the skill...