WHICH OF THESE TEN CAREER SELF-SABOTAGING BEHAVIORS ARE HOLDING YOU AND

 YOUR JOB SEEKERS BACK?

Sometimes the biggest barriers to career progress are not external factors like the amount of competition in the workplace, but in the ways that we and our job seekers think and behave.  

This article provides a good checklist to make sure these problems are not blocking you or your job seekers from getting the most out of your career.  

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A CANDIDATE TO BE INTERVIEWED?

The evaluation of your job seekers starts long before they are invited to an interview. Your job seekers can make many mistakes that can cause an employer to decide not to interview them.  This helpful article is important reading for you and your job seekers. 

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HOW DO YOU MANAGE THROUGH A DISASTER?

A manager never knows when a natural or human made disaster will hit their organization.  Very few managers know the principles of disaster management.  I had to deal with this when I was managing a large employment program at the time the Loma Prieta earthquake hit the Bay Area in California.  I lost my apartment and half of my staff lost theirs as well.  Some people lost loved ones in the collapse of the Cypress freeway.  On top of these personal tragedies, the quake put thousands of people out of work who then showed up at our doors.  It was very challenging to help people when we were in so much pain and trauma.  I wish I had known about this resource.  Its must reading for all managers and employees as well.  

 Click here for the resource >>>

EFFECTIVE MENTORING?

 

Mentoring is a powerful strategy for our job seekers and us.  A good mentor program can make incredible contributions to employment program outcomes and workplaces.  This article will take you through the essential elements that should be in place to make mentoring work.  

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A SCAM?

 

More and more people are being scammed in the job search process.  Scammers have many reasons for using fraudulent jobs.  They may want to get you to buy something and calling you for an interview actually results in you being at a sales meeting!  They may want to get personal information they can use for identity fraud.  There are other reasons as well.  

You and your job seekers need to be able to tell the difference between a real and scam offer and this article will give you that important information. 

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Job Clubs are very effective program element for workforce programs, if you know the best practices for doing them.  Too many Job Clubs end up with poor attendance because people do not know how to run them properly.  

If you want your Job Club to be standing room only and an effective asset to improving job search outcomes, click here.

 

The Employment Strategies Evidence Review website is a unique searchable database to help identify effective strategies for assisting all types of people in finding and keeping jobs. The site provides an assessment of more than 300 studies of employment and training programs, with ratings assigned to each study based on the strength of evidence it presents for the effectiveness of a program.  This is an incredible compilation of best practice information.  If you want to improve your program outcomes, be sure to check out this resource.

 

Most workforce programs are not well equipped to deal with domestic violence.  Besides being a life or death issue, domestic violence is also a huge barrier to employment and job retention.  It is estimated that 8 million days of work a year are lost to domestic violence!  You can learn more domestic violence by going to the website of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

This excellent guide developed by Wider Opportunities for Women is filled with important information on this topic for workforce development professionals. 

 

The Madera County Workforce Investment Corporation is a very nimble and creative organization.  I recently worked with their staff and management providing training and consulting on business services.  I was impressed with how the organization was willing to totally redesign its job seeker and business services.  Many workforce organizations are very slow to change.  I have not seen that many organizations in our field that are willing to completely reinvent the way they do business.  There is a lot of tweaking, but reinventing is rare. 

 

The staff and management of this organization, under the leadership of Executive Director Elaine Craig, entered into an extensive process of talking with job seekers and business people to find out how to serve them better.  Every aspect of their staffing and business services was up for review and analysis.  They did not let tradition become a roadblock to change.  They used the principles of Human Centered Design to guide their work.  I think their successful experience should inspire other workforce organizations to reevaluate their entire approach. 

 

The old way of thinking in workforce development is to say, "If it is not broke, do not fix it."  The new way of thinking is to say, "It is always broke and there are better ways to do it." This article explains how they put that principle into practice at the Madera County Workforce Investment Corporation.  

Click here for the article.

Job shadowing is one of the best job readiness and career exploration activities.  There are many best practices and resources that can help you recruit employers and make the job shadowing experience as meaningful as possible.  While this information brief is focused on youth with disabilities, the job shadowing information will be very helpful to people working with all types of youth and adult job seekers.  Click here for more information.

BAD BOSSES?  

We often talk about the problems job seekers face, but we rarely talk about the challenge of working for a bad boss.  I worked for a boss that was an alcoholic and it almost caused some very serious health problems for me.  I finally had to quit.  You and your job seekers will encounter a range of excellent, good and bad bosses in the journey through the world of work.  Bad bosses can be found at all levels in employers, but they are most common in entry level positions where there is not enough screening and training to put the right people in those jobs.  Employee retention problems are often bad boss problems.  You need to give people these strategies for surviving the bad boss so they can stay in their jobs until they are ready to leave on their own terms.  Click here for the article.

 

The highlight of my work recently was being invited to present at the California Workforce Association Youth Conference.  I have been very fortunate to be invited to present at this conference since it started many years ago.  The conference is becoming extremely popular and this year it drew over 500 people including many that came from outside of California.  I presented a special preconference session of my new training, Through Disconnected Eyes ( click here for a description of the training).  For those of you not familiar with the term disconnected youth, it refers to youth ages 16 to 24 that are out of school and out of work.  Many of these are also disconnected from their families.  These youth are also referred to as opportunity youth to reflect the opportunities that we can help them achieve.  According to the last Measure of America report there are 5.8 million disconnected youth in America.  That figure represents one out of every seven youth and the numbers are growing. 

 

I spent a lot of time talking with hundreds of these youth about what they knew or did not know about workforce programs, what kept them from accessing or staying in these programs and what they wanted from our organizations.  The results of those conversations shaped the training Through Disconnected Eyes.  It is very clear we are missing the mark about how to serve these youth.  What they want is very different from what we are offering them.

 

We often talk in workforce development about being demand driven by what employers want, but there is no discussion about being demand driven when it comes to youth.  We have to talk with them and make them our teachers in order to serve them in ways that mean something to them.  My workshop room was filled with innovative ideas from the attendees.  We all learned a lot in that session! 

 

I also presented The Top Five Complaints Employers Have About Youth Employment Programs and What You Can Do About Them!  This workshop was also standing room only.  It featured feedback from many employers about what they saw lacking in the job developers and business services representatives that tried to get them to use their workforce services.  The session was filled with insights from my work with employers about what we need to do to engage them with youth employment services and the best practices of the attendees.

 

There were dozens of important workshops and keynotes covering many aspects of youth workforce development at the conference.  I want to thank the California Workforce Association, Executive Director Bob Lanter and the Conference Curator John Baker for inviting me to be a part of this great event.  The conference is always held in January.  You will see information about it posted on the California Workforce Association website.  I hope to see you there next year!

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