TRAINING

Often times, TANF agencies focus much of their attention on regulation and compliance issues when it comes to running an effective TANF program.  Yet, to meet the federally mandated work participation rate, the program has to motivate customers to want to be there.  At this session, we will examine how to motivate welfare clients to meet their required hours.  You will leave with motivational strategies that help the program and the customer.

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TANF recipients have a limit of six weeks in a year of job search activities.  This will soon be limited to hours rather than weeks.  Although customers need to build more effective job getting skills, when you examine their prior work histories, the larger issue is their job retention.  Often customers are not engaged at the training, they frequently miss, use excused absences and even quit coming.  At this session, you will get hands on activities that can be taught in a classroom setting that build job retention skills.  Because the activities are engaging and are not lecture in format, you will be adding fun and excitement to your classes.

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This workshop is designed to show you how to substantially increase traffic through your one stop – both from employers as well as job seekers.  You will learn how to develop and implement a successful, low-cost promotion plan.  You’ll get specific suggestions about which kinds of marketing activities to do, how, what and when to advertise.  You will construct a promotional plan and several promotional pieces.

This immensely popular workshop has been attended by more than 9,000 social services professionals.  Attenders discover dozens of practical, low-cost and simple tactics to recruit plenty of clients to education, social services or job training programs.  

You will learn advertising do’s and don’ts, how to develop effective advertising messages, techniques for successful networking and how to get the client through the intake process – a crucial point since most job training agencies lose over half of their recruits during the various phases of intake.

Self-directed job placement has been the trend but simply isn’t enough for clients who have major barriers to employment or who live in areas with high jobless rates.  Staff must take the lead and seek out job openings, "sell" employers on particular clients, and maintain good relationships, even when placements turn out badly. 

You'll learn practical and innovative ways to "position" your program in the community; identify job openings; use telemarketing and direct mail; make sales calls that get results; match clients to jobs; keep employers engaged to improve job retention; and satisfy employers so they will hire from you repeatedly. Lots of examples and exercises.

This workshop outlines the most successful methods in recruiting dislocated workers into workforce development programs.  The key is to relieve stress by offering the hope of returning to work without losing all the worker has achieved in life.  You will learn how to reach workers who are in denial, are angry or depressed.  You will learn how to increase the number of dislocated workers who come in right away rather than wait for their unemployment check to run out.  

You will leave with dozens of ideas on how to develop a successful marketing campaign, how to lead an inspiring orientation and how to increase your response rate while keeping costs low.  You’ll learn words never to use in marketing to dislocated workers and much more.  Lots of practical examples and exercises.

The trend in workforce development programs is to provide services beyond placement yet many customers believe that when they get a job, the program is over.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  It’s difficult to provide post-placement and advancement services to clients who don’t see the benefits of them.  Customers are difficult to find, don’t return phone calls, and want job training staff to simply leave them alone.  

Come learn how to reposition your services so customers see the benefits, want to be involved beyond placement and stay involved.  Get examples of techniques that you can use.

Welfare recipients are difficult to motivate to truly join workforce development programs.  Mandates might work to get them to make initial contact, but selling them on true participation is tough.  They fall by the wayside.  They leave orientation never to be seen again.  

At this session you will learn how to inspire them to join in the true sense.  You will learn how to effectively sell your services in a motivational way, and how to overcome resistance.  You will get sample direct mail letters, telephone scripts, orientation materials and motivational devices. 

In a one-stop environment successful job development requires collaborative effort among multiple agencies.  Job developers who have “belonged” to specific agencies, funding streams and customer populations need to learn strategies and techniques that lead to placement regardless of who the job seeker “belongs” to.  This workshop will explore how to build a system that integrates employer services in a one-stop environment.  Multiple agencies within the Workforce Development system are providing services to employers.   

At this session we will examine seven steps of integrating services.  You will learn what services to sell, how to sell them, and get ideas for addressing the key issues around integration.  

Meeting performance under the Workforce Investment Act is difficult.  There are seventeen standards across five groups including employers.  Standards are made or lost up to twelve months following exit.  Who gets registered directly impacts performance.   Staff need to understand the implications of the decisions they make in terms of recruitment and moving clients through the three layers of service.  Careful decisions must be made concerning who to recruit and register, when and who to exit.  

Yet, many staff aren’t knowledgeable about the standards to understand the connection between registration, exit and performance.  At this session, you will learn not only what the standards are but more importantly what you can do to positively impact your performance.  

We will look at strategies to meet employment, retention, earnings gain, credentials and customer service.  Plus we will look at strategies to meet the youth standards.   We will take quizzes to test your understanding and will examine cases.

This valuable seminar focuses entirely on motivating clients to take charge of their lives, improve their educations and find and keep jobs.  

This session builds on the six factors that directly impact motivation.  We will look at techniques that the private sector uses when they sell behavior change services such as smoking cessation or weight loss and how you can apply those techniques to your program.  

You will leave knowing the five assumptions about motivation, the six factors that impact motivation, five steps to building effective recognition programs, how to create a “motivational” assessment and seven ways to use it.  You will get lots of examples and tools you can take back and use them right away.

Training and job placement just aren’t enough to help low income people reach self-sufficiency.  Studies show the vast majority are unemployed or stuck in dead-end jobs a year after leaving TANF.  Fortunately, new research and innovative programs reveal practical strategies that move low income people farther and faster toward self-sufficiency.  

This session will look at what post-placement services need to be offered to help clients retain and advance in jobs.  You will leave with a sample advancement plan in hand that you can use with clients, techniques for building retention into the placement process and strategies for involving the employer.  This session takes staff from the point of placement a year on the job.

Learn the basics of helping dislocated workers rebuild their lives, obtain training and education, and gain employment. 

You will learn how to hold effective orientations, quick and easy assessment techniques, plus how to decide who is appropriate for retraining. You will also learn counseling techniques for the five stages of the dislocation experience and how to help these laid-off workers set realistic employment goals. 

We will cover factors that influence how workers react to job loss, how to identify workers in crisis and how to get workers to join programs before their unemployment runs out.