Handouts about Staffing Agencies -- download HERE!

Here are the links to the handouts Lorel mentioned in the previous post. We hope you will find them useful for your staff and clients.

Caritas of Austin Staffing Agency Overview

Employment Agencies Overview by Lutheran Family Services of Colorado

Leave a comment with any ideas, resources or links you use in your work with staffing agencies.

What About Staffing Agencies?

I find this a difficult topic to get a handle on. To be honest, Caritas hasn’t been very successful in helping clients get work through staffing agencies. I recently picked the brains of several Austin staffing agencies and refugee employment colleagues, including Jaci Hernandez with Lutheran Family Services in Colorado, who comes from a staffing agency background. JACKPOT! She gave me great ideas, which I’ll attempt to share here.

Caritas strategy has been to explain the process and advantages to clients and let them apply on their own. It has been effective in helping clients understand the staffing agency structure and to identify jobs advertised through staffing agencies, but hasn’t gotten anyone a job. Lutheran Family Services has organized a much more structured approach with a screening, selection and referral process targeting staffing agencies. So far this year, it’s delivered approximately 35 jobs for qualified clients.

Jaci says, “the most successful approach has been finding names of companies that use staffing agencies, calling the company and “selling” our services to them and asking them for the staffing agency info and hiring manager. When contacting the hiring managers at the agency, use the referral from their client (the employer) as an “in” and set up a face to face meeting.” I wonder if it might be possible to actually get the company to mention to the agency that they would like to see qualified refugee clients?

Strong English and US workplace skills are critical for successful placements, as is the ability to move very quickly with well screened clients. Staffing agencies fill requests for specific skill sets mandated by employers, most of which require English and an extremely short turnaround. Staffing agency paperwork and processes also require strong English comprehension. If clients can’t succeed quickly in placements, employers are not satisfied and staffing agencies lose money. That’s the bottom line, rather than helping refugees or any other disadvantaged population. Here are a few process points that can make this work:

Find out typical jobs agencies need to fill and pre-screen clients

This lets you know who would be good in advance. Then, when there’s an opening, you don’t have to waste time with screening. You could brief the clients about how it will work during screening so they are ready and available to move quickly.

Help a few clients complete the application even when there are no jobs.

The agency will begin to see that you are a great source of fast turnaround and reliable clients. And, a client might get a job just because they were ready to go.

Be ready to move VERY quickly, when an opening comes up.

Have resumes and other information at hand. Consider completing the online application yourself, rather than spending the time to have the client come in and do it with you.

Don’t refer anyone who isn’t qualified.

Several refugee employment programs I talked to had lost contacts when the clients they referred didn't work out. One of the staffing agencies I talked to is one we lost and they were painfully frank about why they wouldn't work with refugee agencies again.

Based on her experience on both sides of this employment pathway, Jaci says, “the most important thing to keep in mind is that staffing is a money motivated business, so second chances aren’t something they give very often to both us and the clients.”

Jaci gave me a write-up she uses internally to explain the process she’s developed and to help her team be more successful with staffing agencies. After much thought, I couldn’t explain it any better. So, she’s given me permission to share her document. I’ve also attached the handout I developed for clients and use in our Job Club. As I compare it to Jaci’s explanation, I feel good that it reflects the same basic understanding that she conveys, only in a simplified format for non-native readers of English. Both documents are available as free downloads on the Refugeeworks website.

Processing More than Food in Portland, Oregon

RefugeeWorks was on the road again in January and found out the Northwest is known for more than its Pinot Noir and rain. RefugeeWorks was invited to give a presentation at the Northwest Food Processors Association Expo. Along with Tara Wolfson from the Idaho state refugee office, Lana Whiteford from IRC Boise, and I presented to a room of H.R. representatives and hiring managers. The food processing industry is no stranger to the refugee population but there are still a plethora of companies who can benefit from these new Americans. One of the main issues that was stressed in our sessions and others that I attended was the importance if a solid training program for those wishing to enter into the industry. These courses are anywhere from 2-6 weeks in length. By working with local food processors and community colleges we can help create these courses for refugees and immigrants alike. In turn, we will be creating good jobs for our clients and preparing them to be successful.

Easy Ways to Add Value and Keep in Touch with Employers

Even when I did a bit of job development as an Employment Specialist, we’ve tried to maintain regular contact with a short list of major employers on a quarterly basis, beyond the day to day of getting clients hired. I wanted to provide them with something useful for our clients and remind them that we’re good partners that they can count on. I also needed a quick and cost effective approach. We’ve gotten good feedback and, over time, a couple of employers have indicated that they have come to rely on the information we provide.

Here are some of the things we’ve done:
• Send a brief email with translated notices about daylight savings time changes to be posted in staff areas. This helps all of their employees be on time to their first shift after the change goes into affect

• A quick list of language and cultural resources, including a local workplace ESL provider, Burmese and Arabic IPhone apps and a great movie about the situation in Myanmar (Burma VJ) that was showing in town.

• Early in the year, provide a list of dates of non-Christian holidays that might affect requests for days off or levels of concentration – like Ramadan and Buddhist spring holidays. We include World Refugee Day and the dates that we will be closed and unavailable to respond to client support requests, as well.

• Deliver posters with translations about valuable community resources that can help all of their employees. For example, Caritas collaborates with a community tax service that helps low-income residents file and claim refunds for free. Sharing this information helps our clients, strengthens employer relations with us and with all of their employees.

• Especially for smaller employers without dedicated Human Resources staff, we have provided information about the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, for which most of our clients can help employers qualify. You can get handouts and information at http://www.doleta.gov/business/incentives/opptax/employer.cfm

We’re really excited about our most recent offering targeting hotels. One hotel requested a picture guide for items found in guest rooms so guests could indicate what they want rather than wait for our clients to bring someone who spoke English. We think this will also be great continued ESL reinforcement and a subtle advertisement for Caritas since we’ll include our logo and a blurb. We now have it in Burmese, Arabic and Spanish and are working on Nepali and Swahili. Some hotels are requesting that new hires bring their copies and a couple have expressed interest in procuring them for their non-Caritas employees.

Expanding Resettlement to Where the Jobs Are

I just read an evaluation study by Lifetrack Resources (St. Paul, MN) that looks at the services they provided to Karen refugees who moved to Worthington, MN for a better paying entry-level job. The study suggests that Lifetrack provided both sustainable employment outcomes and additional services that helped newcomers get established in the small community of Worthington, even though Worthington is 185 miles from Lifetrack's office in St. Paul.

Most interesting to me is the section of the report that discusses the supports provided by the main employer, JBS. JBS is the largest employer in Worthington with about 2,300 employees. Roughly 80 employees of Karen origin were placed there through Lifetrack Resources over a 3 year period from 2007 to 2010. Lifetrack set up a Memorandum of Agreement with the company so that temporary housing is provided at a hotel and then $500 is available toward a longer hotel stay, first month's rent, or a deposit on an apartment. This investment demonstrates the company's interest in retaining qualified and reliable workers.

Read the full report here. Does anyone else have partnerships set up like this with employers who are outside of your traditional servive area?

Importance of Volunteers in Job Development

I recently attended a dinner for LIRS affiliate volunteers of the year. I was an inspiring night and really highlighted the importance of volunteers in successful resettlement programs. They play no bigger role than the one the play in job development. Volunteers can and should be utilized in pre-employment classes as teachers, in job development by providing transportation to and from interviews, and as community members networking with colleagues to strengthen ties to employers and job openings. Finding retired business men and women to help job coach clients can be extremely beneficial to refugees' success in the workplace. Mainly, volunteers being a set of skills and expertise to the employment service arena that job developers may not necessarily have. The more individuals we have supporting our clients the faster they can integrate and become self-sufficient. Go to: www.volunteermatch.org to find connect your needs to a volunteer looking to support a great cause like ours!

Harry Says...

I wanted to introduce you to Harry Crawford. He’s the Employment Program Manager at Caritas – my boss. He has more than 25 years of experience in workforce development. And, he’s very wise. Lots of times in meetings with outside agencies, I have to laugh because everyone ends up taking notes while Harry explains something we all need to understand. Two pieces of his wisdom are counterintuitive, but they always guide us through difficult aspects of working with clients, so I wanted to share them with you.

Some Clients Have to Hit the Wall: Sometimes, no matter what you do, clients have a hard time reconciling themselves to taking the first available, entry level job. When we’re feeling stress and worry about their family’s financial stability, Harry reminds us that some clients have to face a crisis before they can internalize the need to start in a job that they may feel is beneath them. When they run out of options and money, they are forced to accept the realities of US work culture and that’s the best thing for them in the long term.

Finding a Job is a Numbers Game: The more job leads we have, the more referrals we make. The more referrals we make, the more placements we can count. Clients often get really frustrated and discouraged by applying for lots of jobs and never even getting a response. Practice strengthens their skills and, eventually, if they apply enough places, someone will call and they’ll get a job.