Job Coach Notes

The Job Coach Is Entered In The US Department Of Labor's Job Search Tool Challenge

2009-12-16T12:29:00.007-05:00

Our Job Coach software program will be one of the hundreds of programs enrolled as part of the US Department of Labor's Job Search Tool Challenge. We anticipate a wide group of users experiencing the many facets of the Job Coach in many different institutional settings.

We encourage you try out many of the different software approaches. Tell your friends to test out many different programs (including the Job Coach) between January 4th and January 15, 2010 at the following URL: http://dolchallenge.ideascale.com/

A user should be able to easily see the advantages of using action oriented job search reemployment software with unemployed persons in contrast to career counseling approaches.

For LVERs/DVOPs/Veterans Administration staff, there is a version with additional veterans functionality. Contact your state veterans coordinator and she or he will get free password for EVERY LVER/DVOP. Check out the query tool for federal contractors. It took a bit of work to design and program but it is really something special and quite a helpful desktop to tool to have.

November Federal Contractors With Affirmative Action Responsiblities For Veterans

2009-12-16T12:21:00.002-05:00

PL 107-288 (HR 4015)
November 7, 2002
JOBS FOR VETERANS ACT
*2035 "(a)(1) Any contract in the amount of $100,000 or more entered into by any department or agency of the United States for the procurement of personal property and nonpersonal services (including construction) for the United States, shall contain a provision requiring that the party contracting with the United States take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified covered veterans. This section applies to any subcontract in the amount of $100,000 or more entered into by a prime contractor in carrying out any such contract.

Reflecting the rapid growth of federal government contracting in recent years, as of November 2009 there are presently 34,315 businesses contractually required to provide affirmative action in hiring and promotion to qualified veterans as well as perform active outreach to bring in prospective veterans as job applicants. The 34,315 are located in 5,992 cities in 2,019 counties/parishes across the country; a full two-thirds of the nation's counties. In the last month there was a net increase of over 3,000 businesses.

Of particular importance to many veterans are the 11,273 involved in blue collar industrial sectors; declining sectors where, because of spot replacement hiring, affirmative action in hiring really means something.

The names and addresses of these employers are found nowhere else but embedded in the version of The Job Coach Suite available to LVERs/DVOPs and VA staff. Congress intended for America's veterans to know this valuable employment information.

The law on veterans affirmative action has been on the books for over seven years. No one else has stepped forward to make sure veterans in need have this important edge up on hiring so we decided it is time that it be done. Not because it is the law, but simply because it's the right thing to do. Veterans deserve this... and so much more.

New Data On The Psychological Impact Of Longterm Unemployment

2009-01-11T21:21:00.006-05:00

According to a recent New York Times/CBS News Poll, more than half of the nation’s unemployed workers have borrowed money from friends or relatives since losing their jobs. An equal number have cut back on doctor visits or medical treatments because they are out of work. Almost half have suffered from depression or anxiety. About 4 in 10 parents have noticed behavioral changes in their children that they attribute to their difficulties in finding work.

Joblessness has wreaked financial and emotional havoc on the lives of many of those out of work, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll of unemployed adults, which surveyed 708 unemployed adults from Dec. 5 to Dec. 10 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Roughly half of the respondents described the recession as a hardship that had caused fundamental changes in their lives. Generally, those who have been out of work longer reported experiencing more acute financial and emotional effects. With unemployment driving foreclosures nationwide, a quarter of those polled said they had either lost their home or been threatened with foreclosure or eviction for not paying their mortgage or rent. About a quarter have received food stamps. More than half said they had cut back on both luxuries and necessities in their spending. Seven in 10 rated their family’s financial situation as fairly bad or very bad. But the impact on their lives was not limited to the difficulty in paying bills. Almost half said unemployment had led to more conflicts or arguments with family members and friends; 55 percent have suffered from insomnia. A quarter of those who experienced anxiety or depression said they had gone to see a mental health professional. Women were significantly more likely than men to acknowledge emotional issues.

Nearly half of the adults surveyed admitted to feeling embarrassed or ashamed most of the time or sometimes as a result of being out of work. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the traditional image of men as breadwinners, men were significantly more likely than women to report feeling ashamed most of the time. There was a pervasive sense from the poll that the American dream had been upended for many. Nearly half of those polled said they felt in danger of falling out of their social class, with those out of work six months or more feeling especially vulnerable. Working-class respondents felt at risk in the greatest numbers.

Nearly half of respondents said they did not have health insurance with the vast majority citing job loss as a reason, a notable finding given the tug of war in Congress over a health care overhaul. The poll offered a glimpse of the potential ripple effect of having no coverage. More than half characterized the cost of basic medical care as a hardship. Many in the ranks of the unemployed appear to be rethinking their career and life choices. Just over 40 percent said they had moved or considered moving to another part of the state or country where there were more jobs. More than two-thirds of respondents had considered changing their career or field, and 44 percent of those surveyed had pursued job retraining or other educational opportunities.

The poll also shed light on the formal and informal safety nets that the jobless have relied upon. More than half said they were receiving or had received unemployment benefits. But 61 percent of those receiving benefits said the amount was not enough to cover basic necessities. Meanwhile, a fifth said they had received food from a nonprofit organization or religious institution. Among those with a working spouse, half said their spouse had taken on additional hours or another job to help make ends meet. Unemployed Americans are divided over what the future holds for the job market: 39 percent anticipate improvement, 36 percent expect it will stay the same, and 22 percent say it will get worse.

Job Search Advice Has To Change To Fit The Current Recession

2008-06-17T06:43:00.024-04:00

This recession is like none our country has seen in decades. Hiring is way down at the same time as layoffs are up. There is hiring going on but it is cautious.

SENDING PEOPLE TO INTERNET JOB SITES
Advising anyone to center their job search on the Internet is clearly a bad idea. The Conference Board issues a compre-hensive monthly report on Internet job listings. In November 2009, there were 2.2 advertised vacancies for every 100 people in the labor force – a slight rise since October (2.1 advertised vacancies per 100).

“Since April, when labor demand bottomed, monthly gains can only be described as sluggish,” said Gad Levanon, Senior Economist at The Conference Board. “We have yet to see a significant increase in employers’ demand for labor, and, until we see job openings pick up, it will be hard to bring down the unemployment rate. The gap between the number of unemployed and the number of advertised vacancies is about 12.3 million, with 4.8 unemployed for every online advertised vacancy.”

A RETURN TO 'OLD SCHOOL' JOB SEARCH IS MOST EFFECTIVE
When companies post job listings, they are getting inundated with responses that have to be processed. To avoid that, most companies have aggressively fallen back to the pre-Internet practices of first going to staff for recommendations and then checking the resumes they have on file.

This puts a premium on networking and targeted cold calling to put resumes on file. A person advising a person on job search should focus on helping their client effectively structure and maintain a sustained networking effort (covered extensively in Job Coach Reports) as well as maintaining a structured plan for locating businesses that staff their occupation that can be targeted for resumes (also covered in Job Coach Reports). The key to getting a job in a tough hiring environment is having yourself out there and following up. It's frustrating and hard work... but it does get jobs.

RESUMES NEED TO CHANGE IN EMPHASIS AS WELL AS CONTENT
With the resume pile for each position so much deeper than in the past, the effective resume has to directly speak to the concerns of the person reading it which is the bottom line--- the company's productivity.

Resumes prepared by professionals don't speak of tasks done in a work career. They talk about accomplishments. They talk about responsibilities and authority. Even the lowest position in a business has all three of these. Every person who has worked in the past can talk about why s/he is more productive than the next person who did the same job.

The Job Coach helps its users articulate their prior productivity in the final table with the data presented in the Job Coach Report in the Interviewing More Effectively section. This table could also be used to draft a far more effective resume as well because it speaks the direct language of the person hiring; the language of work character, productivity and accomplishment. Anyone can produce a resume that guides the person reading to project their productivity in the reader's work setting--- giving their resume a leg up on other resumes.

Adults With Prior Manufacturing Experience; Adrift In The Labor Market Heading Downward

2008-04-23T14:59:00.042-04:00

Our economy functions best when workers are using their skills productively as skilled labor. There are presently over 8,000,000 former manufacturing workers who could greatly benefit from help reintegrating their present skills and abilities into our economy in meaningful ways. Putting aside the wrenching human consequences of downward mobility on individuals and their families, there are numerous reasons why a pool of millions of chronically underemployed experienced workers is societally undesirable.

Most manufacturing occupations involve occupational skills transferable to non-manufacturing settings. In a human capital marketing job search model, those with manufacturing experience in their job history are at a distinct disadvantage. It is difficult to express the many transferable skills used in manufacturing contexts to those whose experience has been in non-manufacturing settings. Without skill articulation, it's as if the person’s skills do not exist and s/he is semi or unskilled which is the debilitating stereotype of manufacturing workers as human robots. A massive skills hole is created in his/her adult work history that shouldn’t exist creating difficulties in competing for skilled positions paying living wages.

The Job Coach, with its skills transfer approach, translates skills used in manufacturing settings into non-manufacturing contexts. It contains a specially-designed interface to assist those involved in manufacturing to identify their former manufacturing occupations far more easily without outside assistance.

In the Job Coach experience, those involved in manufacturing are also provided assistance in articulating their productivity in terms that those in non-manufacturing settings can understand. This should not only make them more likely to be hired but also present them with stronger cases for receiving higher starting wages.

The skills transfer version of the Job Coach is available on all test websites.We encourage users to model themselves as veterans to see the important additional functionalities afforded our nation's service veterans.

Barriers To Employment For Ex-Offenders

2008-04-23T14:58:00.007-04:00

It is obvious that ex-offenders have barriers to employment that others do not have. Having violated society’s trust, potential employers logically wonder whether they are trustworthy or require excessive supervision. The Job Coach helps ex-offenders address this concern head-on by developing the ability to clearly articulate trust in specific prior settings. The goal is to turn out a more articulate job applicant. In the Job Coach experience, past productivity is also directly addressed as well as the articulation of skills in the context of the job that they seek. The goal is teach ex-offenders to portray themselves as trustworthy productive workers; based on past experience not empty promises of future behavior.

The Job Coach With Job Search Worksheets

2008-04-23T13:38:00.011-04:00

We believe that most users could benefit from doing the Worksheets version of The Job Coach. Almost all exercises are self-explanatory to most users. That said, we believe that the Exercises are far more effective done in groups because the group leader can use the answers of group members to provide valuable contrast on specific job search points. People using the Exercises come to gain a sense of community and group participation is very, very helpful in thinking through personal networking.

There is no manual for job search workshops. We would like to see the Job Search Exercises used as part of a more comprehensive effort that includes resume construction; a topic not covered in the Job Coach. The Job Coach is going to be used in so many different programmatic settings that it would be limiting to design a generic workshop, so we don’t intend to do so. Usage will depend on the professional judgment of staff.

Making Veterans Priority Of Service A Reality In WIA Adult

2008-04-23T13:38:00.009-04:00

The Job Coach Design Team will always remain steadfast in veterans’ advocacy. Veterans are supposed to have Congressionally-mandated priority of service in WIA. In PY 2001, the year before the law passed veterans were 7.2% of all individuals in WIA Adult (Training and Intensive). In PY 2006, it was only 7.7%. The percent of veterans in the civilian labor population was and is 13%, It’s discouraging that essentially no progress has been made despite very clear Congressional intent and the country being at war.

WIA staff clearly needs new tools to improve WIA Intensive and WIA Training to make it more relevant to the numerous mid-life Viet veterans in need; particularly the many with manufacturing experience in their employment backgrounds. We’d like to see WIA service to veterans dramatically improve nationally in each and every county.

In many parts of the country, WIA Intensive Job Search in WIA Adult barely exists. During PY 2006, over 85% of all WIA service areas did not provide WIA Intensive Job Search to even 10 veterans in an entire year under WIA Adult. The Job Coach With Job Search Exercises changes this. Many vets are experiential learners and yet during the last program year only 988 veterans exited WIA Adult OJTs in the entire nation. We believe that our OJT tool combined with local federal contractors can vastly increase that number.

We also hope that our work is used with all WIA clients. Many, many more could be served in WIA Adult. Intensive Job Search is nowhere near as expensive as classroom-based retraining nor are well drafted OJTs.

What Is The Link With Indeed.com About?

2008-04-23T13:35:00.002-04:00

We have become true believers in the value of the free employment aggregation board Indeed.com that compiles job listings from numerous sources http://www.indeed.com/. Indeed staff has developed a great website. It improves our products immensely to be able to integrate an O*NET version of their localized job listings into our applications as well as being able to offer an O*NET clustered version of their free email alerts. Their salary information tool is a valuable addition as well. Our Job Coach Reports contain a number of very valuable individualized links; arguably none more important than those leading to Indeed.com.

The Special Job Search Problems Of Those Involved with TANF

2008-04-23T13:34:00.008-04:00

Those who have been on TANF face a cruel dilemma; particularly if they had TANF work experience assignments. Mention TANF participation and negative welfare stereotypes such as ‘unskilled’ and ‘unproductive’ come into play before the person has even begun her sales pitch. Ignore TANF and she writes off meaningful skills transfer and prior work experience in settings that are most likely qualitatively above much of the rest of her prior work history. She also writes off possible quality job references.

As in our advice to ex-offenders, we counsel admitting TANF participation and directly confronting possible negative stereotyping. TANF participation should be explained as a positive learning experience where new skills were taught; which in most cases is the truth. The Job Coach, with its skills transfer approach, helps users to clearly articulate the skills they have used on-the-job in other work settings including TANF.

The Job Coach version for those who have been involved in TANF also provides assistance in articulating productivity which not only makes the user more likely to be hired but also presents her with a stronger case for a higher starting wage.

The OJT tool is a perfect vehicle for drafting effective TANF Work Experience contracts that have accountability; We believe human capital building Work Experience to be a far better vehicle for creating participation hours than low paying semi-skilled employment. TANF should be a time of building human capital for future self-sufficiency. The Job Coach assures that.

What Is The Purpose Of The Job Coach Report?

2008-04-23T13:32:00.008-04:00

People soon forget information presented on screen after screen. From the beginning, we knew that a pdf report was the most effective vehicle for producing detailed, individualized job search assistance that people would be able to effectively apply throughout a sustained job search. We’ve seen the Job Coach used in the lobbies of inner city One Stops and no one was observed leaving the report behind or throwing the report away because the reports are so intensely personalized.

We decided to email the Job Coach Report to make it easier for people to use the report. Since the links in pdfs are hot links, retaining the pdf (or the email containing the email) is the ideal way to retain the Report rather than in a paper format. That’s also why email accounts became a required element.

How Does The Job Coach Compare To The LMI Provided By The States?

2008-04-23T13:32:00.007-04:00

The LMI Divisions of the state agencies use the same O*NET occupational coding materials as well as the same Bureau of Labor Statistics materials used in the Job Coach. The Job Coach is complementary to the work of the states. The states’ LMI is career information highlighted by long term occupational projections for projecting the labor markets of the future. The Job Coach presents job search information focused on local occupational performance over the near past to better project the present.

There are two major data differences. The states’ employment related data clusters by metropolitan statistical areas. Much of rural and small town America is clustered into something termed ‘balance of state’. The Job Coach allows users to establish their own job search areas; no ‘balance of state’. The Job Coach also clusters its occupational data by occupation within industry to allow users to assess demand on the local level for industry targeting purposes.

There are no proprietary databases used in The Job Coach. All O*NET data is available to all through the O*NET Center and can be downloaded online. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data can be transferred online as well and the names of federal contractors with contracts of over $100,000 are available to all through the online Federal Procurement Data System.

Human Capital Marketing Theory Promotes Assistance In Job Search Networking

2008-04-23T13:31:00.010-04:00

Human capital marketing theory is the basis of the Job Coach job search model. Users are the head of a micro sales team with a sole product; them as a new employee. Every sales model starts with a firm understanding of the product’s merits as well as its possible gaps in the marketplace. A good idea of who might be buying such a product locally is required to target the effort intelligently and efficiently.

In the human capital marketing model, the person looking for a job is transformed into a sales manager creating and overseeing a self-selected networking team operating on their behalf. In reality, only 15% of all new hires come from Internet job postings. The rest do it the old fashioned way; knocking on doors and talking to people. The Job Coach is heavy on helping users structure coherent networking efforts. This kind of approach might seem 'old school' but an automated version of the same approach taken years ago by job clubs has been proven to be effective in reducing unemployment duration. Each client actively engaged in a structured, individualized path to his/her next job.