Enhancing Employment Outcomes Overview
Page 1
The Challenge
Organizations focused on employment
outcomes (VR, welfare, workers comp, onestops)
have the mandate to get people jobs.
Aligning employment preparation activities
directly with job development activities results in
the most effective and efficient road to
employment outcomes. Aligning inputs to
employment outcomes also justifies continued
existence and funding.
This alignment can come under stress with
changes in the operational environment.
Changes such as a clientele with more complex
issues, less robust or tougher to work in
economies, or a demand for more results with
fewer resources. The misalignment indicators
are staff concern about how the system is
functioning, or stakeholder/clientele complaints
about results.
Job development staff will grumble about the
quality of the candidate referral. They will
express an inability to meet outcomes goals
because many candidates referred are
increasingly problematic and not ready to work.
They will voice concern that they can find jobs
but not the candidates to fit them, or that
candidates are so unprepared to work they are
hard to present to the employer. They will ask
for a quality change in the candidate's referred.
Counselors or case managers, on the other
hand, will protest that their candidates are
prepared for work, but the jobs that are
developed are not the ones their candidates
can do. They will see little connection between
their caseloads and the jobs that are
developed. While acknowledging that marginal
candidates are often referred to job developers,
counselors have no other reasonable service
option. The hope is that job developers will get
lucky, or work magic.
These opposing perspectives represent
misalignment. This misalignment leads to
tensions, ineffective interventions and a greater
sense of frustration and futility. Candidate
preparation and job development cannot
continue this lack of alignment and expect to be
effective. Staff will under-perform even when
working harder, and become overwhelmed.
Negative effects will ripple throughout the
organization.
The good news is that re-alignment and
improved employment outcomes are easily
within reach of each employment organization,
while using existing resources. By focusing on
straightforward and clear process while
developing core competencies, organizations
can maximize required outcomes.
DTG-EMP can provide these simple and clear
solutions to ensure employment organization
alignment and to obtain employment outcomes
results.
Enhancing Employment Outcomes Overview
Page 2
Towards a Solution
Simplicity of purpose is the place to start. Preparation
Employment outcomes are the result of
appropriate candidate preparation combined
with effective job development. The challenge
for employment organizations is to rigorously
organize around this simple idea.
Let's look briefly at each key component of a
successful employment outcome process:
??Ensuring a candidate's MRD employability
status (Motivated, Reliable, Dependable)
??Ensuring job market penetration capability as
per the candidates needing jobs
There is only one fundamental requirement for
candidates—the motivation to work. Therefore, the
first task of an agency is to assess the degree of the
candidate's motivation to work. Saying you're
motivated to work doesn't make it so. The
preparation process assessment activities must
provide certainty about the candidate's level of
motivation to work. Agencies must have the capacity
to identify, ignite or increase the motivation to work
through interventions.
Candidate Preparation begins with establishing the
minimum criteria for employability using the model
MRD. We have already mentioned the first
foundation element, Motivation—the willingness to
work, which enables the next two. The second
element is Reliability, which is the willingness to
show up to work everyday. The third element is
Dependability, the measure of the ability to stay on
task at work. MRD together is the essential
determinant of employability. All three are needed for
employability.
After establishing MRD, a set of decisions is required
about the appropriate level of investments to be
made in the candidate's soft and hard skills
development. This should be a function of the
resources that are available to the agency and the
gap that exists between the candidate's current job
readiness and minimum employment requirements.
This sounds simple. It is in theory. It is not always
easy, however, to establish and adhere to processes
that follow this approach.
Enhancing Employment Outcomes Overview
Page 3
Step 2: Effective Job Development
and Job Market Penetration
Step 3: Strategy
Change Focuses
Job Development that results in job market penetration must be
based on each candidate's job placement needs profile. There
are three broad profiles:
??Self Placement Candidates can assume responsibility for selfplacement
by learning self-marketing through their participation
in job clubs or programs. (Profile "A")
??Assisted Job Placement Candidates with visible barriers
have many of the same personal characteristics of the selfplacement
candidates but, in addition, they have visible
employment barriers. These barriers (age, disability, race,
ethnicity, ex-offender status etc.) represent the candidate type
that employers would not traditionally hire. These candidates
require the assistance of a job developer to contact employers
on their behalf and to implement a strategy that focuses on the
employer's priority needs to get them hired. (Profile "B")
??Assisted Job Placement Candidates with visible barriers
and limited skills have visible employment barriers combined
with skill limitations. For example, they may be slow at
performing jobs due to their disability. These candidates require
the assistance of the job developer in contacting employers on
their behalf and implementing strategies to overcome the
negative perceptions of employment barriers, plus any skill
limitations. The job developer must refocus the employer to
review their minimum hiring requirements to get the candidate
hired. (Profile "C")
The principles of effective job development are not complex. The
skills required to deliver assisted job development are, however,
somewhat sophisticated. The challenge for organizations is to
refine their job development processes around these three types
of candidates, strengthen their job development skills, and stay
committed to the approach.
An MRD candidate with an
employment barrier and without a
job offer is a result of the job
development strategy and efforts. It
is not about the candidate. The
focus of change should be on
improving job development
strategies and efforts, not on
improving the candidate.
A candidate who turns down
appropriate job offers will
necessitate a focus of change on
ensuring motivation to work, not on
the job developer's ability to secure
a job.
Management is able to structure,
link and change employment
outcomes work by focusing on the
effectiveness of the motivation and
job market penetration processes
as the keys to success.
Enhancing Employment Outcomes Overview
Page 4
Implementing the Solution
The solution starts with the knowledge that a
candidate that is deemed MRD and who has an
employment barrier can become employed.
If we are not achieving the desired employment
outcomes today, then we need to:
??Refine our candidate preparation processes
??Improve our job development strategies and
capabilities
??Ensure that our management systems are
aligned to these two key functions
DTG-EMP partners with employment
organizations to develop the strategies, models,
skill sets and techniques that will deliver results
in critical areas.
Visit our website www.dtg-emp.com for an
overview of our resources available to address
motivation and job development issues.
The Benefits of this Approach Include… The Outcomes of this Approach 
Include…
??Organizations can more accurately and quickly
assess a candidates' readiness for placement
??Organizations can focus preparation resources
on the needs of the candidates
??Job development efforts can focus on matching
candidates' strengths with employment
opportunities
??Increased rates of successful employment
outcomes
??Increased levels of consumer and employer
satisfaction with employment outcomes
??Increased efficiency and effectiveness of limited
agency resources
??Higher levels of staff skills, motivation and
morale as a result of increasing levels of success