Job/Training Retention Workshop Managers Forum, Toronto, March, 2011

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Job/Training Retention WorkshopManagers Forum, Toronto, March, 2011

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Introductions

• Me• You (amongst yourselves)• Your expectations – each table bring one (or two)

expectation back to the group

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Objectives

• Describe Job/Training Retention as it appears in Guidelines

• Look at success factors for retention

• Discuss when and how retention can break down

• Articulating client and employer needs and motivations

• How to deliver results• Describe sustainable employer

relationship, and ways to grow them

• Understand why good documentation is important

• Partially, this workshop is about parsing (and putting under the microscope) the language of the guidelines.

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Ground Rules

• We are all experts. Let’s share our expertise• Questions are good• Lots of content, so will keep moving• Mobile devices set to vibrate or off

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Q. What is retention?

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“Retention is a business management term referring to efforts by employers to retain current employees in their workforce. The purpose is to avoid employee turnover and associated costs.” Retention can be a particular problem in specific jobs, especially high-stress jobs.

Source: Wikipedia

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Q. What is Job/Training Retention?

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“Job/Training Retention supports longer-term attachment to or advancement in the labour market or completion of training and is in addition to regular placement monitoring, support and follow-up.

Both clients and employers receive this enhanced support when an on-the-job placement, training completion, employment and/or advancement are unlikely to succeed without further assistance.”

Section 3.5 of Guidelines

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Why job seekers need retention support

• Job seekers can lack: • communications skills that can

get and keep them a job

• stability in their lives

• cultural understanding

• work experience

• Job seekers may: • be new to the community and

not know anyone• have barriers that they need

support to overcome (language, disability,…)

• have negative employer perceptions towards them (at-risk youth, persons with disabilities, new Canadians, others)

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Why employers need retention support

• May be having difficulty retaining employees

• May not have a human resources person to help in retention

• May not understand well retention activities and process

• Would like to access a ‘new’ way of accessing and retaining employees

• Would like to reduce the costs of doing business, especially the costs of replacing employees who leave

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Planning for retention – Some of what I’ve heard from the field

• We’ve always done it anyway. It’s Accommodation/ Support Plans and Job Coaching and the world won’t be much different

• We do need to build deeper employer relationships• We haven’t really looked at this too much• Staffing retention will be an issue. We’re already dealing

with diminished staffing levels

• Let me tell you about some of the job developers that have been taking training with us at ONESTEP…

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Of course, the recent catalyst for all this, feeding the need for Retention focus

• Transformation to a one-stop shop EO services

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Resource and InformationJob Search

Job Matching, Placement and Incentives

Job/Training Retention

Other Employment Ontario Programs

EO’s Employment Service Model

Client Service Planning and Coordination

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Job/Training Retention – suitability and expectations

• Client Key Suitability indicators• Continuing issues around market perceptions and workplace

performance, including such things as history of marginal or entry-level employment or of repeated job loss, a significant absence from the workforce, or being new to the Canadian workplace.

• [Clients] and employers expect:• Peer coaching and mentoring*• More frequent and longer follow up and monitoring• Ongoing employment counselling during and after employment

and placement*• Access to other community supports

Section 2.1.7 of Guidelines

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Job/Training Retention – Overall clients expectations, per Guidelines

• Clients expect that their experience in the Employment Service will start them on a path to sustained employment and career opportunities. [emphasis mine]

• Almost sounds like a mission, or for some of us perhaps more of a vision!

Section 2.1.7 of Guidelines

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Retention diagnostic and process – 1 of 2

Steps to establish retention readiness• Have appropriate personnel in place, with responsibilities

clearly defined• Build retention planning into the beginning of client

relationships – i.e., during intake, Client Service Planning and Coordination

• Assess the need based on suitability indicators. Service based on ‘rationale’• Use your data to identify those most at need; allows predictive

prescreening both for clients and for employers• Identify those in-need: Get to know your job seekers

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Retention diagnostic and process – 2 of 2

Steps to establish retention readiness – communication!• Client retention support assessment and communication

(before retention is even an issue) – communicate with those clients most likely to need retention support

• Employer retention support assessment and communication (before retention is even an issue) – employers want to retain employees so talk about it! • i.e., what does an employer need to have in place to

successfully retain employees• Plans for referrals for those not yet “retention-ready” to

services/supports that can aid retention-readiness through training, supports, etc. BE PROACTIVE.

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Question:

• Who in your organization will drive retention?

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Depends on your organization/structure

• Different organizations have responsibility for retention lying with different owners:• Solely the job developer• Both the employment counsellor and the job developer (when

there are two distinct people and roles)• For those with hybrid roles (one person is both the EC and the

JD) then that person owns retention• For those with ODSP clients, retention may lay with a

maintenance/retention-focused staff member + the JD – use existing support structures

• But whatever the situation, beware overloading your staff

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Job Developer competencies

• Ambassador• Coach/mentor• Listener• Communicator• Spokesperson• Facilitator• Follow-up• Motivator• Sales• Multi-tasker• Planner• Life skills• Advocate

• Marketer• Recruiter• Budget• Negotiator• Mediator• Counsellor• LMI trends aware• Problem solver• Community liaison• Well-organized• Adaptable, flexible• Professional• Empathetic

• Resource• Support person• Case manager• Presenter• Assessments• Promotion• Legislation awareness• Accommodations• Conflict resolution• Computer skills• Teaching• others…

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Seven critical competenciesof amazing Job Developers

1. Active listening2. Powerful questioning / inquisitive3. Networking and face-to-face relationship building skills4. Marketing skills5. Presentation skills – both to employers and within the marketplace6. Problem solving7. Acute powers of observation – job seekers and employers

Table stakes: well-versed in local labour market, employment and human rights and regulations

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Question:

• Who in your organization will drive retention?

• What supports will they need to be successful? How will you resource them?

• Will they alone “own” your organization’s retention success?

• Should your organization differentiate who owns which activities?

• Which activities and why?

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Retention-related data collection

• Do you collect it? Quit/Fired/“Constructive firing”…• If not, then…

Question:• If you collected retention data on your organization’s

placements, at what point do you believe the data would indicate that a placement is most likely to break down?• First month is the worst month• First two weeks are the worst weeks• First five days are the worst days

• So when should retention strategies be activated?

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ONESTEP Job Developer/Job Seeker Relationship Process

Get to know your job seeker

Am I right for this job seeker?

Define the relationship

Establish open

communication

Strike a balance with

your time

Be consistent and

communicate regularly

Is the job seeker ready for job

development?

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Getting to know your job seekers

Question:• What are the ways you can get to know your job

seekers?

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Getting to know your job seekers

• Face-to-face meetings• Reports from colleagues• Personality styles (Personality Dimensions, MBTI)• Personal traits (always on time to appointments, always late, etc.)• Identifying interests • Essential Skills >> the next slides

• Wanting to help job seekers is probably why we’re in our job today

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Essential Skills – critical to retention

• Essential Skills are skills that people use to do a variety of everyday life and work tasks

• Essential Skills are not the technical skills required within specific jobs but rather the skills applied in all jobs. For example, reading skills:• maintenance staff may have to read and understand written

work orders before they can do maintenance• Essential Skills are actually life skills. They are

transferrable

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Employer: “I’m looking for a receptionist…”

• When you hear this, what questions do you ask this employer?

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Job Matching – aligning job seeker Essential Skills

and employer needs• Compare job seeker Essential Skills Inventory to a

employer Essential Skills Inventory• Needs to be at least a 70% match for the placement to

have the potential of being successful• with a plan for bringing the remaining 30% up to employer needs

levels• Be co-operative: Be prepared to go into your community

and speak with other Job Developers to see whether they have a job seeker that meets the employer’s needs

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Technique that can drive Retention – Job Appraisals

• Once job seeker is working• Generally two-to-four pages per job seeker capturing success tasks

and skills• Have the employer assess your job seeker on a task-by-task, skill-

by-skill basis• allows you to trouble shoot placements, and identify the specific challenges job

seekers may be experiencing

• Happens during first week

• Work with both job seeker and employer to remediate issues• Use the original agreement with the employer to verify that the job

description and tasks

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Retention = supporting the most barriered clients – what do they look like?

Can be combinations of:• Lack of work experience• Lack of education• Disabilities – developmental,

learning, physical, others• Mental health issues• Job seekers that don’t understand

or accept that they have barriers• Job seekers with limited workplace

skills• Job seekers that verbally commit

but “don’t deliver” – “lazy”, “unmotivated”, go to work late, or not at all

• Anger management issues

• Job seekers that face prejudice, preconceptions

• Job seekers that have poor interpersonal skills

• Job seekers that fail to participate in additional support programs

• Job seekers that blame everyone but themselves

• “Challenging” clients are likely to be our regular job seekers!

• Clients with ‘deep’ barriers or multiple barriers are most likely candidates for retention support

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Approaches with particularly challenging job seekers that can aid placement and retention:

Job Carving, Job Sharing• Requires a different approach to conversations with

employers• Some of the relationship-establishing questions you ask

will be different• The kinds of employers you’re looking for are different• Will require an even deeper employer relationship than

usual

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Approaches with particularly challenging job seekers: Build ‘Specific’ Employer Relationships

• Identify and target appropriate entry level jobs• Identify where those jobs exist• Rather than asking where’s the appropriate job match for

a particular job seeker, use your Essential Skills Inventory and have conversations with employers that have those kinds of jobs to access those pools of jobs

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What constitutes retention activities?

• Right now, depends on who you talk to• Also depends on how you read the Guidelines

• For instance, some “mentoring/coaching” activities exist within the placement component so really shouldn’t qualify as retention

For example:• “support in identifying and resolving workplace issues with the

participant that may impact the employer’s ability to meet business goals”

and • “providing mentoring and coaching support during and after the

placement” – both section 3.4.1 Job Matching, Placement and $• Best bet: talk with you ETC to get clarity

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The main challenge to retention planning

Q: What do you feel is the primary challenge to planning for the retention component?

• I believe that it’s the fact that EO hasn’t fully defined what is meant by retention

• Everyone is finding their own way which is not the most efficient or effective route

• Again, I can’t describe a process that hasn’t been defined by those who pay the bills.

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Your responses to the challenge?

• Some organizations are still in VERY early stages of thinking about what retention means to their business

• Other organizations are “test driving” retention activities through individual client/employer conflicts• One agency’s retention challenge: getting commitment from both

client and employer to proceed with retention activities• Client needs “time”; employer wants “results”

• Others?• Key best practice related to retention in any scenario:

• Assessing clients at intake as to the potential need for retention activities

• Build the idea of retention activities into the Support Plan

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ONESTEP Job Developer Sales Process

Getting in front of

employers

Exploring employer needs and

motivations Proposing solutions

Closing the deal

Delivering on your

promises (and theirs)

Sustaining and expanding the

relationship

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Retention-related data collection – part 2

• What do you think the results told us were the key issues that lead to the failure of the employment relationship?#1 Employer issue: • Lack of understanding of how to support the client#1 Client issue: • Lack of problem solving ability/skills/support

• #1 issue that predicted the success of a placement?• Client having a “best friend” at work. What’s a synonym for

“friend”?

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More about what the Guidelines say about retention

• Service providers must offer, at a minimum, services such as:• A pool of mentors/coaches to support clients• Development of a support plan with the client and mentor/coach

and employer (as appropriate)• Linking clients with mentors/coaches to provide support during

and after [emphasis mine] job placement.• Monitoring of the mentor/coach relationship with clients…

facilitating adjustments as required• So retention is about clients AND employers

Section 3.5 of Guidelines

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ONESTEP Job Developer Sales Process

Exploring employer needs and motivations

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Employer needs

• Needs are equivalent to answering the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How questions. But with some editing

• It’s minus the “Who” because it’s our job to create the profile for the “Who”. BEWARE: the employer may already believe they know the ‘who’ they need

• And the “Why” here deals with the “hard reasons”, i.e., “I need a sales person”, “I need general maintenance help on the shop floor”

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Employer motivations

• Motivations are the Who and Why beyond “I need a…”• It’s why the employer is looking for candidates, but relates more to

the “soft reasons”• Is the employer looking for:

• Hiring assistance?• Things they shouldn’t be looking for? • Incentives?• HR help because they really have no idea? • Wants to grow the business?• Short term seasonal support? Long term fit in company? • Relationship with you?

• Understanding these needs and motivators will help drive retention

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Needs and motivations

EMPLOYER EMPLOYEE AGENCIES

IncentivesHR assistanceHiring assistanceDiversity hiringGrowing businessSeasonal hiringRelationship with someone who can meet these needs (you)

Establish self in workforceMoraleRecognitionMoneyRewardsMotivationWorkplace experienceStability in life

Meet funder targetsHelp individuals in communityHelp employers in community

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Different needs and motivations

• There are two distinct aspects to employer needs and motivations:1. Employer needs and motivations for working together2. Employer needs and motivations related to the role they would

like to fill• Use Essential Skills, formal job descriptions and employer verbal

descriptions to define these

• Both of these will impact retention

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ONESTEP Job Developer Sales Process

Proposing solutions

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Proposing solutions – these are all retention issuesTheir expectations = Benefits you offer

Job seeker expectations Employer expectationsHelp in matching their skills and interests with work opportunitiesHelp in facilitation of work opportunities and negotiation of the employment relationship on their behalfExperiential or on-the-job trainingPlacement support in identifying and resolving workplace issues that may affect their successesIf necessary, financial support to remove barriers to participation

Assessment of job seeker’s skills, aptitudes and interests in relation to their workplace business needsHelp in developing a work experience or on-the-job training plan that is realistic for the job seeker and consistent with workplace requirementsSupport in identifying and resolving workplace issues with the participant that may impact the employer’s ability to meet business goalsFinancial incentives to offset some of the costs of their commitment to an effective work experience or on-the-job training placement, where appropriate and necessary

Table source: EO’s Service Provider Guidelines

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Presenting candidates – JD and organizational considerations

• Ensure your proposal outlines the kinds of candidates/skills/attributes for which the employer is looking – the ‘fit’ is key

• Review your inventory of job seekers to assess their fit with the employer needs profile

• Always put the employer first: Consider going to a job developer at another community agency to broker a fit with the most appropriate job seeker(s)

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Proposing solutions – five keys to retention(Include in Support Plan)

• Retention starts with “placing wisely”• If you have a customer service role that requires cash register

knowledge, hire for the customer service and train the for till• Identify client and employer “key needs and motivators”

– ensure alignment• Ensure quality of supervision

• Clients leave supervisors more often than they leave a job• Sufficient compensation• Help meeting personal/family commitments – be up-front• “For you to feel appreciated/valued/needed what needs

to happen?”

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Incentives as tools of retention

• Beware the story of the Job Developer overly dependent on incentives

• Job Matching, Placements and Incentives – incentives appear within this component

• However, while incentives can provide training support they can also be a tool to drive retention.

• One way: write the incentives into the agreement so that they flow in stages – for example: • upon employer’s acceptance of placement• upon the client’s passing a first time-related milestone• upon the client’s completion of the placement period

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ONESTEP Job Developer Sales Process

Closing the deal

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Closing the deal – keys to retention

• Employer eligibility• Employer responsibilities• Placement agreements• Support planning• Ethics• Addressing concerns

Concerns

Eligibility

Responsibility

Placement

Support

Ethics

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• Defines the supports to be provided

• Support Plan developed with client, employer, and mentor if appropriate

• Document the supports in the Support Plan, and document activities – activities should be weighted to occur mostly at the beginning of the placement

• Continue to document the rationale for the retention activities

Support Planning

• Ensures job seekers arelinked back into service or other interventions where necessary

• Continue to build the relationship, be proactive, identify employment challenges that need to be addressed – evolve the Plan

• Objective: drive retention by assisting the individual to sustain employment

• Maintains relationships with employers too!

Concerns

Eligibility

Responsibility

Placement

Support

Ethics

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Support Plan

• Categories of information that should be captured in a Support Plan can include:• Employment objective• Areas of support and objectives – described specifically,

preferably using SMART methodology• Expectations of those involved: client, coach/mentor, employer• How often support will be provided and what it will look like, e.g.,

areas for ‘reminders’ such as grooming/hygiene• Training required; worksite modifications if required• Should be designed based on client ‘category’. For instance, if

work often with disabled clients then the plan might list work skills, work tolerance, interpersonal skills and self-direction

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Ethics

Ethics refer to the “how” of how we all go about our business relationships and how we meet the requirements of the placement agreement

Concerns

Eligibility

Responsibility

Placement

Support

Ethics

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Organizational challenges to retention – Closing the deal

• Who does what?• E.g., does the JD work with both the employer and client?

• Do individual staff have the time to deliver on retention? We have fewer staff doing more

• Do individual staff have the skill set to deliver retention?• If not, do we have personnel with the appropriate skills

in place to aid our staff?• Have we negotiated those relationships so that if a JD

calls in a coach, that the client understands what’s happening?

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Organizational challenges to retention – Closing the deal

• How do we deliver retention support to diverse clientele with diverse retention drivers? • E.g., New Canadians versus Youth

• If a placement is a distance away from office, how do you get the required retention support out there?

• Maintaining staff specialists as coaches when the demand for services may fluctuate

• Defining who constitutes our “mentor/coach pool”? JDs? ECs? Others? Many organizations haven’t got this far

• Getting clients to respond to those 6 month and 9 month follow-up calls; we see them at low point in lives

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Some tactical retention thoughts

• Identify with placement the “area of need” related to retention; can “check-off” retention activity after placement.

• Keep file open after placement so can capture any retention activities that occur after placement is completed

• Challenge: defining what constitutes credit for activities we believe to be retention. Activities must be distinct from placement supports

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ONESTEP Job Developer Sales Process

Delivering

on your promises

(and theirs)

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Delivering on your promises (and theirs)

• Keep your promises• Monitor their promises• Job/Training Retention• Monitor the job seeker• Documentation• Site visits• Mentor pools

Yours

Theirs

J/T Retention

Monitor

Document

Site Visits

Mentors

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Keep your promises related to retention – tactics

• Set attainable goals for yourself• Never promise something you

can’t deliver• You sometimes receive a lot of

pressure from employers and job seekers to deliver so keep a thick skin

• Manage your time; manage your relationships

• Work with employers that you feel a “match” with – ethically

• Break large objectives into smaller component pieces

• Clearly understand everyone else’s objectives: your agency’s, your job seekers’, your employers’

• Manage what you can and don’t sweat the other stuff

Yours

Theirs

J/T Retention

Monitor

Document

Site Visits

Mentors

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Hold them to their promises – tactics

• Don’t make promises for others

• They must buy-in to their promises

• Help them set realistic expectations

• Establish boundaries• Offer and provide support and

feedback to help them meet their promises

• Check in on progress• Document every promise/

commitment/deliverable made• Evaluate success – allows you

to decide whether to use the process again, adapt it or throw it out

• Ask the employer directly: what does it take for an employee to stay in this role successfully.

• Work to achieve this for your client

Yours

Theirs

J/T Retention

Monitor

Document

Site Visits

Mentors

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Documentation

• EO requires rationale for service decisions, especially whether a job seeker should access “more expensive” levels of support

• EO also judges our agencies’ success based partially on the documentation we collect while helping job seekers and employers

• Case notes that show attention to retention

• Show that you’ve engaged the job seeker and/or employer to appropriately develop, monitor, modify and evaluate plans (e.g., Employment Service Plan)

• More frequent site visits for priority retention clients

Yours

Theirs

J/T Retention

Monitor

Document

Site Visits

Mentors

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Mentor/Coach Pools – Definitions

What does “coach” mean?• Coaches are knowledgeable

individuals understand the system and can provide insights to help the coachee be successful

• Tend to assist with specific goal to improve skills and performance

• Potential coaches include: the job developer, employment counsellors, others

What does “mentor” mean?• Mentors (in this sense)

are individuals who based on their life/career experience can provide insights to help a mentee to be successful

• It’s important that the mentor truly understand the mentee’s life experience and/or job/career

• Potential mentors include: workplace peers (current workplace and similar workplaces), peer volunteers

Yours

Theirs

J/T Retention

Monitor

Document

Mentors

Site Visits

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Mentors/Coaches – Establishing pools“Lots of water, but where’s the pool?”

Peer mentors• In the workplace where the client works

• Has either a similar life experience to client, or• Has a keen grasp of what it takes to be successful in the role

• In a similar workplace to the one where the client works• Clients with similar life experiences that have ‘graduated’

from your agency?• Other sources?

Coaches• Agency staff, owner/employers, supervisors, managers

Yours

Theirs

J/T Retention

Monitor

Document

Mentors

Site Visits

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Mentor/Coach Pools – success factors

Whether a coach or mentor, set them up for success• Understands what it takes to be successful in the

role in which the clients finds themselves• Can empathize or, at least, sympathize with the client’s

situation (life situation/workplace situation)• Ensure coaches/mentors are trained

• Create a coach/mentor guide• Develop tools (meeting scripts, mentor questions, mentee

questions)• Monitor the coach/mentor relationship – ongoing • Use existing local partnerships? (e.g. Mentoring

Partnership)

Yours

Theirs

J/T Retention

Monitor

Document

Mentors

Site Visits

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Augmenting individual supports

• Think of ways to augment the one-on-one supports of coaching and mentoring

• Have monthly meetings for job seekers with a guest speaker and invite clients who are currently employed. Creates a co-supportive environment

• Online services that can perhaps include e-counselling and chat boards where clients can exchange concerns with one another

• Think of group support as augmenting not replacing individual support

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ONESTEP Job Developer Sales Process

Sustaining and expanding the

relationship

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Sustaining and expanding the relationship

• Employer-centric job development• Full-lifecycle relationship management

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Relationship builders

• Hunter-gatherer

• Farmer

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Impact Retention – Tactics for sustaining employer relationships

• Provide your employers “value” whatever that means to them – occasionally or also regularly. Little ‘gifts’ can include emails with information relevant to them and that shows that they are on your mind

• Communicate regularly• Provide value-added information, e.g., a monthly e-newsletter or tips

sheet• Host regular employer appreciation nights with interesting keynotes

and information • Never leave questions unanswered or issues unaddressed hoping

that they’ll go away – be proactive

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Impacting Retention – Tactics for expanding employer relationships: asking

• The tactics of sustaining relationships also apply in this situation; in addition…• Ask for help. Ask for your employer’s assistance – with an employer

panel, with mock interviews, others?• Ask for a “test drive”. Ask If you have a job seeker who could be a good

fit for the employer, but is outside of the “usual” employees hired by the employer, ask whether the employer can help you “test drive an employment idea I have”

• Ask for leads/referrals - to other potential employers• Ask yourself continuously – how can I deepen my relationship with my

existing employers and gain leads to new employers who could be willing to work with the job seekers in my portfolio.

• Ask for testimonials

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Review time!

• A place to look for Best Practices…

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Job/Training Retention – what does it resemble?

• ‘Retention’ looks a lot like Ontario Works Enhanced Employment Services for Vulnerable Persons (EES); Employment Placement Program

Supporting activities in EES can include:• Intensive case management, services and supports• Job trials• Peer support/mentoring• Supported job placements• Workplace attendant support (e.g., people with

disabilities)Source: Ontario Labour Market Agreement: 2010-2011 Activity Plan and Estimated Incremental Expenditures

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Retention – what does it resemble?

EES anticipated results can include:• Enhancing service capacity to support enrolment in

employment services and to maintain employment outcomes, including for persons with disabilities

• Increasing retention in pre-employment and training• Increasing training participation and completionSo what’s one way to look at this?• Agencies are being asked to provided support at EES-

like levels without the additional, specific funding available to EES service providers

Source: Ontario Labour Market Agreement: 2010-2011 Activity Plan and Estimated Incremental Expenditures

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Thank You!

If you have questions or wish to continue the conversation:

John ViktorinActing Director of Operations, Manager of Employer Solutions

jviktorin@onestep.on.ca905-669-1679 x222