Preparing welfare recipients for the world of work is a challenging task in One-Stop systems beset with current or potential reductions in education and training funds. However, One-Stop staff have developed a number of effective ways of helping these job seekers set and achieve realistic employment goals. Employers, too, have helped to create employment and training opportunities, while at the same time they have learned to structure their work environments to contend with the realities of the typically low-skilled workforce seeking to move from welfare to work.
All of the One-Stop sites visited are in states that are undergoing either a first or second generation set of welfare reforms that tend to de-emphasize education and training programs and instead, focus on immediate job search and other work experience or work search activities. In most cases, this shift dramatically limits the occupational options facing many TANF recipients as they face the job market. No longer may they have the luxury of contemplating occupational choices that entail a community college or bachelors' degree, and in many places even a community or technical college training certificate program may be unavailable. Instead, these options are now reserved for workers to pursue (generally with their own resources on their own time) after they have found employment. As a result, TANF recipients seeking employment are often limited to a set of employers who offer entry-level employment at relatively low wages.
The bulk of the low-wage employment in today's economy is concentrated in relatively few firms, typically in the service and retail sectors.(22) Many of these employers hire large numbers of low-wage workers but offer few opportunities for upward mobility in terms of skill acquisition or wages; this is due largely to the occupational structure of the firms and industries offering low-wage employment.(23) In most cases, these employers are willing to provide new hires with the minimal training necessary to perform low-skill tasks, but most of these skills are job or firm specific and are not easily transferred to the rest of the labor market.(24) Most, though not all, of the employers represented in our focus groups confirmed this profile, suggesting that in most local areas, there are likely to be no more than a few dozen key employers of low-skill workers. It is important to note, however, that the lack of advancement opportunity in most low-wage employment is not the fault of the employer. To move up the wage scale, most low-wage workers will need to change employers, and possibly industries, in order to find employers whose firms offer the opportunity for real wage and skill progression.
Part of the redesign of employment services under the One-Stop concept has been to eliminate the laborious, one-on-one intake of job seeker interviews with job counselors that were seen as a key component of screening and referring applicants to employers. While these methods are still used in some One-Stop systems, they are also augmented with self-service listings of job openings and applicants that allow job seekers and employers to self-screen each other. Some One-Stop managers and staff noted that they have found job seekers to be somewhat more severe in judging their skills in this process, which further limits their employment options. On the other hand, employers of TANF recipients frequently expressed their desire for more and better screening of referrals by One-Stop systems, although for the most part, their interests in screening focused more on screening for job readiness and substance abuse problems than for skill levels. According to most employment services personnel, this is not an uncommon complaint by employers, who are often under the impression that state employment service centers have the resources to conduct in-depth testing and screening for all referrals, which is clearly not the case. Screening for things like motivation and substance abuse are simply not possible under a self-service system.
Lower levels of education, training, and screening - combined with the tighter labor market - have led employers to become increasingly familiar with challenges and opportunities of working with the welfare-to-work population. These trends have also raised the importance of providing welfare recipients who are looking for work with a realistic understanding of the local labor market.
It is a delicate balance that One-Stop staff must strike between motivating TANF recipients toward job search and long-term employment goals while at the same time giving them a realistic appreciation of what to expect in their first job. Typically, this process begins with some form of motivational exercises designed to help participants set some long term goals for themselves -- to articulate what it is they want to achieve for themselves and their families. The second step is to help participants begin to understand what it might take to achieve these goals.
As part of this second step, One-Stop staff will typically use local labor market information to help develop realistic expectations about current employment opportunities and career ladders. This process also helps acquaint participants with the self-service resources available through the One-Stop, giving them assistance in learning to use a variety of computer and written resource materials. Touch screen systems, such as that used in Kenosha, are particularly useful in helping even the most computer-phobic participants gain access to electronic data systems. Because these systems use recognizable maps, visual graphics, and immediately useful information, they are particularly effective in drawing participants into the exploration of the local labor market. With this experience as a base, introducing participants to America's Job Bank and other resources via the Internet is only a few steps away.
As noted in Chapter 3, the on-going education and training linkage between the first job and the desired career track may be the weakest part of most One-Stop systems for TANF recipients. Focus groups with former participants made it clear that once they found their first job, the difficulties of juggling family and work life made it difficult to pursue their initial goals without continued support and assistance. Nonetheless, this process opens up a whole new world of resources for these clients as they struggle with their careers and future employment challenges. Just the process of learning to use these tools frequently provides a boost in self-confidence as job seekers gain a greater sense of control in understanding the labor market that they are trying to enter.
One important tool in helping TANF recipients with little or no work experience move from welfare-to-work is community work experience. In most of the sites reviewed, TANF participants were placed in community work experience positions as a condition for continuing to receive cash assistance if they were unable to find actual employment. In some cases, private employers received a wage subsidy for employing participants. Current and former participants were almost completely unanimous in their praise of work experience employment as an opportunity to develop workplace skills and build their resume and references. And generally, employers were also quite pleased with their experiences in hiring TANF recipients under a work experience program. Several of these employers reported finding opportunities of hiring these workers on their permanent payroll.
Employer reactions to work experience often reflected the way in which the employer treated the worker. Several employers, both public and private, reported hiring work experience workers on a permanent basis, often noting the loyalty and sense of responsibility these workers brought to their jobs. Others emphasized their approach of treating work experience workers the same as all other employees, not hesitating to offer constructive criticism or praise where warranted. Most of these employers were quite pleased with their experience, and indicated a willingness to have more work experience employees. However, some employers, typically nonprofit or public agencies, seemed to be less sure of how to treat work experience workers, assigning them occasionally to make-work or remedial tasks. One public agency employer described a worker who "spent too much time on the phone trying to organize her personal life, like trying to arrange doctor appointments for her sick child," only to be chastised by other private sector employers for being too rigid. In general, employers that held work experience workers to the same standards as their other employees tended to report the greatest satisfaction.
Given the distribution of low-skill, entry-level jobs in today's economy and the narrow scope of education and training funding under most state welfare reforms, it appears that many of the One-Stop welfare-to-work programs tend to place their clients in a fairly limited set of typical occupations. In some cases, these occupational paths are emphasized by design through specific training and employment agreements with large employers. The following list is based on the occupations listed by employers as well as current and former program participants:
One employer that was present in at least three of the locations was Manpower, Inc. As a temporary employment agency, Manpower can often offer One-Stop clients a useful point of access to employment opportunities, and they frequently share their listings with the One-Stop employment services. However, they also tend to do more job readiness and skill screening than the One-Stop, and not all welfare-to-work clients may be deemed "job ready" by their standards.
Not all One-Stop clients moving from welfare to work move into low-skilled employment. For example, in Marshalltown, a few who have been able to combine Pell grants and JTPA assistance for child care and transportation have been able to complete two-year degree programs. One older parent was able to secure computer training and a position using computer-assisted design technology.
Focus group discussions with employers brought out several candid and insightful comments that suggest a remarkably thorough understanding of the low-skill, low-wage labor force. Employers not only shared their views on the services provided by the One-Stop systems, but also some of their insights on screening job applicants and improving employee retention in tight labor markets. These insights include:
Some of the One-Stop sites have a long and close relationship with the employers in their communities, based on their services to the "mainstream" labor market, while others are just beginning their employer outreach efforts. Economic development services have been incorporated in some One-Stop systems. However, in general, few sites have spent much time developing an advisory group of employers interested and concerned with facilitating the transition from welfare to work.
Most of the connections between One-Stops and employers revolved around serving the skilled and semi-skilled labor markets. For example, the Kenosha County Job Center sends representatives to Japan (compliments of the US Department of Defense) to recruit exiting military personnel with skills that would be attractive to local employers. In Traverse City, local employers have actively helped structure the programs and physical space at the One-Stop in order to handle the flow of UI claims along with JTPA and welfare-to-work clients. Employers were quite adamant about the need to coordinate employment services among several agencies, preferring to have one phone number, or website, where they could list an opening and thus get access to several sites within the employment network. Most employers track these patterns well, and resent having to contact several public agencies such as schools and colleges to list the same opening.
A few sites have incorporated economic development services into their One-Stop systems. In Marshalltown, the community college has the authority under state law to issue bonds that can be used to finance training for employment expansions, dedicating the revenues from the resulting wage growth in the area to retire the bonds. In Traverse City, local economic development councils are active members of the One-Stop partnership. While many retail and service employers tend to view economic development as a boon that boosts the demand for their goods and services, not all employers welcome economic development efforts, due to their impact on the local wages and the resulting competition for skilled employees. Nonetheless, those programs that emphasize training as an integral part of economic development activities appear to be best received by the employers in the focus groups.
Some sites were just beginning their efforts at systematic employer outreach, even though several maintain an account executive approach to employer relations with their regular customers, i.e., maintaining one point of contact for all services provided via the One-Stop. In Waukesha County, a sister One-Stop model to Kenosha County in Wisconsin, a computerized data base is used by multiple partners for employer outreach, combining summary information about the firm with an historical record of contacts and notes from the different agencies and individuals that have worked with the firm. Out of 11,000 employers in Waukesha County, roughly 1,000 employers are regular clients. However, this data base - and the employer wage and tax records maintained by the state - have not yet been used to develop a strategic outreach plan to reach key employers.
22. James L. McIntire, Marsha D. Brown, and Jan Nordlund, Minimum Wage Study: The Impacts of the Minimum Wage Initiative in Washington State, Institute for Public Policy and Management, University of Washington, January 1991.
23. James L. McIntire, "The Employer's Decision to Train Low-Wage Workers," unpublished dissertation, Department of Economics, University of Washington, 1993.
24. Ibid.
25. It is useful to note that in the Waukesha illustration, the County has 11,000 employers and only 400 welfare cases.
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