2012 Workforce Readiness Day

By Rosemary Hook

This week, the Workforce Readiness committee held its last pre-WFR Day meeting and we poured over last minute details on speakers, panels, employer sponsors, and the Workforce Readiness Fair in preparation for Workforce Readiness Day on Thursday, May 24th.

The majority of the 2012 Workforce Readiness Day agenda is focused on current WFR programs in place from organizations in the public, private, and non-profit sectors as well as howto put together a program for those companies concerned about upcoming predictions of talent shortages in greater Central Texas. Yet, someone in the meeting asked, what we know will be asked at WFR Day and what we expect will be answered by our panels and speakers:

Q. Whose role is it within an organization to care about or be worried about workforce readiness?
A. Right now, everyone’s and no one’s.

Before deciding who within your organization might own workforce readiness, there has to be a general understanding of What is Workforce Readiness, why should we care as companies, how can we get executive support, and finally, what should organizations be doing to prepare for it.
All of these questions will be answered at AHRMA’s Third Annual Workforce Readiness Day on Thursday, May 24^thand we’d like you to Register today for Workforce Readiness Day:

• Morning: WFR Day will kick off with the State of the Texas Talent Pipeline with panelists Hannah Gourgey with E3 Alliance, Amelia Folkes with Texas Business and Education Coalition (TBEC) andState Farm Community Relations, Scotty Parrish with Adecco, Rhonda Boyer with AISD, Melissa Richardson Curtis with Austin Community College, and Isaac Abram Torres with Texas State University’s GenTX program.
• Lunch: Then after lunch, we’ll hear from business and government leaders on Bridging the Gap Between Employers and Job Seekers with panelists Tom Pauken with the Texas Workforce Commission, Tom Palladino with the Texas Veterans Commission, Jeff Quade with the growing, emerging WhaleShark Media, and Nathan Green of Campus2Careers
• Afternoon: And just to make sure you get a full day’s worth of HRCI credits, the afternoon will be packed with How to Build a Veteran Recruiting Program by speaker, Allen Bergeron, a Veteran Consultant with the City of Austin and a talk by Alan Miller, Executive Director of Workforce Solutions - Capital Area and theWorkReady Austin Certificate Programwhich will walk attendees through how to prepare entry-level applications with basic work ready skills.

The next AHRMA-WFR committee meeting will be Tuesday, June 19th, 5:30pm-7:00pm at the Workforce Solutions, 6505 Airport Boulevard, Austin, TX 78752. To be included on the AHRMA-WFR committee email distribution, email Kristin Huber or Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, Co-VPs of the AHRMA Workforce Readiness committee.

Evaluating your policy for creating and maintaining engagement among community using Social Media

Many businesses today can easily take advantage of the social media tools available. 

The first question to ask is which is right for your work force, customers and community. While there are many tools - you want to be selective to be sure you have a communications policy in place and you are committed to maintaining a presence. 

I know I'm dating myself, but there was nothing worse than turning on the TV and finding a "We'll Be Right Back" message on your favorite channel...fast forward to 2012 and nothing is worse then seeing the same, irrelevant, or lame (that may sound harsh, but my time is valuable!) updates from businesses in markets you want to follow. If you are going to lead the industry...be the one setting the pace, not playing catch up. The next question is how do you put this in action? 

According to the folks at dreamgrow.com, a social media and marketing resource, reported research conducted by EdgeRank Checker who examined a random sampling of 5,500+ Facebook Pages with 80K posts during Oct. 2011.  The research conducted offers the following guideline regarding Clicks (on average) expected per type of action on Facebook. What the study found was if a post received two likes the link typically received an average of six clicks. With a comment inserted, the click rate improved up to four times that amount. So can you figure out a way to work this into your social media strategy? 

Read more here: http://www.dreamgrow.com/facebook-edgerank-research-comments-4x-more-valuable-than-likes/.

Contributed by:
Cristina Salinas
Business Development, Austin HealthWorks
Sponsor Coordinator, Marketing and PR committee - AHRMA

Hiring Veterans - Resources are out there!

By now, it's likely that you've become aware of a growing predicament: many of our servicemen and servicewomen are returning home from serving abroad, only to be met with the growing difficulty of finding employment in the civillian world. You are interested in hiring these veterans, but how do you find them? How do you decode the common differences in verbage used in the military world versus the key words for which you're accustomed to searching for a resume? It all seems impossible, right?

Well, I have good news for you. There is a wealth of available assistance, for free (yes, free), right here in Austin. At just a phone call or click away, you can quickly find answers to your veteran-related questions. You can find help in actively seeking out a veteran to fill that key job opening.

Here is an example of sites and companies here in Austin, who are here to help you in your quest to actively seek out and employ veterans. Please leave comments to this post if you have more to add, or if you wish to share your own contacts and/or success stories:

1. ESGR

http://www.esgr.mil/site/Home.aspx

Resources on their site include: resources for employers; USERRA information; fact sheets; toolkits

2. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

http://www.va.gov/

Resources on their site include: Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment Service (http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/vre/); VetSuccess program (http://vetsuccess.gov/)

3. Texas Veterans Leadership Program

http://www.twc.state.tx.us/tvlp/tvlp.html

Read their Mission Statement for a great description of their services, to include finding employment for veterans, helping companies find veterans to hire, and serving as a resource for medical care and training. A map of Texas helps you find a local point of contact.