employment agencies engaging small and medium sized enterprises

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Employment Agencies Engaging Small and Medium Sized Enterprises PROMISING PRACTICES CASE STUDY SERIES | CASE STUDY 1 EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT FOR COMMUNITY BENEFIT

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Employment Agencies Engaging Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

P R O M I S I N G P R A C T I C E S C A S E S T U DY S E R I E S | C A S E S T U DY 1

E M P L O Y E R E N G A G E M E N T F O R C O M M U N I T Y B E N E F I T

Through funding from the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU), First Work

researched and developed a series of case studies to represent the experiences of employers,

employment agencies and other organizations involved in employer engagement initiatives.

The case studies profile innovative examples of promising practices that are intended to promote

the hiring of individuals traditionally underrepresented in the workforce. The lessons learned

suggest strategies that will inform future work in this area.

Emerging from discussions at the Futures Conference, Canada’s largest and longest running youth employment networking event, this series highlights important concepts in employer engagement.

Sponsored by

BACKGROUND

PROFILE OF FIRST WORK

Through supporting the work of local youth employment centres

across Ontario, First Work aims to help young people find and

maintain meaningful employment that will help improve the quality

of their lives.

Visit us at www.firstwork.org

P R O M I S I N G P R A C T I C E S C A S E S T U DY S E R I E S | C A S E S T U DY 1

This case study highlights the promising practices

employment service agencies use to engage

employers, thereby encouraging them to hire

their clients. We interviewed agencies that

have demonstrated success establishing strong

relationships with employers and maintaining

good job placement rates.

In sharing their success factors, other

agencies interested in refining their own

strategies can learn from what works well,

and can explore opportunities to enhance

employer engagement.

In addition, the perspectives of several

employers who feel they have benefited

from relationships with local employment

agencies are offered. Agencies looking to

foster stronger employer relationships can

use this insight to enhance their techniques

for addressing employer’s needs.

Overview

Hire Job Developers with the Right Skills

Employer engagement is best achieved when skilled job developers are

on the frontlines of an agency, working to appeal to the needs of both

job-seekers and employers. An efficient job developer must have diverse

skills. He or she needs to address the social aspects of the job, such as

relationship-building and applying sensitivity when dealing with clients

that experience barriers to employment. In addition, he or she must be

able to manage the business-oriented aspects of the job, by understanding

the labour market, profit-making and recruitment. One agency noted that

the best job developers are those who have had personal experience in the

business world, perhaps as corporate recruiters.

Promising PracticesThe following promising practices for employer engagement were identified through discussions with the stakeholders involved: Hire job developers with the right skills.

Develop a mutually beneficial relationship.

Maintain communication every step of the way.

Use a solutions-focused approach.

Resolve issues before they become problems.

“Job developers should have one foot in the business world… to have the drive to go out there and be competitive, to find jobs… yet to still be like a social worker, to take care of the relationships, create a bond with employers and see the signals if there’s something they need to do to repair a relationship.”— Employment Agency

“When working together, your goals are not separate. Often, what is good for one is good for the other. It is about growing together and supporting a holistic relationship.”— Employment Agency

P R O M I S I N G P R A C T I C E S C A S E S T U DY S E R I E S | C A S E S T U DY 1

Develop a Mutually Beneficial Relationship

To get employers engaged in and committed to a relationship with

employment agencies they must feel they can trust the employment

agency referring job candidates to them. Furthermore, they must feel

that the relationship with the agency benefits them.

The following are examples of specific strategies employment agencies

use to build trust and develop a mutually beneficial relationship with

employers.

Offer Tangible Human Resources (HR) SupportsEmployment agencies generally work with small businesses which

typically lack human resource expertise and staff. Stepping in to offer

concrete HR supports is one way of adding value to the employer.

HR supports offered by agencies often include:

Using social media and/or the agency’s own online job board to help

an employer advertise a job vacancy

Crafting online client profiles so employers

can peruse them when hiring

Hosting job fairs on behalf of employers

Helping with paperwork, such as payroll

documentation, when a job placement

is made.

Offering HR or other external supports to

employers even when they are not hiring from

the agency’s client base is a way to demonstrate

that the agency really cares about the employer’s

needs. For example, agencies might send out

an employer-targeted newsletter, or offer

professional development to an employer’s staff.

Anticipate and Respond to Specific Employer Needs

The best supports are often those that respond to an employer’s individual

needs. For instance, one agency submits customized employment

proposals to employers when requesting they take on a client for a job trial.

In one case, the agency discovered that a retail employer was struggling

to find staff willing to work weekends. One of the agency’s clients actively

did want to work weekends, so the agency wrote a tailored employment

proposal stressing to the employer that hiring this individual would be

beneficial in this regard.

Another agency spoke about the importance of anticipating employers’

peak hiring seasons and helping to save the employer time by screening

applicants on their behalf before the company had even started to

advertise the vacancy. One of the employers interviewed noted that they

appreciate how their agency partner advertises jobs on their behalf to

the general public, focusing on helping them find the best person for the

position, rather than favouring their own client base.

Another employer said they appreciated that the employment agency

they work with understood that they were an atypical company and were

looking to hire people capable of “out-of-the-box thinking”—something

they prioritized over certain hard skills.

Know When — and When Not — to Use Financial IncentivesEffective employment agencies don’t use financial incentives to “sell”

their clients, but instead focus on service and helping employers meet

their particular hiring needs. They understand that employers cannot be

“bought” with wage subsidies. Rather, employers must get on board with

the idea that hiring employment agency clients can actually benefit them,

helping them to achieve their bottom line.

Of course, financial incentives don’t need to be dismissed altogether.

Subsidies should be used while a client is undergoing a learning curve or

is catching up on certain technical skills. Ultimately, an employer must be

engaged to hire an agency client because they need a good employee, not

because they want to make some extra money off a short-term job trial.

“A financial incentive is appropriate if, say, it takes a little longer to [orient] a person to the job than it would normally.”

— Employment Agency

“I’ve come to trust this agency because they’re genuinely interested in where we’re going. After ten years [of working together], they know exactly who we are and the kind of staff we need.”

— Employer

P R O M I S I N G P R A C T I C E S C A S E S T U DY S E R I E S | C A S E S T U DY 1

Maintain Communication Every Step of the Way

“If a job developer goes too long without contacting an employer to check in, the relationship could be damaged.”— Employment Agency

Once an agency has placed a client in a job trial, it’s important to support

the employer by calling and paying visits periodically. Particularly in the

case of clients that experience multiple barriers to employment, a job

developer’s physical presence at the job site can make an important

difference. One employer noted that when she hired a client with severe

anxiety issues, the agency’s job developer accompanied that client to work

for the first week, helping her to acclimatize to the new environment. The

employer sincerely valued this extra effort on the part of the agency.

Post-employment communication is also critical. Employment agencies

that follow up with employers at regular intervals after a completed job

trial report having more frequent success placing another client with the

same employer.

Use a Solutions-Focused Approach

“Most at-risk youth are just as successful as others. If you treat youth as at-risk, then that’s what you get. If you treat them as successful individuals, then that’s what you get.”— Employment Agency

A solutions-focused approach means focusing on job seekers strengths versus their weaknesses.

Agencies should present job-seekers to employers in a positive light, regardless of any

employment barriers. This doesn’t mean overselling an individual or being unrealistic about his

or her capabilities. It’s about focusing on the things he or she can do, rather than highlighting

their issues and pigeonholing them as “at-risk.” This approach encourages employers to engage

in social hiring. Instead of precipitating a negative stigma by suggesting that an employer hire

an individual out of pity or duty, the client’s strengths are underscored. Successful agencies

emphasize how the employer will benefit from hiring this individual.

“We’re not going around begging for these clients, (saying), ‘oh please, look into your heart and see if you can hire this person’. If the employer is told that a client comes in on time, has a great attitude, and really wants the job, then that’s what they’ll see, and that’s how they will treat them.”

— Employment Agency

Successful agencies understand that a client’s lack of certain technical skills, particularly in

entry-level positions, are often less important to employers than soft skills such as a good

attitude and a willingness to learn. Sometimes, simply finding a placement that really excites a

client and stressing to an employer how enthusiastic the candidate is is an effective engagement

tool.

Resolve Issues Before They Become Problems

“We try to teach the employers and the youth we place to call us before quitting or before firing. We tell them to think of us a sort of an emergency clinic—to call us if there’s an issue before they do anything. That way, we can talk about the issue together and solve it together”— Employment Agency

In any work situation, regardless of whether an employee faces barriers,

conflicts inevitably arise. A successful agency must be proficient both at

doing damage control and at working to quell issues before they become

full-blown problems. Staying in regular contact with both clients and

employers is one way for a job developer to detect, mediate and resolve

problems early on. Another is encouraging both employers and clients

to call the agency as soon as an issue arises, rather than waiting until a

problem escalates.

When an employer does call with a complaint,

an effective job developer will go to the site

and manage the conflict or situation in a direct

and timely manner. After getting a sense of

the problem, the job developer will convene a

conversation about what has been working and

what the client has been doing well. Ensuring all

parties remain focused on strengthening what is

working can help deescalate an issue.

P R O M I S I N G P R A C T I C E S C A S E S T U DY S E R I E S | C A S E S T U DY 1

Employment agencies occupy a unique and sometimes difficult

position in the Employment Ontario service network. Because their

main priority is to find secure, meaningful employment for their clients

— typically, individuals that have been excluded from the workforce —

agencies must appeal to employers to take a chance on candidates they

might not otherwise consider.

In addition, because a strong relationship with employers is the cornerstone

of employer engagement, agencies must deal with the added challenge of

ensuring the business needs of employers are understood and addressed.

To achieve this our case study recommends that agencies be committed

to getting to know employers — to understand their personalities and the

types of personalities that would work well with them — as well as their

individual hiring needs, challenges and the company culture they have

cultivated. Agencies must be ready to offer support, such as coordinating

a job fair on an employer’s behalf or knowing when it’s appropriate to

provide a wage subsidy.

Once trust has been established, the agency must work to maintain the

relationship by showing a genuine interest in the employer. This means

checking in with them regularly, regardless of whether the employer has

hired the agency’s particular clients. This case study recommends that

agencies play a “long game” when it comes to employer engagement,

allowing trust to develop over time and valuing high-quality matches over

quick, one-off job trials. For social hiring to continue as both a viable and

sustainable practice, the long game approach is the only option.

This publication is one in a series of case studies addressing issues surrounding employer engagement for community benefit. Please visit www.firstwork.org for more information about the series and our organization.

Concluding Comments

Contributing StakeholdersEmployment Agencies

KEYS Job Centre is a community-based centre that provides

employment-related services to Kingston and communities in eastern

Ontario. Their client base includes mature workers, persons with

disabilities, youth, students and newcomers to Canada.

Youth Employment Service, YES is an employment services centre

focused on helping vulnerable and disadvantaged youth in the Greater

Toronto Area find jobs or start businesses.

YES North Bay is a community-based, nonprofit organization

whose mandate is to help individuals—both those with and without

employment barriers—find meaningful employment, return to school,

access training and become productive members of the community.

FOCUS is a community-based, nonprofit organization whose purpose

is to enhance employment opportunities in the South Simcoe area.

All implement Employment Ontario Employment Services and have been

identified by the Province as peer leaders for their outstanding outcomes

achievement.

P R O M I S I N G P R A C T I C E S C A S E S T U DY S E R I E S | C A S E S T U DY 1

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