Practice Improvement Institute

Business Development Roundtable

Business Development Series Description

Part I: The Business Development Process- Understanding High Growth Sectors

Part II: The Time is Now! Turning a conversation with a business into a job!

Part III: The Ongoing Relationship Between Business Developers and Business

Part IV: Expanding the Possibilities-- Creation of long term Business to Business Partnerships

Part V: Business Developer Roundtable Discussion –

Plus a Conversation with Human Resource Managers

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Occupation

2010

2020

Net Change

% Change

Growth

Replace

Food Preparation & Serving

43,673

49,422

5,749

13.2%

5,759

16,946

Building & Grounds: Cleaning & Maintenance

17,941

19,439

1,498

8.3%

1,541

3,229

Personal Care & Service

17,581

20,654

3,073

17.5%

3,076

4,151

Retail, Sales & Related

48,505

53,617

5,112

10.5%

5,232

15,001

Office and Administrative Support

79,181

84,280

5,099

6.4%

6,080

17,015

Construction & Extraction

18,541

21,295

2,754

14.9%

2,755

4,115

Installation, Maintenance, & Repair

16,894

18,364

1,470

8.7%

1,544

3,804

Production, Warehouse Lite Manufacturing

30,221

31,191

970

3.2%

1,697

5,830

Rhode Island High Growth Sectors with Entry Level Jobs

Part I Overview

During this module we will provide an overview of the business development process, discuss the concept of high growth sectors and how to build a structured based approach to business development.

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Understanding the Labor Market • Job openings result from the need to replace workers who leave and the

new position due to business expansion.

• Between 2010-2020 it is estimated that employers will need to find

workers to fill over 170,000 job openings in Rhode Island.

• The overall trend, according to McKinsey Global Institute ,Harvard

Business Reviews for business to look for very specific skills –

(especially in) “lower level” jobs.

• The skills gap is of special concern for industries with the highest

projected rates of job growth.

• If they cannot find people with the right skills, businesses prefer to do

the training themselves .

– Our approach has to be to aligned with business, understand their

staffing needs, build effective sector based training so that

businesses see us as the provider of their “ideal”-- trained

candidate

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Analysis: High Growth Sectors

• High Growth Sectors where there is the potential for a high degree of success for

individuals with developmental/intellectual disabilities.

– Food Service/Restaurant

• Cashier

• Dishwashing

• Busing tables /filling water/bread baskets

• Prep Cook

– Janitorial/Facilities Management

– Hospitality

• Housekeeping

• Front Desk Support

– Retail/Stocking

• Warehouse

• Shelf stocking

• Dressing room

• Cashier

– Light manufacturing

– Construction

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Sector-Based Approach

• A sector-based approach to business development involves understanding the growth projections and accompanying staffing needs of a particular industry and building a trained workforce to meet those demands.

• The purpose of a sector-based approach to workforce development is to improve the job prospects or quality of jobs for entry level workers—while at the same time meeting business needs.

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“After 40 years of trial

and error, sector-based

economic development

and workforce training

has proven to be the

only kind of effort that

has consistently

achieved strong and

positive results.”

Gary Walker

Past President of

Public/Private Ventures.

Sector Based Strategies • Sector-based strategies bring businesses

and other stakeholders together – including economic developers, community colleges, local governments and workforce trainers – to ensure a pipeline of job-ready workers.

• Together they develop training curriculums that focus on the skill sets and technologies needed for particular jobs within specific sectors.

• Tailoring the training increases the speed and reduces the costs of producing ready and reliable employees.

• It means that those trained “hit the ground running” with very specific skills.

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“Sector strategies are

among the few

workforce interventions

that statistically

demonstrate improved

employment

opportunities and

wages for individuals

with barriers and

increased

competitiveness of

business.”

Dissection of Market Sectors

• Critical to understand how each employer within each

sector functions

– Understanding the business operation increases

possibilities of success

• Case Example-Restaurant: We knew that they had not only the

standard dishwashing –but they had a position called “Salad Prep”—

knowing this and believing we can fill it helped us)

• Case Example—Office Services: when we went in to talk to them we

thought that the original job was warehousing.

– Saw large garbage bags—of ABS client information that was being

shredded.

– Realized that consumers could do this job and grow a career from there.

– The first visit is about engaging the business and

developing the relationship

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Understanding Your Role As A Business

Developer

– Remember that when talking to a business we need to understand the individual “hook”

• Pay attention to their motivation—find out what makes them tick.

– For some…it is as basic as “what you doing for me?

– For others…. It is community recognition

– For others… it is actually making a difference in the life of someone

– For others…it is part of their company’s culture and strategic plan

• Being able to read people is the most crucial part of the relationship building

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Understanding Your Role (2)

• When talking to the business –a good business developer is

exploring how participants (generally) might fit into these

environments.

– This is not a participant specific exploration –it is just

imagining within the environment if there are opportunities….

– We are not “promoting” the skills of specific participants (like

a staffing agency) we are promoting:

• The excellence of our support

• The benefit of being part of a community initiative

• The benefit of practicing socially responsible outsourcing

• Our cohesive team effort

• We are selling the smart, planful integration of economic and workforce

development

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Part II Overview

During the Time is Now! module we will discuss how to approach businesses including critical messages, dos and don’ts, managing expectations, making it

work for the business bottom line and getting to yes!

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Tailoring the Message to the Audience

• Some business owners/managers are well informed – and

they understand the issue and may have a story to go along

with it….

• Sometimes there is a need to provide education on the issue,

why this matters to business and why this matters to people

– Try not to dwell on the past and talk about the positives going forward

– Description of a sheltered workshop (history)

– Cleary state that the participants you are trying to find jobs for

do in fact have intellectual/developmental disabilities

– HOWEVER---Emphasize that even with this disability –these

individuals have been working –many for 30+ years

– And…that they are individuals who are eager, ambitious and

want to go to work

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Focus on Entry Level Positions

• Research about HR positions suggests that attrition for entry level positions is tremendously high.

• Amount of time HR spends on hiring an $8-10.00 hour person, is as much as middle management

• Business takes a risk whenever they hire an individual—when you hire one of our participants they come with an entire team around them.

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Handling Objections

• When you approach a person or business in order to help them solve their

staffing issues, there will be times when you are met with negativity and

rejection.

• How you handle these difficult times will have a direct impact upon your

success.

• What you are bringing to that prospective customer is an opportunity they

cannot get from anyone else, and it’s your job to convey that.

• Since some of these advantages are not obvious to most without further

education, and since other benefits may be aligned with upper management

and not the person you are speaking to, it’s vital that you become adept at

handling initial objections.

• We have put together some of the initial objections you may get, and some

suggested responses that may keep the conversation going; ultimately to a

positive outcome for all.

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As You Begin to Identify Possible Jobs…

• Understand the existing sector-focused

training (in the community) to ensure job

readiness

• Explore on-the-job training

• Explore modification of the job

– Job Sharing

– Reconfigure the work itself

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Managing Expectations During the Business

Interaction

• You are working to develop the relationship –

while trying to get a job for a participant!

• Critical to be smart and manage the

expectations of the business —we cannot

control the quality of the work of the individual

• But remember ….you are “promoting” the

performance and support of the team—and this

we CAN control!

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Help Business to Understand…

• Interviews will not be typical interviews —communication skills are not as well developed

• Try not to set the bar too high—but at the same time engaging the business in an entire process of community inclusion – When a business gets it—they consider this within their

business plan and part of their bottom line – in a more holistic way/social conscious

– While they may not interview well—it does not mean that they will not do the job well • You will see personalities come out over time—and that

means that you have been part of helping them be fully included in the community

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Additional Key Messages

• We will support an individual in becoming a

strong, reliable employee

• We want you to be part of that process

• Successes that the participant experiences is--

in part--your success

• When these individuals become capitalists and

want more hours or career advancement –we

have done a GREAT job. Congratulations!

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Part III Overview

During this module we will discuss the rapid job placement flow, the critical communication link between identifying the job and the case managers/job coaches, how to maintain

and advance your relationships with business.

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Statewide identification of Job

Opportunities

• Review of the CEA Opportunity Board –a

centralized point to post jobs for people with

intellectual/developmental disabilities

• http://www.cea.fedcap.org/job

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PREDICTABLE PITFALLS AND WHY COMMUNICATION SAVES THE

DAY

• There may be bumps in the road—individuals who start out strong may, after 3

months or so, get tired of working, may not feel challenged, may feel like they can

do more.

– The workshop environment did not teach them how to manage these feelings.

They called in sick, or they took long breaks.

• Disconnect comes when we fail to have regular communication.

– Participant to Case managers/job coach

– Case Manager/Job Coach to employment supervisor

– Case Manager/job coach to Business Developer (Any issues on the

job HAVE to be communicated to the Business Developer as they have

the formal relationship with the business).

– Business Developer to Case Manager

– Case managers/job coaches have to teach individuals with developmental

disabilities how to communicate clearly and to make good decisions on the

job.

– If communication is occurring, when problems occur –we know about it fast!

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It Is Nearly Impossible to Over Communicate

• Your ongoing relationship with business

hinges on your regular communication with

case managers/job coaches

• Sometimes the case manager may say

something that is a trigger to you---and you

need to go in and see if the business is

wavering in their commitment to partner with

us

• For the Business Developer—it carries MUCH

more weight when you stop by as opposed to

calling.

• Frequent “stop ins” are important regardless of

how things are going.

• If there is a problem, and you have maintained

a strong relationship—they are more forgiving.

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Tips for Ongoing Interactions with

Business Clients

– Find out of the business believes that the

participant is getting the support they need to

continuously improve job performance

– Emphasize that we are committed to ensuring

that the participant is doing the best that they

can do

– Remember …it is always easier to grow existing

business than to find new.

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Other Immediate Truths • Every business has problems so if participants struggle on the job, admit it and

commit to problem resolution.

• Use this as an opportunity to show your business customers how well you

handle problems.

• When you are solving a problem for any business, you become an honored

guest each time you show up.

• Don’t sell to people – listen, educate, partner and help them buy.

• Practice continuous improvement every single day while finding ways to

strengthen your team.

• Don’t ignore concerns from the customer because you think it’s minor, or you

have no solution. Use your team and the customer to find solutions.

• The best advice I ever got was to “treat the business as if it was an infant child

left in your care.” Every decision you make should be about what is best for the

business and its clients. If you truly do this, you cannot help but succeed.

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Part IV Overview

During this module we will discuss the difference between finding a single job for a participant and developing a thriving partnership with business.

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Preparing to Be A Leader in an

Emerging Environment Consider What You Want to Be

• Low Price/Low Quality – Not a “fun” way to love what you do because often clients are

upset. These companies go away the minute someone can undercut your price or provide

a little better service for the same price. Very low margin business overall.

• Low Price/High Quality – Does not exist in life. Companies that provide this usually have

profitability issues because high quality costs money.

• High Price/Low Quality – No one should pay a lot for bad quality. For years Jaguar cars

represented this and ultimately, if they had not been bought out multiple times, they

would not exist today.

• High Price/High Quality – In my experience the companies that provide a high quality

service and charge a fair price for it, are the companies that grow and thrive. Also, it is a

lot more rewarding to do a good job and get paid fairly for it, than any other option on this

continuum.

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From a Single Job to a Long-Term

Business Partnership • One job is a great start but we are not done.

• Ultimately our goal is to engage business in the larger picture --to fully embrace socially responsible business strategies including using our “system” as a staffing entity.

• The process is as follows:

– Following several successful placements….

– It makes sense to go back and tell them they can get viable entry level employees for specific jobs

– Can save HR recruitment costs because we screen, we train and we support

– For example…a business with many stores—we may say …”give us dishwashers…we can fill all of those jobs..” • Then if we can create career ladders such as prep cook, bussers, bakery

(front end staff) we can backfill the dishwashing positions.

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Long Term Goal

• We become their staffing source for multiple positions.

• This will only will occur when they see us as:

– A group that knows their business

– A group that understands their staffing needs

– A group that is reliable and do what we say we are going to

do

– A group that provides tremendous customer service and

responsive follow up

– A group that has consistent and frequent communication

– A group that advances their bottom line

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So if we are successful…

Business Case Example

• Catering Business—East Meets West

Catering

• Placed individuals—and the business saw

what our folks could do

• We started having conversations about them

having interns

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Measureable Goals for the Business

Developer and the Entire Team

• Number of people placed

• Number of hours worked

• Average wage per hour

• Number of New Jobs/New companies

• Number of additional jobs from existing

clients,

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Going back to the Motivators

• The WorkStar™ Award – Similar to EnergyStar—this award

designates a business as being a leader, going over and above in employing people with barriers

– Purpose is to honor businesses and raise the profile of this kind of endeavor

– As part of the team of Business Developers –we will look to you for nominees • % of workforce

• Longevity in hiring people with barriers

• Highest pay

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Structuring and Conquering the

Work

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Regions of

Rhode

Island