Customized Employment:
It Works!
Marketing Maxim:
It is more effective to find out what
customers need and want and match
it to what you have to offer…
…than it is to get them to buy what
you are selling.
Main Message should be about:
• CONTRIBUTION!
• COMPETENCE!
• QUALITY!
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Effective Messages
“We are here to serve you.”
“Meeting company human resource needs
since____.”
“We would like to learn more about your
business
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Effective Messages
“Innovative staffing resource.”
“We believe in our product.”
(that is, the job seekers we represent and the way
we link these individuals with employers)
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People become unemployed
for a number of reasons.
Different reasons require different
approaches and services.
People with significant barriers
to employment can’t take a job
“off the rack”.
We must tailor the process
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Job developers must:
• Find employment opportunities that match a job
seeker’s interests, skills and personality
• Develop positions that will maximize abilities and
minimize disabilities
• Have an in-depth understanding of both the job
seeker and how a business works
• Offer employers something they value
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Rule 1
Everyone is “Job Ready”
•
•
•
•
Believe in your job seeker
No prerequisites
Work with current skills
Look for positions based on interests and
hobbies
• Find a position that maximizes abilities
and minimizes disabilities
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Rule 2
The glass is
always
half FULL
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Rule 3
No “Job Stuffing”
Getting Started
The first step of job development
Help Wanted
Company looking for individual with a history
of mental illness and drug use. Extensive
history of hospitalization required. Aggressive
behaviors preferred. Delusional behavior OK.
Supportive co-workers.
Call today for an application.
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Step 1: Get to Know Your
Job Seeker
• Develop a Positive Profile
Remember: You can’t sell what a person can’t do
• The 3-p’s
– Personality
– Preferences
– Previous experiences
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Job seeker: KIP
What the file said:
• Institutionalized for
15 years
• Aggressive behavior
• No functional
academic skills
What we said:
• Physical guy
• Great smile
• Hard worker, good
coordination
• Sorting and matching
• Loves the outdoors
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Customized Employment is
a two-way street.
Step 2: Get to Know
Employers
Establish Relationships
• Spend time with employers, what makes them
unique?
–
–
–
–
How do they operate?
Who does what?
What’s not getting done?
What’s the culture/mission?
• Can you help?
• Sustain relationship/Pitch
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Third Step: The Pitch
Sell applicant’s skills and throw
from the employer’s perspective
Employers Want to Know:
• Why do you want to work here?
– Employee’s interest, motivation
• What can you do for my company?
The business benefits are:
•
•
•
•
Spend less money
Make more money
Improve efficiency/productivity
Improve customer relations
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The Selling Toolkit
• Coverletter
• Resume
• Potential task lists
Potential Tasklists
• Get the employer thinking
• Based on employer’s needs and job
seeker’s skills
• Use employer’s jargon and organizational
terms
• Put most important tasks (dept.) first
– Who are you meeting with?
• Be specific-no general terms
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Developing Task Lists
To develop a task list:
• Tour the company (or a similar
business)
• Read current job descriptions
• Look at how the company is
organized
• Find someone in the industry to
provide information and proof list
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Negotiating Tips
• Show interest in employer
issues/concerns
• Present potential solution(s) and
benefit (something the employer
will value)
• Present candidate
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CUSTOMIZED
EMPLOYMENT
Case Studies
Sarah’s Profile
What her file said:
• “Chatters”
constantly
• Poor coordination
and motor skills
• Lazy and slow
• Poor functional use
of language
What we said:
• Very social, initiates
interactions
• Likes desk jobs
• Able to answer
clearly worded
questions
• Reads
• Loves music and
magazines
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Borders Books and Music
Staffing issues and concerns:
Must pull staff off sales floor to:
1) strip magazines and pulp fiction
2) process CD’s
3) sticker bargain books and new releases
4) “Top 10”changes weekly, sells quickly
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Processing Clerk, Borders
Works for Borders:
• stripping magazines
• putting CD’s in
sensors
• Stickering and
restocking “Top 10”
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Tryn’s Profile
What her file said:
• Just completed
high school
• Limited retail and
clerical experience
while in school
• 4th grade reading
level
• 3rd grade math
skills
What we said:
• Loves theater, takes
voice lessons
• Participated in Youth
Theater
• Dreams of being a
actress
• Uses computer to email friends and surf
the internet
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American Conservatory
Theater
Staffing issues and concerns:
• Seasonal fluctuations
• Nonprofit (perpetually broke)
• Small departments
• Used temps for admin. needs
• No ushers for matinees
• Costume shop getting busier
– no system in place to monitor rental
Administrative Assistant, ACT
• Floats between departments
seasonally
• Collates new hire info packets
and files employee information
• Processes marketing mailings
and enters new subscriber
donor information into
databases
• Photocopies and binds scripts
for Conservatory
• Enters customer satisfaction
survey results
• Processes costume rental
invoices
• Ushers for matinee shows
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Robert’s Profile
What his file said:
• Has Cerebral Palsy
• Uses a wheelchair,
limited use of left
side
• No paid employment
limited work history
• Trouble with visual
tracking
• Possible LD
What we say:
• Degree in Journalism
• Some computer skills,
knows MS office
• Loves music and
comic books,
literature, the internet,
• Summer jobs doing
“data entry” and
answering phones
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Viz Communications
Staffing issues and concerns:
No one to routinely handle contest entries
High turn-over in Reviewers
and Copy Editors positions
Subscriptions and Circulation
departments need additional hands
after new releases
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Robert works for
Viz Communications
• Opens and “judges”
contests entries
• Supports Circulations
and Subscription
sending out prerelease information,
post-release data
entry
• Writes and copy edits
reviews
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Benefits of Negotiations
Employers
• Save money
• Make money
• Work faster/more
efficiently
Employees
• Skills and
characteristics
matched to career
goal
• Competence on
display
• Wages
• Peers with like
interests
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Things to Remember
• Even if an ad isn’t posted there may be
opportunities
• Employers are always looking for
enthusiastic, motivated employees who
are willing to learn.
• Change is constant and job descriptions
are wishlists - they are not written in stone.
• Employers are looking for value/a bang for
their buck/solutions to staffing issues
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Be Creative
To find employment opportunities
look outside of the box
Customized Employment Works!
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Other resources:
• www.onestopinfo.com
• Luecking, Fabian & Tilson (2004). Working
Relationships: Creating Career Opportunities for Job Seekers
with Disabilities through Employer Partnerships. Baltimore:
Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company.
• www.transcen.org
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For more information, contact:
Richard Luecking
TransCen,Inc.
451 Hungerford Ave.
Suite 700
Rockville, MD 20850
(301)424-2002
[email protected]
www.transcen.org
Sara Murphy
WorkLink Program
785 Market Street,
Suite 670
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415)979-9520
[email protected]
www.transcen.org/worklink
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