Job Development

Hello, LinkedIn Network! As some of you may know, I recently joined the YMCA as a Job Developer, a role that heavily relies on sales and marketing tactics to be successful within.

After about a month of onboarding and intense learning, I'm now at a point where I'm "hitting the pavement" with calls to and from both the people I serve - a steady supply of young jobseekers from the Youth Job Connection Program - and those who might entertain employment opportunities for this demographic - fluctuating demand from employers interested in job placements.

As I reflect on the strategies at my disposal to make this connection, it occurs to me that the best resource I have for developing my own competence has been right in front of me for quite some time: you, the reader!

Job Development is a new field for me. I have so many questions, some of which will be better answered by experts in the field, so it is my hope that this post will capture the attention of those who can offer a fresh perspective and maybe even generate inspiring conversations! I suspect that I'm not alone when considering the following issues, of which often run through my mind on a regular basis. Read on if you've got about 15 minutes.

Prospecting

As Job Developers (or anyone in Sales, for that matter) will attest to, there's nothing worse than the decision paralysis that comes from the dreaded Stack of Business Cards™. "Where do I even start? How many calls/emails will it take to strike gold? Is this information even correct, anymore?!" A more modern approach is to leverage websites such as Google Maps to get a better idea of businesses in a particular area.

Neither of these approaches are particularly... speedy, though. It could take days or weeks of cold calls, emails, and a whole lot of "we're not hiring" until you eventually find that perfect (but often not-so-perfect) job placement. With this context now explored, I feel ready to pose the question I feel very strongly about:

How do you prospect qualified, values-driven employers for job placements?

It's not an easy question, but it gets to the heart of why Job Development can be so tricky. Some of the best job placements can happen through smaller, lesser-known employers specializing in fields you'd never think to look in. There's also a dizzying number of options available for searching for businesses: Google Maps, GlassDoor, LinkedIn, Indeed, Better Business Bureau, and hundreds of job boards, all of which threaten to overflow a Developer's toolbox.

So, what works? What doesn't? I'm hoping you can chime in!

Virtual Maps

The joke (curse) of my generation is that we'd need to use Google Maps if we wanted travel down 3 street blocks on a Sunday afternoon. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but I know that if someone said to me, "the corner of Main and Maine is beautiful this time of year, do you know where that is?", I'd only be able to provide them with a blank stare.

In Job Development, the geographically-challenged have it pretty rough. A new job posting gets email-blasted to the team and for some of us (me), it takes a while to pinpoint which of our jobseekers would be a good fit. For context, many of our jobseekers must use public transit, so we need to be cognizant of travel distance between the candidate and the employer.

Now, speaking of Google Maps... I could save all our jobseekers' locations into a map, give each a description, and add employer pins as I go. As you may be aware, however, Google is notorious for privacy issues and mass data collection, and when you're dealing with sensitive information such as client postal codes and names, that's not something you typically want to share outside of your organization, even with your client's consent!

I'm aware that the old-school method of a printed map and magnetic pins could also do the trick, but that method is time-consuming as well limited in both scope and accessibility (we're in the 21st century; I'm not taking an entire blackboard with me on the road!). This begs the question:

What digital resources do you use to produce responsive, useful virtual maps?

Bonus points for any suggestions that will also point out amazing places to shop/eat along the route!

Motivation

When it comes to Employment Services, we get a mosaic of jobseekers all with different needs and motivations. Nowhere is this diversity more on-display than when we work with youth. For this demographic, interests and focus can shift by the minute. It's hard to blame them, they've got a lot going on: school, social and news media, societal expectations, the need for recognition and achievement, memes, etc.

Sometimes, the weight of all these considerations are too much to bear (even as adults, there are days when it can be difficult to get out of bed). For young jobseekers who already face multiple barriers to gaining stable and meaningful employment, the motivation needed to respond to hundreds of emails, adhere to a schedule not designed with their benefit in mind, and perform in a new job, in a new environment, with a team they don't know, and well beyond the expectations of their employer... well, let's just say that it'd make even the most over-worked CEO count their blessings.

When motivation falters (and it will!), how do we help these jobseekers back onto the proverbial horse? In other words:

What resources/techniques do you employ to keep your clients motivated?

... and when that fails:

Where else can they go for help when their Job Developer isn't in a position to offer it? Furthermore, how/when do you make that call?

I don't have a Social Work or Counselling background, but even with my limited knowledge of the sector and its interaction with our target demographic, I see the need to act quickly and in confidence when addressing motivation-related issues. These younger jobseekers are at a vulnerable point in their lives, and we need to be ready to steer them back on-course at a moment's notice. Otherwise, we become part of the problem; we become one more reason for these jobseekers not to give it their all in the face of adversity.

Given what you've read in this lengthy article, you can see that I've been thinking about these issues... a lot. But I hope my ramblings have encouraged you to do a little thinking on these subjects, yourself. Most importantly, I also hope you'll consider sharing said thoughts either through comments, reactions, or by sharing this article with others to encourage them to join in on the conversation. I'll do my best to review every contribution and summarize them in a sequel post. That way, if by some miracle we uncover a way forward, we'll have a record of it.

Thanks for reading and good luck with all the changes coming our way!