Breaking the “Unemployment Office” Stigma
The unemployment rate is at a low — but there are many more people out there that need your help than the numbers show! We are thrilled to have Mike Fazio join us to refocus our outlook on workforce development programs and the purpose they serve in 2023.
With funding and resources at risk, we focus on getting back to the fundamental what and why of workforce development as so much more than an employment solution. Mike offers an enlightening perspective on how to better position organizations in community engagement and outreach. Find the full transcript below:
Max Schelkopf: [00:00:00] So I'll introduce myself. My name is MaxSchoff and I'm a Senior Mobile Solutions consultant with Engage By Sell. And myrole here is to help assist all of our different. Customers and peopleinterested in technology within kind of the workforce world and how mobilecommunications can be integrated into processes and things like that.
And I'll go ahead and let you introduce yourself, Mike.
Mike Fazio: Sure.Thanks for having beyond, first of all, max and my friends at Engaged by CellAnna and Dave and everybody else over there on the team. I'm Mike fao. I'm theCEO at Workforce 180.
Thanks for having us.
Max Schelkopf:Perfect. Yeah. And behind the scenes we've got Anna, our marketing director,who will be running the slides for Mike and I, and she'll also be addressingany questions that people have in the little chat window there. So please [00:01:00] participate during the conversation Mikeand I are having.
So if you have questions, feel free to throw 'em in there.Raise your hand, whatever it might be. All righty, Anna. Next slide. Prettyplease. All right, so a little bit about Engage by Cell. So we are a mobiledevice based technology company that primarily focuses on how engagement canpower, communications, and ease of access for information.
And we have a large presence within the workforce developmentand training and HR realm. How we help assist and increase those communicationlevels and retain it and obviously get that information that everybody needsaccess to out there, to the public. And so next slide, Anna. And we'll let Miketalk about Workforce 180 a little bit.
Mike Fazio: Thanks,max. Hi again, everybody. Mike fao, workforce 180. We're a national trainingand consulting organization. We've been around since 2014. I've been [00:02:00] part of the industry since 2008. I'mlooking Max at the chat board at all the different places from around thecountry that are here and including beyond the state borders the us We've gotthe US Virgin Islands, we've got the Grand Cayman Islands with us as well.
That's exciting. So it's interesting to see how workforcestretches across the country and beyond, and that's what we've been trying todo to help organizations. We've contracted to more than 700 whether they'regovernment agencies, nonprofits workforce agencies, workforce boards all overthe country, including the Virgin Islands, including the Cayman Islands,including Canada, including parts of Australia.
And we're proud to say we've been able to assist. Professionaldevelopment with more than 20,000 workforce professionals. And on top of that,one of the other things we do is podcasting. And podcasting is near and dear toour hearts. We edit, produce, and distribute podcasts for workforce agencies.
And the private sector all over the country and very proud [00:03:00] to say we've now accumulated more than 2million downloads. If you're not podcasting folks, that's amazing. I don't knowwhat you're waiting. I don't know what you're waiting
Max Schelkopf: for.Yeah, that's pretty neat. And Mike had mentioned we got some visitors from theUS Virgin Islands, and we'll be talking about a shared experience we'll we havedown there.
So glad to see some of them participating today. Absolutely.Yep. So these are just some the different organizations and workforce boardsthat engage by Cell specifically works with throughout the nation and a littlebit international there as well. All right. So tell me a little bit here, Mike,I know you wanted to include this, but labor force participation rate.
So can you elaborate on this and what the surprising statisticsare here before we dive in? Yeah.
Mike Fazio: This iscoming up more and more often. Everybody in the country knows that we'rehaving. A downturn in foot traffic through our centers around the country.Maybe less people looking for [00:04:00] work,less people wanting help and assistance.
We're writing less. Its less o jts. And this should not be ashock to us though, because if you look at the labor participation rate, whichis the percentage of people working or actively looking for work in the countryit's been in decline. Since March of 2000. Now the bottom fell out during Covidand we're creeping back up to where we were, but.
Since there are more people becoming independent,self-employed, multiple part-time job doing all kinds of other work, there isno reason for us to be shocked that less people are coming through the door. Wehad a slight blip on the screen in 2008, right? And nine during the recessionwhen unemployment was through the roof.
But ever since then, this is, I don't see any reason that thisis gonna change. So we as workforce organizations. Need to change. We've gottastart adapting to the fact that there are gonna be less [00:05:00] people working by the definition of work probably everyyear for quite a while.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah.So I think that goes along with kind of what the whole message of this kind oftalk that you and I are gonna have today is, don't be shocked.
It's more of, adapt, is the thing here where things havealready, as you can see within that trend line there they've already changed,and now it's either, if you haven't caught up, what are the challenges and howare we gonna get caught up, is my interpretation of it, yeah.
Mike Fazio: Verymuch. Very much, yeah. The old days of of labor participation, right? Growth,like we saw in the seventies, especially in eighties, as more and more womenwere coming into the workplace, especially we peaked down and now we're gonnadeal with the way it is. Yeah.
And I
Max Schelkopf: thinkit is a very unique time, especially coming from more of a technology yesstandpoint. Technology has enabled many people to get out on their own andstart doing their own thing. And it's also [00:06:00]bridged a lot of communication gaps within this workforce and the people tryingto assist and provide resources and all those things too.
Anna, would you mind clicking to the next slide? Pretty please.And so we're gonna discuss some of the biggest hurdles here, and you'll see apoll pop up here. Now, please answer as many of these as you want so it's notjust a one answer kind of thing. But we wanted to start out. With what youanticipate your biggest hurdles of 2023 will be.
And like I said, more than one answer can apply. And obviouslyMike and I talked about the statistics before. What challenges in this upcomingnew year. We'll give you a little second here. Do you have any ideas or,comments about any of those selections there? Mike, are you gonna fill it outtoo?
I'm going to.
Mike Fazio: I can't,I was gonna do it Max, but it says host and panelists cannot vote. So I guesswe're being excluded, but I think we're gonna see, we're gonna see populationin all of these boxes. I have a feeling it probably depends on what type oforganization you're [00:07:00] working with,whether you're urban, suburban rural you know how big your organization is,but.
I'm sure funding is gonna be a concern.
Max Schelkopf:Funding is always a concern and I feel like a lot of times in workforcedevelopment, these challenges are associated with each other too at the sametime. So if one box is checked, that probably means one or two other boxes arechecked.
Mike Fazio: Yeah.
Max Schelkopf: Andthe positive thing with that though is oftentimes, obviously there'll bemultiple solutions to issues, but. That kind of means that you can mediatethese issues in the same way where if you get one box checked that, okay, we'regood to go against that challenge, that means a couple more of those boxes arealso gonna be checked.
What do we got here? I. Compromised funding and a decrease inoutcomes. Interesting. That's a interesting one there. What do you think aboutthe high level on the decreased outcomes there, Mike? That's not the
Mike Fazio: stat.That's not the stat that jumps out at me. [00:08:00]Believe it or not, the stat that jumps out at me is gonna be brand degradationbecause I feel that's gonna be our I think that would be in my world, thenumber one answer, and I'll explain why as we go through this.
Okay.
Max Schelkopf:Interesting. I think the compromise funding and the decrease in outcomes arejust, like I had mentioned, one of those things you can either get to go handin hand, so it's one of those deals. Anna, would you mind keep going forwardfor us here pretty please.
Mike Fazio: Fundingis gonna be impactful as the new budget year comes upon us in July and peoplein very soon are gonna start preparing their budgets.
And it's, a lot of it's gonna be tied into foot traffic. A lotof it's gonna be tied into what was accomplished what trends are happening, andthus organizations are preparing for that, whether it's youth programs reentryprograms or any other program out there. And I think when it says that they'remaxed, the diminished integrity, I think part of that challenge and that stigmathat [00:09:00] we're gonna fight is theunemployment office from an employer side of things, is that employers let'slook at it this way.
As workforce organizations for years, we've wanted employers tonotice us and work with us and engage with us. And we finally got our wish cometrue because employers have struggled to find workers. And they've becomedesperate. So desperate that they've started reaching out to workforce centers.
They've started answering phone calls, replying to emails, andnow we are stuck between that rock and a hard place because as much as we wantto help them, we haven't been able to provide many times that qualified workerthat the employer is looking for. So while they're finally asking us for help,if we can't help them, I think that's gonna.
That's gonna cause the integrity of the organization and thebrand to experience that degradation that we're pointing to in the polls. It'sa crucial time for workforce [00:10:00]organizations to step up their game.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah.And I I think going on to the next bullet point there too, limitedaccessibility to your resources is one of those big challenges associated withthat brand too, because there are so many amazing resources out there, andthey're associated with your brand. Like I It is, it's help, it's resourcesavailable to people and that's. In my opinion, the largest hurdle that I seetime and time again coming from a technology standpoint of. All of theseresources and just people don't know about them. You,
Mike Fazio: yeah.Knowing about them is one thing.
Using it is the other thing, sometimes workforce, I feel is acouple of years behind what's happening out there in the private sector, andit's really through no fault of the organization. Sometimes there's. As youwell know, max, a lot of red tape. Yeah. To get things advanced from atechnology standpoint.
We used to joke around years ago with business service reps andsaying, how would you all like an iPad to go out [00:11:00]into the field and talk to employers and Right. You'd have to get 50 signaturesto, to get one iPad, and now it's a standard in the business for everybody tohave iPads.
And go out there and do their work. Floppy discs were stillbeing used back in 2008. Facebook was still being blocked. Blows my mind todaythat every workforce youth program in the country is not using TikTok as ameans to to recruit and outreach to young people. So that's going to
Max Schelkopf: yourpoint of utilizing those resources.
Absolutely. Internally or externally. There's so many differentresources, not only available to those job seekers, but to workforcedevelopment boards that need to start utilizing resources for that communityoutreach. Absolutely.
Mike Fazio: And some,somebody pointed out that TikTok was banned in their area which I understand toa degree.
But there's also Instagram and YouTube and all the other thingsthat you could be using The other platforms I just mentioned TikTok, as was oneexample. As one example.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah,that's a good point. And it's [00:12:00] don't,don't negate the power of social media ever. 'cause that was one thing whereeven as a younger person from my perspective I didn't see necessarily the huge,immense value of it until I got into kind of the outreach side of things anddiscovered just how powerful it really is.
And I think tiktoks an interesting use case for sure. But, andI know I fall down
Mike Fazio: thatTikTok rabbit hole just about every every night you go on their intention ofwatching one or two things and next thing an hour has gone by. So I canunderstand why some places have some band that nice.
It's not just using those platforms Max, it's using themconsistently, using them. Effectively in a way that makes your organizationreally be unique and stand out and be different and not just post hot jobs upon face Facebook. That's right. That's not using the power of social media oryou're doing Facebook Live, or you're doing remotes.
Are you doing things that are. Engaging and attracting allcommunity members. That phrase outside the box is so [00:13:00]overused, we right now, as an industry, I keep saying it or right, crosswords,and we better step up our game in 2023. I fear we would become more and moreirrelevant to employers if we're not finding ways to attract more people andattract more partnerships.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah,and that's a great segue kind of for. The tools that Engage by sell provides.Texting, going back to just a simple,
Mike Fazio: there yougo.
Max Schelkopf: Simpleidea, is the, some people haven't adopted text messaging as a form ofcommunication within, the business realm where we all know, hey.
Phone calls don't work as well as they used to. Obviouslypeople vet out phone calls more so than they ever used to. Yeah. They don'trecognize that number. They're not necessarily gonna pick up that phone. Andalso it's obviously a big time consuming factor to, to make these phone callsto tens, dozens, hundreds of people.
And then obviously. The open read respond rate behind text [00:14:00] messages, you're getting that message totheir palm instantaneously. So I think that's something we're definitely gonnatalk about here moving forward as well. But just I think to Mike's point,there's so many tools out there that are underutilized and inconsistentlyutilized.
Mike Fazio: Andthat's part of that brand degradation that we're talking about, that I thinkimpacts us being viewed as the unemployment office, which is the phrase we usedin the seventies, right? That's what it was called. And we're still trying tobreak away from that.
And I think the more we demonstrate our innovation, the more wedemonstrate, like you said earlier, our adaptation to the way the world workstoday and communicates today and lives today will increase our brand awareness.I always joke around with this one example is that, if you're in thesupermarket.
There's there's a can of soup on the shelf that's dented andyou see that often, I'm sure max, when you're in the supermarket of a dentedcan of soup there, I know what happens. You don't pick up the dented [00:15:00] can of soup. You pick up the other can ofsoup that's not dented. It's got the same good stuff on the inside, but itlooks worse.
Yeah. So I'm gonna take the one that's not dented and I fearsometimes that we are looked at as the dented soup can when it comes toplacement, when it comes to training, when it comes to partnerships, when itcomes to funding when it comes to community community empowerment things likethat.
And I think how we represent ourselves, how we speak, how wecommunicate makes a difference in our brand. And there are some greatorganizations that are doing great things out there. That are making asignificant impact in their community, that are decreasing the branddegradation that's out there and increasing the brand awareness.
Awesome.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah.Anna, would you mind going to the next slide so we can talk about some of thesecliches? Mike had just mentioned there about the, unemployment office that youwere just discussing Yep. In the 1970s and what some of those differences are.Just go ahead and [00:16:00] roll out all thebulletin points and we'll just go at it here.
Mike Fazio: Yeah.I've been in the field so many times with business service reps and sat withcase managers around the country and. You know that perception by employersthat we're only assisting low wage, low income, low educated people as opposedto using the reality of it. And that our databases around the current area arefilled with people from GEDs to PhDs.
There are significant, I know in the Virgin Islands actually,they had a job fair last week, an engineer was hired at a hiring event, andthen Junior hired on the spot. At a hiring event. So that whole stigma of bluecollar only or uneducated only is just not true. It's
Max Schelkopf: easilymeasurable and I think we all know it.
It's. Especially with younger demographics too, like peopleremain competitive in the job market all the time. Just because you fall intothat, I got a career placement, they wanna remain in [00:17:00]these databases just because they want to know and seek out maybe that nextbest opportunity.
And I see it all the time. With our text messaging platformwhere people used to get placed into a career and then they would choose to optout of that contact list, right? Yes. But now they're choosing to opt in andstay in that because they wanna stay in the know of what the next career fairis gonna be, what the next, and these are all, to your point, all differentkinds of mid-level, high level career options and things like that.
But it's really interesting to see, and a personal story is mywife works in recruitment and she sees that all the time where in the back theyused to place an individual and move on, and now they are continuouslycontacting people they've already placed into careers to see if they'reinterested in the next stepping stone, yeah. So it's, it. Something that's veryreal out there.
Mike Fazio: I thinkthat's part of the work too. And the bullet says it right, their client,placing your client does not conclude the work. [00:18:00]Doesn't conclude the work with that employer. Doesn't conclude the work withthat client. The retention really matters today.
There's reasons to contact that employer, that incumbent workertraining, or their other hiring needs. It's inevitable. An organization's gonnahave turnover or need to do some skilling up. That relationship component iscrucial. And I will say Max, oh, since 2008 I've watched a dramatic increase inorganizational awareness and organizational efforts and organizationaladvancement in this industry.
And, I think folks should be applauded for that. However, Istill think we have a ways to go and this time. Our crazy economic andpolitical climate that we live and work in every day. That kind of confusionout there I think is creating a whole lot of opportunity. And I encourage everyorganization to keep making every effort to being relevant in the eyes of theircommunity.
I. For
Max Schelkopf: sure.Absolutely. Anna, would you mind [00:19:00] sowe've talked about the cliches and what the challenges are. Now we want to talkabout some of these new perspectives that you can, adjust to and jump into,including technology and partnership building and all these different things.
And you see a pull jump up on your screen here where a coupleeasy little questions where. I'm curious to see what the definition of a joband the definition of a career are for different individuals, because that's aquestion that we run into quite a bit. What is the difference between a job anda career?
And I'm curious to see, and Mike, what is what do you thinkwhat do you think participants are looking for a job? And that kind of goeswith the argument of. Are people nowadays looking at everything like a job orare they still looking for that career? Is it, do they, are they married to acareer?
Is it just a job? To me, what's the difference there?
Mike Fazio: Yeah. Ireally think it depends on the generation. It's it's quite true that theyounger generation, the Gen Y, the Gen Z, I think that they are [00:20:00] they have a different set of aspirationsthan people who might be in. At my stage of life as a baby boomer things weredifferent for me.
Getting outta school. The dream was to get a job, stay thereforever, buy a house, picket fence, two kids a dog, et cetera, et cetera. Idon't see that as the most common goal in mind for young people. They're moremore inclined to wanna make a difference in the world, wanna make an impact onsociety.
And you're gonna need money to do, you're gonna need to makemoney to do all the other things in life too, and I think they're finding thatout as well.
Max Schelkopf:Absolutely. That's interesting. All right, did everybody get an opportunityhere and we can close that. Yeah. Let's
Mike Fazio: see someanswers.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah.All right.
Mike Fazio: Mostpeople looking for a job. Not a surprise.
Max Schelkopf: Not asurprise either. Yeah. And then the long answers, we can definitely share someof those long answers at the poll we're in. And then yeah, that's be
Mike Fazio: good toshare with the audience afterwards. Absolutely. For [00:21:00]sure.
Max Schelkopf: Andit's, it is interesting 'cause I think you're.
You're right Mike, in the sense that a lot of younger peopleare looking for a job, but I think it's going back to what is the definitionand that's more of what I'm intrigued for and looking forward to share some ofthose, but solutions here, I think, community outreach.
Is your specialty in a lot of different ways, Mike, and you andI have worked on some projects together with community outreach, but talk abouthow important it is to the process and some of the different tools you'veutilized and then I really want you to touch on skilling up too, 'cause I hearyou mention that.
All the time. Definitely wanna give you the window to talkabout skilling up for us. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Fazio: I think,I think the industry's evolved to the point where it's no longer a businessoutreach anymore or client outreach. Now it's the entire community. Who and howmany can we touch, and how often in our community in every way, shape or form,whether it's at the mall, whether it's at a [00:22:00]school whether it's at a, at a place of worship. Wherever people congregate is,are the people we should be serving. There's something for everybody in thecommunity that your local workforce center can assist with, and I am seeingmore organizations focus their outreach efforts in that way. I'm not sure I seeenough though. I still see.
Too many business service reps that are sticking with the samethree or four employers they've always worked with. They're not venture. Gotinto the areas where it's more challenging, the obstacles will go. Obstaclesare bigger, but I also believe the business opportunity is bigger. I thinkthat, folks like Target and Home Depot and other major players, they know theworkforce system inside that they know exactly how to take advantage of all thethings that are being offered.
But it's that small to mid-size business that doesn't know andthat needs the help. So I'd encourage that skilling up, whether they'reincumbent workers, whether they're underemployed workers, whether you are thefrontline [00:23:00] staff member, improvingyour. Ability to deliver results. 'cause at the end of the day, that's whatit's all about.
Max is delivering those results. That's really where I think wecan do a lot more. As organizations in this industry, I go to a lot ofconferences. I speak at a lot of conferences. People get excited when there'sworkshops and professional development opportunities. I could tell you forWorkforce 180, our workforce professional certification series has seen asignificant jump in enrollments for our online courses, especially since thepandemic hit, especially since times became more challenging.
So it is good to see that organizations are trying to getbetter. Because what you learned and what I look at it this way, what I learnedin the eighties, most of it is irrelevant right now. In the world that we workin, yeah. It's just irrelevant. It was great to experience it, but much of whatI did back then makes no difference in the world today.
And I think a lot of people have to [00:24:00]look at that themselves. Super
Max Schelkopf:interesting. And I think that goes along obviously. It's just becausetechnology plays such an important part in this as well. And how fast doestechnology evolve, yeah. So you're gonna see technology evolving. Every singlequarter almost.
And then you're gonna see the ways that you have to approachthe contact methods and the engagement and the accessibility and all of thatstuff has to adapt is as quick as a rate as possible. Just to keep up withthat. Just pointing out what you just said, in the eighties.
Is it relevant today? Probably not. Probably not. Yeah. But
Mike Fazio: thecollaboration bullet down there, max, I think is a good segue to start talkingabout the different ways we all collaborated in different organizations. Wecollaborated on for a project in the US Virgin Islands with the Department ofLabor down there.
Do you wanna jump onto that?
Max Schelkopf: Yeah.
Mike Fazio: Yeah, go
Max Schelkopf: ahead.
Mike Fazio: Oh, lookat those pictures. Holy cow. I didn't know that was gonna pop up. All right, soon the left of your screen, that's the [00:25:00]governor of the US Virgin Islands which has beautiful beaches, blue water,everything you could imagine. They have high unemployment.
They have violence, they have gangs, they have issues. However,what they also have is high tourism. They stayed open during. The pandemic andtheir tourism rates are higher than they've ever been before. Try booking ahotel or a flight down there. Right now it's not cheap because everything issold out, but the governor himself has a workforce summit every year and everyyear more and more people are attending.
And this year more people than ever attended. And. You'll seeMax there an eye on a sea plane, which is how you get from St. Thomas to St.Croix. That's right. And vice versa. And if you don't know Max, he's six nine.And getting him on that that 10 seat airplane was the thrill of the week forme.
But by collaborating Max, we were able to accomplish a lot ofthings. [00:26:00] Workforce 180, engage bysell ICF. Workforce solutions and others were involved in making this event assuccessful as possible. It took months of planning, months of coordination, butit worked. The event was sold out on St.
Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John. And we'll be doing it againnext year. I know that for sure. And it was that combined efforts of email, oftexting, of social media, of radio ads bullying our way onto to TV shows andother things, ways of billboards, electronic billboards. We did everything inour power.
To make that happen. And
Max Schelkopf: Ithink you'd mentioned it right at the beginning, but how much more successfulwas in 2022 than year prior? Do you remember? For the
Mike Fazio:Governor's summit? For the Governor's summit it was
Max Schelkopf: triplethe attendance and I think. The main factor there is due to community outreachand collaboration, a hundred percent.
I think you nailed it there. So that is, gonna be [00:27:00] the main takeaway from that perspective inmy sense is we all collaborated together and that was one of the very firstkind of large scale collaboration efforts that I had been a part of, thanks toyou getting me involved with it and everything.
But it was amazing. To see all of these different organizationscoming together as one. Whereas normally with workforce development, I seeeverybody feels like they're on this, floating island, not talking about VirginIslands, they're, they feel alone in that sense Where.
There are so many different resources like Workforce 180 andEngage By Sell and other platforms out there that can definitely collaborateand we're all open to it. Don't be afraid to kinda, yeah. Bridge that gap. It'snot, I. A lot of times, one or the other, everybody can bring something veryinteresting, powerful to the table.
And that's that's what I was really intrigued to see. And itwas obviously very successful. It's the
Mike Fazio: fir it'sthe first time we introduced texting as a communication method in the VirginIslands, and I've been doing work down there since 2009. [00:28:00] And I really do give credit to using thatplatform that you provided.
To getting more and more people to attend. It really worked outfantastic. I think you have a screenshot of that. Don't, on one of theseslides.
What the texting would look like. Yeah.
Max Schelkopf: SoI'll talk about the two different platforms that we utilize down there. So wehad the mobile web app, and then we had the text messaging platform. Now themobile web app is a simple. URL based tool that looks, feels, and acts justlike in an application, a native app that you would download from an app store.
But again, it's all URL based, so there is no download barrier.And I think that assists a lot, especially in unique kind of places like the USVirgin Islands or really anywhere where, access to information is a huge partof the challenge. Where you can just utilize the text messaging to send out atext with a little clickable link.
And to get an example of what this looks like, if everybodywants to [00:29:00] text Max to 5 6 5 1 2. Realquick, you'll get a text message back kind of showing you what this looks likefirsthand. Yeah, that's good. Or you can scan that QR code. So they can beaccessed either way there. But I always highly encourage people to do the textmessaging because of that open read respond rate that I mentioned way earlier.
On the greatest successful email chain you can push out. It'sgonna be like a 10% success rate as far as open read and response, versus textmessaging. To Mike's point, why it was so successful is around 95%, especiallywith some of the unique challenges like the US Virgin Islands have of, it's notonly.
Some of these kind of violence and in incoming plus it's threedifferent
Mike Fazio: islands.Geographically, geographic
Max Schelkopf:challenges are a whole nother ballpark, so having, yeah
Mike Fazio: they do agreat job down there. They
Max Schelkopf: reallydo. They make
Mike Fazio: everyeffort
Max Schelkopf: toachieve outcomes, and it was very [00:30:00]successful.
Now what's. Moving forward with the collaborations, Idefinitely see the success pending more on the mobile web app as well becauseit was a kind of a last minute jump call to action. But I'm gonna see thesemobile web apps transition to a super powerful tool, I think, moving forwardbecause.
Of the access of information. Imagine having a tool where youcan update it on the fly, where, you know, versus having a native app or awebsite that you have to go through all these different channels to make achange happen, right? Sometimes in workforce development changes happen fast,and so you can on the fly, update that information.
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Fazio: I'm
Max Schelkopf:actually, Hey, max. Yeah. I'm gonna pop up the QR code directly to the sitejust in case any folks not in the US can't access it via text. Yeah. Onesecond. Yeah, no problem at all. I see we got for Canadians. That's a goodpoint there, Dave. I [00:31:00] appreciate thatfor sure. Now you utilize a mobile web app, don't you, Mike?
Mike Fazio: We do.Yeah, we do very successfully in the USVI, we get more and more enrollmentsevery week and we're utilizing it for everything from hot jobs to eventsworkshops that are happening out there. We poll people we alert them to. To theVirgin Islands Employment Workforce System, which is where they can registerthemselves and look for jobs.
But it's just one example. It's such a versatile way to engagethe community and they've really responded to it. They really have. Yeah,
Max Schelkopf: It'sphenomenal and it is, it's a super powerful tool from that standpoint of easeof access. I can't say it enough. That is the biggest challenge that I see.
And not to pick on workforce development boards ororganizations, but oftentimes, like Mike had mentioned, a lot of it's just redtape, but some of the websites I see out there due to the fact that there is somany resources and information that you're [00:32:00]responsible for getting out to the people, the website.
Isn't the most user friendly by any means. No. So these canreally help consolidate the key tools that people have out there, and tools foryourself as well, where you can have Mike's usage there with your hot jobs andI even see people have resume uploading is an option on there.
And I see people use it for job verification processes as well.So obviously that's a huge challenge for everybody involved when. The end ofthe road there and they need to verify that employment, if you could justimagine sending a text with a link to someone that can capture that informationinstantaneously, whether it be a pay stub or just a picture of their employmentpaperwork or there's many different things that other organizations have toaccess.
But super easy tools, super powerful from that standpoint.Anything you want to add about kind of mobile web or mobile technology there,Mike?
Mike Fazio: No, I'mgood. I'm good. Let's wind it down, see if there's any audience [00:33:00] questions and then we'll take it fromthere. Yeah, we got alright Mike says, okay, your final thoughts.
Oh, look at that. My final thoughts. All right I like that.Listen folks, I'm being a little dramatic here When I see we need an extremeindustry makeover. We have to we have to really make this a year of opportunityfor workforce development. The following year will be an election year.
This is a year that I think we get to add some clarity. To whatworkforce really looks like, how we can create partnerships with employers, howwe can go deeper into our communities. I was talking to a youth programmanager, Karen Reed at the Susquehanna Workforce Network in Hartford County inMaryland.
And, they're part of a state of American blueprint program andshe's been going to schools to create relationships with students. At youngerages. So we're not waiting for them to get to graduation and decide, uhoh, whatshould I do? Technical career, a higher [00:34:00]education at a college whatever it might be.
That opportunity to really start working with elementary,middle school and high schoolers is gonna pay off down the road.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah.'
Mike Fazio: cause ifwe can't, if we can't truly overnight fix the way things are today, the more wedelay. Dealing with the younger people, the more we're delaying long-termoutcomes.
So I urge workforce leaders out there, if any of you are onthis event today, to really go beyond your comfort zone and really considerupskilling your workforce professionals. Really consider how can I improvetheir ability to deliver outcomes, to communicate effectively with people intoday's world and today's landscape.
Gonna be, that's gonna be crucial. We really need anopportunity to help our frontline staff to make sure that they're equipped toovercome the obstacles that they have. Max, I always say give people what theyneed to know, but in a way they [00:35:00] wantto hear it. Not everybody in your community wants to hear OJT and SNAP and TANFand that.
Forget that stuff. Get out there and explain it to them insimple English. We have to stop being so government and so red tape and so grayand so beige. We need more purple on the world, max. We need more color outthere when it comes to who we are and what we do. And I know it's, I know it's,not the easiest thing, but I think if we put our purple hats on, at leastthat's a start.
And then I always say. That it takes a revolution to initiateevolution. And I think right now we're in a worker revolution. Workers arerevolting and saying, I want this. I won't settle for that. And employers havebeen forced to change. Nowadays, the candidate. Interviews the employer as muchas the employer interviews the candidate.
And I think that's good coaching by our facilitators and ourcase managers and our job coaches out there to do that because employers haveawakened, I believe and [00:36:00] believe morethan ever that the employee is crucial, more crucial than ever to theirsuccess. And holding onto them is more important than ever.
That's,
Max Schelkopf: I lovethat. I haven't heard you see the revolution to initiate evolution. That's aamazing little tidbit there. I'm gonna use that moving forward in the future.There.
Mike Fazio: It's allyours. Okay. Go for it. Yeah.
Max Schelkopf: Yeah.Now this is the time for a little q and a. If anybody has any questions forMike or myself feel free to throw it in that chat group there.
And we can address 'em here for a couple minutes. And then atthe end we have a slide with Mike and i's information and kind of the call toaction for next steps if you do have questions or things like that. So
Mike Fazio: thequestion everybody should be asking Max is where do I start? How do I start,how do I make this
Max Schelkopf:happen?
That's exactly right.
Mike Fazio: Come on,let's go people.
Max Schelkopf: Let'swake up. Let's do it. It's something that Mike and I can just share with youfrom what we see work and what [00:37:00]doesn't work too. It doesn't have to be Yeah. A demonstration or anything. Itcan be, simply what works and what is working.
But here we go. What are some ways you would get people onboard with using social media who are very hesitant?
Mike Fazio: Whatpeople, Susie, what people are you talking about? Clients. Are you talkingabout your organization
Max Schelkopf:managers? Okay. So internally I think there are some pretty easy statistics youcan throw out there for them, Susie, as far as engagement rates and things likethat.
Mike what advice do you have? You run a podcast max in theeighties, max?
Mike Fazio: You knowwhat I used to do for engagement? I'd walk in my door in New York City and goknock on 50 doors a day with a pocket full of dimes. So I can make calls backto the office using a payphone to check on my messages. Come on.
That this doesn't happen anymore. Yeah. So whether it's socialmedia, whether it's email blasts, whether it's texting platforms whatever way,shape and form, you can engage with people out there. It's [00:38:00] gotta happen for the workforce leaders,the managers, the directors, the executive directors, the CEOs, folks wake up.
Private sector businesses have been doing this for years andyears. Yep. That's why I'm blown away, max. And you probably hear the samething when people say, we're not gonna be texting people. People don't wantmore texts than they, they already get. I hear the same thing when it comes topodcasting.
Oh, we don't have time for podcasting. Podcasting takes 30minutes a month. Yeah. And I still see people writing 10,000 word newslettersout there that nobody reads. In fact, I proved it that nobody reads, we used tosend a newsletter and in one of our newsletters, 'cause I was convinced nobodyread it.
In the newsletter, it said, first person to email Mike Hellogets a free iPad. I'm still waiting for somebody to send me an email. Don'tsend it now though. 'cause they that, that offer's expired, but nobody read thenewsletter. 34% of people in America are auditory learners. They listen. That'swhy podcast is a hundred million listens a week.
But enough about that the [00:39:00]using modern day platforms like texting are gonna make a difference in yourorganizational outcomes. There is no argument there. There is, you cannot arguethat statistic.
Max Schelkopf: Ithink it's just the kind of the beginning there, we talked about it. The moretools you have, the better.
It's not why limit yourself in any way, shape, or form? If youcan have 25 tools of engagement at your disposal, but you only choose to useone. Why would you do that? It's a limitation that you're putting upon yourorganization for, no reason. And you can't say, oh, we tried it, you haven'teven tried it then.
How do you know you gotta commit? You gotta commit.
Mike Fazio: Tryingjust isn't an option anymore. Now you have to commit to it. You've gotta committo things. Yeah, you've gotta commit to it and do everything in your power tomake it work. I see a question from Tanya who says you indicate a need toup-skill workforce professionals.
What particular set of skills do you think are needed goingforward? I'll tell you, all the courses we offer have a common theme throughthem, depending on what the course title is, whether it's case [00:40:00] management certification, or businessservices, or motivational interviewing. And that theme is really focused oncommunication skills.
I really, I really believe that's what makes the world goround. And we're all good at sending messages. We know people receive thosemessages, but I know for a fact not a lot of people understand the messagesthey're getting. And that's the key. How are you putting information out thereso people understand it and will take action so you ultimately get the resultsthat you want?
So I believe in any kind of course learning out there that'sassociated with your work. Is gonna be a benefit to you in one, one way, shape,or form. I always tell people, max, I can't promise you a hundred percent ofwhat's in one of our courses is gonna help you, but there's something in therethat will, right?
And that one thing might help you assist one more client, whichultimately makes a difference.
Max Schelkopf: Ahundred percent.
Mike Fazio: A hundredpercent. What else do we have here? How to build bridges with employers torealize. The [00:41:00] very untapped potentialof persons with disabilities in the workplace. We have a ways to go.
We have a long ways to go. We have a long ways to go and Irespect each. Each group of people with barriers that are represented outthere, whether it's people with disabilities, whether it's returning citizens,whether it's youth, whether it's older workers, dislocated workers, everybodyhas a passion to represent their people.
The best bit of advice I could give you out there is, remember,everybody is pushing their particular client to the employer, explaining thebenefits that client offers. You have to be the best at doing that. And again,that ties into your professional development.
Max Schelkopf: Allright. Let's see. Do you think there are any social media platforms thatcommunicators in our function should avoid for the sake of credibility?
Example, Snapchat? I think going back. And also maybe from ayounger perspective, no offense, Mike, but try to call me [00:42:00] Old Max. But just from a youngerperspective, I think credibility isn't necessarily as much as an issue as it iswhat you use it for. You can establish the credibility yourself with anyplatform depending on what content you put out there.
It's really. Majority of the major social media platforms arethat are out there, they're billion dollar industries. These aren't little techstartup firms that are, gonna be utilized. These are Snapchat, Twitter, allthese giant companies already have enough credibility themselves.
It's gonna be what content you're providing on these platforms.They're gonna assign the credibility to it. And some older demographics andthings like that might view some of them as silly. But they're not gettingbillions of users every single day from not having credibility in my, Hey,
Mike Fazio: look, I,I'm the older demographic and I check all those social media platforms out.
I from a, it's all research for work though, max. I gotta tellyou, [00:43:00] that's what I'm using it for.Yep. But there's some really good stuff. People are so darn creative. Yeah.That there's gotta be a way to use that creativity and channel it towardsemployment. And I think that's where the untapped talent pool is out there.
I am just blown away by the creativity of the people that putcontent out there. And if you go to any of those social media platforms andtype in the word workforce, you'll find like-minded organizations that areputting out, like you said, max credible content, which is improving theirbrand to the community members that they serve.
Max Schelkopf: Ahundred percent. Yeah, no, I agree. And Kim said it can be overwhelming and I'mnot doubting that at all for sure. But here's Mike and I's information anddefinitely reach out if you wanna have a conversation. Obviously I'm more froma technology perspective and how that can be utilized within your.
Your development board or your organization or whomever you're,communicating with and who your target audience is. I can talk about ourplatforms and [00:44:00] what other,technologies out there that we see help engage individuals and get thataudience to not only see the information, but respond to it, engage with it,create that channel that's two way and not just one way of pushing information.
You want it back. Yeah. If you don't get that information andthat reciprocation back. It's a moot point, so that's what I specialize in andhow to drive that engagement process. And Mike, go ahead. That's yourinformation as well. Tell a little bit about what you can communicate.
Yeah,
Mike Fazio: no, reachout folks, happy to have a discussion with anybody, but anything at any time.So don't hesitate if you don't reach out. I'll probably see you at an upcomingconference. I'll be at set at knob nup the Ohio State Conference, and so on andso forth. This starting in February through.
The end of May, I think during conference season. So I lookforward to meeting you in person and Apris truly appreciate what you do everyday on the front line. Your job is not getting easier every day. It's gettingfilled with more and more challenges. So persevere folks, you can overcomethose [00:45:00] obstacles and still get theoutcomes you want and still like what you do, which is ultimately why you tookthat job in the first place 'cause you like helping others.
Congratulations and thanks for everything you do on the frontline. Alright,
Max Schelkopf: thankyou everybody again and we'll be definitely sending some emails with a recordedversion of what Mike and I discussed today. And then again, feel free to reachout. Alright, have a great week everybody. Thanks Max.
Mike Fazio: Thanks. Engage by Cell and thanks Anna. Thanks Dave. Thanks everybody. Okay. Appreciateit. Thanks for having me. No problem.
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