Civic Works
For Civic Works there’s a lot of layers to this work–the personal layer, organizational culture and equity, and then looking at program design and ways that the program can be made equitable, and then the work with employer partners. In a lot of ways the personal/organizational/program work is the foundation for the work with the employers.
Organizationally–been part of ABC’s Community of Practice since 2017, started doing organizational work with staff and workshops led by ABC for staff. Recommendations for changes were made through the workshops, driven by staff feedback, and those recommendations guide the work to this day–have an employee equity council to oversee that work.
Offer workshops at least once a year to bring new staff into the work and the equity council.
Found having an external facilitator to be very helpful
One of the focuses on placement is the quality of the employer–frequently get job quality based feedback from clients on their retention call, and there is a race equity lens to all of the types of feedback. Help clients work through culture issues, as well as issues and barriers (race-based) related to advancement–raises etc.
Through the feedback it became clear that they needed to build deeper partnerships with the employer partners. Partnerships have been a little transactional—focusing on job placements rather than deeper, more intentional partnerships. Without a deeper partnership it is hard to give feedback to an employer.
Have been working on creating partnership agreements with employers, where intentional conversations around feedback from Civic Works on workplace practices, are built into the partnerships. Have identified that addressing one off incidents doesn’t lead to systemic change–have grown the work to think of themselves as a technical assistance consultant to the company. Have had employers volunteer to be part of even more intensive job quality work–go in, do surveys, share feedback with the employer. Also help employers aggregate HR metrics–these are generally companies with 50-150 employees. Focus on making constructive recommendations with a continuing improvement lens.
Create profiles on every employer partner they work with. Prioritize placements with companies with high job quality ratings. Have created a website: goodbusinessworksbaltimore.com to highlight quality businesses to consumers.
About 10 companies have signed a partnership agreement. Easier to do with companies they have subcontracting/procurement relationship with.
One of the goals in the space is to figure out ways for multiple organizations to develop this lens in working with employers.
Lisa: what are our options when we hear about racist incidents in the workplace from clients? Depends on what the client wants to do, as well as relationship with the employer–if they have a partnership agreement they bring up systemic issues in that agreement.
Kristen: Question about the process for getting feedback? Have a retention specialist whose role is to follow up with graduates–check in with graduates over two years–feedback where there’s coaching for the client, or case management, or working directly with employer. Working on doing a better job categorizing the feedback.
Provide a standard questionnaire that helps with matching, and then do interviews with graduates who have been at the company to add the employee perspective
Geoff: has this strengthened relationship with employers? Do employers talk to each other? How do you pay for this work? Partnership agreement does make for a stronger relationship with employers. Have held a number of different employer events over the years, have held various trainings for employers. Make sure that through their workforce development funding they have adequate staffing for retention. Received a grant through the WalMart foundation for building a job quality partnership for the website. Funding is the biggest challenge. Outcomes are not always easily measurable to report on to funders.
Announcements
BCPSS: Upcoming recruitment fair with MOED and Baltimore City Schools. Lisa knows an employer who is interested in setting up apprenticeship–Adenike will help connect to the right people.
Bon Secours: still recruiting for medical front office training, financial services department is doing taxes. Kindra will send out the referral information. Still recruiting for Head Start and still hiring Early Head Start teachers. Medical Front Office Training (virtual) send referrals to Program Manager, Kirsten Moore email at Kirsten_Moore@bshsi.org. For Covid relief, important to file taxes to receive benefits
Per Scholas: graduated class of 16 on Friday–4 already have jobs. Held a recruitment fair with peer (IT) organizations–had 13 employers. Was a great example of pooling efforts and resources.
VSP: launching, accepting referrals and self-referrals, great meeting with UMB CEC
10:12–hiring mentor director and job training coordinator positions
Humanium: still recruiting for admin training–graduates will become Microsoft Office Specialists and CASE Certified. Will be 9-3 M-F, looking for 18-24, one year out of high schools, with a high school diploma for higher, on the west side.
St Agnes–held recruitment fair March 3rd, have 1 candidate on the hiring list, gave kudos to Lisa and Rachel
UMB: Working with VTTMAA recent graduates and CNA/GNAs recruiting for people to be patient safety techs. Doing an information session on Tuesday March 23rd. Lisa just sent participants in the UMB Workforce Visioning Event notes and next steps, and would like to include that in a future Roundtable meeting.
Paul’s Place: re-opened computer lab
SWP: Hiring a financial services program coordinator with Bon Secours community works
