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5. Making Good Job Matches
- W.E. Upjohn Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
51 5 Making Good Job Matches The third common element in New York City’s work-first employment program is the focus on making good job matches between participants and employers. That is, once participants are deemed employment ready by the staff, programs attempt to match them with appropriate jobs. Job developers are the central figures in this process, acting as intermediaries between employers and participants. In many cases, employers with existing working relationships with job developers will contact those job developers when they have positions to fill. Some job developers also obtain job leads by contacting employers or by searching want ads. With job leads in hand, they determine which participants are good candidates for particular job openings, often through one-on-one meetings with participants . More rarely, the process is reversed. If participants have more specialized skills or interests, job developers use their contacts to search for jobs for those individuals. Either way, when a potential job match is found, job developers set up job interviews for participants. If the person is not hired, the process continues. These activities are known among programs as “job matching” or “making good job matches.” At a minimum, a good job match occurs when a person is placed into a job that fits with his or her skills and Create a spirit of partnership Get participants job ready Make good job matches Promote employment retention 52 Feldman interests. Some staff articulated additional characteristics of good job matches, including that a job is acceptable to the participant in terms of wages, work hours, and location; it is not temporary; there are opportunities for advancement; and there is a decent work environment. The task of finding job leads (at least during the mid 2000s, a period of modest economic growth) was not a challenge at most programs. Job developers usually had more job openings than participants, although sometimes they lacked participants with the right skills to fill those jobs. Others said that the main constraint was finding enough participants who were motivated to work. The task of finding job leads, no doubt, became more challenging as the economy weakened later in the decade. RATIONALE Programs focus on making good job matches for two main reasons. The first is employment retention. People with poor job matches are unlikely to stay for long, either because they will be fired for not having the requisite skills or because they will quit because they dislike their jobs. Susan Melocarro, President of Career and Education Consultants, explained: If you’re forcing someone into a job that they’re not interested in, then they’re not going to last on that job. What ends up happening is they fall off the job and then you have to place them again . . . So it’s much better to know up front what they’re interested in and what they’re suited to. A second rationale for making good matches is that it strengthens relationships with employers. If individuals—either in the interview process or once hired—do not fit with what an employer wants, the employer is less likely to seek out other candidates from that program. This rationale is especially important because employers who are “repeat customers” are an important source of job placements. [54.144.95.36] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 11:05 GMT) Making Good Job Matches 53 TECHNIQUES All of the programs use job developers, and most of the programs secured the majority of their job placements through these staff. The significant role of job developers is noteworthy since, at least anecdotally , welfare-to-work programs in the United States relied mainly on independent job search prior to national welfare reform in 1996.1 With independent job search, participants take the lead in finding their own jobs. Staff at several programs said that independent job search is not used because it is too easily abused. For example, people can fake their independent job search by collecting business cards to show the staff, while not actually looking for work. As a result, most programs now rely on job developers to find job leads for participants. A few programs supplement the work of job developers by encouraging participants to find leads as well. One organization, for example, offers $50 to participants who become employed in positions that they find themselves. About a quarter of placements at this program are self-directed, staff said. One program uses a “guided job search” approach. Under this approach, the staff teaches participants how...