Employer Engagement
Webinar # 5
Welcome to webinar number 5 in the Promoting Employment for Homeless Veterans series of
presentations, brought to you by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and
Training Service, the National Veterans’ Training Institute, or NVTI, and the National Coalition
for Homeless Veterans.
In the past three webinars, we’ve focused on strategies and tools for assisting homeless veterans
in neutralizing the barriers that stand between them and stable, rewarding employment. In this
webinar, we’ll introduce employer engagement strategies and tools that Local Veterans’
Employment Representatives and other business or employer outreach staff at an American Job
Center or AJC can use to uncover employment opportunities for our homeless clients.
It may sound counterintuitive, but when it comes to uncovering and creating employment
opportunities for homeless job seekers, the most reliable way to achieve success for ourselves
and our clients is by first focusing on how we can make employers more successful.
This is especially true if we want to unlock the so-called hidden job market for our clients.
A large percentage of people are hired for positions that are never formally advertised. The first
choice of many hiring decision makers is to interview or select from among job candidates who
have been referred to them by people they trust. Small business hiring decision makers are often
reluctant to advertise vacancies on-line or in the newspaper, since these postings often produce a
dozens or even hundreds of applications that can absorb many hours of their time and distract
them from the job of running their business. This is actually good news for us.
Many of our homeless clients have work records or résumés that may not make it past the
impersonal screening process performed by a software program or a busy personnel clerk trying
to work through a stack of resumes as quickly as possible.
A personal conversation with a hiring decision maker, in which we encourage him or her to
meet with a homeless client we believe has the capabilities the business needs, is often a far more
promising approach to assisting our client with getting the job.
In order for us to become an employer’s trusted source of referrals, and to lay the foundation for
a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship, we need to earn his or her confidence in our
competence and in our motives.
From the employer’s point of view, there are two ingredients of competence: first, our ability to
identify the employee’s skills, attitudes, and aptitudes that the business or organization requires
in order to be successful; second, our ability, aided by our AJC colleagues, to accurately identify
the clients who possess those needed capabilities.
When it comes to our motives, a hiring decision maker needs to believe that our goal is to
connect them with only the clients who will contribute to his or her individual and organizational
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success, rather than trying to place as many clients as possible, whether or not they are a good
match.
The four elements of engagement we will outline here, the types of conversations we will
describe, the questions we will suggest you ask, and the specific tools we will introduce, are all
designed to build that trust and credibility with employers, and to produce a triple win, in which
employers gain the new employees who can drive their business success, our clients find
rewarding and stable employment, and we meet our client placement and retention performance
goals.
The four steps of engagement are:
1. Researching and contacting the employers in our community who are most likely to provide
employment opportunities for our clients
2. Understanding the goals that an individual employer or hiring decision maker is trying to
achieve and identifying the employee skills, traits and aptitudes that contribute to that employer’s
success
3. Partnering with Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialist or DVOP and other AJC
employment staff to identify which of our job-seeking clients currently possess—or could
acquire—the capabilities the employer needs or wants
4. Connecting the employer with these qualified job-seeking clients
1. Researching and Making Contact
The one question we never want to ask a business owner or decision maker, if we want to
establish credibility with them, is “So, what does your company / organization do?”
If we haven’t found the answer to that question, then we’re not ready to contact a decision
maker, especially a senior one, and request that they invest their time for a face-to-face meeting
or phone conversation.
The only time that question might be valid is when decision makers we haven’t met before
approach us and introduce themselves at a networking event after we’ve finished a presentation
to a business group, or under similar circumstances. In this situation, it’s a great question to ask
because they’ll almost certainly enjoy telling us what they do.
In addition to helping us establish credibility, learning as much about a company in advance will
also allow us to make the most productive use of the limited time we’re likely to have with a
hiring decision maker.
To help organize our company research, we’ve developed the Pre-Contact Research template
you can download on our resource page. This template enables us to record basic contact data, as
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well as information about the company’s products or services, customers, competitors, and
current employees.
We should be able to obtain the information on this template by conducting an online search;
reviewing the company’s website, LinkedIn profile, or Facebook page; talking to our business
contacts in our community or with our AJC colleagues who have worked with the business
before; consulting local businesses or Chamber of Commerce directories; or through similar
research.
2. Understanding What Employers Want and Need
The baseball great Yogi Berra once noted that “You can observe a lot by just watching." We also
think you can hear a lot by asking the right questions and then listening.
We call this process of observing, asking questions, and carefully listening the Exploration stage
of engagement.
Exploration conversations with the three levels of hiring decision makers
We may encounter three groups of hiring decision makers during the exploration phase:
• Senior Leaders, including owners or presidents of small businesses and managers of local
factories or facilities.
• Human Resource staff
• Supervisors
Each level of decision maker will likely have unique concerns and priorities. The questions in the
exploration conversation checklists we can download on the resource page can help us start, and
sustain, productive discussions at each level.
Before we look at some of these questions, we should keep in mind that our goal is to have a
conversation and not to conduct an interrogation. Some of the best information will come only
after we probe for more details, by saying:
 “That’s interesting, could you tell me more?”
 “Can you give me an example?”
 “What’s the impact when that happens?”
 …and so on.
Senior Leadership
Small business owners and factory, store, or facility managers will most likely be concerned with
profitability, growth, the over-all competitiveness or performance of their company or facility,
and similar strategic or big picture issues.
Here are a few of the questions for senior leaders that you’ll find in Exploration Conversation
checklist.
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“What are the most important opportunities and challenges your organization faces?”
“What are the key success factors that drive profitable growth here?”
“What are the key employee capabilities and behaviors that will help you pursue those
opportunities, overcome those challenges, or reinforce those key success factors?”
Human Resources staff
Because they talk to and advise senior leaders and managers, supervisors, foremen, and
individual employees, Human Resources staff within the organization can often offer us
invaluable insights into:
The strategic and operational challenges facing the business
The most important individual and organizational capabilities the business needs, and the ones
that are in the scarcest supply
The nuts and bolts of their hiring processes
In most cases, it will be easier for them to free up a significant chunk of time to talk to you than
it will be for senior leaders or supervisors.
Here are a several questions for human resource staff from the Exploration Conversation
checklist.
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“When you talk to senior leaders, managers, supervisors, foremen, and other decisionmakers throughout the company, what people-related challenges do they mention?”
“What skills or traits do you look for in new hires? Which of these skills and traits do
applicants most often lack?”
“What process do you normally use when you need to fill an open position? If you could
change the process, what would you do differently?”
“What are the your most common entry-level position openings? Which are most
difficult to fill? What are the pay ranges and benefits for these positions?”
If they are a Federal Contractor, we can ask: “Do you have any concerns about
complying with the Federal Contractor Job Listing and affirmative action requirements?”
Supervisors
The primary concerns of supervisors and foreman typically revolve around day-to-day
operational effectiveness and efficiency, and thus the technical capabilities and soft skills of job
candidates. They really want to avoid a bad hire, since problem employees can cause them
endless aggravation. In a well-run organization, supervisors are usually involved in the hiring
process, and often cast the deciding vote.
Here are some of the questions for supervisors or foreman that you’ll find in the exploration
conversation checklist.
 “Tell me a little about the work that’s done in your department. If you had to pick the
four or five most important tasks that are performed here, what would they be?”
 “If you had to pick the four or five most difficult, confusing, or unpleasant tasks, which
would they be?”
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“Is turnover a problem? If so, how does it impact you, the co-workers of the people who
leave, and your department? And if so, what do you think is causing the turnover?”
“Is employee attendance, punctuality, or reliability a problem for you? How about some
of the other so-called soft skills, like conscientiousness, verbal or written communication
skills, and dress and appearance?”
Job Carving Questions
In some organizations, excessive downsizing has created situations in which highly paid
employees or those with specialized skills spend a portion of their workday performing lowskilled or routine tasks that could be performed adequately by someone with fewer skills and a
lower pay rate.
Non-profit agencies such as Goodwill and Easter Seals have developed a strategy called Job
Carving to encourage employers to create an entirely new position within their businesses; a
position the non-profit’s clients are capable of performing. You may also hear this strategy called
“customized employment.” The following questions can help us adopt this strategy when
consulting with employers.
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“Are there tasks being performed by your higher skilled or higher paid employees that
could be performed by someone with less experience?”
“If so, would offloading those lower skilled tasks mean that the higher skill employees
would be able to complete more high value work?”
“Can you give me some examples of low-skilled work that your high-skilled employees
are doing?”
“How many hours a day or week are they doing the lower-value work? “
“Would it make sense to bring on someone new at a modest pay rate to perform this
lower-skilled work?”
Finally, here are two questions we should ask at the end of every conversation we have with a
hiring decision maker:
Is there anything I haven’t asked about that you think I should know?
What questions do you have for me?
While we are learning about the capabilities an employer is seeking in prospective employees,
we can also attempt to discover if their business would be a promising workplace for our
homeless clients.
For starters, we should ask questions to identify any concerns or reservations hiring decision
makers may have about hiring homeless job seekers, ex-offenders, and others who they may
consider “high risk.”
Employers may be concerned about our clients’ attendance, punctuality, dependability, and
commitment to work; how well they will collaborate and fit in with co-workers; and the potential
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for increased costs associated our clients’ poor safety practices or their need for additional
supervision.
We should be able to successfully put some of their concerns to rest by outlining our AJCs
strategies for ensuring clients are job ready before we refer them to employers. We can also
describe the supportive services our clients can tap into, either within our AJC or from some of
the external service providers we described in Webinar 3.
We should also recognize that there are some business and workplaces that are simply more
compatible with the challenges and constraints many of our clients may be wrestling with.
Ideally, we’ll ask and be given a tour of the workplace. Referring back to Yogi Berra’s quote
about observing a lot by watching, if we know what to look for and ask about while visiting an
employer’s workplace, we can get a feel for whether or not it’s a place our homeless clients are
more or less likely to succeed.
Here are some of the indicators we should be paying attention to:
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Is the workplace located near public transit lines, making it accessible to clients without
reliable transportation?
Are there affordable day care facilities with vacancies nearby, which would be a help for
single parents struggling to juggle work and family responsibilities?
Does the employer have an Employee Assistance Plan that provides support for
employees struggling with a range of personal issues?
How are employees dressed? How much interaction do they have with customers or the public?
Are there parts of the business – back offices, loading docks, service bays, repair shops, or so on
- where a polished personal appearance or refined social or interpersonal skills may not be a
critical prerequisite?
Are there certain positions or jobs within the company that can accommodate a degree of
flexibility on the part of employees when it comes to attendance? For example, if our client
needs to come in late or leave early several days a month to meet with a parole officer, mental
health counselor, or medical care provider; can a supervisor flex an employee’s schedule without
disrupting operations?
If we have a strong working relationship with an employer, we might be able to take a more
proactive role and assist with a job analysis. We’ve included the Office of Personnel
Management’s Job Analysis Methodology on our resource page, which describes the process of
identifying the tasks that comprise a particular position within an organization and provides
worksheets for recording what we discover during the process.
3. Identifying Our AJCs’ Clients with the Most Relevant Capabilities
Once we understand what an employer is looking for, we should meet with our AJC colleagues,
especially our DVOP Specialist who is working with homeless veterans, to look for a match
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between the skills, attitudes, traits, and aptitudes that the employer needs and the capabilities that
each of our clients possess.
By describing the challenges a specific business or operating department faces, and the working
environment an employee can expect to find there, we can help the client, DVOP Specialists, and
other employment staff working with job-seeking veterans to:
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More accurately assess the veteran’s strengths, assets, and barriers to employment,
relative to that specific employer and position
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Develop a more targeted Individual Development or Individual Employment Plan with
the job-seeking veteran that addresses relevant employment barriers. The client and the
DVOP Specialist will be able to more accurately identify the additional coaching,
workshops, formal training, or assistance from outside agencies that will best prepare the
veteran for the particular employment opportunity we have discovered.
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Have better productive and supportive “tough issues” conversations with the client about
behavioral issues, including substance use, personal hygiene, personal appearance, anger
issues, punctuality, and reliability.
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More accurately and more completely analyze the client’s previous military and civilian
experience to identify the most relevant capabilities they have and the contributions they
can make to the employer
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Develop more targeted cover letters and résumés, and to prepare more successfully for
interviews
4. Connecting Employers with Qualified Clients
Once we believe we’ve identified one or more clients with the skills and attitudes that will
benefit an employer, we should try to facilitate a meeting between the clients and the relevant
hiring decision makers. We can encourage the employer to meet with the client informally to
learn more about his or her capabilities by saying something similar to this:
“I can’t make any guarantees, but I think it would be a good investment of 30 minutes of your
time to meet with a job-seeking veteran I know. I think he / she has something valuable to offer
your business.”
As is the case with our job development efforts with any client, we should focus as much as
possible on our clients’ abilities and capabilities and what they can contribute, not on what they
can’t do.
If our client is missing a capability the employer considers essential, we may need to suggest to
employers how they might adapt the anticipated job or position to leverage our client’s strengths
and minimize the negative impact of any gaps in their skills set.
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If it’s available during this stage of the process, we can also provide the information on our
resource page about the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.
Finally, this may also be a good time to educate the employer about the range of services our
AJC provides which can make it easier for hiring decision makers to assess, select, and hire
clients
Many employers and small businesses are not aware of all the services we provide, including
those which benefit them most. We’ve included a worksheet we can use to calculate the value, in
terms of both the dollars and the number of hours of work a hiring decision maker might save by
taking advantage of these services.
Resources
Now let’s preview some of the materials we’ve either posted or linked to on our resource page.
The Job Development Essentials manual, created by Private/Public Ventures, presents more
details on the nuts and bolts of job development than we’ve had time to present here.
The Institute for Community Inclusion’s When Existing Jobs Don’t Fit: A Guide to Job
Creation provides a good overview of job carving and adapting current positions to leverage the
strengths of clients.
Several years ago, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development produced an
Employment Lecture Series, and we’ve included two documents HUD produced for Lecture # 6,
titled Homelessness and Hiring: Employer Perspectives. These documents supply insights into
what’s going through employers’ minds when they’re considering hiring the homeless.
The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans’ Research Brief on the Individual Placement
and Support Model links to an evaluation of programs that achieve an impressive 55 to 60%
placement rate in competitive employment for clients wrestling with mental health issues.
The Heartland Alliance’s Employment Program Models for People Experiencing
Homelessness: Different Approaches to Program Structure describes the basics of several
approaches to promoting homeless employment that may exist in your community, including
Transitional Jobs, Customized Employment, and Alternative Staffing Agencies.
If you sense that an employer is concerned or confused about issues related to physical or
cognitive disabilities follow the links to the Job Accommodation Network documents. These
will help an employer understand how reasonable accommodations can enable an employee with
one or more disabilities to make the maximum contribution to the organization he or she works
for.
Finally, the National Transitional Jobs Network has developed an Employer Engagement
Toolkit with examples of marketing materials and talking points we might adapt to generate
interest in employing our homeless clients.
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We’ll close this webinar by explaining how you can submit questions you may have.
If you scroll down the web page in which you’re watching this presentation, you’ll see a link
labeled Questions and Answers. By clicking on the link, you’ll be able to submit a question
about anything we’ve covered today or about issues related to homeless veterans that you’d like
us to address in upcoming webinars.
We will research the answer to your question and post it on the Questions and Answers page as
quickly as possible
In webinar 7, we’ll take another look at many of the principles we’ve covered here from the
perspective of the individual job seeker. But in our next webinar we will discuss how to leverage
job-driven training.
So be on the lookout for an email from the National Veterans Training Institute alerting you to
the release of Webinar Number 6.
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