The Art of Connecting with
Employers
Janet Estervig
Employment Initiatives
Department of Health Services
Jess Siler
Business Service Consultant
Department of Vocational Rehabilitation
Job development is both an art and a
science. Using a business approach, you can
make meaningful, long-term connections
that meet the needs of both employers and
job seekers.

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Janet Estervig brings 30 years of experience as a job
placement specialist and Jess Siler, Division of Vocational
Rehabilitation Business Service Consultant, shares his
expertise working in business for over 30 years.
Learn how to calibrate your approach to the initial meeting
with Human Resource managers.
Bring your marketing materials and receive feedback from
the experts.
Receive tools to research the labor market, complete
business mapping of your communities and develop a
strategic plan.
Thought for the day:
“When you always do what you have
always done - you always get what
you have always gotten.”
Socrates
3
Research

“87% of the American public would
prefer to give their business to
companies that hire people with
disabilities”


University of Massachusetts Survey, Journal
of Vocational Rehabilitation 2005.
“92% of the American public view
companies that hire people with
disabilities more favorably than those
that do not.”

University of Massachusetts Survey, Journal
of Vocational Rehabilitation 2005.
Community Mapping
5
Inventory Your Business Community
Wisconsin Labor Market Information:
 http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/newsreleases/l
mi_release_dates.htm
Information by County:
http://worknet.wisconsin.gov/worknet/
Job Market:
https://jobcenterofwisconsin.com/default.aspx
http://www.monster.com/
Labor Market – Local Chambers
Local Chamber of Commerce:
 http://www.titletown.org/
Local Resources:
 http://www.jobsingreenbay.com/
Mission
To strengthen member businesses through
enhancing economic and workforce
development, resulting in improved quality
of life in our community and region.
…the founding of the Greater
Green Bay Chamber's CEO and
CFO Roundtables and, NEW,
Sole Proprietor Roundtables.
CEO and CFO Roundtables
provide top level executives a
formal way through which to
share unique issues they face, as
well as share best business
practices with their peers, all in
a confidential environment.
N.E.W. Plastics Corp.
was named the
recipient of the 2014
Excellence in Business
Award by Advance, the
economic development
branch of the Greater
Green Bay Chamber,
at the Chamber’s
annual dinner tonight.
Connections
What are you doing now to connect with
businesses in your communities?
 When are you successful?
 Break down the reason for that success.

Recruitment, Retention, Results brochure:
 http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/publication
s/dvr/pdf/dvr_17249_p.pdf
Wisconsin Labor Market Future
Determine where the jobs will be now and
in the next 5 years in your communities.
 What businesses are expanding and which
are laying off or plan to leave?

What industry is growing?
 What training will people with disabilities
need to meet the labor market growth?

10
Percent of Projected Population Ages 60+
2015
Bayfield
Douglas
Iron
Ashland
Vilas
Burnett
Washburn
Sawyer
Florence
Oneida
Price
Polk
Barron
Forest
Rusk
Marinette
Lincoln
Langlade
Taylor
Chippewa
St Croix
Legend
Menominee Oconto
Dunn
Marathon
Pierce
WI County Boundaries
Shawano
Clark
Eau Claire
Door
Pepin
Yr2015
Wood
Buffalo
Trempealeau
Portage
Outagamie
Kewaunee
Brown
Jackson
17.2% - 20%
20.1% - 25%
Waupaca
Manitowoc
Winnebago Calumet
Waushara
Monroe
La Crosse
Adams
Juneau
25.1% - 30%
Marquette Green Lake
Fond du Lac Sheboygan
Vernon
30.1% - 40%
Sauk
Crawford Richland
Columbia
Dodge
Washington Ozaukee
40.1% - 51%
Dane
Iowa
Jefferson Waukesha Milwaukee
Grant
Racine
Lafayette
Green
Rock
Walworth
Kenosha
Source: Wisconsin Department of Administration, Demographic Services Center, Vintage 2013 Population
Projections
Percent of Projected Population Ages 60+
2020
Bayfield
Douglas
Iron
Ashland
Vilas
Burnett
Washburn
Sawyer
Florence
Oneida
Price
Polk
Barron
Forest
Rusk
Marinette
Lincoln
Langlade
Taylor
Chippewa
St Croix
Legend
Menominee Oconto
Dunn
Marathon
Pierce
WI County Boundaries
Shawano
Clark
Eau Claire
Door
Pepin
Yr2015
Wood
Buffalo
Trempealeau
Portage
Outagamie
Kewaunee
Brown
Jackson
17.2% - 20%
20.1% - 25%
Waupaca
Manitowoc
Winnebago Calumet
Waushara
Monroe
La Crosse
Adams
Juneau
25.1% - 30%
Marquette Green Lake
Fond du Lac Sheboygan
Vernon
30.1% - 40%
Sauk
Crawford Richland
Columbia
Dodge
Washington Ozaukee
40.1% - 51%
Dane
Iowa
Jefferson Waukesha Milwaukee
Grant
Racine
Lafayette
Green
Rock
Walworth
Kenosha
Source: Wisconsin Department of Administration, Demographic Services Center, Vintage 2013 Population
Projections
Percent of Projected Population Ages 60+
2025
Bayfield
Douglas
Iron
Ashland
Vilas
Burnett
Washburn
Sawyer
Florence
Oneida
Price
Polk
Barron
Forest
Rusk
Marinette
Lincoln
Langlade
Taylor
Chippewa
St Croix
Legend
Menominee Oconto
Dunn
Marathon
Pierce
WI County Boundaries
Shawano
Clark
Eau Claire
Door
Pepin
Yr2015
Wood
Buffalo
Trempealeau
Portage
Outagamie
Kewaunee
Brown
Jackson
17.2% - 20%
20.1% - 25%
Waupaca
Manitowoc
Winnebago Calumet
Waushara
Monroe
La Crosse
Adams
Juneau
25.1% - 30%
Marquette Green Lake
Fond du Lac Sheboygan
Vernon
30.1% - 40%
Sauk
Crawford Richland
Columbia
Dodge
Washington Ozaukee
40.1% - 51%
Dane
Iowa
Jefferson Waukesha Milwaukee
Grant
Racine
Lafayette
Green
Rock
Walworth
Kenosha
Source: Wisconsin Department of Administration, Demographic Services Center, Vintage 2013 Population
Projections
Top Job Growth in Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s direct-care workforce totals
nearly 90,000 workers and is larger than any
other occupational grouping in Wi
Occupation Openings due to growth:
1. Registered Nurses 10,600
2. Home Health Aides 7,900
3. Personal Care Aides 7,400
4. Food Prep, Serving & Fast Food Workers 7,300
5. Customer Service Reps 6,000
6. Nursing Aides, Orderlies, & Attendants 5,100
This Fact Sheet was supported by a Wisconsin State Health Care Workforce Development
Planning Grant. State Facts is a series of short issue briefs and fact sheets on the regional
status of the direct-care workforce. For more information about PHI and to access other
PHI publications see www.PHInational.org
Marketing your Business
16
1. How is your organization “Branded” in your community?
2. If they hear the name of your company, what comes to mind
for the business owner in your community?
3. What does your advertisements, brochures, marketing
materials and website portray as a company?
4. Would another business want to connect to your company or
receive services from your company?
5. What message does your marketing give the community?
6. Who are you targeting with your marketing materials?
Potential consumers of the service, donors or
business owners and managers?
Marketing
 Learn
about marketing your
“product” using both sales and
business knowledge and skills to
successfully connect with the
employer and its employees.
 Learn
the appropriate vocabulary
spoken by that business or Human
Resource personnel
Marketing
Examine your marketing materials used in
business contacts and answer these
questions:
1. Is the target market of your company’s
materials effectively delivering your
message?
2. Do your materials explain your company’s
purpose and the benefits to the employer?
3. What must be included in the content of
your materials to appeal to the business
community?
Business Proposals
 What
are the business needs?
 How
can you meet those needs with
qualified candidates?
 What
added value can you bring to
the employer?
Business Proposals
 What
can the employee bring to the
business to enhance productivity and
overall business profitability?
 Are you marketing skills and
successful outcomes of the
candidate?
 Review their business website to
match their mission with diversifying
their workforce.
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PowerPoint Presentations
 Request
an opportunity to
bring together individuals from
the company or Department
and prepare a short 10 minute
PowerPoint presentation with 5
minutes of question and
answer.
Employee traits employers want…
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1.
Reliability/dependability
2.
Availability/flexibility
3.
Productivity/Quality
productivity/quality
requirements
23
Lean Engineering
Defined in Human Resources as reviewing
all job descriptions within the organization
and determine if the correct job is being
assigned to the correct position for the
most efficient outcomes.
 Is the employee currently completing job
tasks within the business match the skills
and compensation for those tasks?
 Can efficiencies be found within each
Department or across Departments to
consolidate job duties?

Customized Employment
 is
defined as a set of activities that
result in a negotiated relationship
between employers and job seekers
that focuses on business needs and
specific productivity and not defined
by an existing job title.
What Employers Want from Employment
Service Providers
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Know the company
Know the job requirements
Know the applicants’ abilities
Know the business/market needs
Make frequent contact
Follow up and respond quickly
Educate the employer
Business expects: Timeliness, Action, Quick
Decisions = Quality Customer Service!
Owens, L.A., Hafner, D., & Estervig, J.
(2010)
ECOLOGICAL INVENTORY

Environment
 location of the work site or potential work area. Such as an Office
Building, Wendy's, Warehouse, etc.”

Sub-Environment
 An area within the environment that has a separate unique function.
Such as bathroom, copy area, dining room, loading dock, etc.

Activities
 The specific events that occur in the given sub-environment. Such
as cleaning the bathroom, making copies, cleaning tables, unloading
truck, etc.

Tasks
 Includes the specific steps necessary to engage in the activity. This
list of tasks should be very general. Such as open copier, place
original face down on glass, close cover, select number of copies,
press start, remove original, remove copies.

Environmental Conditions
 Indicate the general conditions such as noise, lighting, pace,
physical space, accessibility, rest room location and break time
options.
Job Developer Hints
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Research Growth Trends
Look for Emerging Industries
Increase Networking
Opportunities
Capitalize on benefits to business
Inquire about paid Internships
that may be funded through DVR
Use technology with video
resumes
Job Developer Hints
7. Form partnerships with other
organizations to share leads
8. Use business and non-human
service terminology
9. Have ready answers to why the
business should work with your
company to fill their job openings
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Business Advisory Group
 The Business Advisory Group provides a job
seeker and those who support them with
inside information regarding career choices.
 They can provide their expertise and
knowledge regarding educational
requirements, physical requirements of
specific jobs, and job descriptions that could
be redefined for a given field.
 The group offers the support team
information about careers that they have no
previous experience in or do not know the
skills necessary to be successful in this field.
Employment
The most difficult challenge of working
with people with barriers to employment is
bringing people to view those barriers
differently, shifting their focus from a
person’s limitations to their gifts and
possibilities.
 Example is Google hiring people on the
autism spectrum.
 Job Fairs offer an opportunity to talk to
businesses about your labor pool
availability and skills.

PROJECT SEARCH
This program connects to the business
community through a unique and
trademarked job training program for high
school student’s last year of school.
 15 sites Fall of 2015
 11 Hospitals
 Distribution Center, Insurance, Zoo, Hotel
and Conference Center
 Interns must have an intellectual disability
and need long term support.

What Next?
When matching jobs with the employee
with a disability, consider the best work
environment that will lead to success.
 Network within the business community to
find the right person within each company
to present your client as a potential
employee.
 Bring together people who know the
individual with a disability to share job
leads, business knowledge, contacts.

What Next?
 Map
out your communities.
 Track all contacts with each business
using a database. Include alerts on
your calendar for re-contacts.
 Look at this as a “sales” job, you are
selling a concept, offering qualified
candidates, helping the business
diversify their workforce and
facilitating the business to reach out
to all members of their community.
Business Service Consultant
Jess Siler, DVR
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