Best Practice Self-Assessments for Job Search & Reemployment Planning

Help your American Job Centers work collaboratively across programs with “Customer Flow Scenarios” published by the U.S. Department of Labor. The scenarios describe five stories of diverse customers--and the guidance AJC staff can offer them under WIOA. The scenarios depict an integrated, personalized intake process. 

This process assists each customer based on his or her needs and shows staff making knowledgeable referrals to partner programs. Customers shown in the scenarios include an individual with a work-related injury, an employer, a farmworker, a person who has been incarcerated, and a single mother transitioning from public assistance to employment. 

Learn more and see the Customer Flow Scenarios.

Need more tools to deliver customized job-search guidance? Request samples of best-practice Layoff-to-Employment Action Planner (LEAP) and Your Employment Search (YES) from Career Action Resources.

Just as each individual needs certain skills to hold a job, he or she also needs effective skills to find a suitable job. In addition, each person has different job-search strengths and weaknesses, so learning how to effectively job search requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach.. Also, each job seeker different goals, so it is important for him or her to create a unique job-hunt game plan. Sound like an overwhelming process, especially when you serve so many people who are unemployed and looking for work?

That’s where Your Employment Search (YES), a concise and proven guide by Career Action Resources, can help.

YES fills the need for a concise, effective tool that

• Gauges job seekers’ job-hunting skills
• Covers productive job-hunting techniques and behaviors
• Helps job seekers create a customized, proactive strategy to optimize their job search

By using a combination of self-assessment and proven job-search guidance, YES opens job seekers’ eyes to the best methods for getting hired, plus fortifies job hunters to expect rejection, resist demoralization, and keep going. 

YES distills effective job-search techniques into a quick, easy-to-understand, and actionable format that personally engages each job seeker. YES features a six-panel foldout design, plus a micro-perforated panel (marked by red dots) for job seekers to summarize their customized employment search strategy for handy reference.

If individuals are just beginning the job hunt, YES improves job-search readiness by putting them on a path of effective action. If they have been job searching for a period of time, feel their search is stalled, are nearing the end of unemployment insurance benefits, or are among the long-term unemployed, YES helps individuals look at their employment search in a fresh, more active way. Individuals also gain insights into identifying jobs that suit who they are and what they need and want from work.

It is important to note that YES is not a test but rather a tool to help job seekers assess their job-search methods and create a strategy. Although YES is self-guiding and self-scoring and is easy for job seekers to interpret, it can help workforce development specialists, career counselors, job coaches, and other employment professionals to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a job seeker and to determine the areas in which a job seeker needs the most help. YES can provide insight into why individuals are not getting interviews or are not getting hired.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) recognizes that job seekers are individuals who may require tailored help that fits their situation and goals. YES guides individuals in assessing themselves and in determining the areas in which they require the most assistance and guidance. Armed with this information, a staff member and job seeker can more easily develop a plan tailored to the participant’s needs, concerns, barriers, and goals. 

Career and workforce development staff can request a complimentary YES review sample from Career Action Resources, LLC.

Layoff-to-Employment Action Planner (LEAP) helps dislocated workers and unemployment insurance (UI) claimants take a leap forward in coping with a layoff and beginning a job search. With LEAP, the unemployed rank their key needs after a losing a job, get guidance and encouragement on their biggest concerns, and create a reemployment action plan under WIOA.

But that’s not all. Here are five points that you may not know about LEAP.

1. LEAP Used in RESEA Programs. States are using LEAP in their Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) programs. A goal of the U.S. Department of Labor RESEA initiative is to connect with UI claimants by requiring them to create reemployment plans that include work search activities and American Job Center orientation/referrals. According the USDOL, identifying UI claimant’s needs and referring them to reemployment services have been proven effective. One study for the USDOL states that RESEAs are an effective strategy to speed reemployment of unemployed workers, reduce overpayments, and realize cost savings for the UI trust fund. LEAP can play an important role in the RESEA process by identifying UI claimants’ key needs and barriers, giving them useful information on careers and the job search process, referring them to American Job Center services, and guiding them in creating a personalized/tailored reemployment plan. According to an IMPAQ International report for the USDOL, LEAP is “innovative” and “assesses individuals in eight areas… Claimants total their scores in each section and then look to the back of LEAP for suggestions on how best to alleviate their concerns.” A second IMPAQ study reports that one state’s RESEA claimants had 3.13 fewer weeks of total UI duration compared to individuals in the control group, saving $873 in benefits payout per treatment group member. This amount exceeded RESEA costs by more than four times.
2. LEAP Underwent Intense Development and Review. LEAP underwent intense development and review, and its creators at Career Action Resources adhered to strict developmental guidelines. The editors at Career Action Resources, who have 20 years of experience in the job search and career field, began reviewing the vast literature and research on the needs of dislocated workers. They created a draft version of LEAP using this information. After a draft version of LEAP was written, dislocated workers and workforce development professionals reviewed the text and completed a questionnaire on the items, scales, ease of use, and other details. After this review period, additional changes were made to the draft, including adding an education/training scale and other information. A professionally designed prototype of the six-panel foldout was reviewed by other workforce professionals, and additional changes were suggested and made. Positive reactions to LEAP during these stages encouraged the editors at Career Action Resources to continue its development. LEAP was printed and then pilot-tested with laid-off manufacturing workers. Other dislocated workers and workforce development staff received copies of LEAP for review. A similar process occurred for LEAP’s Second Edition. Career Action Resources continue to seek feedback from LEAP customers. Feedback on the usefulness of LEAP was and continues to be gratifyingly positive.
3. LEAP Is Easy to Administer, Score, and Interpret. Because workforce development professionals are time-strapped, and because dislocated workers need to obtain services as soon as possible, LEAP had to be quick and not burdensome. The editors at Career Action Resources designed LEAP to be taken and to provide results in about a half-hour total. LEAP is completely self-administered, self-scoring, and self-interpreting, so workforce development professionals do not need special training to use LEAP with dislocated workers. LEAP can simply be handed out, or it can be used for an orientation meeting, Rapid Response session, RESEA meeting, workshop, or job club session, for example. Although no special training is required to administer LEAP, the LEAP Administrator’s Guide gives detailed background and guidance information.
4. LEAP Offers Guidance Based on Individual Needs Under WIOA. LEAP gives workforce development professionals a unique way to interact and counsel job seekers and help them create unique employment plans based on their needs, as directed by WIOA. LEAP answers the key question of “What do I do now?” by helping laid-off workers discover their top problems and by providing suggestions for action. Although laid-off individuals have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, their problems vary depending on many factors, such as their financial situation, age, attitude, marketable skills, work history, education, knowledge of growing careers, knowledge of the job search process, and support systems, just to name some. A workforce professional who reviewed LEAP commented that dislocated workers are often overwhelmed by their situation but in different ways. Thus, the one-size-fits-all information that laid-off workers may have received in the past will not suit their needs completely or may not address certain personal issues and barriers. For example, if an individual is encouraged to start a job search but hasn’t defined her next career choice, she may flounder and quickly get frustrated. Or if a person can’t seem to take action on networking or writing a resume, he may need to acknowledge his lingering shock or the importance of managing his time by creating a job search schedule. As the anxieties after job loss mount, the newly unemployed may have difficulty sorting through their questions, options, choices, and fears. Creating an action plan for their next steps may be overwhelming. The situation may cause delays in seeking help and in being proactive on job search, financial, and personal fronts. LEAP provides laid-off workers with a vast amount of eye-opening information in a quick, easy-to-read format and pinpoints the reemployment help and other resources that each individual needs most.
5. LEAP Includes Complimentary LEAP Administrator’s Guide. Career Action Resources offers a helpful LEAP Administrator’s Guide in PDF to LEAP purchasers. The guide gives details on LEAP’s development, scales, uses, administration, and much more.

Qualified workforce and career professionals can request a complimentary LEAP review sample. Request your LEAP sample now.