Best Practice Self-Assessments for Job Search & Reemployment Planning

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, American Job Centers are working to adapt to changing needs and challenges. In addition, as required by WIOA, American Job Centers must move toward enhanced integration, customer-centered service delivery, and dynamic partnerships.

But as automation, technology, the gig economy, and other trends affect the future of work, as well as our service delivery, how will we serve job seekers and businesses in the future? How will we keep essential human connections, do effective outreach, and give customized personal service?

Workforce representatives from eight states have collaborated and envisioned possible service delivery solutions for tomorrow's American Job Centers.

To gain insight into these issues, you can watch a Webinar featuring these workforce representatives and learn about their recommendations for the future of American Job Centers. You can also read the Webinar transcript. 

Want to give your job seekers customized reemployment and job-seeking guidance now? Request complimentary review samples of  Layoff-to-Employment Action Planner (LEAP) and Your Employment Search (YES).

Serving job seekers is your focus. Your processes and your resources need to meet their needs under WIOA. It’s also helpful when your resources make you more effective and efficient, so you can optimize job seeker interactions and put them on the fast track to employment or reemployment. 

That’s where Your Employment Search (YES) by Career Action Resources, LLC, can help. YES is an easy-to-use, self-guiding tool that guides job seekers in creating a personalized, individualized employment plan in just three steps.

YES helps workforce development and career professionals in many ways. Here are YES’s main benefits to you:

• Takes a customer-centered approach under WIOA by creating results that are tailored to each individual 
• Provides time-strapped staff with a quick way to impart active job search methods to many individuals
• Gives structure and consistency to job search coaching and employment/reemployment programs 
• Is self-completed and self-scored by individuals, so you do not need to tally results
• Is easy to administer, with no special training required for you
• Provides a discussion starter for meetings, counseling, and workshops
• Useful in many settings and situations, such as employment services, job search workshops and classes, American Job Center orientations, Rapid Response meetings, Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) programs, job clubs, and adult education
• Can be used by job seekers at all education and job levels; YES is written at an eighth-grade reading level, and all items are gender-neutral
• Useful for job seekers of all ages and stages, including dislocated workers, unemployment insurance claimants, people returning to work, youth, people transitioning to the workforce, military veterans, and incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals
• Research-based and developed with the input of job hunters and workforce development and career professionals 

YES was created, designed, and printed in the USA by the experienced workforce resource developers at Career Action Resources, LLC. Learn more about YES.

If you are a workforce development professional who works with job hunters, request a complimentary review sample of YES today.
 

Even in a good economy, it’s easy for the unemployed and dislocated workers to feel stuck. Many reasons can contribute to this state of mind, such as the following:

• Coping with shock and anger after a layoff
• Not knowing how to start a job search
• Blaming themselves or others for their situation
• Struggling with their identity, self-confidence, and self-esteem
• Losing interpersonal connections from the workplace
• Wanting to change careers but unsure of their career direction
• Wanting to change careers but not sure how
• Not having skills for today’s workplace
• Feeling paralyzed by thoughts of today’s impersonal job search process
• Feeling overwhelmed by the need to create a resume, write cover letters, network, and interview
• Feeling too old or unqualified to start something new
• Feeling concerned about finding a job as good as what they had
• Not knowing how to use computers, the Internet, social media, and other technology
• Wanting to go back to school or get training instead of finding a job
• Feeling overwhelmed by financial worries
• Not getting support or encouragement
• Dealing with health issues, family problems, emotional issues, and other barriers

All of these anxieties are common with the jobless. As their worries and fears accumulate, the unemployed may have difficulty sorting through their questions, options, and concerns. Creating an action plan for their next steps may be overwhelming. The situation may cause critical delays in seeking help and in being proactive on job search, training, financial, and personal fronts.

Fortunately, there is a self-guiding, three-step assessment from Career Action Resources that can help these job seekers. Called the Layoff-to-Employment Action Planner (LEAP), this paper-and-pencil resource provides unemployed workers with a vast amount of eye-opening information in a quick, easy-to-read format and pinpoints the reemployment help and other resources each individual needs most. It’s a useful process for helping the unemployed clear their heads and focus on an action plan for reemployment. The LEAP can help people find jobs faster because it accomplishes the following:

• Lessens time for immobilization and confusion
• Addresses an individual’s unique situation and needs
• Provides proven job search and career guidance
• Advises individuals to create a reemployment plan
• Recommends the assistance and services that will most benefit the individual
• Encourages individuals to use the free services of American Job Centers
• Helps career coaches and workforce staff address each client’s needs in a personal yet efficient and consistent way
• Requires no special training or extra time for workforce staff to administer
• Comes with a complimentary LEAP Administrator’s Guide in PDF on effective use

The LEAP is used across the nation in a wide range of workforce programs. A U.S. Department of Labor report calls the LEAP an innovative best-practice in reemployment. If you are a workforce or career services professionals, please request your complimentary LEAP review sample from Career Action Resources.