Workforce Services tells employers to consider recruitment incentives

The Arkansas Department of Workforce Services says employers should consider incentives and benefits outside of pay to recruit workers to their businesses.

Several employers from the community gathered at the Forrest City Civic Center Thursday morning to learn about the department's internal partnership programs and to discover ways to bring muchneeded employees into their business

Eduardo Lemm, ADWS Regulatory Advisor for Targeted Populations, said the key is for employers to decide what it is about their business that would be attractive to job seekers in a rural area where pay incentives are not common.

"In rural areas, pay is not the best," said Lemm. “We have to see those things, as an employer, those things that I need to do to get people hired here and to stay here."

Lemm told employers that not every job seeker wants to move from their small towns either.

"The good thing about Forrest City is we are surrounded by small communities," said Lemm. "Everybody doesn't want to go across the bridge or drive to Little Rock."

Lemm said it is important to target youth as well as the recently graduated.

“Get those students interested in staying in Forrest City and not moving off,” Lemm said, adding that community partnerships, mobile job fairs and other workforce programs could help employers offer those incentives. "We have to use innovative ways to train our people.”

Several of the ADWS partnerships offer on-the-job training.

One such partnership is through the Arkansas Human Development Corporation, according to Clevon Young.

Young said the group is an agriculture-focused group for seasonal and migrant farm workers and helps agri interested job seekers with placement with private employers and offers them work experience and employment readiness-related assistance.

Tracy Hinton, with the ADWS Business Services Team said Business Services, also shared a lot of information and programs for employers from work opportunity tax incentives as well as recruiting and screening services.

(Continued from Page 1) "When people think about the unemployment office they usually think of just the unemployed," said Hinton. “We are so much more than that. We service job seekers and employers alike."

Derrick Spearmon, with Workforce, agreed, saying some of the ways employers can use the department is with an Arkansas Workforce Center Job Order as well as Career Readiness Certificates.

Spearmon said the career readiness certificates help employers quickly find individuals with essential workplace skills.

Spearmon said the certificates are awarded in several different skill levels that are based on how well an individual could understand information in common workplace documents, use mathematical reasoning in common workplace situations and the ability to understand and extract information from graphics such as diagrams and charts.

Heather Pipkin, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Program Director, told local businesses she is not only the program director but a product of the programs.

"I am an outcome of these services," said Pipkin, sharing a story of being laid off due to disability, going through the ADWS dislocated workers services and being placed in the ADWS before being hired there. She also used one of the services to get the equipment she needed for her disability to continue employment.

"We don't stop once you are hired," said Pipkin of her journey. "You, as an employer, can reach out to us. We can provide counseling services, mentoring and other services jobseekers need to stay in and maintain that employment."

Forrest City Mayor Cedric Williams said the important thing for businesses to start doing is to share the information with other businesses in the city as to what Workforce offers.

"We have large industries in this town," said Williams. "We also have our mom and pop type of restaurants in the city that are in many ways a big part of our backbone. Everyone is looking for employees. This is to help the big fish as well as the little fish in our city to find those employees."