VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
EMPLOYMENT COLLABORATION REPLICATION
KATIE THOMPSON
DECEMBER 5, 2005


	CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY:  	CAPTION FIRST, INC.
	
	>> KATIE THOMPSON:  Good afternoon.  I would like to start by 
welcoming everybody to today's webcast.  Today we're going to 
talk about an employment collaborations model for partnering 
staffing agencies with employment service organizations.
	I guess I should start by giving you a little background and 
history about how this program started.  And it was really back 
in 2002 when VCU was granted a project and funded through the 
Virginia Board for People with Disabilities to create 
partnerships between private and public businesses, and to look 
at the -- how that partnership can advance the employment for 
individuals with disabilities.
	This type of partnership was really the first of its kind in 
Virginia, and traditionally rehabilitation has not seen staffing 
agencies and supplemental positions as viable long-term 
employment opportunities.  And through this project there were a 
lot of lessons learned.  One of the most profound realities that 
was seen was that 40% of the people that were being hired on by 
the staffing agency were actually going to work full-time for 
the end user.
	And when I say "end user," I am talking about the company 
that Manpower and Kelly Services and other staffing agencies are 
actually providing their services to.
	So this project really gave individuals with disabilities 
opportunity to gain skills and experience, to gain employment, 
and to really maintain employment.  We saw that happening as 
well.
	So the project as a whole back in 2002 was seen as a success.  
And there were best practices that were developed, and we're 
interested in looking at how to further progress those.
	In 2002, Millie Hewett previously with Manpower staffing here 
in the Richmond, Virginia, area, and she coined the 4 "Rs" to 
creating a successful collaboration.  These "Rs" include:  
Relationship, resilience, return on investment, and replicate.
	We're going to use the 4 "Rs" to guide out discussion and to 
flesh out the best practices.
	Taking on from this model, the Virginia Commonwealth 
University was awarded yet another grant to further the 
demonstration previously done in 2002.  
	And so this really carried out that final "R" of replication.
	Our current project began back in July of 2004.  It was a 18-
month replication to be carried out in the Roanoke Valley area 
of Virginia:  This project was actually very different in many 
ways from our current project done in the Richmond area.  First 
of all, it was done in the Roanoke Valley area, which is a more 
rural area, and covers a larger footprint.
	Another main distinction was that we were working with Kelly 
Services in addition to Manpower.  Our other partners are the 
Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, and the 
employment service organizations from the Roanoke Valley area as 
well.
	For this project we did have several project objectives.  The 
first of these was to develop partnership.  To go in and to 
create partnerships between Kelly Services, as well as other 
staffing organizations, with on the other side the public 
sector, the Department of Rehabilitative Services, as well as 
employment service organizations.  And in creating these 
partnerships, we were interested in implementing the 
collaborative relationship model with the lessons learned from 
the 2002 project.  
	Another very large part of this project was the education 
piece of it.  We provided many training, we created 
opportunities for the partners to come together and learn from 
one another during meet-and-greets as well.  The education 
focused around both sides of the partnership with providing 
training to the employment service organizations and the 
rehabilitation programs on the staffing industry.  And really 
dispelling some of those myths that we have all had over the 
years regarding the staffing industry.
	And then on the of the staffing industry, we were giving them 
education and training on employment for individuals with 
disabilities, as well as how the whole rehabilitation area works 
and how to really maneuver through that and make sure that you 
are speaking with the right resources.
	Of course, another objective is always to evaluate 
effectiveness.  We wanted to see if the partners involved in 
this are going to see this partnership successful in the work 
that they do day in and day out we're currently in the progress 
of receiving more information on effectiveness through the 
surveys and evaluations.
	We also had placement goals for the project.  These goals 
were set out in our initial contract with the Virginia board, 
and the total number of referrals that we had as of our 5th 
quarter, which ended October 1st, was 61 referrals.  Of these, 
20 had been placed into positions through a staffing agency, and 
7 of these individuals had maintained employment for 180 days or 
greater.  Again, like I said, we had one more of our last 
quarter here to report numbers on.  We feel that we're really 
having a lot of activity in this quarter, and we look forward to 
seeing our numbers grow even further in the next month.  
	So now that we've talked a little bit about the background of 
the project, and you kind of have an idea of how it developed, I 
want us to return to the 4 "Rs" and talk about the first one, 
relationship.  
	Building relationship is a key element in creating this 
partnership.  When I talk about relationship, I'm not just 
talking about organization to organization.  But we're talking 
about individual to individual as well.  
	What we have seen the most success at is when the employment 
specialist, or job coach, has really gotten to know a staffing 
representative and has built that one-on-one relationship.  They 
have through that relationship been able to better understand 
the types of jobs that are generally recruited for from the 
staffing agency, and the job duties that are involved in that.
	And then when an individual that they have seeking a job is 
interested in those areas, they can have a really candid 
conversation where the job seeker, the staffing specialist, as 
well as the job coach can sit down, come together, and really 
talk about the job duties that are required in that job, and 
whether the individual skills, experience, and preferences meet 
these job duties.  And also to talk about the different types of 
supports that will be needed to make this individual successful 
on the job.
	To create this kind of relationships, there are several of 
these that we've developed.  The first is to open and honestly 
address misconceptions.  There has to be an openness to discuss 
the hard topics.  To do this, you have to have trust.  Each 
partner has to feel that they can communicate their ideas and 
their hesitations openly.  And to build that trust, you want 
that staffing representative to be able to say, "I just don't 
see how this person can complete their job.  I don't see how 
they're going to be successful."
	And while it might be so clear to the employment specialist, 
there needs to be an openness to discuss that position and to 
help them see it and to not shut the door on that conversation.  
	And to build that trust, we also want to make sure that when 
these things are communicated nobody is being judged or caught 
having a fear of being caught doing something wrong.  But those 
things can be openly communicated.
	This type of communication and trust just does not happen 
over one conversation.  hair has -- there has to and commitment 
to having open interaction between one another, and to have 
weekly conversation from what we've seen over the course of this 
project to be successful for this partnership.
	As far as the type of communication, you want to really make 
sure that your communications you are talking about the 
important stuff.  Learning one another's language, and really 
finding a way to have a common context from which to work from.  
What I want to do now is to let you see some video clips from an 
individual that is in a staffing agency in our Salem branch of 
Manpower.  Her name is Pam Smith.  And she has had several years 
of experience in working with people with disabilities in her 
position.  She has really latched on to this project and been a 
main contact for us in some of our offices.  So let's hear some 
of her experiences and building this type of relationship over 
the course of the project.  
	>> PAM SMITH:  The employment specialist, also the job 
coaches and other specialists that are with the local community 
job rehabs in other services, they are very supportive with the 
program as far as making sure that individuals that are looking 
for employment are referred over to us.  They are working 
together with us to make sure that an appointment is made so 
that these individuals can get direct attention that they need 
to make sure that they have the services that they need to 
either go through the training or to make sure that we take the 
right steps to hook them up to job placements.
	Our relationship with the job coaches has been very 
successful with the communication that is involved between the 
two of us and just overall support from the job coaches between 
our customers that we actually place our individuals with has 
been just overwhelming support.  They're right there at a phone 
call to help answer any questions, be there for an interview at 
the customer site, or at the Manpower offices.  They are there 
at a phone call to answer any questions about the individual to 
support with accommodations, or any other resources that 
Manpower may need to help support that individual in the 
placement that they have been given.
	Our job coaches, one of the things that they really help to 
support us with is the individual, they will actually go out to 
our customer site with the disabled person and work with them on 
the job.  
	For example, the assembly line position, if we have someone 
go out to an assembly line, they will actually stand right 
beside that person and do the job with them.  Set customer 
actually has two employees for a while to assist with their 
production.
	And this helps to support that individual with training them 
on the job, giving them kind of that backbone support to 
motivate them to say that it's okay.  You can do this job.  You 
can do the position.  You can be there.  So they are there, and 
they will be there that individual until they are comfortable 
with what they are doing.  Most of the time it could be just a 
couple of days.  It could and matter of hours.  Sometime it is 
might be a couple of weeks.  But they will be there everyday for 
that employee to support them.
	But also after they feel after the employee is ready to be on 
their own, they will come back and support that employee by 
occasionally coming back like once a week to support that 
individual by checking on them, seeing how their progress is 
going, to make sure that there's no problems that have arisen 
that might have come about maybe needing an accommodation, or 
anything in that matter.  So our job coaches are very successful 
as far as just overall placement with the individual and giving 
that support to them.
	And a big benefit to that is the customer getting that extra 
employee for that short amount of time.  (Chuckles) 
	Free money.  No charges in play with that job coach.  So it's 
a very supportive system with the job coaches.  
	>> KATIE THOMPSON:  The second "R" is resilience.  And in 
this project some of the best practices that we have seen is to 
have the resilience of the partnership.  
	Simply accessing this non-traditional labor source without 
having the appropriate collaborative efforts in place is not 
going to make for a successful partnership and not going to help 
to make the project successful.
	In fact, when job coaching and a mind-set of long-term 
commitment are not in place, that is when we see projects like 
this fail.  From a staffing perspective, the idea of job coach 
something somewhat foreign, and what we hear most often from the 
staffing representative is that they have a fear of what their 
end users are going to think of bringing a job coach in and 
having on-the-job training for the individual and the employee.
	We spent a lot of time reviewing this and providing technical 
assistance with this topic in the project.  We know we want to 
respect the relationship between the staffing organization and 
its end-user customer.  But we also know that for many of the 
individuals that are receiving services from the employment 
service organizations, they need job coaches services to make 
the appropriate match, and for retention and advancement of the 
individual employee.  
	So, you know, when you have this appropriate relationship in 
place, the job coach can take the time to really give detailed 
information about the supports that are needed for this 
individual to be successful.  And then the staffing 
representative needs to broker with their end user the job-
coaching services.
	And this could be very easy especially with the support of a 
job coach because they're used to doing that sort of thing, and 
then also to build on and to work initially with those 
individual customers that you have the strongest relationships 
with.
	We talk about return on investments.  We're looking back at 
2002, and then also at our current project.  We know that it 
makes good business sense to create this partnership between 
public and private business.  That it is beneficial to the 
individuals with disabilities as well as to both of the partners 
involved.  And the more success stories that we have over these 
projects and through these two demonstrations, the further that 
we can see that there is a return on investment for all of the 
parties involved.  And I think that one of the best ways that I 
can help you to understand how this return on investment plays 
out is to let you hear from not only Pam Smith again, but also 
to hear from Brian Ard who works with Kelly Services.
	And Brian has been working with the staffing industry for 
many years, but had very little experience working with 
individuals with disabilities as his position as a recruiter.
	I want you to hear from them about how it has affected their 
lives, how it's been beneficial to their organizations, as well 
as the communities that they work in.
	And then Pam will share a success story with us from her 
experiences.  
	>> BRIAN ARD:  I think that I am less apprehensive with 
recruiting and interviewing, behavioral interviews, and even 
placing people with disabilities because for the most part if 
they show up in our office it's because they want to work.  
They're not unlike anybody else in the world that wants to work.  
They want to work and they have to figure out what they need to 
do to get to work.
	The interviewing part of it has become better because they 
are more apt to tell you they need on their own, or if they have 
a job coach certainly that information is given to you up front.
	But generally we have found that people are up front and say, 
"I can do this.  I am unable to do this.  I can do this with 
limited help.  I can do particular functions.  I am not allowed 
-- or I am not able to do this."
	So they're certainly comfortable -- what we find was that we 
were the ones uncomfortable in asking the questions.  And 
specifically at Kelly Services we're trained on ADA and what 
that means and what we can ask and for the most part we have 
always asked "Do you need an accommodation to do the job?" We're 
not having to ask that in this particular program because 
they're telling us up front what their accommodations are and 
what they need.  
	And so overall what was learned is that this is a good 
recruiting source for us because these are people that are 
coming to us -- the people that are referring them are calling 
to us say, "I have someone.  Here is what they can do." And it's 
like having their own agent which most of us probably would like 
to have someone calling on their behalf -- on our behalf to do.  
So for the most part it's a new recruiting resource for us 
because it's someone calling to us say, "Here's someone.  Here's 
what they can do.  What do you have for them?"
	We did face some challenges in this project, and they were 
kind of limited, but we were concerned about them.  We were most 
concerned about how would our end user, and those are the people 
that call us and say that we need this particular job, or we 
need this particular assignment filled, how would they receive, 
you know, someone that required a particular accommodation, or a 
job coach?  And we did not have an instance where we ran into 
that only because this did not come up.  I think that it still 
will be an issue, and that's something that we would want to 
continue to work on.  For the most part, I think that the actual 
accommodation as far as a physical accommodation is not going to 
be an issue.  I think that when you call someone and say they 
are possibly going to need a job coach, there may be some 
apprehension. 
And what we decided to do as a company at Kelly is really start 
to educate the companies that we work with and say, " This is a 
program that we're involved with, and at some point in time we 
may send someone with a disability who needs an accommodation, 
and you may not know what that is.  You may not know what the 
disability is."
	Certainly if they have a job coach there is no charge for 
that person.  They're not going to take up space.  They are may 
be there for the first day.  They may be there for a week.  They 
may come in and check on them.  In essence they're an extension 
of Kelly Services making sure that they've done the job that 
they were sent there to do.  I think that's a plus.  Because 
when I talk to a customer and I can call and ask how the person 
did, because we did that on a regular basis anyway, someone will 
be there to see how they're doing.
	Also because of Kelly's ADA particular program, and the 
ability to do this project, I feel like in the future even if we 
don't have someone who is representing an employee, or even if 
we do I guess, we will know how better to deal with the 
recruiting, selection, and interviewing process, and then also 
the placing process for people with disabilities.  And we won't 
have that apprehension.  We won't have the issues to face that 
we've already gone over.  We'll just be able to say, "What are 
the terms?  What are the job descriptions?  What are your 
abilities?  And what type of accommodations do you need?"  Now 
it will be second nature to us because of what we've done 
before. 
 	>> PAM SMITH:  Employing people with disabilities is good for 
employers visually it gets them out in the workplace it shows 
support from that customer and that business as being a 
disability-friendly workplace.  And that engages into more 
public awareness.  It is also good as far as for the customer 
that that individual works for as well, because an individual 
with a disability is so motivated to work, they are very 
reliable to be there everyday, be on time and just be a very 
good employee for the customer.
	So it just makes good business sense to work with these 
individuals, to get them placed out in the workplace.
	One of our success stories is a gentleman that in a 
wheelchair.  He is currently working on an assembly line.  He 
was placed there probably 6 months now.  He certainly is able to 
do the job.  His background was very vague as far as his 
abilities.  He has worked with Goodwill in some of their work 
programs, but he also is from another country so we didn't have 
a whole lot of history and background.  And he was referred from 
one of the local rehab companies to come to us and see what we 
could do to get him placed.
	And our local production company was more than willing to get 
him out there and give him a try to see what he could do.  And 
he has been very successful.  We haven't had any really 
challenges with him.  We had to make one small accommodation 
with our customer.  Again, it was a safety concern.  A lot of 
what we see in our area is safety.  They were concerned with him 
being so much lower than just a person that would walk through 
the production area in his wheelchair that the forklift driver 
may not see him.  So that was a major concern for them.
	It almost came to the point where they were going to end his 
assignment due to safety issues, and we kind of stepped back and 
reviewed these safety concerns and thought about what we could 
do to keep him placed, make sure that he was safe in the 
workplace so that he could continue employment.  And it came to 
be that all we needed to simply do was make sure that there was 
something tall on his wheelchair so that he could be seen.
	Tended up being a flag, a bicycle flag purchased at a local 
Wal-Mart.  And that was just what we needed to be alerted to his 
presence as he traveled through the production area to make sure 
that he was seen.
	And he has been there, as I said, for about six months now, 
very successful in what he is doing.  He has been so good at 
what he has been doing.  He hasn't been in any type of layoffs 
with the company and in any of their slow-downs.  So they're 
very proud of what he has accomplished, and they're continuing 
his employment with their company at this point.  
	>> KATIE THOMPSON:  I would like it share an additional case 
example with you where we really saw another success story.  And 
this was provided to me from Kathy Greenan from DRS, and Terry 
with career support services.
	We're going to talk about Jane.  Jane has very limited skills 
and experience before entering into the project.  She had worked 
as a hostess for a local fast-food restaurant and had other 
volunteer restaurants as well.
	She went into the staffing agency and was registered through 
their whole process, assessments and all.  And the very first 
day, she was actually placed into employment.  She was able to 
go to work that very same day that she registered with the 
staffing agency.
	After several weeks the employer as well as the staffing 
agency started to notice that she was having trouble with time 
and attendance as far as being tardy to work and being tardy 
when returning from breaks.  She seemed to really phone cussed 
on having her makeup done properly, and she really wanted to 
wear jewelry which was prohibited as was this was in 
manufacturing environment.
	She had desired to work in manufacturing environment, but 
probably didn't realize that that was going to be one of the 
limitations of working there it got to the point where they 
really were looking at having to terminate her from that 
position, and what happened was that the staffing agency brought 
back in the job coach.  That's a really essential piece to this 
case example.  The job coach was brought back in to discuss why 
this was in the working.  Again, we don't see this door being 
shut on this individual, but we see the individual being given 
an opportunity to understand better why this didn't work and 
develop plans for finding that would work better for her.
	So Jane did end up leaving that position where they were in 
the manufacturing environment and actually started working for a 
company through the staffing agency as well that created beauty 
products.  That's what they developed.  It was, again, a 
manufacturing environment, but a totally different focus.  And a 
very, very different work environment that really worked on her 
passion, and what she enjoyed in life, and things that were 
important to her, and also provided a much more structured 
environment that was a useful for her with this issue of time 
and tardiness.  So it ended up that just a change in environment 
really made all of the difference.
	I share this example because I think that it is really shows 
how a collaborative partnership is necessary to make this work, 
and to increase the employment for individuals with 
disabilities.
	So we're to our final "R," replication.  
	When we're talking about replication, you know, we look back 
at our two projects, the one in 2002, as well as the one that 
we're currently getting ready to finish up here at the end of 
December.  And we see that this is clearly a successful model.  
And this needs to be carried on and more best practices need to 
be developed and successes need to be shared business to 
business.
	So there has to and long-term commitment to creating these 
collaborations and partnering.  And continuing partnership is 
really the key.  And what I want to do is let you hear, once 
again, from Brian Ard from Kelly Services, and Pam Smith from 
Manpower, and hear about what they plan to do in the coming 
years.  
	>> BRIAN ARD:  We hope to generally keep recruiting everyone 
that walks in the door.  Knowing what we have learned about 
using, you know, the services that have been calling on us, 
we're able to call them when we have specific needs.  "This is 
what type of position that we have.  Here are the specifics.  Do 
you have someone that you can fit that bill this?" They're doing 
what I am doing.  They're trying to match someone up to a 
particular position, and I am trying to match up a particular 
nothings someone who can do that.  So in being able to call 
someone like DRS or Goodwill, they can tell us, "Yes, we do have 
someone like that 4." And it adds to what we do for recruiting.
	There are several resources that we use, and one of the 
benefit of using the resources is the phone call itself doesn't 
cost us anything to say, "This is what we're looking for.  What 
do you have?  Here is my time frame cut refer candidates to me?  
Can you get back with me in a week?"
	It is now an added recruiting source to what we really didn't 
think before.  
	>> PAM SMITH:  After the VCU grant program is finished, we 
will continue to work with the individuals in getting them 
placed out to an employment or the training that they need.
	We have been proactive in this for years before the grant 
program came about.  Manpower has been proactive with the 
community, and also being a disability-friendly workplace.  So 
we will continue even after the program has finished and 
completed.  I think that the program has made it -- brought more 
awareness to Manpower being a workforce-friendly employer than 
it ever has before.
	And just the relationship bringing forward with the local 
rehab agencies with the Manpower offices has been what has been 
important from the VCU program, and that has been what brought 
out from the program.  It's just building that relationship and 
in having that become such a success in the community is getting 
that relationship started.
	So I hope that will continue with rehab services even after 
the grant program is gone.  We'll continue that relationship and 
just become stronger together of getting this successful in our 
Roanoke area.  
	>> KATIE THOMPSON:  VCU RRTC also has a commitment to further 
replicate this project, and to continue to advance this 
demonstration.  One of the ways that we're doing that is through 
a four-year grant program.  What we're going To be do something 
a quantitative study to look at this partnership and how it 
benefits individuals can disabilities in finding employment.
	I want to thank you so much for joining us today!  It was my 
honor to host this webcast.  And I look forward to talking with 
you in the chatroom and answering any questions that you might 
have. 
	Have a wonderful day!  
	(VCU webcast concluded at 1:30 P.M. CST) 
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