Baltimore Employment Roundtable

BUILDING LINKS – JOTF CONSTRUCTION PILOT PROJECT
April 15, 2004
8:30 a.m.

Notes prepared by Kevin Griffin Moreno

Present: Emily Burtt, Lutheran Social Services; Desiree Mundell Collins, JOTF; Hugh Coyle, Catholic Charities; Moses Hammett, CFWD/STRIVE; Felix Mata, Mayor’s Office of Employment Development; Kevin McShane, Living Classrooms Foundation; Kevin Griffin Moreno, JOTF; Nelson Ortega, Centro de la Comunidad; Laurel Poremski, MD New Directions; Deborah Povich, JOTF; Jesse Rice, MOED; Tony Wicks, Jones Falls Counseling Center

JOTF executive director Deborah Povich and employment coordinator Desiree Mundell Collins invited members of the Baltimore Employment Roundtable to participate in Building Links, a new JOTF initiative designed to connect employers with employment and training organizations.

In March 2004, JOTF undertook this nine-month linkage project to bring together businesses that offer entry-level jobs in the building and construction trades with workforce agencies that provide job-ready applicants. The project’s goal is to help meet employers' entry-level staffing needs while helping job seekers connect to career opportunities in the construction field.

Our first step in this project was to survey building trades businesses regarding their workforce needs, and 13 service providers (including some members of the Roundtable) regarding their capacity to place applicants in construction jobs.

The major findings of the employer survey were that nearly every business surveyed experiences difficulty recruiting and retaining entry-level employees, and almost all are interested in partnering with service organizations to hire job-ready applicants. Most survey participants have never worked with either public or nonprofit workforce development agencies in the past. The top reasons employers gave for terminating employees were: tardiness, conflict with supervisors, lack of adequate transportation, and lack of reliability.

Based on the results of the survey, JOTF is inviting interested employers and providers who participated in the survey to a networking breakfast at 8:00 a.m. on June 22 at the Home Builders Association of Maryland. This will mark the first step in the linkage process, during which JOTF hopes to facilitate good relationships between providers and employers. Following this introductory event, employers will have the opportunity to post job announcements on JOTF’s website. Providers will be able to respond to the job announcements by contacting the employer directly. Each participant will have a password to access to the job board section of the site.

As part of its effort to cultivate strong connections among the participants in the project, JOTF will educate employers regarding the high cost of employee turnover, and about available retention resources such as tax credits, federal bonding, supervisor training, etc. Similarly, JOTF may connect provider organizations with best practices in job placement. Providers that can help an employer set up an employee assistance program may be attractive to businesses that lack a human resources department.

The JOTF Building Links Project is made possible by a grant from the Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Foundation. The project is overseen by the JOTF Employer Advisory Committee, which is chaired by Scott Stevens, general manager of Modu-Tech, Inc. Other organizations represented on the committee include Chesapeake Habitat for Humanity, Harkins Builders, Home Builders Association of Maryland, Shackleton Enterprises, and Streuver Brothers, Eccles & Rouse.

Workforce providers who are interested in participating in the Building Links project should contact Desiree Mundell-Collins at (410) 247-6792.