Tapping Local Talent: How Findlay Businesses Can Connect with Future Employees Now

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Chamber Amplified, Doug Jenkins from the Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce explores workforce development issues with Ashley Stepec-Bibler of Raise the Bar Hancock County. They talk about strategies that help students in Findlay and Hancock County connect better with potential local employers as well as the significance of exercises like mock interview events that offer high school juniors a real-world view of the job market and essential soft skills training.

Ashley and Doug also discuss the implementation of YouScience, an assessment platform that helps students identify their aptitudes and interests. By tying these findings to local career opportunities, Raise the Bar Hancock County creates targeted experiences designed to align students with industries that match their skills. The discussion highlights how modern students are eager to connect with businesses proactively, seeing potential pathways they might not have previously considered. 

Key Takeaways:

• Raise the Bar Hancock County focuses on bridging the gap between local schools and businesses through targeted events that enhance student employability.
• Mock interview events provide students with critical interview experience and feedback, helping them to better prepare for entering the workforce.
• YouScience's assessment platform is instrumental in helping students identify their aptitudes, shaping a more informed and focused approach to career exploration.
• Local businesses play a crucial role in exposing students to diverse career options, thereby enriching the community’s workforce pipeline.
• Students today are financially savvy and keen to explore various career paths early on, making local opportunities even more attractive.

Resources:

• Sign up for a free YouScience profile here. 

Music and sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com

Transcript

0:00:02 - (Doug Jenkins): Hello and welcome to the show. I'm Doug Jenkins from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. On each episode of Chamber Amplified, we're examining issues that impact the local business community. Whether it's employee recruitment and retention. It could be it issues, really anything that can impact your business. Our goal is to give our members tips each week on at least one way they can improve operations and thrive in the current business environment.
0:00:24 - (Doug Jenkins): Let's talk about workforce development today. Certainly looking at some of the surveys that we've been doing and business climate surveys, things like that. Something that is staying at the top of concerns of our members. So we want to make sure that we're continuing to focus on it. Specifically today, we're focusing on what's being done to develop the next generation of the workforce here in Findlay and Hancock County.
0:00:46 - (Doug Jenkins): We'll be talking to Ashley Stepik, Bibler of Raise the Bar, Hancock county, and about their most recent event that they just did earlier this week, a mock interview event. I had the pleasure of taking part in it. It went really great. But beyond just talking about that specific event and why it was important, we also talk about how employers can get on the radar of potential employees, especially younger employees, as they're coming into the workforce and why that's really important.
0:01:11 - (Doug Jenkins): Now, I know you know it's important, but just how important is it? I think you'd be surprised. We're gonna delve into that today. Thanks again for tuning in. And remember, if you're listening on Apple podcasts or on Spotify, you could rate and review the show. It really does help spread the word. Now let's get into it. It's. Well, it's been a busy week for you as you held your mock interviews earlier this week. I had the chance to take part in that.
0:01:36 - (Doug Jenkins): It was a great event and one that I thought would be really fun to highlight here on the podcast.
0:01:41 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah. So this is the first year that we've done it with all of our schools, so thank you for coming to it, first of all. But it was a really exciting day for sure.
0:01:53 - (Doug Jenkins): Let's talk really about the importance of doing mock interviews for area high school students. Then we'll get in maybe to the structure of the day and how that went. But why is this a priority for Raise the bar?
0:02:03 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah. So I feel like with students now, they're getting less and less experience with the interview process before they go into the workforce, whether that be through college first or going into the trades or the workforce. But they're getting less experience with those Soft skills and with interview experience. So this gives them that experience early on during their junior year of high school to just see how an interview goes, to get some feedback, some constructive criticism, if you will, and kind of see, you know, how they're doing so far. And that gives them a little bit of time to perfect their interview process and also look at their resume and try to get some feedback on that as well.
0:02:50 - (Doug Jenkins): I think what was really great about the whole event, other than the lunch? The lunch was really good, by the way. Yeah, I hope you get a lot of good feedback on that.
0:02:57 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): But what was really great at Mill street, and it did great.
0:03:02 - (Doug Jenkins): You got a lot of different businesses involved, a lot of different industries, a lot of different people. So it wasn't just people from an office setting. It wasn't just people from a factory setting. You had the whole mix in there, which really, I think, represented the entirety of the business community and really, I think shows the kids the opportunities that are available to them close to home, even if they're maybe not considering something like that right now.
0:03:25 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah. So we had around 115 business professionals in the county from 76 different local businesses, which I think is an absolutely amazing turnout from our community to really support these students. And you're right, they were from a variety of industries. So we use you science assessments on all of the students in our county now, and we use those to find out what industries our students have an aptitude for and an interest for. And then we kind of use those assessments to gauge what industries we should pull from for these type of events.
0:04:04 - (Doug Jenkins): That's. That's really interesting. And we'll come back to the Bach interviews in a second, but I want to derail over to you science for a little bit because. Right. Raise the Bar has been very instrumental in making sure that that is in front of kids in area schools. For people who aren't familiar with YouScience, let's talk just a little bit about that first.
0:04:22 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah. So YouScience is an assessment platform that looks at students and really just people in general's aptitude and interest. It does that through a variety of brain games. And in our county, students are doing that at the middle school level, and then some students are doing at the middle school level and again at the high school level, and then they take an interest survey every single year after that because our interests change. But something that was interesting to me is after around age 14, your aptitude doesn't really change at all.
0:04:56 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): It stays the same so we can get a good picture from that and then kind of craft experiences around those results, which is really neat.
0:05:05 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah, we. So on the chamber side of things, we've been encouraging businesses to sign up to make sure that they can get connected with these students. And the student. It's kind of a really a beginning of an employment type, pipeline type of thing. But when we started this, we took the assessments ourselves just to see what it looked like. And it was very interesting. Apparently I should have been working in sciences, which I'm actually good at. Science. I just didn't ever really consider it as a career and went a different way. But it's interesting to think, okay, if I'd have had this kind of guidance when I was a teenager and maybe something to help show me a more concrete example of what I could do with something that I was good at.
0:05:45 - (Doug Jenkins): That's really a big step in the right direction.
0:05:48 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): It is. And I feel like at least when I was in high school, it kind of was, you got a job or you started a career and you stayed in that career, and that's just not how things work anymore. And it's nice to have those results to see what other industries or jobs that you would be good at that that you may not have even heard of or thought about before. So that is really a cool concept to that because students get those results for 10 years after they graduate, which is another really important piece for on the employer end because those employers can sign up for free to use science.
0:06:30 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): And if a student has an aptitude for a career within agriculture, for example, we can have a business sign up. And when a student clicks on that career, they can see all of the businesses in our local area that correlate to that career. So that's a really interesting piece to that.
0:06:50 - (Doug Jenkins): Yeah. So for instance, if you're a legacy farmers cooperative and you have a profile on there, it's real easy for that student to see, hey, I have. I'm good at things in this industry. I have an interest in some of the things in this industry. Here is a local business where I can learn more about. And really on the business side, that's all it is, is a profile. You put in your contact information, the things that you're amenable to doing, whether it's internships, job shadow, something like that. But it's just really a way to get on the radar. And I think that's maybe an underutilized part of developing an employment pipeline.
0:07:25 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Exactly. And you know, it's a relatively new platform that our county is using. It's Just been within the last school year that all of our. All of our schools have gotten onboarded with you science. So we have a huge pool of students that, that are an audience for those employers and are just looking for someone to connect with.
0:07:45 - (Doug Jenkins): Absolutely. And I will put in the show notes, the link for businesses to start their profile on there. Again, it's free, definitely take advantage of that. But I think it's also cool that you use the information that you have from that to then structure this event so it wasn't a haphazard come and learn how to interview. You were really able to dial this into what our area kids are good at and interested in, which I think makes for a higher quality event.
0:08:13 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah, and students were really interested. I mean, we were strategic within picking people within those industries, but students were extremely interested in taking their results and finding people within those industries. So although this might not have been an authentic interview experience, they were treating it as such because they were actively looking for those industries that they had an aptitude for.
0:08:38 - (Doug Jenkins): So you've got a couple days behind it now and they've been able to catch your breath maybe a little bit. Not entirely. But what has some of the feedback been? What are some of the things that you then look to maybe add next year or tweak next year?
0:08:51 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah, so the feedback has been really, really good. Last year or this year? Last year we had a pilot program with three of our districts in the county, and this year is when we added all eight within the county. And on the student side, they were really interested in looking again at those industries that they have an aptitude and an interest for. So they really want to, you know, have even more employers within certain industries and they really want to make those connections. So I feel sometimes in this generation coming up into the workforce, we think of, oh, they don't want to make the connections, they don't know how to make the connections. And they do want to, but they might have some trouble making those. And this is one of those events that can help them do that.
0:09:38 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): And then on the employer side, we got some really great feedback. A lot of people that came last year invited coworkers and things to come this year, which is we doubled the size of our employer pool, I guess. And next year I feel like the same will happen because we've gotten really great feedback on how they were really impressed with how prepared students were. And really the employers were excited about making those connections as well?
0:10:07 - (Doug Jenkins): No, I think so. I think for a couple of reasons, obviously, maybe it's an in for, you know, developing that employment pipeline. But I get the feeling a lot of local businesses really just want to help contribute to the future of what Findlay and Hancock county are going to be. And they see this as just a step in that direction. So while it can be a little self serving and that's. That's fine. I also think that people just kind of did it because they felt it's the right thing to do to help ensure the success of the community down the road.
0:10:38 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah. And I think that's something really great about our community is that we always step up to help one another. It might not have been a specific gain for their company in particular, but it's for the greater good and helping these students succeed after graduation, which is what we all strive for.
0:10:55 - (Doug Jenkins): You mentioned just how at one getting kids to in this. This position to do an interview because they're just not used to having that type of interaction and they, they operate a little bit differently than maybe you or I did when we were in high school. Things like that I had on the podcast. I forget which episode it was. It was probably six months ago at this point. Kyle Watts was on from Millstream and we talked a little bit about career fairs and one of the things that he had said is that career fairs just maybe don't hit the way that they used to.
0:11:24 - (Doug Jenkins): And had some different advice and I could link to that in it. I was curious kind of what your experience is with that. I know Raise the Bar has done some cool things with instead of doing career fairs, taking kids who are interested in certain types of industries to those actual locations and it feels like that's had more of an impact.
0:11:41 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah. So I feel like things are starting earlier and earlier now where in I know Kyle works primarily with those high school students at Millstream. And so what Raise the Bar has done is we've kind of brought that down a little bit. So we have something called Career Connections Day that's in eighth grade. It's similar to a career fair, but it's just to expose students to those industries and see what local businesses are out there and kind of give them some hands on experiences that way where the employers come to one centralized location.
0:12:13 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): And if you think back to when you were in eighth grade or when I was in eighth grade, I really had no idea what I wanted to do maybe a little bit, but not really at all. And these are specific industries that these students can take their you science, look at their results and then visit those industries. And then in high school we give them the opportunity to go to our Career Expo series. So each month we bring them to a different.
0:12:41 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): We bring them to four different businesses a month for a Career Expo day. And it's all centered within one industry. So for example, in the month of March, we had our Arts and Media Career Expo where we visited Findlay Publishing Company, J. Warrington Photography and UFTV Pulse and just kind of showed students around the industry and gave them some connections and that students in their 10th or 11th grade year so that when they join into their 11th grade year, they can connect all of those dots, have their mock interview or mock interviews and, and really feel prepared and feel like they've been exposed enough to go into the workforce again.
0:13:31 - (Doug Jenkins): It really comes back to exposing kids to opportunities that are available local. This is welcome to Doug's Hypothetical Random Thought of the podcast. We usually have one or two of these per episode. Uh, but you think about it, and when you talk to kids, every kid you talk to is like, I, when I'm, I graduate, I'm. I'm out of here. I'm never coming back. But don't think about how many kids actually end up doing that. They might go away to college, they might go away for a few years. But how many people actually from your graduating class do you know that, like, went more than an hour or so away from home?
0:14:05 - (Doug Jenkins): And actually, that number is usually not that big, at least anecdotally, that's been my experience. My wife and I were talking about it the other day. I'm curious if, I'm sure you maybe don't have the exact numbers, but if you, you see any sort of trends when it comes to how many kids actually do go away and never come back versus those who stay within an hour or so of home.
0:14:25 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah. So I don't have the exact number, but.
0:14:27 - (Doug Jenkins): And I didn't prep you for that in any way, shape or form, so I don't expect you to have that number.
0:14:32 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): But yeah, yeah. Just from experience and talking with these students, this upcoming, this generation right now that's in high school is really savvy financially and they understand that. They don't want to waste a lot of money going to college, jumping around majors like I did when I was in college and trying to figure out what they want to do. So they want to start earlier figuring that out. So when we give them those connections and they see the, the various industries that we have in our county in northwest Ohio alone, I feel like that is really a great incentives to stay in our area.
0:15:14 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): And I, you know, I don't. I see a lot of students, when we have post secondary presenters come in and talk about their. Their institutions, I see a lot of students trying to look for those smaller colleges or those community colleges to kind of be a stepping stone into the real world, I guess, if you will.
0:15:42 - (Doug Jenkins): Well, and if you think about it from the standpoint of what it costs to raise a family, right, you. You have a young daughter, you understand how. How this goes. It's not cheap. And if you're closer to home, you have those support resources maybe a little bit more readily available. And so if we have the job opportunities that are aligned with that, it really makes that transition into adulthood, I think, a little bit easier for some of these kids. So just getting businesses involved in that part of the pipeline and showcasing the opportunities that they present, that is worth its weight in gold.
0:16:16 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): I definitely agree. And, you know, I think that our future is bright with these students. They know what they want, and they're not afraid to go after it. And luckily, we have what they need in our area.
0:16:29 - (Doug Jenkins): Ashley, we appreciate your time on the podcast today. If you want to learn more about Raise the Bar, maybe they're interested in getting involved in the mock interviews next year or anything else that you're doing. What's the best way to get in touch with you?
0:16:40 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah, so you can email me at stepikbibbler@raisethebarhandcock.org if you're a business and you want to talk with schools, you want to get into schools, you want schools to come visit you, I would love to talk again. If you have a student who you would like some help with direction, I'd be happy to help. Or you can call me at 419-348-9160.
0:17:05 - (Doug Jenkins): All right, Ashley, thanks for your time today.
0:17:07 - (Ashley Stepec-Bibler): Yeah, thanks so much for having me, Doug.
0:17:09 - (Doug Jenkins): So maybe I'm wrong on the number of kids who leave the area once they graduate and never come back, but I'm willing to bet that's not as big a number as we might think. Certainly every kid, or most kids anyway, say, oh, yeah, I'm leaving and I'm never coming back. But when the logistics really come down to it, you might not actually move that further than an hour or so away from home. I know that's what my wife and I ended up doing. We both live about an hour from where we grew up, respectively. And it works out because our family is close. It's helpful with the kids, or at least it was when they were younger.
0:17:41 - (Doug Jenkins): And I think that's probably something that we don't recognize maybe as often as we should. I could be wrong. Email me if I am and we'll make a correction somewhere Chamber Amplified is a free podcast for the community thanks to the investment of members from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce. Because of our robust membership, we're able to focus on providing timely information to the Findlay and Hancock county business community, run leadership programs for adults and teenagers, and be an advocate for the area while also providing tools to help local businesses succeed.
0:18:12 - (Doug Jenkins): And if that sounds like something you'd like to be a part of, just let me know and we can talk about how an investment in the Chamber helps strengthen the community. That'll do it for this week's episode. If you have any ideas for topics we should cover on future episodes, just send an email djenkins@finleyhancockchamber.com thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time on Chamber Amplified from the Findlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.