Best Of: Innovative Paths to Workforce Success

Traditional job fairs can bring employers and students into the same room, but that doesn’t always lead to successful hires.

In this “Best of” episode of Chamber Amplified, Doug Jenkins revisits a conversation with Kyle Watts, work-based learning liaison at Millstream Career Center. Kyle shares what Millstream learned after a large job fair led to dozens of student job offers but only a small number of accepted positions.

The issue wasn’t that students didn’t want to work. Many students simply weren’t sure what to expect from the workplace.

Kyle explains how tours, job shadows, short-term work experiences and other hands-on opportunities can help students build confidence, connect with employers and see a realistic career path. He also shares practical steps businesses can take before creating a work-based learning opportunity, including identifying which skills are truly required, showing employees a clear path for advancement and allowing room for students to learn from early mistakes.

This episode originally aired in October 2024. Chamber Amplified will return with a new episode on June 23.

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

Transcript

Why A Best-Of On Hiring

Doug Jenkins 0:00

Hey everybody, I am on vacation this week. And as a result, getting an episode ready for this Tuesday. Well, that was going to be a tough order. So we're going best of again. I know. We had one last week, we have one this week. I promise we're getting back to normal next week. But that's all right. We've got plenty of topics in the archive that are worth a second or third, maybe even a fourth, listen. This last week's episode focused on attracting workers to Ohio. This week's best of episode, kind of a companion piece because it looks at what employers can do to build a stronger talent pipeline locally. A lot of businesses still struggling to recruit employees, especially when it comes to younger workers. I hear it all the time, that they struggle to get people who are younger in just to even take a look at their business. That's what we're talking about today. So one thing I think we've all heard it is that young people don't want to work anymore. But back in October of 2024, we talked to Kyle Watts of the Millstream Career Center, and he said that's not actually what they find with their students. What they do find is that the traditional way of looking at it doesn't really work. Let's think about the career fair. Hey, we're gonna set up a bunch of booths, the kids are gonna walk by, and maybe you're thinking, oh, they'll find a job. Well, they don't know what those jobs are at a career fair, but by getting some hands-on experience at jobs, that's actually helping them. So we talk about that in this episode. Kyle explains how businesses can create low pressure opportunities for students to career, explore the workplace, build confidence, and see a real path forward. Hope you enjoyed this episode. We'll return to new episodes on June 23rd. Coming up next on Chamber Amplified.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

So instead of doing these huge job fairs that we felt were like maybe 10 miles wide and only an inch deep, like how do we make more focused, small, um, kind of micro experiences for our students? And and we gotta try something different, you know, if we want to have some success. So that's what we started to do.

Why Job Fairs Miss The Mark

Doug Jenkins 1:53

Welcome to the show. I'm Doug Jenkins from the Finlay 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, marketing, it could be IT issues, really anything that can be impacting 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. Let's talk a little bit more about workforce development today, shall we? So recently I was at a meeting when I heard someone mention that job fairs don't do much in getting kids interested in the job, which I thought was interesting and not in a kids don't want to work anymore type of way. If you've been listening to this podcast, you know I don't necessarily subscribe to that. Today on the program, we're joined by Kyle Watts, who's the work-based learning liaison at Millstream Career Center. Kyle is going to tell us about what works better than a job fair, how your business can succeed in bringing in younger workers, and some of the better practices for making that work. Notice I said better and not best. It's a work in progress. Kyle's going to tell us all about that. Thanks again for tuning in. Remember, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can rate and review the show. It really does help spread the word. Now, let's get into it.

The Reverse Job Fair That Flopped

Doug Jenkins 3:02

So the other day was at the Center to Advanced Manufacturing's uh Advanced Manufacturing Summit here in Finlay. That was a mouthful. Uh, but there was an interesting comment uh came from the director of Millstream, Pam Hamlin, in that manufacturers started talking about, well, we need career fairs or job fairs. And Pam said something to the effect of those don't really work as well as you think they do anymore. And that piqued my interest, and that's how we kind of got together on this. So let's start there. The job fare as we remember it as teenagers growing up, it doesn't seem like it's maybe the most effective way to reach potential employees.

SPEAKER_02 3:39

Yeah, that seems to be the case, at least for us here at Millstream, as we work with high school juniors and seniors. Uh, and and my job here is work-based learning liaison at Millstream Career Center, is just to get kids plugged into the industry. So I have quite a bit of experience with that. But I'll go back to my first year here at Millstream, which was four years ago. And my biggest project was to uh to host a big job fair. We call it our reverse job fair. Uh kind of the traditional setting that many of us would be familiar with, bringing companies in and things of that nature. Um, we made it optional for our students. I was very happy when I found out about 180 students wanted to participate in the job fair. And uh we had about 60 to 70 employees or companies visit us on that day as well. So going into that day, I felt very good. And I joked that they were going to rename the building after me afterwards because nothing but good things will come from this, surely. So uh, but anyways, long story short, after this big traditional job fair that we had, uh I we we surveyed a lot of the students, a lot of the companies, and it found out we found out that about 50 to 55 of our students were offered positions. And I when I say position, I don't mean just a job or just a summer job or anything like that. But again, all of our students here are struggle uh are um studying a specific program, something that they want to get into for a career. And these were businesses that offered um opportunities to to obviously get in at maybe an entry level, but a path laid forward for these students. So, like this is you know, you can you can make a life off of this. So we felt really good about it, and then the days went by after the job fair, and we we were a little disappointed to find out the results that out of the you know 50 to 55 or so students that were offered positions, only five accepted positions, and that really kind of made us do the same look there of just wondering what is going on here? Why could this possibly be? So um we started surveying our students then. I want to know, you know, what was causing the hesitancy in that. So um there's a few things that came up, but the number one reason that they came up with was that we kept hearing just on a uh returning basis, was the fact that there were students just unsure. They're like, we will maybe already have a job or I'm making a little bit of money doing something else or whatever, but they're like, I'm just not sure, you know, what exactly this would look like or what this would be like. And and a lot of their responses, we heard what sounded like in some version or another, maybe fear. They were just afraid of when push came to shove, would they would they jump on the opportunity? Because it suddenly everything seems so real to them. Um, so we saw very, very little results from that. Um, and and then you know the the definition of insanity, do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, right? So at the end of the year, we kind of regrouped and just looked at what we could do differently. And uh that was a few years ago, and that was the last, I would say, traditional job fair that we've hosted here at Millstream, just because again, we put a ton of effort into organizing and communicating and getting everybody prepared and just such limited success. So we've kind of gone back to the drawing board on that, doing things differently now.

Doug Jenkins 6:38

What's

Fear And Uncertainty Behind No-Shows

Doug Jenkins 6:39

interesting about that to me is you know, if you just take that at the surface value, somebody could apply that boilerplate. Well, kids just don't want to work anymore. And but you guys did the work and found out that's not it. There are just some hurdles to getting them into that place where, like, oh yeah, this is what I want to do.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Yeah, correct. So, like I said, definition of insanity, right? Do the same thing and expect different results. So we we said, let's go back to the drawing board and come up with you know, what else should we be doing then? If it's if it's uh fear or hesitancy or just you know, kind of the unknown that's keeping these students from taking these opportunities, and then we're not able to help our businesses, and that's what we want to do as well. You know, what can we do? So instead of doing these huge job fairs that we felt were like maybe 10 miles wide and only an inch deep, like how do we make more focused, small, um kind of micro experiences for our students? And and we got to try something different, you know, if we want to have some success. So that's what we started to do. Um, and

The One-Week Trial That Worked

SPEAKER_02 7:34

it was early the very next school year, I think back to um one of our local restaurants, it's actually the Hilton Garden Inn. They called us and they wanted to do that traditional, like, hey, we have a job opening, can we drop off some flyers and kind of those old school sort of mentality for things? And I said, Hey, let's try something different, you know, because uh we've been trying that and it hasn't been working well, so let's shake it up. So instead of uh instead of doing the the traditional stuff, I went into the students and I basically asked for free labor. I said, Who's willing to go uh work for free for a week? I sold it to them as though they're gonna get out of class for a little while, right? So we excused them from class.

Doug Jenkins 8:07

It's usually a good hook.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Yeah, I mean, uh right, exactly what every high school student wants. So uh got them out of class for a week and I drove them over to the the Hilton Garden, which is not too far from us here uh at Millstream, and uh just for one week they got to volunteer and it's it's like I said, free labor, got to work in the kitchen and meet the chef and see the environment. But what I found interesting was at the end of that week, we had five students do that, and it was it was about four or five days through that week. At the end of the opportunity, every student who was offered a job application accepted a job. And I thought, wow, like, well, why is that? So then I started talking to those students. I said, you know, last year I felt like I couldn't beg students to get a job, and and now you guys went and worked for free, and now you all seem interested in working there, and they simply said things like, We know what it's like now, we know who we'll be working with, we know what the environment's like. You know, we got to dip our toes in the water, and now we're ready to jump in. So we saw a little bit of success in that, and then we've been trying to build on that ever since.

Doug Jenkins 9:01

So that is a really cool concept, and like you said, maybe a little counterintuitive at first when you're saying, Hey, go do this for free. Uh but uh but certainly the results are there. And when you do it this way, though, that does put a little bit of an impetus on the business to make sure that when the kid comes in there, they're not just sitting there and watching. You want to get them involved. Are you able to provide any uh guides for that when you start working with a business there?

SPEAKER_02 9:28

Yeah, a

Better Employer Engagement Through Conversations

SPEAKER_02 9:29

little bit. Um, and it kind of goes back to things like soft skills, which I'm sure is are something that we've all heard. And a lot of times we hear it in the education setting of, you know, like, hey, uh the schools really have to be preparing these students with soft skills, but I also say businesses have to do it as well. It really goes both ways. And uh in the same way we try to get our students to dip their toe in the water before jumping in, we try to offer opportunities for our business partners to do that as well. Uh, you know, we're really lucky to have fantastic labs here at Millstream Career Center, and uh, we invite our advisory board members and our business partners into our labs as often as possible. Um, and actually, just last week uh we hosted a little event we call Job Toberfest, uh, trying to get some some companies in to uh do sort of a job fair, but different, uh, in that they had a short presentation and then they were able to come into the labs, you know, with alongside our teachers. So they got a little bit of that buffer zone in there. They've got a little bit of like nudging people the right direction and setting up conversations and things like that. But we we prepped our businesses by saying the best thing you can do right now is just have conversations with students. It's not necessarily like, hey, here's a job application, you know, let's go, let's go, let's go, and pressure them, but just get to know them. Um, you know, there's so much social media, there's so much branding and things out there, and that's great. But in the same sense, like our students, high school students nowadays, seem to want to know the face behind the business and the personalities behind the business. They want to understand, you know, who it is they're gonna be working with. So just that example, uh, that example we had last week with that uh little shakeup of a job fair of sorts, um, where the big part was just getting companies in here to talk to the students alongside our instructors, I think was a step in the right direction. We got a lot uh a lot of positive feedback from those business partners just saying, like, we love this model. They said the same thing about job fairs. They said we go attend job fairs and we're just handing out flyers and we hardly see any any juice from that squeeze, you know, but like, but here we just got to make connections with students. Students were asking for job applications, like we feel so much better about this moving forward. So so just things like that. Again, it's just taking a step and getting to know our students.

Doug Jenkins 11:27

I think uh it really hammers home something that we've learned through Hancock youth leadership here at the chamber is that when we have speakers come in to talk to kids on a session day, it's not quite as impactful as if we have them interacting, maybe working on an activity together, something like that. Boy, that really resonates. And then there's those conversations, and it's just the conversation part of it that I think we we just want to hand something and get an employee, or we we don't we skip that part. But as soon as those conversations start happening, a lot of cool things start happening beyond that. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Uh, and again, I I actually wrote down a few notes just in case from examples because I figured things like that would come up. But even even in the in the last week, um, the job fair opportunity that we had, uh, where it was just about building connections, we saw such growth in our students from early on the week to later in the week. Um, Garlock Brothers Construction here in Finley came in, and I kind of noticed that uh when when Jacob Garlock was in, he didn't even get to leave the classroom setting because by then the students just seemed to have so much more confidence in talking to the classroom. He didn't even get to leave, like they could just kind of bombarded him when he was done talking, and then it was just conversation, conversation. And by the end of the like 45 minutes or so, like it was just like they were old buddies talking, so it was great. A lot of our students I know had a really positive uh experience with that. But um, I and again, I wrote a whole list of things down. Uh just a few weeks ago, these city of Finley, their their uh computer services office actually reached out to us. They're looking to employ some some IT type students. And I again I said, hey, instead of doing the traditional thing, let's try something different. So we went out with a small group of students who were interested and did a tour, and then after that, uh a small group of students went and did a day-long hands-on job shadow. So again, they're getting the to dip that toe in the water, have that little bit of an experience, and then I survey the students when we come back and say, Hey, what'd you think? Like, oh, it was great. Like, I got to know what it was. Um, and then actually today they did phone interviews with that same group. So it's a little more hands-on, it's a little more, um, it's definitely slower paced on our end instead of the big shotgun method of job fairs, but it's worth it at the end of the day for us. Like, you know, there's the old adage that slow is smooth and smooth is fast kind of thing. So we'll move a little slower to go a little faster, and we're starting to see more proof

What Small Businesses Should Do First

SPEAKER_02 13:36

of that.

Doug Jenkins 13:36

So it's awesome to hear. Now, if if I'm a small business owner and and I'm I'm listening to this, and I think, all right, I've been trying to get uh employees in, I've been struggling with it. Maybe high school kids are the way to go. What are the things that I need to do on my end before I even start the outreach to try and maybe put together a job shadow program or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 13:57

I think that's a great question. Um, and more and more companies in our area, I'm noticing, are are focusing their efforts at younger and younger demographics. So again, here at Millstream with our students being juniors and seniors, uh, with my job title here as work-based learning liaison, we focus a lot of our efforts on seniors, but now we're having there's a local manufacturer that is preferring to hire junior students now at this point. So yeah, there's definitely a shift. Uh, but if I had to give some tips to a small business, the number the number one thing I would say just to get started is really ask yourself what is important to you as a small business. Um, you know, is there are there certain skill sets, certain certifications, uh degrees that are important to you? And ask yourself what sort of training do you offer on site? Because I I've been very lucky over my time here at Mill Street when we get to meet so many businesses. And oftentimes they're like, Yeah, we have these certain expectations or standards for our employees. And then I ask them about, well, what sort of training do you offer on site? And many times the companies will say, Oh, we offer so much training, like everything you ever need to learn to work here, we teach you. And I say, Well, why do you have these standards? And then because you're gonna teach them everything we know. So, number one, just know what are you what are you really looking for. Um, and another huge, huge thing I can say to any employer is be able to visually show a young student a career pathway moving forward for them. It's so easy to say um in unclear terms of like, oh, if you stick here, there's ways to to work your way up, but lay it out very visually. Again, I'm gonna I'm gonna throw out some uh a reference here that we have a great connection to the Reinekee family dealerships in town. They do a 10-week work study with our program. Our students get paid to go out there. Um, they get to again dip that toe in the water and it starts with a low pay, but then from there they say, hey, after this, you might be able to get part-time employment. After that, full-time employment. And once that full-time employment employment uh begins, they lay out a five-year plan of, hey, once you've done this, once you show mastery in this, your pay is gonna go up to this. Here's the next thing for you to work on once you hit that. So that's helping our students make much more informed decisions. Also, a huge key part of this is it helps inform parents, it helps the parents see this as a true pathway for you. You know, I'm a whole side conversation from this is you know, college versus straight to a workforce and apprenticeships, which I'm a huge advocate for. But all these different pathways provide something that is a visual uh aid to go off of of this is a path moving forward. This is how you get from A to B to C. Um, and then once you kind of have those basics figured out, ask yourself how can I create a short-term dip your toe in the water type of experience for young, uh, you know, the young demographic to get involved with because I think they want that connection. They want that personal connection. Um, and the way we've done it with many business partners is different. Some people, like I said, Reineke wants to do a 10-week experience. The Hilton, we did it for about one week. Um, the City Tech Department, we did it just for a day. So, just what works best for you, right? Um, we can be creative with that. So, those are some tips I would say just to get the ball rolling.

Doug Jenkins 16:53

I would imagine giving that dip your toe in the water exercise right is important. I can't imagine that uh over at the Hilton Garden in there, like, hey, whip up a souffle for us or something like that right away is more uh I don't want to say easy, but not something not uh intimidating.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

Right. Yeah, and it's just it's just a chance to get to to get to to see the students in action and also maybe put them in a bit of a situation where they'd have to ask for help. And you'll you'll quickly learn, you know, is this a student that is gonna ask or an employee that's gonna ask for help and um just see how they're gonna work well

Learning Opportunities And Second Chances

SPEAKER_02 17:25

with others? And I'd also like to point out, by the way, um not everything is perfect. I even wrote down uh you know, in a set of best practices, these are just better practices, I think. I I think that next year we'll we're gonna try to get a little bit better at it for all of our success stories we can share. There's certainly um, I wouldn't call them failures, but just learning opportunities. Um, I a student in particular I can think of that went and did one of these experiences kind of had a negative first experience. And it would have been very easy for that business or for us as a school to just kind of say, hey, this one's not working out, let's go on to the next student. But I applaud the businesses that worked with this student because instead they said, Hey, we'd like to do a follow-up with them. So we we set that up, they had a little conversation, here's what we can improve on. Then we set up another job interview for that person. Long story short, it took about four job interviews of slowly getting better with that student. And I'm so happy to say that since they've graduated, they're still employed and doing well and making good money, but it took a few of those kind of micro failures um to get to where they are. So be willing to roll with the punches, I guess.

Doug Jenkins 18:24

So that's excellent advice. And it's great that we have something like Millstream here to help facilitate not just the kids learning these skills, but also the relationship between the business community and the future of our workforce. So, Kyle, we really appreciate everything you're doing for the community over there. If uh

How To Partner With Millstream

Doug Jenkins 18:43

if I'm a business and want to learn more about maybe how I can get involved and becoming a partner in some of these, what's the best way to do that?

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Well, there's a lot of ways. Uh, well, first of all, all of our programs, we now have 17 programs starting next year at Millstream Career Center. Uh, all of our programs have advisory boards, and we're always looking for industry input. This is a great chance for our local business partners to share some insights to us. You know, how can we make changes or accommodations to our program to better serve them? So that's one thing. Reach out to Millstream about joining one of our advisory board programs. Again, all of our programs have one. Um, so that would be one way. Uh, number two, you can just email me directly. Um, is it okay if I share my contact information? Yeah, absolutely. My email is uh kwatts at mcc.center, or you could call my office 419-420-3353. Um, we do a lot of tours, even if you just want to learn more about Millstream, you can come on in. Uh, two of our programs are open to the public every day, our our culinary arts program, which is awesome. I think Doug, you just had a chance to do some stuff with our culinary program. That's right.

Doug Jenkins 19:41

We did for the small business awards. It was great. Yes, yeah, I saw that. So I joked about them just having to whip up a souffle, but when we were over there, uh we had Chad, who's the director of the culinary program there. We were like, hey, we just need you to play, just we need something on a plate for this video bit we're doing. And within 20 minutes, they had like some crunchy sushi burrito roll. Uh excellently played, it looked great like something you would see on the food network or something. I couldn't believe it. It tasted great. I I was really, really impressed. Yeah, he's he's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Our students in that program are awesome. I was about 20 pounds lighter last year, I think. My office is right by the kitchen, too, so not good for me. But uh they were doing street tacos today, actually. I heard they were pretty good. So some of our staff said they're I have to take a little uh nap this afternoon. But but no, as I say, our our cafe is open to the public. Swing in on Wednesdays and Thursdays, that's open for lunch. Also, we have a salon with our cosmetology program. They're open. Swing in, use our services, and uh uh ask for me. I'll happily share you around and show you around, give you a tour, and answer any questions. Meet our instructors, get to meet our students. That's what that's what we're all about. Uh, you know, we have four core values here, and one of them is making uh creating connections. So that's what that's what we want to do a

Chamber Support And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_02 20:51

lot of.

Doug Jenkins 20:51

So we're very fortunate to have Millstream here in the community. Kyle, thanks for your time today. Yeah, thanks for having me. I really like this approach and hope that more businesses in the area try it out. Obviously, there's a little bit more work that goes into setting something like this up. You need to have that effective job shadow or internship program, not even a long internship program, maybe something for a week even shorter than that. But doing it right once appears to be a big step in stabilizing and growing your workforce, so it's definitely worth investing the time. Chamber Amplified is a free podcast for the community thanks to the investment of members from the Finley and 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. 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 not only helps strengthen your business, but the community as a whole. That'll do it for this week's episode. If you have an idea for some topics you'd like to hear us cover in the future, just send me an email, djankins at finleyhancockchamber.com. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time on Chamber Amplified from the Finlay Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.