Order Reprints Follow @MiBiz
By Andrew Domino | MiBiz
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

You don’t have to go to an employer to find a job. Sometimes, you can bring the employer to you.

Michigan Works!, the workforce development program with its Kalamazoo-St. Joseph program based just south of downtown Kalamazoo, isn’t just for people looking for a paycheck. It offers services for those with management and other high-end skills too.

“One thing we hear a lot is, ‘I don’t want to leave here,’” said Robert Straits, director of the Kalamazoo-St. Joseph Michigan Works! service delivery area. “That becomes a selling tool for the community.”

Executives who want to stay in place then become lures for businesses to move into Kalamazoo County. Straits said Michigan Works! does see that situation occasionally, but most often, Michigan Works! helps potential employees work from the ground up.

The process is much the same at Michigan Works! as it is at community colleges and intermediate school districts: the first step is a career assessment, where people seeking work are interviewed about their interests, skills and personality traits. Then, it’s a matter of matching up people with jobs where they may fit, and offering training for those who might be able to find a position with a little more education.

The Kalamazoo-St. Joseph Michigan Works! office offers a “reality check” for some jobs too, Straits said. People interested in a particular kind of job need to understand what it includes – not just education, but hours, stress, pay and the like. Many people want to be rock stars or surgeons, but a lower-profile job is probably a better fit.

“Clerical office work and retail, they’re not the sexy jobs that have great growth, but they’re always there,” Straits said.

He said some of the industries seeking employees in the Kalamazoo area now are heavy manufacturing like millwrights and welders. Hospitals and medical device manufacturers are also looking for workers, though in some higher-end jobs, the problem is that the available workforce simply doesn’t have the technical training needed.

“There are a lot more people that need jobs than there are jobs available,” Straits said.

There are about 167,000 people considered part of the labor market in Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties. Some 15,000 are underemployed (working part-time when they could work full-time) or simply unemployed. That’s about 9.2 percent, the same as the national jobless rate.

While unemployment strikes people of all skill levels and experience, Michigan Works! has found its main niche in getting those who aren’t familiar with the job-hunting process actively looking. Michigan Careers in Transition steps in when a plant closes or a large group of workers is laid off from the same workplace. The Michigan Career and Technical Institute supports the disabled looking for work. Many applicants have a spotty work history, perhaps because of a criminal record, or haven’t been looking for years because they have been employed with the same company for the entire time, Straits said.

In June, the U.S. Department of Labor extended Michigan’s current Workforce Investment Act through 2012. The act oversees federal funds for use in the career assessment and job training programs offered through Michigan Works!.

One of the new tools the state is using to put people back to work is the Shifting Gears program, a four-month-long set of courses sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. that helps corporate professionals adapt to work in the world of small business. Aside from traditional job-hunting skills like identifying career goals and coaching, Shifting Gears also assigns a mentor to each participant, who can provide valuable networking contacts within the job seeker’s new field. It also requires an 80-hour, pro bono internship with a small business, giving participants insight into all the aspects of getting a start-up company off the ground. The Fall 2011 session of Shifting Gears starts in late September.

“Many highly skilled and experienced individuals across the state are struggling to negotiate the transition from the corporate world to the growing opportunities found in small business,” Amy Cell, MEDC senior VP of talent enhancement, said in a statement. “Shifting Gears retains critical talent in the state, provides small companies with key talent and provides assistance to needy start-ups that don’t have many options.”

MEDC offers job searching and resume development, but has a special focus on the employers. Its LiveWorkDetroit encourages job seekers to the state’s biggest city, and its MichAGAIN program sends staff nationwide to promote the state to employers.

Despite the specific programs intended to get people back to work, the strained economy is having an impact on the bottom line at Michigan Works!. Straits said the agency is facing a 10-percent reduction in funding come October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. He said the tactic now is to focus more narrowly on the core aspects of what Michigan Works! offers.

“The effort is to make sure the fundamentals are there – the Talent Bank,” Straits said, referring to the online catalog of job openings provided by Michigan Works!.

Employers can help by registering their job needs on the Talent Bank, or by offering ideas to the Michigan Works! advisory boards. They offer recommendations on what employers are looking for and how to improve the career guidance instruction that the agency provides.

“We do have vacancies, but don’t have people with the training for those areas,” Straits said. “We’re training people for the jobs that are out there.”