Narrative: III. a. 2. D.

Identifying and Meeting the Needs of Business 

Missouri uses an integrated approach to service delivery for business customers. An emphasis is placed on products and services that assess candidate skills and provide for skills enhancement, resulting in better candidates for the business customer. Missouri has multiple initiatives to assess candidate skills, upgrade workplace skills, and connect businesses with job seekers.

Each local region has a business services team plan that guides outreach and services to businesses. Business services teams are made up of staff whose mission is to connect employers to a skilled workforce. To ensure an integrated service model, teams include business representatives from Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation (MVR), along with other core and combined state plan partners who connect with businesses. At a minimum, the members of the teams include business representatives and other Missouri Job Center (MJC) staff assigned to business services, Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVER), and MVR Business Outreach Specialists. The design and makeup of each team varies slightly from region to region and may include a variety of other partners who work with businesses, such as local economic developers, educational agencies, United Migrant Opportunity Services, Rehabilitation Services for the Blind Outreach Specialists, and Family Support Division Work Engagement Specialists.  

Business services teams meet on a regular basis to discuss, coordinate, and develop strategies to meet the specific needs of businesses in their local workforce region. These include the use of labor market information, involvement and coordination with local Chambers of Commerce, local educational agencies, local and state economic developers, regional planning commissions, human resource groups, and other business organizations. Each workforce region engages in sector planning to better address skills gaps and create career pathways.

Business services teams are demand-driven and strive to accommodate employer requests or provide referrals to resources that can meet their needs. This message is conveyed to all staff through the local Workforce Development Board (WDB) directors, business services team leaders, MJC leadership, and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) partner staff. Business services drives the products and services offered in the workforce system. Teams are aware of the business climate and current workforce needs of businesses in their regions. This allows the system to offer the appropriate products and services that will prepare job seekers to meet current demands. 

Each region’s employer outreach goals and procedures, as well as each partner’s specific procedures, are outlined in their respective business services plans. These plans are shared and coordinated with business services team staff and partner agencies. Missouri encourages a single point of contact system. Each regional team has developed protocols and procedures necessary to avoid duplication of efforts, which are outlined in their regional business outreach plans. Office of Workforce Development’s (OWD) case management system, MoJobs, is available to workforce system staff to document employer contacts and services provided.  

Through cross training and collaborative NEXUS meetings with outreach staff from all partners, the business services teams have an understanding of each agency’s business-focused programs and services. This allows staff to provide information on all relevant programs to business customers and to integrate and coordinate services among agencies. In addition, teams have identified common programs and services, such as on-the-job training, which can be marketed to employers.

OWD’s Employer Satisfaction Coordinator surveys employer customers and assess the effectiveness of services provided to businesses and provide feedback to workforce directors, business services teams, MJC staff, and partner agencies. This information can be utilized by all workforce system partners to identify issues and to better coordinate meeting businesses’ needs.

Missouri convened a WIOA Employer Engagement Committee, made up of staff from all combined partner agencies, local WDB directors, and the USDOL Office of Apprenticeship state director. This committee was established to provide guidance to regions, make recommendations to the WIOA Steering Committee and coordinate statewide meetings as needed to ensure continued partner collaboration.

The Missouri Office of Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning and OWD have formed the Missouri Apprenticeship Team (MAT). MAT team members are individuals who can dedicate their time to expanding the Registered Apprenticeship (RA) program in Missouri.

Team members consist of the following agencies and/or representatives:

• U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship Staff
• Apprenticeship Missouri Staff

• Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) - Registered Youth Apprenticeship Representative          
• Missouri Vocational Rehabilitation    
• Adult Education and Literacy (AEL)
• Urban League Workforce Development & Strategic Partnership               
• Community Colleges RA Specialists & Apprenticeship Outreach Directors              
• Local WDB RA Sponsors      
• Local Veterans’ Employment Representatives               
• Department of Corrections (DOC)
• DSS Work and Community Programs

Members of MAT are committed to tracking leads together, converting unregistered apprenticeships to registered, and identifying new RA opportunities and occupations. The team meets for monthly conference calls and quarterly face-to-face meetings. These actions ensure efforts to develop talent pipelines through RA are not carried out in isolation, thereby increasing efficiency, eliminating duplication, and reducing employer fatigue.

The Office of Apprenticeships and Work-Based Learning has formed an interagency council consisting of partners from Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, Department of Economic Development, DOC, MVR, Department of Social Services and DESE. The purpose of the council is to collaborate as stakeholders in the talent development of Missourians. The council will collaborate to coordinate apprenticeship expansion strategy and streamline services and policy in order to ensure optimal stewardship of resources.

Title II AEL hosts regional collaboration meetings with local program career services/transition staff and MVR Business Services staff to discuss citizen/employer needs and opportunities. The development of Integrated Education and Training (IET) programs throughout the state must have a foundation of local labor market information informed by the regional plan of the local WDB. AEL works directly with employers where possible to assist with skilling up current employees to progress within their career pathway. The success of these ventures relies upon WIOA partnerships and joint employer engagement.

The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) program helps meet the needs of employers through Community Action Agencies (CAA) and is the agencies’ core federal funding. CAAs are local private and public non-profit organizations that carry out the Community Action Program (CAP), which was founded by the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act to fight poverty by empowering the poor as part of the War on Poverty. CAAs regularly host job fairs to connect employers with a potential workforce. In addition, CAAs meet employers’ needs by skilling up participants through job readiness activities, supportive services, life skills training, and leadership classes. All activities of the CAAs are based on a Community Needs Assessment, which is conducted every three years. Employers and community-based organizations are engaged in this process through surveys and focus groups.

The Missouri Work Assistance program (MWA) partners with employers by providing subsidized employment opportunities in which the MWA contractor pays the participant’s wages for on-the-job training (OJT), which may lead to employment of a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participant. These programs allow the MWA contractor to act as the liaison between the participant and the employer and keeps the participant’s Individual Employment Plan (IEP) at the forefront. The MWA contractor has access to funds for the participant’s needs such as uniforms, steel-toed boots or car repairs. Subsidized employment allows the employer to train and determine if the participant meets their needs for the actual job. Feedback from the employer to the MWA contractors allow areas of needed improvement for the participant to be identified and conquered. OJT allows the employer to provide the hands-on-training needed for their business, making the program a win/win for all involved. In addition, as MWA moves forward in aligning TANF with WIOA, MWA contractors are required to use labor analysis reports to analyze workforce, labor supply and demand, and the regional occupational outlook of their assigned region(s) to ensure they are meeting the economic and employer demands of their region. MWA contractors are encouraged to use career pathways and to create and maintain partnerships with local employers to learn the in-demand jobs and skills needed for the current market. The TANF program encourages MWA contractors in these avenues by emphasizing a contractor's achievements based on quality of service and performance measures similar to WIOA. Examples of such measures include participants becoming employed with a defined career pathway and participants in OJT training or an apprenticeship.

SkillUP, Missouri’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) employment and training program, partners with the Missouri Community Action Network, Missouri Community College Association, and OWD to provide industry aligned training that will lead to family support employment and sustainability by offering short-term skills training or education. SkillUP serves the needs of employers with a skilled workforce for a multitude of industries through its partnerships.

Rehabilitation Services for the Blind (RSB) is currently engaged in a pilot project with MVR, Department of Mental Health (DMH), and Community Rehabilitation Programs (CRPs) to expand customized employment opportunities for Missourians with disabilities. This flexible process is an individualized approach to employment planning and job development for one person at a time, one employer at a time. Its design personalizes the employment relationship between a candidate and employer to meet the needs of both.

This pilot has agency representatives from MVR, RSB, DMH and contracted CRPs. Together the agencies trained vocational rehabilitation counselors and targeted case managers on key strategies, such as identifying and providing the right supports for a specific job. The agencies also trained CRP employment specialists on the goals and objectives for meeting client and employer needs including tactics such as customizing job descriptions based on unmet needs. This collaboration advances service coordination designed to meet current and future workforce needs.