Narrative: c.

The philosophy is to engage individuals to our services as quickly as possible, thus reducing the amount and duration of unemployment.  AJC operators, Business Services staff, and LWC Industry Sector Coordinators must recognize and engage in integrating user-friendly customer interfaces, continuous information updates, and coordinated outreach processes to effectively support job development in the industries, careers, and jobs that labor market research indicates participants are moving into. Unemployed job seekers and RESEA participants in addition to other identified Priority Populations should be offered as high-quality candidates for any job postings or for future staffing needs the participant is being prepared to fill.

Goals and Objectives

• Helping UI claimants and other unemployed job seekers, access the full range of on-line and in-person services delivered through American Job Centers.
• Job seekers have access 24 hours a day, 7 day a week through the HiRE platform to enter resumes, search for job openings, learn about careers, research training programs, research labor market data, and file for unemployment insurance.
• Wagner-Peyser and AJC staff focus on the same overall goal of helping individuals reach employment. Staff effectively respond to the needs of employers, job seekers and the community. The AJC’s provide a comprehensive labor exchange network serving as the connecting point for employers and job seekers. The AJC’s provide direct services or referrals for services through partner agencies to meet the individual’s needs and maintains strong relationships with partner agencies to maintain efficiency and avoid duplication of services.
• Ensure profiled claimants meet eligibility requirements such as searching for work and participating in reemployment services.
• Ensure that claimants are notified of all deadlines and eligibility requirements associated with the TAA program (including TRA, ATAA and RTAA), and that communication with case managers for TAA participants is seamless;
• Working with Rapid Response teams to provide services to employers and workers in mass layoff situations, and conducting claim filing activities when needed; and
• Undertaking strategies to promote entrepreneurship.

OWD’s Technical Assistance Unit and Management Information Service Unit continually evaluate the website’s usability and functionality to ensure all users are able to navigate this site. The unit also provides assistance to state and local staff through various methods including needs assessments, monitoring outcomes and updates and/or newly issued federal and state requirements. This process identifies knowledge/skills/attitudes (KSAs) gaps and learning objectives for:

1. Grants/programs
2. Service delivery
3. Internal (state) and external (local) processes and procedures
4. Accessing/using HiRE
5. Workforce Specialist roles & responsibilities), etc. Assistance is provided through statewide training webinars, conferences, workshops and meetings.

The RESEA program implements a strategy that increases employment, retention, and earnings of unemployment benefit recipients, and in doing so, improve the quality of the workforce to sustain economic growth, and enhance productivity and competitiveness.  In order to be successful LWC determined ways to:

1. Provide Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) participants job seekers with a more modern and effective roadmap for conducting their work search;
2. Ensure RESEA participants meet their responsibilities to actively seek work; and’
3. Maintain UI Program integrity.

RESEA has a strategic plan designed to provide for programmatic and process development in support of reemployment in the construct of “priority populations” including unemployment benefit claimants profiled “most likely to exhaust” benefits. Unemployment Insurance programs play a vital role in the comprehensive, integrated workforce system by providing temporary income support to eligible individuals, who are important individuals customers of the workforce system. These benefits allow unemployed workers to survive economically while engaging in work search activities for suitable work.

The RESEA program must be linked to local labor market needs, community services, and have a strong connection between academic and occupational learning in the context of returning unemployment beneficiaries to sustainable employment as quickly as possible.  The program may also include activities that promote personal growth, marketable skills development, and opportunities for measurable skills gains.

To support the efforts for increasing the state's Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR), the RESEA program will implement and require RESEA participants to apply for employment, during their scheduled appointment, at the 7th week of Reemployment service.  Implementing this process will ensure that all participants are adequately and sufficiently applying for work, as required by Unemployment Insurance benefits, to decrease the unemployment rate and put people back to work quickly.

In RESEA's “Integrated Service Delivery Process," there are three (3) tracks that any Job Seeker may take; these are the “Workforce Ready in a Demand Occupation”, “Workforce Ready (not in a Demand Occupation)” and “Case Management.” One of these tracks will apply to all job seekers regardless of their reason for entering staff assisted service, and that during the course of service assessments and re-evaluation the job seeker may move from one track to another.  All profiled RESEA participants unemployment beneficiaries who receive notification and who are required to attend services at an AJC shall be entered directly into the “Case Management” track.  Once they have been evaluated (comprehensive assessment) and afforded the full spectrum of available career intensive and training services (including supportive services) and become workforce ready, they may then be moved to one of the “Workforce Ready” tracks.

All unemployment beneficiaries who enter an American Job Center, for service regardless of reason (profiled with a letter, or voluntary), shall be assessed and placed on the appropriate service track.  These services shall be delivered in the context of case management and within the Pathway for Reemployment Framework.  A comprehensive assessment is vital to collecting information on a participant’s barriers to employment, employment goals, knowledge, skills and abilities, and proficiency in occupational knowledge.  The assessment must be participant centered in evaluating participant needs without regard to services or training program availability; the purpose being not to match the participant to what is available, rather to determine the participant’s need. Case management of RESEA participants/unemployed individuals requires a regular follow-up and review or revision of the IEP, until such time as the participant becomes workforce ready or enters a training program.  In either case follow-up is critical, using the 30, 60, and 90-day cycle until employed or training is complete.