With benefits that go far beyond a simple win-win for employer and employee, out into the Frederick County community at-large. “Our focus is more than helping people find jobs. It’s helping people prepare to access a career pathway that’s going to lead them to be self-sufficient."
"We’re here to connect local talent to local businesses through recruitment support to those businesses,” So says Patty McDonald, Program Manager, Business & Career Services at Frederick County Workforce Services. One of those local businesses Workforce Services has connected local talent to is Phoenix Mecano.
Workforce Services
“Workforce Services has brought candidates into Phoenix Mecano we may never have met otherwise, candidates who have become rising stars here,” offers Tara Julian, Human Resource Manager at Phoenix Mecano.
“I’ve worked with Patty and her team on so many levels. The Workforce Services-Phoenix Mecano connection has become a genuine partnership.”
Phoenix Mecano partnership
Workforce Services-Phoenix Mecano partnership has produced some rising stars at Phoenix Mecano
Frederick County Workforce Services is part of a larger network that endeavors to connect job seekers with job providers. Patty McDonald: “We’re one of the country’s American Job Centers. But while the bulk of our program is funded through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the county is, of course, an important stakeholder, as well.”
As mentioned, the Workforce Services-Phoenix Mecano partnership has produced some rising stars at Phoenix Mecano. One of those rising stars worked as an engineer in her home country and wanted to transition into similar work here in the U.S. She attended a logistics and production course at Frederick Community College, and then Frederick County Workforce Services got her into a transitional work experience for two months at Phoenix Mecano.
Frederick County Workplace Services
Again, Tara Julian: “By the time her internship was finished, we knew we really liked her. Now she’s working at Phoenix Mecano as a quality engineer, and she’s a real up-and-comer here."
"If it wasn’t for Frederick County Workplace Services—partnering first with Frederick Community College and then with us—we might never have come across her. I can’t stress enough what an amazing partnership this is, and businesses that don’t take advantage of it are missing out.”
Workforce development programs
This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to workforce growth programs
This is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to workforce development programs, i.e., training and coaching is all well and good, but they never really know a job until they’ve done it, even if only for a short time.
And that’s what the Phoenix Mecano connection provides—that essential worker-bridge from the preparatory phase to the occupational phase.
Needed training and experience
But it goes beyond that. They all know from experience that sometimes the hardest part of getting a job can be getting the attention of the hiring manager. They may have all the needed training and experience to do a job, but for all their efforts at reaching out they can’t get a response.
Because of the close connection between someone like Patty McDonald and Tara Julian—key people at either end of the hiring process, with a relationship forged over time and with successful placements—this often-substantial hurdle can turn out to be no hurdle at all.
This is Bigger Than the Both of Them
The successful placement has clear benefits for employer and employee, but added benefit for the employer outside
A successful placement, of course, has clear benefits for employer and employee, but there’s an added benefit for the employer outside of this simple, though critical, throughline. Tara Julian: “By getting people in the door who otherwise might not have gotten in, through a well-respected program like Frederick County Workforce Services, all our employees see we care about them and their development."
"That is, even if a Phoenix Mecano employee didn’t come in through this program, they get that we care enough to reach out into the community, to support locals with different backgrounds and abilities who are willing to work. It’s an overall morale booster.”
connections Workforce Services
Another positive knock-on effect of the connections Workforce Services makes, not just with Phoenix Mecano but with other companies in the area, is to bolster the reputation of Frederick County as a place to do business in, to set up shop in—secure in the knowledge that any new (or existing) business has a partner in local government willing and able to develop workforce talent.
Patty McDonald: “This aspect of the program is what really keeps us up at night. I’ve got two functional areas, but my largest is the business-services side: ensuring that as the county grows the businesses coming here have access to the talent they need. It all goes together.”
Cost reimbursements for training
Companies can get more support than they might think, including cost reimbursements for training that might be required to bring someone on board who isn’t 100% ready to do the job yet.
Again, Patty McDonald: “A company might tell me, we need this very specific skill set, and I can tell them our programming can support them to train the people they need up to the skill level they need. In short, there’s always a way to engage with our organization. We’re busy, but we still hear we’re Frederick County’s best kept secret. We don’t want that. We want businesses to know about us and use the resources we have.”
