Strength Based Workforce Development Strategies for Success with the Hard-to-Employ
Larry Robbin
Webinars That Transform Organizations * 45 Years of Training Experience * 100,000 People Trained * 300 Webinars * 1000 Clients
Larry Robbin 5-Part Series of Articles for the NAWDP Advantage Newsletter of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals.
This five-part article series from Larry Robbin is a series focusing on using strength-based approaches with people that are hard-to-employ. The articles will address assessment, removing barriers, job search strategies, job retention and getting better outcomes with referrals to supportive services. Find out more about Larry Robbin.?
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Article 4: To be released in May's NAWDP Advantage
Article 5: To be released in June's NAWDP Advantage
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Article 3 How to Help the Hard-to-Employ Keep Job Hunting and Avoid Getting Job Search Burnout so They Can Get the Job!
We often focus on motivational strategies that will help the hard-to-employ become more motivated to job hunt at the start of a job search, but typically very little attention has been placed on how to help them cope with the powerful forces of rejection and depression that can come with a long frustrating job search. If we don't have strategies to help people sustain job search motivation over the long haul to getting a job, many people will stop job hunting and give up on the goal of becoming employed. This article focuses on strategies designed to help people sustain their job search motivation so they can keep job hunting until they get a job offer.?
The first strategy you should use is to learn from people who have been in your program who face a long job search but found ways to sustain their job search motivation until they heard an employer say, "You got the job!" You should interview people that had a long, hard, and frustrating job search, but ended up getting a job. Find out how they sustained their motivation, get their advice about what you should say to people who are struggling with a long job search, and find out what your program needs to do to support people in a long job search. Here are some questions to ask these people.?
You had a long and very hard job search. Many people would have given up, but you kept going to get a job. How did you stay motivated to keep looking for work??
What would you say and what advice would you give to people who are in a long job search now to help them stay motivated??
Was there anything our program did to help you stay motivated and become successful in getting a job? The answer might be that you did it on your own or got help from other resources, but if there was anything the program did to help, what was it??
If you were starting an employment program for people that might be in for a long job search, what kind of services or things would you put into the program that would help people stay motivated through their long job search??
Take the time to learn the lessons from people with lived experience that did a long and difficult job search, and it will make your work much more effective!
Common Mindsets That Can Influence Ability to Sustain Employment Motivation
"No one will ever hire someone like me when they can hire people with better qualifications."
This is a very common mind set in people who are hard to employ, but it is a myth! The truth is that employers do no hire the person with the best qualifications. They hire the best job hunter! Being the most qualified and being the best job hunter are two very different things!
An individual can have a lot of skill, experience, education and other things that should help them get hired, but it they are not motivated to job hunt, if they don't job hunt for the right jobs, if they don't use the best job search strategies and if they don't interview well - they won't get hired and the person with less qualifications that does these things well will get hired over them. Employers don't hire the most qualified person. They hire the best job hunter! This is a very important thing for job seekers to understand!
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As you talk with job seekers about this mindset of thinking that no one will hire them, it is extremely important to balance that perspective with the acknowledgement of the reality that it will take some people longer to find a job because of their barriers, because of hiring discrimination and other factors, but this does not mean that getting a job is impossible.?
"The fact that I have (insert barrier to employment) means that no one will hire me." This is another common mindset among the hard to employ.?
When you hear this, you should empathize with the fact that this barrier or barriers will definitely make it more difficult for people to get hired and they will probably have to job hunt longer and harder than other people, but also give examples of people with more severe barriers to employment that have been hired. For example, someone with a history of being incarcerated will face a longer job search than people without this barrier. But their job search will probably be shorter than someone with a severe disability that requires them to use a wheelchair or someone who is blind. It is important that people with barriers to employment understand that the barrier will mean a longer job search, but it is also important for them to understand that there are barriers to employment some people face that will mean an even longer, but not necessarily impossible job search.
People need to appreciate the idea that what they focus their mind on, they make grow. If people focus their mind on getting a job, they will make the stress and pressure of job search grow and it will burn them out. Instead of focusing on getting a job, people should focus their mind on making an effort to get a job. These things sound similar, but they are very different. Focusing on the big picture of getting a job skips the small, but all important steps people need to take on a daily basis as they job hunt. Focusing on what people need to do to make an effort toward getting a job breaks down the big hurdle of thinking about getting a job into smaller and more doable steps.?
People should focus on making an effort to get a job and not on the outcome of getting a job. Ask your job seeker, what is one thing you will do after meeting with me that will help you get a job? What other things can you do today that will put you closer to getting a job? As people answer these questions and make these efforts, they will be building their pathway to getting a job! Help people focus on effort instead of outcome and they will get closer to getting the job offer!
Job Search Burnout
For many of the hard-to-employ, job search burout is the most powerful barrier to employment. Job search burnout happens when people feel that no matter what they do, they will never get a job. Job search burnout ends up with people giving up on job search. What causes job search burnout?
People doing a long job hunt feel that job hunting is useless. You can tell them otherwise, but what they need is proof that people like them can do a long job search and get hired. They need role models. Ask people who have sustained a long difficult job search and are now working if they will share their story with people that are struggling with a long job hunt.?
These sessions can be on Zoom, possibly in-person, or in a conference call. They can be one on one or a group. You should be in on the session to help facilitate it. Get a written release of information from people so you can support the conversation.
Help the person with the long job search develop some questions they want to ask in the conversation. After the conversation, talk about the lessons they learned and how these can be used to help them with their long job search. Leverage the power and words of wisdom of role models and it can help people sustain a long job search.
Jump Start Your Job Search Day!
Other people may need daily encouragement to sustain job search motivation. You can do it by running a Zoom, in person and/or conference call group called Jump Start Your Job Search Day. Jump Start Your Job Search Day is a 30 to 40 minute group held in the morning to help motivate people and infuse energy and support into their job search day. It should be high energy, surprising, fun, inspiring and informative. It can start with one or more interviews with people in job search, people that have a job offer and have not started work yet or employed people. There should be time for questions. There should be recognition of the job search efforts of various people.?
The group can include job leads, guest speakers, resource information, job search tips, employer input etc. It should feel like a transfusion of positive energy and ideas that will help to recharge people's job search efforts.?
Organize Job Search Teams
The isolation of the long haul job search is depressing. Social support can help people with sustaining their job search. Do Zoom calls where people talk about themselves and get to know each other. Encourage people to form Job Search Teams and/or you may help put together Job Search Teams.?
Job Search Teams meet on Zoom, in person or over the phone or through texting and provide support, job leads and other forms of encouragement to each other. While these meetings should eventually be job hunter led, in the beginning you can help facilitate them and provide ideas to make them work better.?
Diversifying Job Search Activities
A major factor in job search burnout is when people do the same things over and over again to job hunt. The repetition and lack of positive results will burn people out. People need to do a variety of things as part of their job search activities. The more varied the job search day, the more likely people will be able to stay motivated longer. People can have a list of things they will do for each day of the week. This will make job search more interesting and this variety of approaches may lead to better results. If you want to get a list of twenty job search activities that people can do, email [email protected].??
The information in this article comes from the Larry Robbin webinar "The Long Hard Path to Employment! How to Help the Hard-to-Employ Sustain Job Search Motivation to Get the Job!" This was one of the webinars in a 4-part series sponsored by NAWDP in 2023. For a description of the webinar, email [email protected].