KRA’s Baltimore City workforce-development program, funded by the Department of Social Services, supports area businesses by providing trained and reliable workers, prepared through comprehensive work-participation activities, including Community Work Experience training opportunities, and intensive job-readiness workshops.
Ernestine Chambers, Operations Manager, reports, “For some workforce-services programs, job-placement is the end-goal, but for KRA/Baltimore, employment for our customers is only one objective to be achieved toward our ultimate goal—job-retention that will lead to career advancement.
After our Job Development Specialists have secured the opportunities with the employers, to ensure that employment is maintained, our Career Advancement Team provides post-placement case management and retention-support services, up to 6 months. This ‘tag-team’ approach has resulted in an 85% job-retention goal for 660+ customers!”
Business Services customers value KRA/Baltimore’s employee-retention services, as reducing staff turnover presents major savings, when compared to the actual time-and-money cost of advertising and recruiting, interviewing, background-checking, and orientation and training of replacement staff.
Job-retention for Career Services customers actually begins with motivational events that celebrate their employment—a “first” for many TCA-recipients—and continues with regular e-mail, phone, and/or SoMe-site communications with an assigned Career Advancement Team member. Also, multiple home visits and job-site interactions reinforce both technical and ‘soft’ skills development; discipline, ethics, and professionalism; and effective techniques for resolving workplace concerns that might become obstacles to sustained employment and advancement.
“Our job-retention program is a prime example of why KRA is recognized in our industry for the innovative solutions, exceptional service, and trusted results we provide for our valued employer- and jobseeker customers.”
Dr. Boone’s 20+ years’ experience in the industry is extensive and her expertise in private-, public-, and non-profit sector workforce-services organizations is unparalleled, particularly in the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan area.
