Wednesday, October
17, 2007
6:00 - 8:00 pm Networking Reception |
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Meet fellow practitioners, renew
old acquaintances, make new friends,
and decompress from the day’s
travel. Finally … a chance
to put faces with the voices on
those conference calls! Beverages
and hors d’oeuvres will be
served. |
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Thursday, October 18,
2007
8:30 - 9:30 am Breakfast
and Welcome
9:45 - 11:00 am Management
Workshops
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A. Getting Them to Follow (Part
1)
Alternative staffing routinely
requires staff to go above and
beyond for
customers and jobseekers, with
only modest financial rewards
for their
effort. In this dynamic session,
Scott Love will show you how
to incorporate meaning into employees’ day-to-day
work and build a cohesive team
that delivers from the heart.
When it
comes down to it, your staff
needs to see you as someone who
is worth
following. Learn the simple and
effective secrets of building
followers.
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B. Harnessing the Data: Three Systems
Approaches (Part 1)
Alternative staffing involves tracking
and evaluating a wide range of data
about the jobseekers and employer
customers you serve to effectively
manage business operations, measure
workers' employment outcomes, and
satisfy the diverse reporting requirements
of boards, funders and government
agencies. Senior managers from three
organizations engaged in social purpose
staffing (among other community services)
will report on their experiences
developing in-house systems for improved
data collection and management utility.
Panelists will share information
about the factors that drove them
to develop their own system, obstacles
that arose along the way, the capacity
gains and other benefits they’ve
realized, staff involvement and receptivity,
and costs to design and implement
the system. |
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The panel includes: |
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Charlie Chisholm,
Director of IT at Goodwill Industries
Suncoast and developer of Support
2020, recognized by InfoWorld as
one of the top 10 IT innovators of
2006; |
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Cordelia Hinton, Director
of Suncoast Business Solutions and
Goodwill Temporary Staffing in St.
Petersburg, Florida; |
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Jane Fischberg, Executive
Director of Rubicon Programs, Inc.,
which has developed a comprehensive
case management and program evaluation
database CICERO (Consumer Information
Collection, Entry and Reporting for
Organization); |
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Micah Perlin, President
of Susterra, Inc., designer of a
new, web-based system for Managed
Work Services of New York, to improve
their monitoring and analysis of
participant outcomes; and, |
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Mary Sprague, Vice President,
Managed Work Services of New York.
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11:00 - 11:15
am Break
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| 11:15
am - 12:30
pm Management Workshops |
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A. Getting Them to Follow (Part 2) |
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Now, a chance to
try the techniques introduced in
Part
1! Scott will lead group exercises
to help you apply what you’ve
learned and return to the office
ready and able to put this information
into practice. These exercises
will help you build unity in your
offices,
address your most pressing staff
problems and increase tenure.
|
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B. Harnessing the Data:
Three Systems Approaches (Part 2) |
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Panelists will demonstrate
the three systems introduced in Part
1, respond to your questions about
how they work, and discuss the processes
used to evaluate the systems and
add new programs and functionality
on an ongoing basis. |
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12:45 - 2:00
pm Lunch and Harborquest Presentation
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Harborquest, the
country’s
first nonprofit staffing service
formed to create employment opportunities
for disadvantaged residents, began
operating in 1970 as Just Jobs. Their
staying power through nearly four
decades of economic and political
change is testament to the flexibility
and resilience of the alternative
staffing model. Founder John Plunkett
will share highlights of Harborquest’s
course to the present day and strategies
they’ve used to remain a “port
in the storm” for Chicagoans
outside the mainstream economy.
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2:15 - 3:45
pm Sales Workshops
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A. How to Develop
and Sell to Key Clients
In this session, Scott Love will
present practical methods to help
you identify customers’ real
needs, get past gatekeepers to
schedule meetings with prospects,
and develop
rapport with key buyers. Overcoming
objections through Scott's unique
'affirbuttals', building empathy,
and selling with authenticity are
trademarks of Scott's sales approach.
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B. Customer
Retention: Capturing the “Voice” of
the Customer
Growing and sustaining your customer
base is vital to your success.
In this session, Eric Gregg, Managing
Partner of iLoyalty, Inc. will
focus
on the importance of developing
customer loyalty, and through loyalty,
actionable
steps to maintain and improve retention.
Eric will utilize staffing industry
data drawn from over 800 surveys
with human resource professionals
during the past 24 months, giving
real-world examples, easy-to-understand
steps, common mistakes, simple
suggestions and case studies. He’ll
review methods of obtaining customer
feedback
(surveys, focus groups, one-on-one
interviews) and their appropriateness
in different situations, and suggest
ways to build partner (vs. vendor)
relationships with customers.
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3:45 - 4:00
pm Break
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4:00 - 5:00
pm Sector Performance Survey
Results |
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The Alternative Staffing
Alliance will present the results
of our first
Annual Performance Survey, which
measures alternative staffing agencies’ basic
business and workforce characteristics,
employment outcomes and operating
results. The report will provide
operating benchmarks to help individual
agencies assess their own results
and offer insights about the scale
and impacts of the sector as a
whole.
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5:00 - 6:30
pm Open
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Take a break, then
meet us in the lobby at 6:30 to
head over to the
river …
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6:30 - 9:30
pm Chicago River Cruise |
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Welcome aboard the
M/V Sunliner! Relax and mingle
as we cruise along the Chicago
River,
enjoying the crisp autumn air and
close-up views of the city’s
spectacular architecture.Beer, wine and an informal dinner buffet will be provided.
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Friday, October 19,
2007
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8:00 – 9:00
am Breakfast and Workforce Alliance
Update
|
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Today we focus on policy
issues, beginning with an update
from Rachel Unruh of The Workforce
Alliance about their work relating
to TANF reform and Skills 2 Compete,
a campaign to expand lifetime education
and training options for all US workers.
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9:15 - 10:45
am The Competitive Impact of
Worker Exploitation
in the Temporary Staffing Industry
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In many large cities,
alternative staffing operators
compete with large “specialty” agencies
that recruit and place undocumented
workers, flouting labor laws regarding
overtime pay, safe practices, workers
compensation and fair treatment.
These practices perpetuate abuse
and suffering of undocumented immigrants,
deny employment to lower-skilled
citizens, and give the offending
staffing agencies a significant
cost and therefore competitive
advantage.
The issue is pervasive and complex,
and warrants serious attention.
Our
host member Harborquest, Inc.
has assembled an expert panel
to share diverse perspectives
on the industry, and help create
a framework
for the Alliance to consider
formulating a position and identify
potential
actions. We’ll hear from: |
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Dan Giloth, a seasoned
worker organizer and a founder of
San Lucas Workers’ Center; |
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Several local businesses
via video footage from Harborquest’s
focus groups; |
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William Schwartz,
vice president of Harborquest, who
has
extensive staffing service sales
experience; |
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Jed Untereker, a
partner in the Workers’ Law
Office; and, |
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Gordon Mayer, vice president/senior
trainer at the Community Media Workshop
(Invited). |
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Bernie Ryan, Harborquest’s
director of development, will moderate
the panel discussion.
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10:45 - 11:00
am Break
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11:00 am - Noon Leveling the Playing
Field – What
Role for the Alternative Staffing
Alliance?
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Building on the information
presented by the previous panel and
drawing from your own experiences,
we’ll brainstorm ideas about
positions and actions the Alliance
might take on legislative and policy
fronts to level the playing field.
We’ll also consider potential
partnerships we might pursue to help
address this issue. Using these ideas,
we’ll work to reach agreement
on a position statement and action
steps. |
12:15 - 1:30
pm Lunch and Wrap-up
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