Event ID: 2351888Event Started: 8/13/2014 1:48:05 PM ET

Please stand by for realtime captions.

Good afternoon. This is worrying with -- or Raymond with University of Texas UMT WISE and you are here with us this afternoon to listen to our webinar presentation on building business partnership to increase employment opportunities and with us today is our guest speaker Howard Green but before I introduce Howard I would like to make sure that everybody has their equipment on and is operational and we see quite a few people are signing on as it is turning one o'clock. So just to make sure that you cannot hear us okay, please go down into your control panel box and where you see the question box, go ahead and write a note in their to me. Hello Eddie and Sheila and Michael. You already did great. Thank you so much. So yes. We have got some more people coming on and thing yes that they can hear them so that is a good sign that you have got your speakers on and you are functional. We have got quite a few more people coming in. That is good. As you are going through the presentation today come as usual, you will want to use that question box to also send us any of your comments and if you have questions while Howard Green is providing his presentation, go ahead and write those in the question box and I will put those up and share them with him as the presentation goes on. Today's presentation is from one o'clock until 2:30 PM and it is an hour and a half. As you know, we will be offering this credit for the session as well as the [ Indiscernible ] and you must have registered to receive the credit and if you're listening to the webinar by telephone and not logged on by computer, please e-mail us your name before the close of the session. That UMT e-mail address is UMT WISE at UN team UMT e-mail address is UMTWISE@UNteam.edu. So it is UMT --.edu. So that is how you can communicate with us and you can also -- if you have questions and want to submit them to the e-mail that is another way for us to pick those up.

Server. All right. Kathleen is on. Gwendolyn. And Audrey. Great. We have got quite a few people signed in and go ahead and use that question box for your comments. Howard Green joined the national organization on disability in October 2010 as a Deputy Director of corporate program. Before going to the national organization of disability, Howard served as a faculty member it for the Commonwealth University for over 12 years and he also served as the director of employment services. He has done an incredible job -- amount of training and in fact I met Howard Green here in Texas. During -- training that happened during the 90s. So he is quite familiar with Texas and its landscape and its challenges as well as the surrounding states in Texas where we might have some additional people joining us meant.

Howard holds a Masters degree in rebill -- rehabilitation counseling and has published quite a bit and businesses and employment with people with digital -- disabilities. So Howard, what have you got to share with us for the next hour to have.

Thank you Noreen. I really appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this webcast your today and hello to everybody from that very sunny and very mild are Virginia so I have spent some time in Texas and -- jacket -- back in Dallas so I am excited to be back in Texas.

Today's webinar is called building business relationships to increase employment opportunities and it is all about relations. You will talk -- you'll probably get tired hearing me talk about relationships for the next hour and a half but I would just say that it is all about relationships. If we are going to get more people hired, it requires that type of a connection. Relationship really exist -- a relationship exists with two entities and on the supply side, which most of you -- probably all of you from the community relevant Dick Dart rehabilitation programs to the demand-side so having that type of relationship will foster I think more employment opportunities and we will talk about that today and some things that we have been doing in NOD and some of the things that I was doing at VCU and hopefully you will enjoy some of the activities and some of the things that we talked about.

First I wanted to just tell you a little bit about NOD. I am trying to move my screen. It will not allow me. Noreen, can you?

Yeah. You should -- try clicking return and see if that goes.

[ Pause ]

That is not living. It was moving before we started but now it is not.

[ Laughter ]

It froze up on us. Yeah. We will just reboot it and see if we can get it to --

I think I have got it.

Okay.

All right. So NOD -- we are a nonprofit with our focus all on employment. The lady in the middle there is Carol Glazier the president of NOD and over 30 some years we have been involved with a lot of advocacy issues and about six years ago, our board which is our corporate board was chaired by our ask Governor. of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge and we have corporate people from Lowes and from Sodexo and from a number of -- financial institutions like giant Eagle which is a large supermarket and Prudential, Sam's Club, and they decided to focus on employment.

So over the last six years we have been focusing in on programs that are helping businesses to try to figure out how to hire more people with disabilities and it looks like him -- customers come to us for our visit which we will talk about later thing that they need help and that they need us to help them with that and we have also run some [ Indiscernible ] programs actually when we started in Denver and Dallas and North Carolina and then Pittsburgh and return most of those over to a local provider so the one that we operated in Dallas was turned over to a local provider there.

I'd like to find out -- how many of the folks and maybe you can just write to Noreen -- how many people can be with the Department of Labor regulations for federal contractors? If you can kind of indicate to Noreen whether you are or are not. How many of you are -- this is a piece of

legislation that I think is going to change the landscape of people -- hiring people with disabilities.

I often say that things in the last few years have changed mainly because of [ Indiscernible ] Lewis who used to be that Vice President of Walgreens and I'm sure that no -- most of you know about Walgreens. You have one distribution center there in Texas but as you know, they have hired 1000 people in the distribution centers over the last five years. They intend to expand that.

Other than Randy doing it to -- the new regulations are coming out of the federal contractors which the key pieces of the regulation that you will see on the slide is that now the federal contractors -- if they have $50,000 more for the contracts, they have to send a goal -- set a goal of trying to get 70% of that workforce for people with disabilities and there are companies that have only 100 or less -- the 70% is across the hundred and encompasses [ Indiscernible ] more than that then they have to have 70% of each of those job categories and it is a goal. It is not a quota.

Employees will be sending gold higher to people -- with disabilities and others. What -- that is one key piece and the other is measuring document progress. They are required to track the document and what they do is [ Indiscernible -- low volume ] asking people to disclose their disability of front during the application process where now it is only done at the time of higher when the people get to choose where they want to set it up and [ Indiscernible -- low volume ] accommodations. Mainly asking people to do it up front which I think will be a big issue of whether people who actually disclose their disability and have that turn out but we are finding companies who are looking to do more culture change or be more attracted to people with disabilities looking at their policies and procedures and their website and [ Indiscernible ] this ability friendly and encouraging people to say that we are disability from a and we do want to hire people.

The last is the analysis part. Each year they have to analyze -- they have to track him and people with disabilities are applying and how many people are being interviewed and how many people are getting jobs and why not if they are not getting them? And they are also looking at who they are establishing relationships within the community and are those partners helping them to secure people and if they are not, what are they doing to change that?

We will talk about it a little bit more later but the opportunity is really for you to look at your area and where you have federal contractors in your area. For example all banks are federal contractors and all universities are federal contractors and then there are many other people. It is not only the contractors but the subcontractors and contractors have to comply. So I think this is going to change the landscape tremendously. This all went to regulation -- this regulation went into effect on March ready force of the companies have action plans depending on what the date is -- the anniversary date was March of 2015 they probably all will have to be new APs and new goal setting for people to [ Indiscernible ] of veterans.

We do have a couple of comments and one of them was that they heard about the contracting and the employment first meeting. Or presentation. Then the other -- it was actually a question and I think you first answered it by identifying the kinds of employers. Because Robert wants to know how many federal contractors are in Houston or how do I find out?

That is a good question, Robert. I do not -- you can go to -- you can Google [ Indiscernible ] and L IJs or investor liaison groups and these chapters are all made up of federal contractors in your area so you can get a feel for that and there is a link and I will have to get it to you later I think were you can go and find out in your state or your community if there are federal contractors and I will try to provide that to Noreen sent -- so you can have that later after the webinar.

But again, Google -- ILG -- you will see what there are reasonable -- groups and local groups and I am a member -- but I attended the ILG group here in Richmond. They look for resources because the OFCCP office come in to talk to them and they look to their rehabilitation programs and the communities and the unique thing is they are going to be looking for different partners that can help them source candidates and it depends on the type of jobs that they are doing and it also depends on the type of their subcontractors.

So we will talk more about getting to know that business and how to figure that out. But again, this is slide 3. It just kind of highlights more about the 7% and the data it collection that they have got to keep and what they will do to analyze their success. They will be looking for good partners so if you could be a good business part and [ Indiscernible ] good relationships, it will be a good thing.

Why is disability hiring critical and so from a business standpoint, them it really reflects kind of these four billets. -- Bullets. One of the is social -- corporate responsibility. A number of companies where disability hiring is a key department and one of the things that you should do is find the diversity plan and does that plan include disability? So that is a critical part. Also just like Walgreens and Lowes and a number of other companies, many employees are showing successes and so other companies are seeing that -- yes. People with disabilities can work in all types of positions and all types of levels.

So they are seeing the success and they want to get involved with that so -- involves -- they are hearing about it and reading about it and seeing it and as you explain about it, they want to get involved. The other is a 503 regulations. I think employers are going to be pushed to come to that 7% and I do not think that OFCCP is going to come in after one year and say that they will find them if they do not have 7% but they said that they are going to look at the federal contractors and say, what are you getting -- doing to get to the 7%? For example have you established relationship with partners in the communities and established with a local community program? Are using job coaches to help with the training?

Are you training your hire managers? Do have partnerships with local community programs? That is going to be what they look at. If they do not have -- that is when they will get fined or they will say you need to have a new plan to make that work. Last come aging into the workgroups. Many people -- the baby boomers and more and more people will agent to disability where it will require accommodations to continue to work so it is a big issue for businesses to accommodate people as they get older.

I have a couple of stories right here of some people but first is what do you think of this list of accomplishments? And I can easily put of people who may be you do not work with it people with these types of accommodations and may be do or maybe do not but you can put just about

anybody who has a resume. But this gentleman actually had a bachelors degree and a master's degree and he has a lot of certifications.

He has had a number and list of candidates -- he has had a number of interviews and at least several hundred and he has had -- has applied for several hundred and have had at least 100 interviews and not a single job offer.

He will tell you that he thinks that the lack of exposure to disability programs from the business side. It is a lack of internal structure of the business and tends beyond the initial interview and I think that is where you come in in a lot of your work is helping people to overcome some of that. Outside of the [ Indiscernible ] groups is able to help it. We have been involved from an OD because -- his name was given to me by a career counselor at records University to see if we could help him find a job or help him point him in the right direction and we are still working in the federal government jobs to try to keep in in and he struggles because he needs to make enough money to pay for his personal [ Indiscernible ] and attendance and we are still trying.

I can also tell you that there is another candidate -- a young woman who -- she had probably -- she had a Masters degree in communications. She was a person of stored stature and had no arms and once again she was very pretty and have a lot of good features as far as in her credentials and spoke well and a wonderful voice. And actually I used her as a vocational speaker but she went years without a job.

Finally she did land one and she landed it because she went into the desk to speak to the hiring manager and he came out and [ Indiscernible ] and how could she work and she did not have any [ Indiscernible ] and so once she saw that, and he was amazed by it and wanted to know how did she even move forward and she suggested that they taught a rehabilitation counselor who could get the rehab into the unit to redesign the workstation and she worked there for two years. But I tell that story because it took a man to laugh at her to get a job.

And a lot of times as you know, people could not see the value of able with disabilities, no matter what the disability is. All they see is the disability specialist -- especially if it is visual and [ Indiscernible ] trying to move forward with that. I am sure you have many examples of candidates that you have worked with that people have looked first and see the disability and do not see the value that they bring to the job and you face that every day I'm sure.

The whole thing today -- talking about building relationships. The reason I guess you all get up every day to go to work and I have done this for years -- we really are looking at two customers. I like to refer to it as supply and demand. You can look at it from people with disabilities in business. Whatever. But actually, we have two customers that we need to share and that is the people with disabilities and we are trying to help them gain successful employment opportunities on a daily basis.

The second customer is the demand side. It assists the business and trying to have -- hire people with disabilities. You have to manage both of those. You do not forget about the people that use are but you do -- do not put all of your emphasis on that. We are still driven by I think a one-sided coin here with our service providers. We are so instilled and trained to work with the person with disabilities, which we should have and should give great quality services but we are

so attached to that that we often forget that our outcomes is employment and we do not address the business and so I am suggesting to you today that one of the things that you might want to think about is to come at your business development from a demand-side approach rather than just from a supply-side.

So rather than just marketing to disabilities or people with disabilities, look at the business needs and how can you help them? With resources that you can bring as well as [ Indiscernible ] to bring. It is a big piece. The next slide will kind of highlight some of this. Bs are actual comments that we have received over the last couple of years for businesses and this is just a short list. Whether these are people sitting around our an OD corporate board table talking or businesses that I need that say we want to hire people but we are having issues and then just look at these.

I went to hire workers with disabilities and [ Indiscernible ] took too long to find any candidates. I wish I had a real community partner who understood my need and wanted to meet my objectives and not theirs. It seems my company has to go looking for partners in the community. And it is confusing. It would be nice to work with one organization that would manage this for us and you will hear me talking about a critical piece is project management today.

You can reduce. I do not read -- need to read them to you but I guess the last one is that I will say we hear a lot people saying when do I start? And I need help navigating the system. Meaning the rehabilitation system. They find it very daunting trying to do this. I will tell you a story -- I was in a conference in Chicago just a mother took again -- ago and I was with a business conference and there were three -- there were actually two businesses who had actually started initially to hire people with disabilities and there was a peer to peer group and there were probably 10 companies that came in to talk to these two companies and asked them questions about how they did it and what steps did they go through and what with the challenges?

So the question came up -- what was your biggest challenge? And the two companies who had done this both said that we really thought the biggest challenge would be having people with disabilities in our facilities. Or businesses. Because they really work. They really -- can they really do the jobs? He said that that was the easy part. Once they got them income whether they have a job coach or did not have a job coach, they immersed themselves and the business and that was not a problem.

The biggest problem that they had was finding a good local community program to help them and some will tell you that they have gone to two were three or four groups before they found someone who is willing to help the business. Not just place one or two people. Especially the business once it grows and this company -- one particular company had 180 employees and they wanted to get to 10% of their workforce being people with disabilities. They actually connected to a job coach organization and they had been able to actually fill 16 positions so they had two short of the 10%.

We will grow that. Over the years. So what they're looking for is having someone to help them grow it and not to do -- what happens is -- I do not know if your organization's exactly how many people you serve and how many you have available to work but I would venture to say probably that if companies wanted to hire a number of people, you probably -- you as an individual organization would not have enough talent pool to maybe Jill the jobs depending on

the skill sets of the jobs and the numbers. You might. But eventually if you wanted to grow that you would run out of people I think.

So the idea is you have to network back to the people to make that happen and that is what a lot of times we do not do very well on the supply-side is work together to help the business find the pipeline because they do not really care about all of this [ Indiscernible ]. They wanted people. These are some of the reasons what we call operate a business model and I will talk about this later.

We do have a question.

Okay.

It has to do with the number 4. Yes. It is on working together. And the question is, if we do not have the talent, then what do we do?

That is an excellent question. Because we do not have the talent, we have to find people -- first you have to be willing to tell the business -- you are going to say that I want a relationship with you and one of the questions that they will ask you -- if you do not have the talent, can you help me find it? You have to be committed to say -- either you do or you do not and a lot of people say that I am sorry but I do not. I cannot do that.

Other business -- other local community [ Indiscernible ] will said, this is a real opportunity. You want to grow your business and hire people? I will find a way to do this so they will go out and work with other providers of the community or they will work with other programs in the community and if you are funded by the DR system or the DB system and getting funding for your job coaching, they will go and find folks to bring on for the [ Indiscernible ] caseloads new clients and referred to them or they will work with another organization to have them fill that position.

But the time to get them it. What businesses do not like to do is -- they do not want to work with six different organizations. They prefer one that they can work with and it is okay if you -- you are the primary partner with that relationship. You bring on maybe another provider or two to the [ Indiscernible -- low volume ] depending on the funding structure to get that person hired but if something goes wrong, they are going to come back to you to solve the problem.

I have had people call and say that the job coach is not working out here. What do I do? Do I fire the candidate? No. We talk to the people about changing the job [ Indiscernible ] and what are the issues that we can do to solve the problem. But the assurance of that is go out and build a network of other providers who are willing to come together and try to supply that business with the talent.

You are familiar with the Walgreens example and [ Indiscernible ] and South Carolina which is a very small community. Out of 750 employees in that distribution center, about 300 are people with disabilities. Not one organization had 300 people. They had to come together as a group to do that so it really takes a lot of community work and someone to step up and be the leader and to say that I will bring everybody and we will help you find it.

So you need to network with other providers is my answer or go find people [ Indiscernible ] with disabilities and put them back on the rolls to get them into work. I hope that answers the question.

It sounds good.

Thanks.

So going back to doing business in [ Indiscernible ] and I was just reading [ Indiscernible ] out of Maryland and Richelieu good who has been around this business for many years and a member does a lot of work with business development. He enjoys -- had just done a report in a study looking at what businesses want and what service providers do and what that -- it was done in the last couple of years but it also had not changed from what the study did about 15 years ago.

The whole way of doing business or what I call the job placement model is one person and one job. Do not get me wrong. Because I do know that a lot of people who really need jobs and the description for them and things like that so we have to kind of really look at that. But however we fill at every position and every candidate get a job, we are [ Indiscernible ]. So one question -- one person and one job. I think the other expectation is the candidate. I think we in our own business have low expectations.

Our businesses say -- we actually have higher expectations of our candidates once we hire them then what the service provider did when they brought them to us. They are so narrowly focused or they want -- do not want to change things in they are on the team but we need to try new and different things. Let's try them here and let's try them there. So you should expand your ex vacations. The third bullet is not willing to manage the relationships. And I guess going back to the gentleman that already asked the question about if you do not have people, where do you go?

The cruelties is that the business -- are you willing to help him manage that relationship of building a disability hiring program and how do you go about that if your organization and also -- bringing other people to work with that? So that is one critical piece and I understand all of the issues around that because the funding peas -- the size of the organization. But it is a piece that is critical if you are going to develop good relationships and keep going in one placement at a business. Businesses who really want to grow and becoming an organization who is going to hire people with disabilities -- we have to figure out a way to do that.

And then not tracking the right information. I think actually some providers do better than others but when you get someone working, are you tracking their production? Are you helping the business to track their success? Or their Access rates? I know the businesses will check it but are you tracking it so that when you go to other businesses you will have a database and a tracking system to tell the company that you worked with company X and they had 10 people there and we have worked this long and we retained and their production started at this and -- and within three weeks it went to this because those businesses are going to have some type of production standards that they have to get to over a certain length of time that you are going to have to document and show and if you have a way to track that as you get -- begin to have calls with the business and meetings with the business to look at the particular program or people you have

there, it is going to be impressive if you are able to community take to them right up front that you have got 10 people right here and this is where they stand right now.

So that idea of tracking more than just the person is working were making were tracking the success as far as the rate of learning and the production and the issues that they might have. Some of the concerns that you have in the business as -- as far as their staff and training. And values and things like that. It is critical.

If you look at that little chart up on the right, you can see cashier, loader, analyst. A lot of times we will put our candidates into one person drops to the bottom of that tunnel and we then concentrate on getting that personal -- person a job and [ Indiscernible ] before anything else and if you flip that over, doing the business the new way is it is much different. It is where you have actually all of the businesses at the top and you have relationship with 10 different businesses so that people with disabilities -- you can place them anywhere.

If you have lots of relationships that [ Indiscernible ] that you have worked programs with certain businesses then you can put them in a number of different slots. So the idea of developing businesses and having lots of relationships is what you want to have and that will allow you to put lots of people with disabilities and you will not have to go searching for the [ Indiscernible ] of business each time you have a candidate. So it is critical that you become -- you see the employer as a customer.

When I say see them as a customer, at the idea is -- what are their needs? Go back to that flight about what the business expects and one of the things that you have seen is that people come to us and [ Indiscernible ] interested in their needs. [ Indiscernible ] a job rather than first looking at what the employers needs are and having you -- figure out who do have? What are your services? To meet their needs to become more disability friendly and more disability hiring and things like that.

Once you identify that culture and that business needs , that put a strategy in place to me that. Develop a workplan. One of the things that we do in our corporate is that when we have a business engagement, one of the first things we do is when we walk the plans, walk the business , know the culture and give that this is what we call 100 -- so do not be shy once you see a business and give it a plan of operation that [ Indiscernible ]. Maintain the networks with the business.

What I mean by that is you do not want to -- if you are placing either two or three or four people, you want to have it constant communication process. Where you look at the business every couple of weeks going back to that management system and someone being in charge to talk to them about what is going on and you cannot wait three months.

This whole model of one person and one job versus [ Indiscernible ] of developing relationships in many businesses where you can place lots of people into many businesses is something we need to move towards.

The next slide just kind of shows you the two models side-by-side. That we need to look at. And work towards. I hope that is understandable. I do not know if you have questions about that and I

hope it makes sense to you from a one to one placement to kind of billing the businesses to create a relationship that you can have with what is existing in the committee.

The question that does come up is the question on disclosure. And dealing with disclosure issues. How do we market the person with the disability? How do we market ourselves as the company?

When you talk about disclosure, you are talking about -- if you are talking about disclosing who you are versus disclosing the person with the disability, if you are the -- good wills or if you are the ark or whatever provider -- you do not need a car just talking about [ Indiscernible ] disabilities, you have already disclosed going in so there is nothing illegal on [ Indiscernible ] to go in and market your program as working with people with disabilities.

Because NAB -- actually that is what the federal government is asking you to do and they want to set up partnerships with programs like you. You cannot go in and say Howard Green has [ Indiscernible ] or Howard Green has autism or Howard Green has this so you cannot go in and target but you can talk in generalities that you are working with a labor pool who has challenges and maybe have different abilities.

Which brain from autism to down syndrome to cerebral palsy. You cannot just say that Howard Green has herbal policy. So you market yourself as far as with that -- with the organization but you are really marketing to help them build out a program with diversity and disability to help them to have a different [ Indiscernible ] and I think that that is where you go. So it is okay to disclose who you work for and it is okay to disclose if you have candidates with disability. It is not okay to single out and say that this person has this. Does that help?

We will see. We will see if we get more comments but yes. I think it does frame it a little bit better.

Okay.

And the discussion of disclosure.

Now, you know disclosure -- while we are on that. That is something that companies are going to be asking people to do more of. Like I talked to earlier, they are going to survey -- they are being asked to survey all of their employees to determine upfront how many people will self disclose and so they know how many people they have working for them who have a discipline of -- disability and then when they apply, they will give them an opportunity to disclose and if you are working on a particular program that is listed like a Walgreens or Lomax or whoever -- I am going to hire 10 people or I want to hire 20 people or I want to grow this to be 100 people.

As you begin to partner , they are -- they know what that you are getting disclosure and they may not know what it is but it is disclosure and then again, if the person does not work there, they do not have to go in and tell able anything. So they are not disclosing that. But they are going to ask people to do it and it is still an individual decision but if I want to sign some documents that says I have a disability. The rest of it is getting a job and just being a successful worker.

And so there was -- the next question I guess -- it has to do with the comment regarding hiring 10 people in the workplace. How do we keep this an individual placement?

I am not sure -- well, I am not sure I understand the question. If you are talking about whether it is a group model versus individual model -- we are talking about individual placements. I am not talking about and on playing or a work crew were that person is still on the roles of the provider. I'm talking about individuals who are a part of the employer. So for example, we often talk to employers about -- they want to start this. They want to grow it and they talk about being a crawl, walk Carron so ideally -- you set up a plan to say let's start with say three or four or five. Whatever makes sense to them based on their needs and their hiring things.

Once we get that in, when is the next time that they are going to hire people? Can you set a target that every time you hire 10 people , can two of them be people with disabilities? That is what Lomax did in their dissertation centers and every time they had class they committed to having a certain number of those of people with disabilities and the part that they use inexperience he -- [ Indiscernible ] responsible for bringing those individuals with talent who had disabilities and it did not matter what the disability was but it just mattered if they were able to do the work and if they needed a job coach so that was provided so I am not talking about group models but I am talking about individual placements so you start with two, three, four and then you build from that.

The gentleman -- the man that had 16 in his company and he started with I think two and he went to four. And then over a period of 10 months he he was able to get to that 16. So it is gradually bringing people on and again, it -- the company has positions. They are not creating positions. They are adding to the existing workforce based on their own needs, whether it is growing or people are losing their jobs or people that left the jobs and they need to hire on so it is not trying to create a job.

Let me -- while I said that, I hear a lot of people in the community on the program side want to -- and I understand this -- they want to come in first and talk to a company about job for [ Indiscernible ] and doing things like that. I would suggest to you that that is not the first thing you do with an organization. What I have found is that companies who start developing a hiring practice, they need to keep their same standards and what Randy Lewis will tell [ Indiscernible ] tell people and we share this -- is that you do not change the what but you might have to change the how.

So if you do not lower your standards, you do not change or systems, you do not make it different for a lot of people. However, once the companies start hiring people in the business, they become much more flexible and understanding about doing things like job carving or changing positions or being more accommodating or doing different things to have more people to come and be more flexible hours or maybe flexible part-time or sharing jobs.

But if you go in right up front, they do not really understand that so the idea is -- if they are interested in building out a program, start with what they want to do and then as they getting, you will find them to be more accommodating in helping you to accommodate other people that might have special needs and in which we probably customize our job carving or what have you. So the next slide is know what you need and know what you offer -- what you can offer.

These are two side-by-side and the main side is the supply-side. If you are working with the business -- these are some things that you might want to know. You will see this in a couple of the other slides as well. But just upfront here, do they have a diversity plan? Does it include disability? If they have a disability program and if someone sends the [ Indiscernible ] is very champions had that company who is championing this disability hiring or are they interested in getting [ Indiscernible ]?

Do they only set targets to hire? If not, will they set them? Do they have an accommodation policy? Do they offer training and disability to their employees? Every engagement that we have had with companies before we even started engagement with a local provider or a rehab program -- we want the company to do training. We want to train their leadership and in some cases train all of their hourly workers and all of their workers.

Do they have a community partner to help them with sourcing positions? Who is it and how it is working -- isn't working? Do they track things like production and retention and cost of higher? Which is important to them. But on the flipside, we work with businesses and again, they have lots of vendor relationships with different vendors in the community or for their products. So you are like another vendor to them. So a lot of times they do not know what to ask or what exactly you do or things like that.

So we have been helping businesses understand the supply-side and suggesting to them that when you come knocking on their door, they might want to ask you questions. Like you see here. Do you have a plan? That accounts for addressing the business needs? Do you have a database? That you are going to use to track. Do you offer disability awareness training for businesses? Do you assign a business manager or a project manager or a liaison or whatever you want to call it to that business? Are you able to do that?

Do you have resources and infrastructure beyond the organizations that you can go back on this pipeline that you can call upon to help them with the business? I can tell you that -- I cannot tell you the number of companies who have told me that they have had people come and knock on the door and say that we want to be a partner and we want to help you hire people with disabilities and they say okay. I need three people to do this and this and this and then they never heard from the organization again.

Or they will say, they want to help them but they really cannot. So these are pipeline candidates and their needs to be a [ Indiscernible ] of the business and their specific needs so you will probably -- especially the federal contractors -- or rather than -- you'll have them asking questions but I would kind of suggest that you do not -- do not wait for that. Go -- be prepared and going with a plan to talk about some of the things that you offer like these and that you can agree to do. If you can agree to do that. Or if you have the passion to do it or the passion to work with somebody else to do it.

Be upfront and I think you will [ Indiscernible -- static ] you can before they ever ask you. But that is a good way to develop a relationship. My slides are frozen again.

Oh know.

[ Indiscernible -- static ] back

This next slide is the employees need to set expectations and we began to talk a little bit but [ Indiscernible -- static ] vendors. From a couple business people that they would tell you support employee organization that you need to [ Indiscernible -- static ] of vendor up that business owners are beginning to see this. They even might ask you to sign a contract or to sign and MOU or something that is going to [ Indiscernible -- static ] and responsibilities -- roles and responsibilities to engage with the business because what we do is we are a third-party. We are working with the business and coming to a community to try to find out who is the best -- some of the best providers in the community and give the employees a report card and there seems to be a [ Indiscernible ] hard to work with everybody else and then there is a roles and responsibilities of what is the business do and what is the [ Indiscernible ] to and what does the provider or partner do?

They are frequently wants to make sure that you are on-site. They are there to answer them and the idea is that you want to make sure that you have got job groups already with some businesses that require a lot of security and you are going to make sure that they have their badges and walk in and out of their business there like every other employee. They have Access to that so they do not have to go to security every time they come in.

Going back to they are expecting people to have the same standards and same expectations and same timelines. They are expecting people to be just like the other employees. Sometimes they might ask you to sign a nondisclosure agreement. What that means is that you do not go -- if you see something going on in the business and you are not going to run and tell a newspaper if you did not like what they did, you are not going to [ Indiscernible ] -- you will often sign a nondisclosure because it allows us to get in and understand the business needs and the culture and what goes on in that business and then they will be able to share some of their policies with you and what is going on.

Most times it is usually a bigger business so you would need you to do that.

Deliver what you said. If you cannot fix it or make the correct recommendations. They are looking for people be more accountable and especially with the federal contractors they are going to -- as we said earlier there were to have to every year analyzed their relationships with people like you and how is that relationship? Hasn't been productive? Are they getting enough candidates? Are they getting enough support from you? If they are not, then OSC appears come in and to get a new partner so they are going to expect more especially as federal contractors as you begin to work with them on that over the [ Indiscernible ] of years.

One question that popped up on there is that most members get paid. Do we just tell them that we are free?

[ Laughter ]

That is true. They are being paid sometimes. So a lot of -- this is a free unless they are willing to pay you. I have seen some providers there where the business will pay the job coach but most of

the time the programs are going in from being paid for by government money where there has been the DB side or the rehab site. But in some cases, you might find on and it ongoing relationship that if they want more than what is going to happen they might be willing to pay for it so that is something that you can negotiate with the business. Back depending on how many people and what their structure is and things like that. So there is nothing wrong with that.

If you are -- most of the people already have funding that they use but if that money dries up, there is nothing wrong with saying that if you are going to be my partner, it might cost you. So that is something on the table that you want to negotiate with the business.

Okay. And then the other question is, the job seekers that I have worked with have basic job after skills. They are specialized graduates with interventional -- intellectual development of disabilities and I do not have anyone with degrees.

So what businesses do I target?

Well, it most of the engagements that we have worked out in the an OD -- where we have had [ Indiscernible -- static ]

Powered come -- Howard -- your audio just went out.

[ Indiscernible -- static ]

Powered? -- Howard? Your audio just went out. Did everybody lose Howard? Send me your -- on the question but -- Howard Green.

I can hear you.

All right. Your audio seems to have gone out.

Okay.

Can they hear me?

I am not sure if they could.

Can someone -- if you could all right yes in the box, that would be great.

He is breaking in and out so you are breaking in and out and we can hear you now pretty well.

Okay. I understand that most of probably the people on the phone and the webinar are probably dealing with the same types of individuals of people surrounded by people with intellectual disabilities and low skill sets and the type of positions. Actually the engagements an OD has worked in the last year have actually been in warehousing and manufacturing positions. Some call centers.

But mainly in the warehousing. Like the Walgreens this division center. We have helped Lowes and Kroger and Toys R Us so there are all of those types of jobs with most of them requiring people who need job coaching services were people that have intellectual disabilities or people who have Asperger's or people that are somewhere on the Spector them of autism. They are making good employees.

So I would suggest -- looking at -- since distribution centers are really -- there is a lot of them around the country and I am sure you have a lot in your area. Start with that maybe. Start with looking at those types because they are going to have a number of positions. And I know that -- a lot of folks probably go to retail -- folks like the Walmarts or the Walgreens retail or the Dollar tree and food service like McDonald's and Hardys and things like that.

But I would try to venture out because the distribution center is going to give you or the warehousing or some manufacturing jobs are going to give you people with higher wages and better benefits and things like that.

So that is where I am going to target -- in your population. It would be in those particular areas. I hope everybody heard me.

Yes. That came in well. Thank you.

Did it frees up on you again?

[ Laughter ]

For some reason.

[ Pause ]

It is trying to -- I think --

While Howard is going to the next slide, I just want to remind all of our listeners that you have all been sending in some great questions then please send in any comments or other questions that you may have. I would really like to share them. We do have another 40 min. so -- we have a good amount of time and this will be a great opportunity for discussions. Especially if you -- I think that we had planned on setting aside at least the last 15 min. for people to just ask questions. So if you all have any questions or have any comments about what you are doing now, and you are Mark -- in your marketing plans or relationship building with businesses -- that would be a good time to share that with how word and get some feedback.

It looks like he got it going so I will let you pick it up.

I will be glad if you want to to just take a second and see what else they have before we move forward. I want to make sure that I answer -- that people heard the answer to the question about warehousing and production type jobs.

We did get one comment and the comment is that I live in a suburban area and the closest warehouse is about 15 miles away. So --

Well, I do not know. Depending on -- is 15 miles too far for people to get their? Is the transportation? I was just with Starbucks in York Pennsylvania at their distribution roasting plant and they had actually talked to the city of the suburb area that had the transportation reach out to Starbucks and drop people off right in front of the plant. So my suggestion would be even if it is -- I am sure the transportation is an issue that she is talking about. That may be you can -- there is some other way to get people there and if it [ Indiscernible ] NF interest -- have the business to work that out to get people there.

I think you want to look in your community and find out what is the type of jobs that you have and where they are located and are any of them in manufacturing or warehousing production type jobs over and above some of the things like the retail side and like the food service piece? Because again that is going to give you a better income and it is going to give more benefits and it will give probably more flexibility than some of the others.

Okay. A similar comment -- I live in a market in a very rural East Texas area and a lot of the businesses are mom and pop shops -- how do you suggest I market to these employers?

I do not think marketing is any different from when is a small business or a mom-and-pop to a large business. I think the first thing you do is establish a relationship and find out what their needs are and mom and pop are going to be a lot different because you are talking about probably a family business -- three or four people and things like that. Do they have any future needs and kind of turnover? So the mom and pops are a little different but if you have a smaller business anywhere from 10 or 50 or 100 -- I do not think it changes much. You have still got to go in and establish a relationship with that person and understand -- what is it that they do? What is it that they need? What is it that -- what is the culture like? What is the business? And show an understanding of what they are first and then see how you might be able to help them with whatever the type of skills that they require and what you can do.

Maybe the smaller ones -- you can be more persuasive about looking at the types of jobs and things that you can offset with one position. I do not think you are going to get lots of people higher there because they are small but the approach is not any different. I still think you have to -- they are business people and they will understand that they have got to make a living and they understand that if you have got someone who can be loyal and who can be productive and who can stay with them -- they are going to appreciate that. But I do not think the approach changes. The approach -- you will see and the slide at when we get to it today -- it is that most of us in the supply side going in trying to sell our clients.

Our person. What business will tell you -- business people will say, do not sell your clients. Sell your program. So first find out what they need is and then try to sell your program or what you do to help the business. Then they are able to hire the client. So I do not think the approach changes where you are or rural or urban or suburban. The approach to businesses are the same in trying to build that relationship. I do think that there are things we can do it like the next slide about changing our language and making sure that we are talking to businesses about -- we are

not a service provider but an employment agency and we talk about retention services and we talk about vendor and sourcing agencies.

To talk about candidates with skills and not persons with disabilities. We do not talk about clients. We talk about candidates and applicants. In your research, trying to figure out what they call people. Some people call them candidates and some people call them associates and some people call them partners. In businesses. So finding out what the languages and being able to talk their language. I do think a lot of research is needed before you go out and so it just requires people to be more structured and have a plan and really start turning from -- read -- [ Indiscernible ] language to a businesslike which.

Howard, actually on that side we had a good question and a lengthy question from -- in fact there are two or three questions in here so I will read the whole thing and then maybe you can help.

Okay.

Sort it out.

All right.

What advice would you give on how to first initiate contact with an employer to inform them on what you do? And how can you get the employer to be more interested in what you do in order to give you more consideration in what you are asking from them? Are there any tips you have on how to go about that contact as well as follow-up with the employer so that it will in fact turn out into a good relationship with future hiring for one and possibly more hires in the future?

[ Laughter ]

Great question.

They are great questions. Let me see if I can remember all of that.

The first part is how to just initiate contact with the employer.

Well, I think -- still -- you need to develop and I have a couple of slides over here. That might address that. I have got an elevator speech and this one says identify -- again, I cannot tell you what slide number it is but is identifying the employer target this first of so it is identifying people that you want to reach. So it is researching that and then determining what they do. And understanding their business. So I think you can do it in several ways but once you have that information then I think you need to call or you go by and you try to set up a time to meet with them.

Rather than do a cold -- a cold call, I would try to do a face-to-face meeting or make a phone call to set up a meeting and you have other people that you know who know them, to try to get them to initiate ahead of time. Get them to do an introduction for you. Let them call you. So if you already work with a business and you know someone at your church or you know that they know

somebody else. Let them make the introduction for you. If not, then just do it yourself and follow it or by going by and trying to establish a meeting with folks.

It does require some face-to-face but it also requires research. I think -- go back to the elevator speech. Which is -- what is it? How do you crafted? It is to have an introduction that creates a business image and not a social service image. Does it reflect what you do and why they should work with you? Does it say that you work with other companies? Does it -- doesn't talk about that -- or other business partnerships? Is show how you are unique and you are willing to partner with people and doesn't talk about next steps and follow-up like you want to do a tour and you want to -- first thing is to try to figure out what their needs are.

There is kind of a sample -- good morning I am so and so and I work for a local [ Indiscernible ] comedy. We are staffing companies by the way. Our job is to help people come into employment and we are employment agencies. So it is okay to say that I am the local staff. So -- but I think you have to develop a list. Rather than go willy-nilly down the road, I think you have to figure out your community -- community and who is there and who are the contact people and then how is the best way to do that?

If you do not get in -- if you make the phone call, then figure out is there someone that I know that can do this [ Indiscernible ] and other employer. I do not know how many of you go to local society of resource management meetings or [ Indiscernible ] has and I OG group. Or if you -- your chambers -- I often suggest that the local Sherm groups are the best because that is where the resource people kind of gather. They are wonderful opportunities to network and to figure out who the -- best possible contact is in a business and you get them to do that for you.

I would even suggest that you might want to invite several companies and to talk to your staff. That is a way to just get to know them and your community. Not in an attempt to hire people but just if you are having staff meetings with the organization or staff meetings with your job coaches -- have each one invite a business and just to say -- can you talk to us -- about your business? What do you do? It is an easier way to network rather than going out and doing a cold call and setting it up and you get to know them first by thing that you and I are communicating and we would like to find out more about you and we would also like to suck -- share more about ourselves and what our organization does.

So I can tell you -- some of the businesses that we have dealt with and we hooked them up with a partner who serves a number of people disabilities and one of the things that they would like to do is that once they get comfortable their they want to go over and look at different programs and if there is not have them people are just in the community but they like to see what other jobs that they do and what other businesses are you working with? Can you give us references on the businesses?

So I think you have to come up with a list and you have to kind of segment that based on the candidate of who you have and who is the right [ Indiscernible ] and the right organizations. But I think coming at it from a business approach and coming out from a [ Indiscernible ] that I need to understand your needs and also usually other people to help get in the door is what I suggest.

Is that helpful?

I think so. I think that that is the idea of developing the good relationships and I think -- part of the question was -- how can you get the employer to be interested in what you do in order to give you more consideration in what you are asking from them?

Well, I think that is a good question too and again, is the country -- again, depending on the size of the company, what -- to they already value diversity? You know? Are they a federal contractor? Is there a need for them to do this? Or are they looking for labor? Are they having turnover issues? Are they having a stable workforce? Or do they see this as something they want to do? You know? To get a good workforce.

People are still leery that people [ Indiscernible ] -- people with disabilities 1 cannot work and two will have more accidents and three will cost them more but once they have the experience -- I think you have to show them by either an example from these other companies and documents that and to send them a video of it -- you will not to training with a company that is going to start this and the training that managers -- they are very skeptical until they see the [ Indiscernible ] take the same people who have down syndrome and have -- people who have autism and people who have all of these disabilities -- but they are able to work and be productive.

Once they see it, they seem to have a better feel for that and they say oh -- this is how it works. I think seeing is believing and get something in front of them. That will entice them. But figure what is the [ Indiscernible ]? What is they are paying for? Is it something that they have got to do because of the regulations or something that they want to do or is it something that other companies have suggested that they have done and it has been beneficial so where are they? It is going to require somebody to research a little bit to find that out. But that is what I would do.

Again, understand that people are still [ Indiscernible ] for that in a lot of companies are trying to change their culture and trying to get more -- become more disability friendly. Again, this depends on the jobs and the location and things like that. But I do think that more and more companies are moving in this direction because they are hearing about it from their counterparts. We go to a lot of business -- what we call retail industrial liaison and the work comp and the work and resource Council and these are the VPs in the managers and the [ Indiscernible ] managers come and they hear from other companies that want to do this and they go back and they want to start something.

So I think [ Indiscernible ] the dual locality is -- are there places you can go now if they belong to the chamber or to be Qantas club or whatever and show a video working and things like that? And kind of get on the [ Indiscernible -- static ] to demonstrate what other companies are coming -- doing to create that interest. Also it is find out whether people -- a lot of people get involved with this because they have family members that have disability or they know somebody so part of the research is finding out -- are there people -- you might know someone in the business or a family who has a disability that is kind of a leader there?

[ Pause ]

I do think wherever you go that [ Indiscernible ] will take a tour and do a home site visit is a critical piece to get to know the business. Anymore questions?

Not on that particular topic. Another question did come up about self-employment. And the question is, does the federal standards work for people with disabilities who own a business and can become a contractor for a company?

Well, I think that's not part of the 503 regulations but I think it is part of a company who is trying to comply -- and they are looking at what is called supply diversity and so they are -- they are already looking at minorities owned businesses so I think that you will find a lot of companies are saying that part of our deal here is we are giving our business from a supplier side or vendor side to a self-employed person with a disability. So that would be one of the things that they report out but is not a part of the 7% of actual hires because they do not actually -- they are not an employee at the company.

[ Indiscernible -- multiple speakers ]

And this question is actually for me. The federal government actually has a disability as one of the criteria for historically -- underutilized businesses. Correct? Or do you know that?

Does the federal government --

Yeah.

The way that is worded, I am not sure. Under the small business administration, I think there is still [ Indiscernible ] -- category just like a woman minorities business -- a woman owned business and I think disability owned businesses part of that. Part of that group that they do look at in the small business administration. If you are a small business, are you certified or are you registered? I know that the United States leadership network does [ Indiscernible ] in some states and they are looking to grow their supply diversity group where people are being certified to be businesses where companies can reach out.

They do not have a certification and the businesses do not -- [ Indiscernible -- static ] with them and they go through the process and getting more people on that list so the companies have never had a contract and some people -- some companies are making good use of that and I think Wellpoint which is in the health industry insurance and they are doing quite a bit with individual disabilities who are self-employed. I can tell you what but I just heard that last week at the Isle to conference that they are using that. So supply diversity is a piece but I do not know from this particular thing about [ Indiscernible ] relationships with businesses that can support it right now.

Okay. And one other comment we did get is that we are not your typical employment business. We prescreen and job match and keep A's case load of 3 to 6 months and then we follow-up with the employer to make the employee is working out to the employers satisfaction and our mission is to have job stability. Just a thought.

I am not sure -- is that a question or a comment?

I think it is just a comment in terms of how their -- how they perceive their business and the quality of follow-up is is is is -- the prescreening and job matching as well as the follow-up.

I think all of that is a critical piece but again, if you -- the business you have is on -- the need of that business is only hiring one person and you are doing the follow-up for three or four month and the idea is [ Indiscernible ] for employment candidate that you would want to be following up at least monthly or twice a month and we know this by the federal guidelines. If they are not a supporting candidate team through [ Indiscernible ] system then I guess whatever capacity you have. But if you have enough people in the company, you are going to have job coaches in their following up so [ Indiscernible ] type of support and it is not so much on-the-job support with the person but just understanding the business and interacting with that business person to continue growing. If you start with four -- or three or even one -- what -- when are they going to need to hide the next person? When is the opening going to come along? Can you get your person into the application process?

Again, it should be a part of their ongoing hiring demands. Every time you hire, they are looking for you to give them a new candidate. So I understand that you maybe have a time-limited piece but the idea is that you are working a business -- you are trying to help them understand what their needs are so that when they are hiring, you want to be a part of that and then that relationship is critical for you to know when they are hiring it and know that you give them a good service and knowing on -- knowing that the following that you have done with the one or two people has been successful and they are going to look to you to do that. I have seen small companies up in Michigan -- which is a manufacturing company -- they make Windows and doors. They have about 40 people and about eight or nine of those people have various disabilities from either cerebral palsy or blind or Down's -- down syndrome or autism.

He will tell you that every time he is looking to hire someone else, whether it is -- if he is looking back to the provider to help him because he is getting solid candidates who have long-term retention and good quality and good production from that organization. So he is looking back and they have job coaches there whether they are finished or just coming back to be supportive or new things as well and there is a whole new revolving door for that provider and that is a small business of only about -- when I first met them they only had 30 and now -- last year I talk to them and they have about 45 people and they have grown but he still has eight or 10 people with disabilities and they are looking to increase that.

If he has the need.

Okay. We actually have another question that is a little bit different and it is in regards to wages. Are there any issues about wages? Do employers ask for sub minimum wage certificates?

Well, not the businesses that I am working with. Actually what we find is that businesses do not like that. They will actually have come -- have people come into them to talk about whether they want enclaves or they should give their business to a workshop and that is what most business they -- it is not our value and not our culture. We want to hire people on our payroll to do our work. We have found a lot of companies and I will say that two or three that I have worked with this year -- they were using a staffing company to on board people. They have found that onboarding [ Indiscernible ] was really much better and so they had reduced their sourcing through the [ Indiscernible ] company and started only onboarding through this supported employment provider.

But they do not -- they pay people the same wages. It is the same job and same wages. It is not different. We get asked that question a lot. Are they paying them less? No. They are paying them the same amount and most of the business I think who are credible businesses are going to have that value that they are going to pay people the same thing. But they expect the same thing. So you have got to get people to production standards that they want or to a point where they can be successful.

But no. Not dropping the salary. And I have seen it -- several different businesses.

And I think you have already answered this maybe once -- maybe just to bring it up again and make sure that everybody -- the question is in reference to the federal requirement and I guess that is the 503 requirement for businesses, they are required to have a certain number of individuals with disabilities hired and you have any suggestions on how to identify or research with those companies or businesses are -- should be?

Again, I think we can cover it a little that they the idea is I can send you a link to get back to the [ Indiscernible ] that there is a link that you can get don't you can figure out in your state and your County who are federal counter -- contractors but if they're getting any kind of federal money -- so banks are all federal contractors and hospitals are usually federal contractors and universities are federal contractors and maybe people are subcontractors of businesses.

But you would go to -- what we call the ILG meetings down in [ Indiscernible ] ILG in your state into with the chapters are and in your area you could [ Indiscernible ] from there who might be on that list but I will get a link I think were you can go on to your state and find the [ Indiscernible ] contractors are.

Okay. Thank you.

And what I do -- a lot of times I was unaware -- Starbucks -- they are a federal contract -- I just asked. Are you a federal contractor? And again, if they know -- what part of the company you are in, they might not know if they are [ Indiscernible ]. But most of them will know. If they work with the federal government.

Okay.

We have what? About 15 min.?

Yes Sir.

I am going to skip over a couple of things and I'm going to assume that most people can see my slides and I'm going to go over what not to do and what to do -- don't ask employers to change their jobs. You can ask them to change the habit -- the how but not the what. When I say the how -- it is actually how that person performs and they use the job coaching can we do it in a different way and things like that.

We tell people that there our many ways to get to the wide and it does not look the same. And then do not try to sell them skills or talents that they do not need. And do not say that it is not my job. Especially if they want to hire people -- where do you find it? I realize that some people are saying that we own the are getting paid to do this and I have heard it. I have had job coaches tell me and rehabilitation counselors tell me -- I want to get paid to find one person a job at a time.

And if that is the view that we take, we will never have business relationships. The view should be that I get paid to get people work and only went -- the only way to do that is to build business relationships and help them to be able to hire people. Do not get too involved in the rehab system. [ Indiscernible ] -- I have had businesses -- they hear things like my funding agency wanted me to do this and I can only figure 2 weeks and so our system will not do this.

They do not understand all of this. They do not understand the blended funding or this. The idea is that you do not want to -- what you want to do is -- do you have a need to hire people in one of the jobs and [ Indiscernible ] to understand your needs and how can we help you get good labor? And if you are able to bring that to them with quality people and good job coaching services, and quality of work, it will change itself.

So what should you do? Get to the business. And understand the needs and education level and the background checks and the training that they do and where is the [ Indiscernible ]? The thing that we seem to be very helpful is to one -- to have the job coach and the family members and the candidates all take towards before they [ Indiscernible ] to work so they get a good feel for the business. Is the [ Indiscernible ] how flexible that businesses to make changes.

Underpromise and over deliver. Do not promise too much but overdeliver when you do that. Develop a database. If you do not have a database and I have a couple of slides and hear later that we might not get one -- you need to develop one. And a tracking system and be accountable to the business. Do not be shy about asking any help with other companies. If you are [ Indiscernible ] than others -- the reason that we get jobs -- we have engagement with businesses and we have businesses talk to other businesses. We will then present with a business in a conference and someone will hear us talk with this business and they will come and say that I want this business.

Maybe you have a local gathering -- whether it is again a club meeting or the Aquinas or [ Indiscernible ] or whatever you go to -- or a sure meeting or some type of business meeting -- offer to present with one of your successful business customers. And get involved that way. But again, it is all business trigger. So some of the questions that you might want to look at -- where they located? Issued that you can kind of fell out. If you have a database, maybe you can use this relation to Bilger date -- database.

These are things you want to know. The business tells us the best way to be approached is to understand the [ Indiscernible ] and at least -- these are three businesses that I have asked and -- and business people I have asked him is questions what is the [ Indiscernible -- static ] to approach these on the first person said understand the business. The second one says connect with local managers and make employment to explain their programs that is [ Indiscernible ] and the other one is -- the third business says never make a cold call.

Have a [ Indiscernible ] with a clear purpose with the first visit. So those are the best ways to approach. What do they expect from service providers? The first business is becoming a business partner. Understand my business. And second is learn my needs and look for creative solutions to help me but I also believe you are [ Indiscernible ] to do the work. And the third business is demonstrate that you know about a combination of how to work with individuals with disabilities.

Businesses do not have that expertise so they are looking for you to share with them -- how does this all work? And how does this -- how can you help people? What is an accommodation? So that you can be prepared to say -- how -- or demonstrate how it can work. There are some ways -- the communication [ Indiscernible ] in there with some what social media and so much things there is that you can e-mail a link with a short video so if you have got people already working in -- again, I will tell you that seeing is believing.

So if you are trying to attract a new business that is maybe say -- can you take a look at this link? That is on YouTube or do a YouTube thing about your organization and people you have got working. Or some success stories and vignettes from businesses talking about your program. Send a one page fax she. People do not want to read long -- I do not think brochures aren't hitting it and do something short and sweet and something that employers can see and actually again if you can really show it to them -- that would be beneficial.

Showing the business benefits. I know you probably have looked at doing employee plans or submitting a plan to [ Indiscernible ] work. But once you have researched -- develop a plan for the person and like I said we use a [ Indiscernible ] plan and we are going to come in and take a tour and we are going to understand your needs and we are going to [ Indiscernible ] job coach to actually work the jobs for a couple of days and then we are going to then screen these candidates and bring you the first five and then we are going to be here for the next six-month and every two weeks meeting with her staff and make sure that it is working out.

And then become a part of the business. Develop ways to stay connected even when the business is not hiring so even if you have 2 of five people -- what you do to stay involved? That thing more than just continuing check on those five or maintain that relationship with the hiring manager other HR person and find a way to give them additional things about what you are doing in the community or what the program is doing and other success stories and somehow stay engaged.

75% of all jobs with [ Indiscernible ]. We know that. It is who you know and who knows who. I think you need to use her social media more. Develop your list of progress and please join the local that working at -- events. If you are not involved in the community, I think you are losing out. So you need to be known in the community as a go to organization to help them with their disability program.

This is a little bit and we have -- again, you can ask -- how many of you have a database or a tracking system? That you use -- not only with your client but also to track your business connections? And you have new staff, Mike, they do not have to start from scratch. There is -- are they hard copy or something on the computer that -- if I am a new job coach I can come in -- or job developer -- is there a [ Indiscernible ] businesses that we have relationships with? Who is

the contractors and? When is the last time that they hired someone? Do they do situational assessments? Do they take the tax credit? Dude they do this? Is there some type of database that you use to help you track your business connections? I would be interested in knowing if anybody has what.

If anybody has that -- I know all of you out there that have taken the certification course have heard about keeping a database of your business so I am sure that all of you will be responding yes but the question that Howard is asking is -- do you have a database actively in process and if you do, please send a yes and in the question box and if you want to describe it, that would be good. We have a response already from Erika that she developed one and can says that yes she does.

Wonderful.

We would love to hear a few more yeses. I did have one other question and it had to do with the 180 day plan and the question was -- if you have a sample of such a plan.

Sure. I can get you one that you can share.

Okay. Super. We had a couple of more responses and there was a know but we shared what program is good to use to set one up and Daniel -- I will give you -- I will send you some responses to that that we have seen. Then a couple more yeses. Yes. We do. That will be great.

Good.

We are working on more detailed Access. Database. And then there is another that is just a spreadsheet so those are a couple of good examples.

The other question is -- do they find it helpful? Has it been beneficial and helpful because I know a lot of people in the [ Indiscernible ] -- the data is only as good as you put into it and you keep it clean. A lot of people do not see the value in it but has it been valuable to you? Have you seen some benefits from it? Because your staff will not use it unless [ Indiscernible ].

Super. Okay. Very helpful. Yes.

Okay. Yeah. You are ahead of the game if you have a database. And keep it clean and capture that data. I did set up one of those at DC you and I think I can probably pull out the link and share that with you as well that you can share with me.

Super. Thanks so much.

The last few slides -- I know that we are closed -- we have closed in on the end of the webinar. But just a couple of things -- our [ Indiscernible ] business that you can see on the side -- the whole issues of disconnect between the supply side and demand side -- what we try to do is our business customers -- you see here are listed as try to bridge that gap and we have engagements where we help them find a good partner and then we try to manage that for a period of time which is over the 180 day so that relationship takes off.

I tell people that if I have the company calling me and saying that the provider did not do this or the provider calling me and saying that the companies Dr. dish -- that relationship is not working. Before I leave I want to make sure that the company is very comfortable in talking to the provider and the provider is very comfortable in talking to the HR or the hiring manager about what the issues are and that is what makes a good relationship.

Again, the model that we have seen in some of the things is that -- if you have to sign a business objectives and you have got to have a manager -- you have got to use a number of places to get your pipeline and you have got to have metrics. But you have got to see the employers -- the employer as a business partner and that is a key piece right there and again going back to establish the ongoing relationship and define the needs. But the other pieces are important as a [ Indiscernible ]. What we have found from that model is that businesses really want to work with a preferred vendor and then that vendor works with other providers.

They do need a partner to help them manage it -- this relationship. And to track it. There is a difference between a single point of contact and a [ Indiscernible ] business. A lot of people want to be that single point of contact but they are not willing to float the resources to be the partner. And businesses do not know how to find the pipeline that people disclose so you need to help them. So that is why they come to you. Again, this is the same points of contact versus the valid partner and the single point of contact -- contact is driven by us on the supply side and it is one-sided. We are only willing to source our candidates from our caseload or our program and is on a short term basis and where the value partner is driven by a business need and a mutual understanding and being willing to work with other people in the community and sees the building as only growing and built on that relationship and if you can remember that in that whole -- this whole hour and a half and if you can [ Indiscernible ] relationships and understand how to [ Indiscernible ] your partner it will take you a long ways and these are some common thing practices that we see a lot of you probably know about that from the Office Max to the AMC Theaters to Safeway to Starbucks and Macy's. They are all doing this and as you see come many many more are doing it. But I did not list them here.

Just find in your community and you could be the next big was to step four. Some of these people do it on their own with [ Indiscernible ] corporate development. They just come back and start doing it. You can help them.

That doesn't wrap us up. At our our to have Howard. That was a wonderful way to end things and it looks like you still have more to share but we do need to go ahead and let our folks go.

Yes.

So what a great way to bring us some really great information and some good strategies. We will get those it additional examples for folks and have them available for you. Through our webpage. But for those of you that are listening, still you will receive an e-mail with a survey for this session and please complete the survey and move -- e-mail it back to us at UNTWISE add -- and once you have completed the survey -- we will e-mail you a credit for 1 1/2 hours. So I really do appreciate the time that you gave us this afternoon and thank you everybody for being such great listeners and participants.

Thank you and thank you everyone on the phone for joining in. I really appreciate it and I hope it has helped them -- you have my contact information if anybody wants to reach out later and I will get you the resources. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Good-bye.

Good-bye.

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