KANE COUNTY JOBS COMMITTEE APPROVAL OF AUGUST 21, 2013 ...

KANE COUNTY JOBS COMMITTEE

September 18, 2013

The Kane County Jobs Committee met on Wednesday, September 18, 2013, in the Kane County Board Room, Bldg. A, Kane County Government Center, Geneva, Illinois.

Present: Co-Chairman Pollock, Co-Chairman Taylor; Members Ford, Gillam, Kojzarek, Laesch, Lewis. Also present: Finance Dir. Onzick & KDCEE Fiscal Mgr. Zamora & staff Robinson, Yapejian; IT staff Strike; Carol Gieske with Elgin Area Chamber & Eric Smith with Hoffer Plastics; and members of the press and public.

Co-Chairman Pollock called the meeting to order at 10:07 a.m. A quorum was established.

APPROVAL OF AUGUST 21, 2013 MINUTES ? were approved on motion by Kojzarek, seconded by Ford. Motion carried unanimously.

FINANCIAL REPORTS (attachment) - KCDEE Fiscal Mgr. Zamora referenced the financial reports but pointed out that the total expenditures under the WIA 13 Expenditure Detail Report (7/1/2013 to 7/31/2013) were zeroes because the office was just awarded those dollars and the committee would not see any expenditures in that account until the WIA 2012 dollars were spent. She also noted that the report lags a month because it is submitted to the state 20 business days after the end of the month. The financial reports were placed on file on motion by Lewis, seconded by Kojzarek. Motion carried unanimously.

PUBLIC COMMENT - None

PRESENTATIONS Business/EDC - Ms. Carol Gieske, President and CEO for the Elgin Area Chamber of Commerce was present, along with board member and Workforce Development Committee Chair, Eric Smith, who worked as HR director for Hoffer Plastics Corporation in South Elgin. Ms. Gieske provided background information about her chamber explaining that economic development is a function of her organization under the Elgin Development Group (EDG), which usually is the first stop for most businesses coming to the Elgin area. (More information was available at ) The EDG also focuses on workforce development programs and recognizes the need to have employees available for businesses who want to expand or move into Elgin. Mr. Smith, provided a brief synopsis of Hoffer Plastics Corporation's history and mentioned that in recent years he does see the need to hire and retain qualified workers. Therefore, he works with the community, businesses, government, unemployment agencies and Elgin Community College to ensure there is a viable workforce now and in the future for manufacturing companies but emphasized that the businesses had to be on board to get behind some of the initiatives that were out there. Mr. Smith summarized one of the largest initiatives he took on included the Career and Technical Services Advisors for School District U-46, along with the state and community college to introduce a third test component to the Prairie State exams for high school students in order to assess their skills so that upon graduation they receive a National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) which explains to the business community the skill sets the individual has. The program resulted in receiving funding from the State of Illinois and eventually Mr. Smith stated he hopes to get the test program built through the Dept. of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and to the unemployment agencies to seek unemployment insurance benefits. Mr. Smith proceeded to share a positive case story about one of his own employees.

The success of the program, Mr. Smith believed, was meeting monthly with all of the players to discuss various initiatives that were being worked on as a group, such as the upcoming manufacturing exhibit at Elgin's Gail Borden Library during the last week of September and into October. He summarized the importance of stakeholder collaboration, raising awareness, and having a county board member participate in discussions. Ms. Gieske also discussed how the manufacturing sector has changed over the years and were now high paying jobs. She reported on how the chamber is trying to attract and educate the students (and parents) about this sector. Co-chair Pollock emphasized that other manufacturing companies were seeing the same disconnect and he appreciated the chamber for developing the ACT model.

Member questions followed on whether Hoffer Plastics had any issues retaining its company in the U.S. wherein Mr. Smith indicated it did not and that it did not make financial sense for the company to go anywhere else. In fact, he was seeing the reverse occurring. As to how he addressed the unemployed, mature worker returning to the workforce and whether training for them was taking place, Mr. Smith said he and others would attend monthly unemployment meetings held at libraries to speak those individuals about the NCRC and encourage them to take the free NCRC tests at ECC's computer lab. Mr. Smith elaborated on the ACT national conferences he attended and spoke at regarding the ACT model. Unfortunately, he stated the State of Illinois had nothing in the way of offering

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September 18, 2013

the ACT model for students, while other states did nationally. He hoped that in the future employers would see the benefits and use the model for future applicants.

One board member suggested that the WIB be aware of this model and to question them as to what steps they were taking to administer the test and to report back to this committee. A general discussion among the committee followed regarding the lack of fundamental skills (soft skills) in today's applicants, how was the Elgin School District and ECC addressing such issues, and what could Kane County do to retain businesses in the county. As for businesses retention, Ms. Gieske relayed that she was sending DCEO regular inquiries to chambers and economic organizations across the state about potential companies that were coming to the area. She discussed the challenges she was seeing in the economy and retention was a key focus. However, she stated it was beneficial to have friendly and knowledgeable staff within the community development department to respond to questions or refer a developer or business to another community. Also, she suggested the county consider its impact fees and market the county on where businesses could fit. Lastly, in regards to the committee's business survey, she suggested adding "manufacturing sector" to Item No. 2 and offered to send both co-chairs a copy of the Elgin survey.

KANE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATION (KCDEE) Sequence of Client Services - KCDEE representative, Renata Robinson, referenced the flowchart explaining what steps adults go through when they walk through the KCDEE office. Staff, Mary Yapejian, also discussed that the workshops scheduled at the County Government Center pertain to resume writing, mock interviewing with feedback, and additional training workshops. Topics raised by the committee included the timeframe it takes to employ a person (about six months), the funding for the training, and the fact that the committee has to be aware of the challenges an applicant experiences when going through the job seeking process, such as access to transportation, baby sitter availability, computer availability, etc. Ms. Yapejian summarized what the office does to accommodate potential applicants, explaining that applicants will have to visit their location a few times; not just once. Per a question regarding clients being told there was no funding for training, Ms. Yapejian communicated she was only aware of that when the first quarter restriction existed; otherwise, clients were still enrolled in training and were engaged.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT - Co-chair Pollock announced that Wabaunsee Community College will be holding a job/internship fair on September 20, 2013 sponsored by the WIB, KCDEE and various chambers. Since the county was somewhat involved, he believed various sectors could be targeted instead. Another member believed the committee, as a whole, should have a sense of awareness of what events were occurring in the county, where they were taking place, and to promote them. Concern was raised that representatives from KCDEE and the WIB were not actually manning a booth at the job fair to assist applicants on-site.

OLD BUSINES - Co-chair Pollock asked that members target the business survey to 10 businesses in their districts and report back next month. Eventually, he would like to collect the data, provide a spreadsheet at a future meeting, and have other board members use it to survey their districts.

NEW BUSINESS - None

ADJOURNMENT Meeting was adjourned at 11:28 a.m. on motion by Lewis, seconded by Laesch. Motion carried by voice vote.

Celeste Weilandt Recording Secretary

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