volume 22, issue 04 september 2016clshrm.shrm.org/sites/clshrm.shrm.org/files... · 9/19/2016 ·...

Volume 22, Issue 04

September 2016

Be the primary influencer of workplace

policies and practices that benefit our

members and the organizations they

serve;

Build a broad and actively engaged

membership that ensures dissemination of

leading practices to the workplace;

Be the major source for building strong

competence and developing the talent and

leadership of people in our organizations;

and

Ensure a solid financial structure that

permits reinvestment in initiatives and

learning that advances the state of the

profession.

_________________________________

2016 Officers:

President: Tiffany Craig

President-Elect: Lori Patrick

Past President: Jeff Ryan

Secretary: Brittany Trahan

Treasurer: Alicia Jenkins

VP, Membership: Yalanda Jones

VP, Public Relations: Sarah Sasser

Dear friends,

What a great year we have had so far, and we are looking forward to a strong last

quarter for 2016! Last week’s After Dark function was a huge success, and we

raised $170 for the SHRM Foundation. For those of you who weren’t able to

attend, you missed a fun time. To me, it was one of the most fun of our After

Dark events. Scott Belgard, our SHRM Foundation Chair, was our “Grill Master”

for the evening, and he cooked up some delicious hamburgers and hotdogs. We

also played games and watched the pre-game show for the Panthers/Broncos

game. I appreciate all of Scott’s effort in making this event so enjoyable. I would

like to give a special thanks our sponsors, Pecan Grove Training Center and Cleco,

for donating funds to buy our food supplies for the event.

Don’t forget that we are holding our Annual Seminar on October 19th. Katelyn

Emerson has worked very hard to make sure that this one of the best seminars

that our chapter has had. If you would like to donate a door prize on behalf of

your organization, please contact Katelyn or one of the board members.

Registration is open on our website, http://clshrm.shrm.org, so go ahead and

register for this event. This would also be a great local seminar for your

supervisors to attend, so have them register as well.

On a final note, our membership is still growing…we are currently at 111

members! I’m very excited that our numbers are still increasing. I’m grateful for

everyone’s support of our chapter.

See you at our chapter meeting!

Tiffany Craig, PHR, SHRM-CP

President

http://clshrm.shrm.org

Central Louisiana Society for Human Resource Management 02

REGISTER TODAY


- SPECIAL ISSUE -

2017 CLSHRM Board ballots will be presented

at the September chapter meeting on

Wednesday, September 21, 2016. In prepara-

tion, get to know each of our candidates.

Enjoy!


President - Lori Patrick

Lori has been working in Human Resources for the last thirteen years and she

always tells people, that HR chose her, she didn’t choose it. However, her

current role as HR Manager for DIS-TRAN Steel & DIS-TRAN Overhead

solutions has been her favorite yet. She has been an active member of

CLSHRM since 2007, serving previously as President Elect and President in

2011-2012. Lori currently holds her PHR, SHRM-CP, and her CWCP. She

believes that ‘we’ have a responsibility to support our profession, and our

fellow professionals by volunteering our time and energy to the organizations

that help make us better. Lori is excited for the opportunity to work with such

a talented board and to work for such a great organization. When she is not

working or volunteering, Lori spends all her time with her husband of 20 plus

years, Mike, and their amazing daughter, Kate.

President Elect- Joe Sharp

Joe Sharp has been in the HR field for 15 years. Holding both a PHR and

SHRM-CP Joe has enjoyed active participation as both a SHRM and CLSHRM

member and participant for several years. He has served as CLSHRM

Certification Chair initially and was elected to VP of Membership. Currently he is

working on his Masters at LSUS. Joe and his wife enjoy traveling to California to

see their daughter and son-in-law. He looks forward to the opportunity in

serving as President Elect and President and has a goal of getting other current

and new members to actively serve over the next two years.


Vice President, Membership - Yalanda Jones

Maximizing the potential in others is Yalanda’s primary motivation and her ap-

proach to HR. As career changes effect life changes, she understands that en-

gaged employees are empowered employees resulting in infinite returns to the

organization and the community. Her role as the VP of Membership reinforces

her commitment to recruit the best in others while learning from the best in the

field.

Vice President, Public Relations - Lori Sepulvado

Lori Sepulvado is a Human Resource Generalist for Boise Cascade in Lena,

Louisiana. Lori has been with Boise Cascade since 2008. In 2016, Lori served as

the co-chair for College Relations for CLSHRM and has been a member of

CLSHRM for the past 2 years. Lori received her Master’s degree from Louisiana

State University in 2016, and her undergraduate degree from Louisiana Tech

University in 2006. While working for Boise Cascade, Lori has been responsible

for many public relation projects to promote Boise Cascade in the community.

Lori enjoys working on service projects and partnerships with the local

communities.


Treasurer - Carla Works

Carla is currently the Manager of Compensation, Benefits and Payroll at

Cleco where she has worked since 1996 in various capacities. Prior to

joining Cleco, Carla worked in New Orleans for the USDA National

Finance Center and the Defense Contract Audit Agency. Carla

graduated from ASH and attended Louisiana Tech University where she

earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Accounting. Carla has been

married to Mickey Works for 13 years. She has one son, Eric, two

stepsons, Justin and Chris, and one dog, Furgie. In her spare time, Carla

enjoys reading, singing at her church, cooking, and spending time with

her family.

Secretary - Brittany Trahan

Brittany Trahan is an Examination Analyst at the City of Alexandria. She

grew up in Colfax, LA. Brittany went to Louisiana Tech University for

undergrad and grad school. Her Masters Degree is in Industrial/

Organizational Psychology. She is married to Gage Trahan from Pine-

ville, and they have a beautiful daughter named Sloane. They also have

three dogs that are way too big to keep inside, but they do it anyway.


Making the Right Connections to Close the Skills Gap

One startup is developing a solution to help job seekers match skills and potential to jobs

By: Roy Maurer

September 16, 2016

https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/Pages/Close-Skills-Gap-SkillSmart.aspx

he U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a record high 5.9 million job openings this month, while roughly 8 million Americans are being counted as unemployed and about one-third of employers consistently say that they can't find the workers they need.

It is striking evidence of the oft-mentioned skills gap—the disparity between what skills employers say they need and the skills job seekers have. Understanding the skills gap is complicated and the solutions are multiform, including educating more people in the skills needed for high-demand fields, implementing more employer training programs and easing up on requirements for open positions.

SHRM Online talked with Mike Knapp and Jason Green, the co-founders of the job placement platform SkillSmart, about their collaborative, community-focused approach to connecting employers, job seekers and educational partners to help close identified skills gaps.

Knapp has more than 20 years of experience in technology, public policy and local government, recently serving on the Montgomery County Council in Maryland, where he worked to create a pipeline of skilled workers that matched the needs of local and regional employers.

Green most recently served at the White House advising President Barack Obama on workforce development policy, among other areas.

SHRM Online: We've been talking about the skills gap between employers and job seekers for a while now. Is it closing at all?

Green: For so long there was a question of "Is there a skills gap?" Some would say "No, there's clearly enough supply to meet demand, but the labor force may be in Arizona when it's needed in New England." Well, that's a skills gap. We've realized that national policy solutions are important, but the local business in Massachusetts that can't find the talent they need to fill a manufacturing contract, that's the real problem. The skills gap needs to be reduced in the area of aligning skills for particular workforces to meet particular demand.

Knapp: There are examples where the pain point is so significant that specific organizations have figured out a way to close that gap, but those are individual cases. I don't think you can say that the needle has been moved on a national scale. Skills gaps are evident in sectors such as oil and gas, manufacturing, and construction because you have older workers retiring and a whole co-hort of people—Generation X and Millennials—who never entered those industries. So how do you train the next generation to recognize where those opportunities are? Those are the challenges out there. I don't know if it falls under the traditional defini-tion of the skills gap, but it's a real thing that companies will face and individuals will have an opportunity to take advantage of if they can find the right pathway.

I was walking the exhibit floor of the SHRM Annual Conference [in June 2016] and listening to people talk about solving the hir-ing problem. "You need more resumes." "You need more clickthroughs." "You need to be able to post your jobs everywhere." The expectation is that if you comb through more candidates, presumably someone in there is the right fit. People have fallen into that mindset. But what if we did a better job of articulating the skills needed and raked in fewer—but better—candidates? Instead of wading through thousands of resumes to get to a manageable number, why not focus on getting to the manageable

number first by being able to see people with a majority of the required skills right from the get-go?


http://www.skillsmart.us/

SHRM Online: Where does SkillSmart fit into the workforce development ecosystem?

Knapp: Right in the middle, between employers, job seekers and educational institutions. We saw the opportunity to create a platform that allows those entities to really engage with each other, input their information, and increase the level of transparency and communication in the process. Whether it's working within a local community or an industry sector, we can provide a place that allows an employer to identify the skills it is seeking for a position. The job seeker can then find out which skills are needed for that position. Maybe they only possess four out of 11 required skills, but they now know what those skills are. Then we link them to where they can acquire those additional skills, whether it's an experiential or learning opportunity. And their progress can be tracked and measured.

Green: Undergirding all of that is good data. The public workforce development system needs better data. Workforce training providers want to make sure that the training being offered is actually going to meet the needs of employers. Once we know the skills that are needed by local employers and the skills that are lacking in the local workforce, employers or community colleges can design a boot camp, for example, to teach those skills. The job seeker, employer and educator all get something more relevant. As a result of sitting in the middle and connecting the dots, you now have a better outcome for all three stakeholders.

SHRM Online: How does SkillSmart work?

Green: Step one is understanding what's required. Employers' job postings are broken down into skills to be immediately relatable to job seekers. From the job seeker's perspective, it is intended to be a place to go and understand exactly what prerequisites and skills are needed for a certain job. For example, it could be a GED [certificate], a CDL [commercial driver's license] and six identified skills.

Step two gives the job seekers the ability to advertise themselves. They fill out a profile that isn't limited to past employment or where they went to school. The profile shows where they demonstrated certain skill sets like teamwork or leadership or customer service. It could come from work experience, the military or in a volunteer capacity. Job seekers' skills information is aggregated and calibrated into a score for each open position. Employers see the score and can easily see who matches to the job best.

The third step is after [a job seeker comes] up short for a particular role, feedback is provided. Without feedback, you don't

know if the reason you weren't called back is because you weren't qualified or that they never even looked at your resume.

The platform shows job seekers the skills that their experience supports and doesn't support, and the courses that local

education partners provide. We work with Northern Virginia Community College and Prince George's Community College in

the Washington, D.C., area, for example, to break down their courses into skills outcomes and develop lean-learning

educational opportunities.


volume 22, issue 04 september 2016clshrm.shrm.org/sites/clshrm.shrm.org/files... · 9/19/2016 ·...

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