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Customized Employment From Start to Finish Abby Cooper

Customized Employment From Start to Finish Abby Cooper. Agenda. Strategies to create culture change internally for customized employment Useful assumptions Supervisors and Managements Role in supporting staff Maintaining focus How not to get caught up in the labor market approach

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Customized Employment From Start to Finish Abby Cooper

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  1. Customized Employment From Start to Finish Abby Cooper

  2. Agenda • Strategies to create culture change internally for customized employment • Useful assumptions • Supervisors and Managements Role in supporting staff • Maintaining focus • How not to get caught up in the labor market approach • Ensuring Discovery lays the foundation for Customized employment planning • Things to think about in developing and maintaining quality staff in the delivery of customized employment?

  3. Quick Review • Steps in Customized Employment • Discovery • Learning about the person through spending time with them • Learning when they are at their best • Translating information from their life into tasks they want to do for pay • Profile • A positive written document based on what was learned in Discovery and lays the foundation for the planning meeting. • Customized Employment Planning Meeting • Review s- what works , contributions that an employer would be interested in, tasks they want to do for pay, conditions needed to be successful • Ends with a blueprint of what Employer should be contacted and by when • Customized Job Development • One person at a time • Use of visual resume • A negotiated relationship between the employer and the job seeker

  4. The Role of Risk and Uncertainty with Change • A risk is something one can gauge or has a sense of the possible outcomes based on past experience and knowledge, when a risk is taken the risk taker has a reasonable idea of the expected outcome. • Uncertainty, however, means one is unclear what will happen and has no way to project possible outcomes.

  5. Changing Your Vantage Point • We are taught to be critical, to analyze and view that as being: • Realistic • Smart • Effective • Frequently we assume a person who is positive is just naïve. • Play the yes but game • The blame game • Or the we tried that years ago • Forget that in order to see possibilities, you need to think what if….? • To be positive you have to be willing to take risks and responsibility

  6. Changing the Agency Culture of How We View People • Many individuals with significant disabilities are fragile when they come to our doors. • Frequently either job seekers or people in their lives do not believe they can work. “ All you can see is what you lack” Tom Waites, Come on up to the house. • Sometimes our intake process can reinforce that employment may not be feasible. • By the questions we ask • Have you ever had any problems in school • Problems with panic attacks, anger management, hallucinations • We tend not to start with the positive • tell me what you are most proud of • When are you at you best

  7. Reframing • Everyone wants to present themselves in the best light, how can you add some questions to your intake/ eligibility that allows a person to do that? • If the person has worked, ask which tasks did he or she enjoy? • Ask what his employer liked about his/her work? • What is one of the best things someone has said about them? • Who have they helped lately? • Rephrase what someone says about themselves in a positive or neutral light.

  8. Most people think that everything is just what they assume”. Van Morrison • Careful of your assumptions & Language • Know your bias, influences, • Think of ways to check out your assumptions • We label so quickly –sometimes we don’t see the person • Perception is based on unique experiences • Information– share all, neutral, good, and bad • Explain - your thinking and validate theirs

  9. Check What People Hear

  10. Management’s Role in creating Change • Create a vision for your staff of what the change will look like • Set reasonable standards, realizing changes takes time • Ask you staff what information they need to make the change • Figure out how many job seekers with complex barriers you can afford to place • Start small and build • Provide all staff working in customized employment with negotiation training • Create person center procedures • Reward staff for the process not just the outcome • Use your Board to support your change • Create a Business Advisory Board

  11. Maintaining focus • Chose staff to do customized employment that believe in the process • It is difficult for the same person to do both customized job development and labor market job development. Don’t expect the same person to do both. • Staff doing customized employment should have smaller caseloads

  12. Maintaining focus • Once a customized plan has been created follow it • If jobs are not obtained go back and consider doing extended discovery. • Reward success and remember securing employment for an individual with significant barriers is difficult

  13. If Employment Is Not Being Secured • Think about what information you are missing to get a picture of the person working? • What do you need to learn about the person or businesses unmet needs? • How will you learn it? • Observation • Work Experience • Internships • How do you set up the experience(s) to be successful • How could AT help • Don’t blame the person

  14. What Information Do You Need to Learn about Business? • How will you get that information? • Informational Interviews • Tours • Trade Organization • Trends • The more you know about tasks that occur in businesses the more you can help your job seekers obtain a jobs that match their contributions

  15. What we think businesses want impacts: • How we work with people • How we plan • And who we consider employable

  16. Common Assumptions • Businesses want: • A competitive workforce • A little bit more than they are paying for • Employees with the ability to multi-task • Employees they can understand with little effort • Job descriptions are written by people who know what they need • A job is defined by the job description • Pay is based on work performed – productivity, multi-tasking, speed • Businesses are intractable • Employers will not tolerate continual assistance

  17. These Assumptions are Harmful • They reinforce our fears – that individuals with significant complexes are too difficult to place • That employers will not be willing to hire job seekers who are complex

  18. Helpful Assumptions • Job descriptions are outlines, you can help shape them • What an employer will pay for varies widely and is based on need • Business is fluid • Define the job by how it meets the employer’s need • We have something employers need • We can be proactive, negotiate, establish a long term relationship with business

  19. Recap • Change requires more than just demanding it • Leadership must provide the infrastructure for the change • Maintaining focus requires both belief and strategy • Need to follow the steps of customized employment • Be willing to change your assumptions

  20. Thank you • Questions? • abbylindmancooper@gmail.com

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