Job seeker services of the future

Friday's L.A. Times business section had article about how young people are voluntarily signing up to receive messages on their cell phones from companies where they shop. Why? Because they're not just getting ads, but also what they consider valuable, timely advice.

For example, Seventeen magazine is right now sending subscribers daily messages with suggestions of what to wear to the prom. Cosmo Girl offers advice on how to say no to alcohol. One company sells a video of a guy asking someone to the prom. For 99 cents you can send it to the person you want to ask.

This is one possible future I can imagine for workforce development services. A job seeker signs up to receive periodic messages by phone with tips on job hunting, interviewing, resume writing, networking, etc. from his or her local one-stop or WIB.

What about messages to job seekers' phones announcing new job openings related to their areas of interest? Someone at one of my CWA workshops suggested this last year.

There are details to work out. We wouldn't want to send out messages that would cost job seekers money to read. We'd have to make sure the messages are substantive and meaningful, not a waste of their time. This won't be for everyone - older job seekers will likely have much less interest than younger ones. And of course the 80K gorilla in the room: how would a one-stop get credit for this in their performance standards?

It's possible that getting an upbeat weekly reminder and useful info by phone might help keep job seekers focused and on track, thus improving outcomes. We won't know until we try.

Read the article for yourself (click here), and think about the kinds of information you share with customers regularly. Could you get it to them by phone?   

Cell phone photo by Johnathan Lyman

Comments

[diane walton]

bronwyn- let me know who jumps on the pushing jobs to phones... i've been trying to get that going for 5 years!!! d

[Bronwyn]

Hey, Diane - it's still a great idea. What do you think it would take to get a workforce board or one-stop to try it out?

Readers - if you know of anyone who's doing this already, or is trying it out, please let me know.

[Bryan]

Sending a txt msg to a cell phone has become very easy now. Many phones today are also equiped with an internet browser and email. I sometimes see people waiting in doctors offices playing with their cell phone and I guess some of them are reading emails and maybe even blogs on the internet. Maybe workforce development agencies will only be able to reach certain demographics if they start using some of the social networking technologies available now.

[Bronwyn]

Bryan, you're right that this will only appeal to certain demographic groups. Part of making this work is doing the research to understand who those demographic groups are and what their needs are. Services like these may be part of making one-stops more truly universal.

As young people who grew up with these technologies enter the workforce, more and more of them will expect these kinds of services when they visit their local one-stop. So this is also about preparing to serve future generations of workers.