By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS – Tri-county Michigan Works! has redefined itself, replacing job seekers as its primary thrust with employers becoming its main customer.
Michigan Works operates five service centers, including at North Pointe Center in Dowagiac, as a cog in the 25-agency statewide workforce development system.
"Ironically, we're all set up differently," Director Todd Gustafson told the Cass County Board of Commissioners Sept. 21. "Some of us are part of a city or a county or quasi-government. We are one of the few non-profit Michigan Works agencies throughout the state. Of the 25, we are roughly 10th-largest in budget, which is significant, because we have a smaller population to serve compared to some of them, yet we manage effectively to attract both state and federal resources."
Gustafson, an Upper Peninsula native whom the board first met last November, said "99.9 percent" of those resources originate with the state and federal governments, plus "a very small percentage from the private sector, which we hope to increase over the next couple of years."
The agency is locally controlled by a board appointed by commissioners in Cass, Berrien and Van Buren counties.
Members represent such interests as private-sector industry, education, economic development and other community-based organizations.
"Our goal is to strengthen the regional economy through workforce development," Gustafson said. "Workforce development in our terminology means we serve the businesses, which have the jobs, so they have access to a labor force with the skills they need.
"In the past, we were focused on the job seeker. We have taken steps in the last 12 months to insure that business is our customer. The job seeker is not. That doesn't mean we don't work with the job seeker. It means we will continue to work with the job seeker and focus on them, but we recognize as an organization that the employer is the customer. They're the ones who have the jobs. They're the ones who come back to us and say, 'Here are our needs for the people we're trying to hire.' "
Restructuring "addresses a few issues," Gustafson said. "It will strengthen our employer relationships. It will increase our outreach to skilled job-seekers or non-skilled job seekers. This will overcome the perception in communities that we serve the low- to no-skilled worforce. We do, absolutely, but we really serve people from pre-GED all the way up to Ph.D. There's a wide variety of folks we serve."
"Unfortunately," Gustafson continued, "because of the way we operated, we've been painted with the brush that we serve low- to no-skilled workers only. Of the roughly 90,000 visits coming to our offices, there are only about 3,000 who really qualify as low- to no-skilled."
Contractors provide services for Michigan Works. "We just went through a procurement process to award a contract for $4 million for our core services in the five service centers" to Lake Michigan College in Berrien County.
Besides Dowagiac there are service centers in Benton Harbor, Paw Paw, Buchanan and South Haven, although the latter two are minimally-staffed satellite centers.
South Haven and Buchanan "primarily interact with employers," he said. "Job-seekers can still go there for assistance, but there's not a lot of foot traffic."
Gustafson told Dowagiac Commissioner John Cureton, "We did have a relationship with the Area Agency on Aging. It was one of our contractors, but it was not selected," ending it effective Oct. 1.
In Cass, Berrien and Van Buren counties alone Michigan Works collaborates with 850 employers. If that sounds like a lot, consider that there are well over 6,000 employers.
Not surprisingly, "We are in the process, with our new model, of increasing our outreach efforts," Gustafson said.
The 90,000 service center visits represent about 45,000 different people, he said.
"Many have come in multiple times. That's how we arrive at 90,000."
In the tri-county area, there are 140,000 people in the labor market.
Changing to an employer-driven system "just increases building relationships with businesses," said Gustafson, who was accompanied for the presentation by Candice Elders. "It helps us better understand what the business needs are, what skills they're looking for, so we can go back and find those people who have those skills, or train them if they don't have those skills. How do we help businesses? We recruit, we screen, we train, we help retain based on an employer's needs. We might provide money so they can train their existing workforce. Essentially, we're creating a pipeline of employees for high-growth industries."
Gustafson said in the tri-county area Michigan Works identified four industries that constitute "high growth" – health care, hospitality, advanced manufacturing and skilled trades.
"Some people might look at that and say, 'We know manufacturing is in decline, or stagnant at best.' In some areas of manufacturing – especially advanced manufacturing – that's not the case," Gustafson said. "Technologically advanced companies have a demand with positions for people with high skills. Also, manufacturing projects a huge replacement. There are a number of individuals poised to retire over the next 10 years, creating opportunities for advancement or for jobs for those who don't have them. We're rallying around our resources to address those needs. In these four sectors are 70 percent of the employers and employees."
Michigan Works spent more than $4.6 million on programming the last year that placed almost 1,300 people in positions.
The average wage was $7.90. Total wages for people placed contributed more than $15 million to the southwest Michigan economy.
Spending $4.6 million for a $15 million impact in Gustafson's estimation is a "return on investment of about 331 percent. Private sector representatives would take that in a heartbeat, so we're pretty proud of that number and hope to maintain it in the future."
"We've had some very good success stories out of Cass County," Gustafson advised commissioners, such as: Auto-Cam, which makes automotive parts, recruiting 60 jobs from Canada through expansion incentives; Lyons Industries; Ameriwood; ICG Castings; and the City of Dowagiac.