Professional development and training of counselors for the employment service was encouraged and became a priority activity. Studies were made concerning community need for services. Materials and resources were developed. Social agencies united their strength and expertise. Skills and techniques for helping to change behavior were sharpened. As a result many people were helped in their employability development.
The negative outcomes were that the employment service neglected to maintain close relations with the employer community and to keep up sufficient placement strength. In effect there was a de-emphasis of job referral and placement. An imbalance of services occurred favoring counseling-a supportive activity-at the expense of weakening the resources most needed in helping the applicant become self-sufficient.
For the last two years members of Congress, the Department of Labor, and the Manpower Administration have changed their attitudes and, thus, their priorities and program emphasis. Referring people to jobs resulting in placement is now the top priority activity in the employment service. The change has been so compelling, pulling budget and staff resources in that direction that counseling is struggling to remain viable. The conflict arises when a set budget is available and decisions need to be made concerning allocation of funds. An increased outlay in one area necessarily decreases expenditures in another. The question of allocation need not be dichotomous, that is, placement or counseling. Rather, how can a balanced program be reached to help the people in the communities in solving their employment problems?
A New Opportunity
With the change in emphasis by the policy makers, a new challenge and opportunity stand before state employment service planners. The implementation of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) of 1973 provides for prime sponsors, usually a local government unit, to contract with the employment service for services, especially counseling. Nearly every piece of manpower legislation includes the delivery of employment counseling. The employment service should be prepared to fulfill this obligation.
Another innovation is the introduction of the Balanced Placement Formula. Briefly, this is a plan whereby state budget allocations are made by considering (1) state employment agency plan of service-how well employment and manpower services were planned and accomplished; (2) productivity-the number of placements per staff member, planned and accomplished; (3) the types of jobs filled; (4) the pay rates of the jobs filled; (5) the duration of jobs; and (6) the types of applicants placed. These factors are weighted and compared with a national standard. From this, two-thirds of a state's budget is computed. Two other factors considered are services to employers (for example, penetration rate-rate of jobs registered compared to those available-and job cancellation rate) and service to applicants (for example, per cent of counselees taking the General Aptitude Test Battery, number of Scholastic Aptitude Test Batteries given, etc.). From this orientation a state budget is calculated. Seven percent of the total state employment service budget is allocated for counseling.
Within the framework of these concepts and other proposed legislation, counseling is an important component to be integrated into a meaningful perspective for serving the employment needs of the community. With the resources available, the employment service faces the challenge of developing a balanced program to serve the applicant and the employer effectively.
The Problem
Most people contact the employment service as applicants seeking suitable employment or as employers seeking qualified workers. Rarely does a person come in for counseling only. The primary goal of the agency is to help satisfy the individual employment needs of workers and employers. Several services are available for these purposes, for example, employer relations, labor market information, test development, occupational analysis, placement, and counseling.
Since the established priority for the employment service is placement, the position of counseling in the fulfillment of that goal becomes an issue when the balance of services is considered and a plan of action for budget and staff use is designed. An accounting of the contributions of counseling services is needed. To illustrate and emphasize the effect of counseling on placement, studies of individuals placed were conducted in the Utah State Department of Employment Security for the fiscal years 1973 and 1974.
Conclusions
The information in this study demonstrates that counseling services make a positive contribution to job placement in the Utah employment service. Surely there is no magic in counseling, but one may wonder what happens in that setting which improves the applicant's chances of finding work. Several factors may contribute to a positive outcome:
- Because of the time frame and the counselor's skill and orientation toward people, counseling gives identity to the applicant, for whom the staff serves as an agent. A strong commitment for a job search is made by both the applicant and the counselor.
- Humanizing the job seeking experience may alter the attitudes of the applicant. Personalized service may stimulate more cooperation in sharing information, more willingness to take time for assessment and modification of employment barriers, and the establishment of greater receptiveness to employment services.
- During the interviews, a counselor-applicant relationship develops in which the counselor becomes a significant influence on the applicant. Thus, success in carrying out an employability plan can be partly attributed to the applicant's desire to please the counselor or to justify the faith felt toward someone who is offering help.
- Counselor services help applicants to meet, define, and subsequently alleviate barriers to their employability.
- Through counseling the applicant becomes more actively involved, serving as a resource and a functioning component of the placement effort.
To channel all applicants through the counseling process is neither reasonable nor desirable. National, regional, and local estimates suggested that approximately 25 per cent of the population contacting the employment service for work needed or would have benefited from counseling. On-site evaluations at several Utah local offices indicated that 35 per cent of the applicants contacting the offices needed counseling. Many of these individuals would not have been placed by the service or have found suitable employment on their own without some counseling intervention. In Utah, where only 6 per cent of the applicants were referred to this basic service, the counseling needs of many are being overlooked. A more thorough analysis describing the nature of the intervention (counseling) and identifying the factors contributing to successful placement is needed.
It is not desirable to make every interviewer a counselor; however, some of the components of counseling could be assimilated in the placement process to improve effectiveness. For the employment service to carry out its mission a variety of services, including employer services, placement, counseling, testing, and recording, must be available. Success depends on the balance and interrelationship of these services in meeting the needs of the community.
Rather than increase the volume of applicants to improve the placement rate the agency should improve its service to current applicants. Of course, a good job market is necessary for the greatest success. Other considerations in attaining priority goals might include:
- Improving the assessment tool-the basic employment service applicant record does not lend itself to effective service. This is particularly true in Utah where the application is designed to meet ESARS requirements and the computerized job matching system. (This will take some imagination to improve.)
- Creating a better balance between placement and counseling, which will require management to consider counseling as an integral part of placement. (This is easy to say-but how to do it is a challenging problem.)
- Establishing a one-week service for applicants in keeping with the one-day service for employers. Placement interviewers and counselors should exert a concentrated effort to place the applicant as soon as possible. Each placement should be in response to some vocational plan or a comprehensive employability development plan.
- Continuing to refine the means whereby job-ready applicants could have faster and easier access to available jobs, minimizing staff intervention in placement. Initially this may be for selected groups where some categories of individuals can initiate a self-referral process. Perhaps this group could have query access to the computer.
- Updating interviewing skills for placement interviewers and counselors to improve applicant assessment. Assimilating into daily activities the kinds of skills and attitudes that were demonstrated in the recently prepared "Experimental Approach to the Interview Process" training in addition to a refresher session on "Recognizing Counseling Need" may help in this area. Training in assessment and appraisal techniques must also be considered. There is an assessment and appraisal training package now available.
- Comparing the value of the time spent by interviewers with applicants who were placed and the value of the time spent with the 70 per cent who were not placed.
The data included in this study show that counseling services are a positive support to employment service placement activities. These services should be an integrated part of the overall employment service program. The counselors should be well trained and skilled in giving professional assistance to those needing help. Their competence will be quickly noted by colleagues and the applicants they serve. The objectives of counseling should continue to be within the framework of employability development leading to the successful employment or placement of the applicant. Individualizing service to job seekers and employers will greatly enhance the value and success of employment services to the community.
