Village of Pewaukee - Striving to give Wisconsin's unemployed the best of both worlds, a public job center and private employment agency are joining forces.
Information
For more information about Wisconsin Job Centers, visit the Department of Workforce Development at www.dwd.state.wi.us.
If the partnership succeeds, officials say it could be duplicated elsewhere to help other state-funded job centers that face heightened demand for services along with dwindling financial support.
The state has slashed more than $100 million from the department that oversees about 70 job centers across Wisconsin.
Under the arrangement in Waukesha County, a private employment agency has agreed not only to help find work for clients at the job center, but to share the resulting fees collected from employers.
Early estimates suggest the fees earned for helping employers solve their staffing problems through the center would range from about $300 per employee to almost $2,000.
Officials at the Workforce Development Center located at Waukesha County Technical College hope the partnership will increase their success combating unemployment, plus generate badly needed new revenue.
"This is a great opportunity," said Francisco Sanchez, president of the board that oversees the job center.
Sanchez, who also oversees job centers in Ozaukee County and Washington County, said he would consider seeking similar partnerships at those facilities if the initial endeavor is a success.
After receiving proposals from three employment agencies, the board selected Nissen Staffing Continuum Inc., a Waukesha firm that has done business with about 700 employers over the years.
Company President Scott Nissen acknowledged that the partnership would create new business for his staffing company, although he said the main objective is helping jobless people find work.
Dual effort better
Nissen said the effort, known as the Job Seeker Referral Pilot Project, demonstrates that neither the public sector nor the private sector alone can tackle Wisconsin's unemployment rate, which is currently 5%.
"We all have the same goal," he said. "That's what makes this a partnership."
Federal labor officials have encouraged such public-private alliances, but this might be the first in Wisconsin, said Rose Lynch, spokeswoman for the State Department of Workforce Development.
Lynch said officials will be watching to see if the Waukesha County experiment works.
"We're anxious to see what results," she said of the partnership.
Faced with a budget cut from $2.28 billion to $2.15 billion over two years, the department last year briefly considered closing job centers, which officials called a difficult choice with so many jobless residents needing assistance.
After four years of high unemployment, the Waukesha County center attracts about 200 people a day for help updating their resumes, training for new jobs and more. Known as a one-stop center, the concept became popular in the mid-1990s after Wisconsin received a $10 million federal grant to develop such facilities.
Direct job placements occur when employers notify the center of job openings. Those openings then are posted for visitors to see, but the center collects no fees from either the job seeker or the employer.
Under the new partnership, the center will refer qualified job seekers to Nissen Staffing for more intensive placement efforts within a broader range of employers.
400 workers placed daily
The company currently finds work for about 400 people a day, typically charging employers the equivalent of anywhere from 5% to 40% of an employee's first-year wages. From that income, Nissen has agreed to share with Waukesha's job center proceeds from the new partnership.
Officials hope the arrangement will be finalized and in operation by early next year.
Officials said they selected Nissen over other staffing companies because of the company's willingness to adapt to the job center's established operations.
Michael Mortell, manager of the job center, said he is eager to see the public-private partnership in action.
"The reality is the staffing companies are out there. They're in the marketplace," he said. "We encourage people to use all avenues, and this is one more."