Post by rracine on Apr 15, 2016 8:29:34 GMT
I liked Ayia's ideas about creating a video for Orientation to ensure that the expectations being communicated to participants remains consistent, and I also liked her suggestion about increasing our use of surveys when working with our participants.
With regards to Orientation, I agree having staff members conduct Orientation in person has a tendency to mix up the messages being communicated to our clients. I think the message and expectations change slightly with each person delivering the message to participants, and I think this makes it more challenging for us to provide a consistent set of expectations to our clients. By incorporating the video Ayia recommended, we could ensure that we set a clear foundation of expectations for our clients, and then we can maybe follow that message with an in-person Q&A session with a staff member to reinforce the messages being communicated by the video.
In reference to the surveys Ayia recommended, I think they are a powerful tool that we can definitely use more, and they can help us gather a great deal of valuable information from one of our biggest stakeholders: our participants. While working in WeCARE I realize that many of our clients aren't shy about their desire to offer recommendations on what we should change, and how to improve our programs. By using a consistent survey that asks specific questions about what our participants are looking to gain from our programs, what they think about potential additions to our programs, and how satisfied they are with the current state of the program, it could provide us with a great deal of insight into how to proceed in certain areas. I know that there's the risk that participants use the surveys as a platform to complain about things they don't like about the program, but I feel that even those complaints could provide us with useful information about the clients we serve. I think Michael's example last week about how participants desired job opportunities from more retail employers highlighted how useful a consistent, well-crafted survey could be.
What role does "product development" play at Fedcap? For example, GetReady! has been an effective web-based tool. Are there other tools to develop?
Product development allows Fedcap to expand its reach to a larger group of potential clients that could benefit from our services. The use of a web-based tool enhances our ability to provide assistance to people 24 hours a day instead of strictly during normal business hours. Since the tool is web-based, in many cases, users can access the information from their computer or smart phones, making it much more convenient to their daily schedules. I think it would be great to expand on those tools by partnering with employers and creating training modules specific to organizations that hire our clients. For example, a "conflict resolution" module geared specifically towards enhancing our clients' skills when dealing with potential customers might be useful to organizations such as Duane Reade, TJ Maxx, and other organizations that hire several of our clients. I think it would strengthen our partnership with some of these organizations if we partnered with them to create the web-based module, and it might enhance our clients' chances of getting hired by those companies once they complete the modules. It might also attract other companies to partner with us when they hear that we partnered with XYZ Company to create these trainings.
With regards to Orientation, I agree having staff members conduct Orientation in person has a tendency to mix up the messages being communicated to our clients. I think the message and expectations change slightly with each person delivering the message to participants, and I think this makes it more challenging for us to provide a consistent set of expectations to our clients. By incorporating the video Ayia recommended, we could ensure that we set a clear foundation of expectations for our clients, and then we can maybe follow that message with an in-person Q&A session with a staff member to reinforce the messages being communicated by the video.
In reference to the surveys Ayia recommended, I think they are a powerful tool that we can definitely use more, and they can help us gather a great deal of valuable information from one of our biggest stakeholders: our participants. While working in WeCARE I realize that many of our clients aren't shy about their desire to offer recommendations on what we should change, and how to improve our programs. By using a consistent survey that asks specific questions about what our participants are looking to gain from our programs, what they think about potential additions to our programs, and how satisfied they are with the current state of the program, it could provide us with a great deal of insight into how to proceed in certain areas. I know that there's the risk that participants use the surveys as a platform to complain about things they don't like about the program, but I feel that even those complaints could provide us with useful information about the clients we serve. I think Michael's example last week about how participants desired job opportunities from more retail employers highlighted how useful a consistent, well-crafted survey could be.
What role does "product development" play at Fedcap? For example, GetReady! has been an effective web-based tool. Are there other tools to develop?
Product development allows Fedcap to expand its reach to a larger group of potential clients that could benefit from our services. The use of a web-based tool enhances our ability to provide assistance to people 24 hours a day instead of strictly during normal business hours. Since the tool is web-based, in many cases, users can access the information from their computer or smart phones, making it much more convenient to their daily schedules. I think it would be great to expand on those tools by partnering with employers and creating training modules specific to organizations that hire our clients. For example, a "conflict resolution" module geared specifically towards enhancing our clients' skills when dealing with potential customers might be useful to organizations such as Duane Reade, TJ Maxx, and other organizations that hire several of our clients. I think it would strengthen our partnership with some of these organizations if we partnered with them to create the web-based module, and it might enhance our clients' chances of getting hired by those companies once they complete the modules. It might also attract other companies to partner with us when they hear that we partnered with XYZ Company to create these trainings.