The Workforce Investment Board of Ventura County (WIB) knows that not all employment news is gloomy. A bright spot is the work being done by the WIB-supported employment professionals at Ventura County Job & Career Centers (JCCs) including the center in Santa Paula. Two recent success stories highlight the efforts of the JCC staff to match job seekers with local employers--all at no cost to either party.

West Oxnard Job & Career Center staff helped to find employees for Granada Corporation, which outsources customer support for companies serving the Hispanic market. Granada's human resources manager, Luly Flores, was looking for bilingual individuals who could serve as customer service representatives for an insurance company. Granada had identified several cities in the U.S. where it felt there was a strong employee pool. Oxnard was one of them.

Flores contacted Fred Garcia, a JCC account executive, to assist with recruiting. Flores, who works in Granada's Mexico office, traveled to the West Oxnard Career Center where she made an employment presentation to 15 potential candidates on August 4. "She met each candidate face to face, collected resumes and had them take an online test to determine voice and telephone skills," says Garcia. "Two of the applicants were hired." The new employees are currently in training and are studying to receive their state insurance license.

Granada Corporation, a Santa Barbara-based company, seeks to hire up to 50 additional employees by the end of the year for customer service, sales and collection positions. Flores says that she will be recruiting again in Oxnard, using JCC services, within the next several months.

The second success story involves All New Technologies, Inc. (ANT Furnace), an Oxnard company that provides equipment for materials thermal processing. Owner Eric Gisonno contacted the JCCs after his wife heard a local radio spot highlighting free JCC employer services. In the past year, he has hired four employees through the centers, taking advantage of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) on-the-job training program that underwrites training costs. "ANT does a lot of government projects, and employees have to be familiar with compliance issues," says Gisonno. "The training brings employees up to speed on how we do business. The Job & Career Centers were very helpful and eager to come up with solutions that work for our company."

"We introduced ANT to our services including recruitment, candidate screening and training opportunities," says Raul Ornelas, a JCC account executive. "Whenever ANT has a job opening, we find the resources to meet its staffing needs."

One of ANT's recent hires was Richard Beckley, a mechanical designer who had been laid off from his previous position in 2008. He enrolled in the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) dislocated worker program in September 2010. Beckley completed a WIA-funded on-the-job training program at ANT in March 2011, and ANT immediately hired him as a fulltime employee.

"Rick had good experience but it wasn’t specific to what we do here," says Gisonno. "We developed a plan where he could update his skills to the type of software we wanted him to use. The process was very successful."
“The WIB is extremely proud of the professional work being done by account executives like Fred and Raul,” said Alex Rivera, WIB chair. “It’s important that we continue to make Ventura County employers aware of the quality services available to them through the JCCs at no cost.”

To learn more about free employer services for Ventura County businesses through the Job & Career Centers, call 800-500-7705, email HSA-Employer-Services@ventura.org, or visit www.venturacountyjcc.org