Starting in a few weeks, jobseekers will need their swipe card to use Workforce Solutions services.
While it may seem like a hassle for people to have to bring their card when they come to a Workforce Solutions' career center and swipe it to access jobs listings on computers or see a career consultant, Workforce Solutions officials promise the new system will help them deliver better and faster services.
As unemployment has risen on the Treasure Coast, Workforce Solutions career centers have grown from four to 17. The busiest of those centers, St. Lucie West, sees about 300 people a day. Workforce Solutions' two mobile units are each taking in about 80 people a day.
The Workforce Development Board of the Treasure Coast is spending close to $30,000 on equipment, installation and training for the swipe card system, said Michael Waninger, vice president and chief operating officer.
"If this program does what we think it will do, it will pay for itself," Waninger said, noting that funding from state and federal agencies is based in part on the number and variety of services Workforce Solutions provides to the unemployed.
He said state officials will be watching this pilot program closely to see whether it can be used effectively in the 23 other regional unemployment agencies.
For those who need Workforce Solutions services, Waninger said the swipe card system will "eliminate the bottleneck in our resource rooms."
Geographic Solutions Inc. a 17-year-old privately owned company headquartered in Palm Harbor, developed the software, which is already in use in Texas, the District of Columbia and parts of California, said project manager Sherrill Claus.
When a jobseeker swipes the card, the software will automatically bring the person's information up on the career consultant's computer, along with check boxes the consultant can quickly click to record which services have been provided.
This allows the consultants to spend more time helping jobseekers and less time recording those services, Waninger said. "In our zeal to get to the next client, those services may not be recorded as quickly and efficiently as we would like," he said.
And when a jobseeker goes directly to a computer to search for a job or get other services without seeing a consultant, records of those services are even more difficult to access, said Workforce Solutions chief information officer, Brian Bauer.
Workforce Solutions employees are being trained Wednesday and Thursday on making the swipe cards for clients and using the software.
—Article by Paul Ivice. Posted 10.5.09
The entire article can be found on the TCPalm Scripps Newspaper site:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/oct/05/no-headline---tc_work_swipe/