Work Keys
Wendy: Welcome to Momentum, the Greenville Tech program that shares ideas on how to can gain and sustain momentum within your career. I am Wendy Walden. Today we are talking about Work Keys. It’s a job assessment program that we offer in our Continuing Education Division here at Greenville Tech and joining me to talk about Work Keys is Sam Tisdale, Training and Developmental Director of Greenville Tech and later we will be speaking with Bill Fischer, of CMC South Carolina Steel to talk about how Work Keys has helped his organization. First we are going to speak with Sam. Welcome Gentlemen.
Sam: Thank you
Wendy: Sam tell us about Work Keys
Sam: Work keys is a job profiling and assessment system that employers can use to profile their jobs and identify critical job tasks and skills so that they can use an assessment to screen applicants for positions to make sure that those applicants have the skills that will help ensure they will be successful in their jobs.
Wendy: Wonderful, what are some key benefits to an employer? You just touched on one to help them identify skilled workers and I would also think one of the benefits is the retention of good employees.
Sam: Absolutely, one of key factors in using the Work Keys Profiling and Assessment System can impact with an employer is turn over and retention. Research has shown that turn over can be significantly reduced when a company implements the Work Keys Profiling System. But is also can help improve productivity, improve moral, improve safety, reduce scrap, reduce training time, and reduce HR cost.
Wendy: Sure, Sure
Sam: Throughout the orientation of the program.
Wendy: There are several components to Work Keys. Walk me through those components if you will.
Sam: Well, the job profiling system, it starts with doing a plant tour where the profiler will actually come out and learn about the job and will collect information from job descriptions, task descriptions, training documents, and that kind of thing and develop an initial task list that can be used in the profiling session with subject matter experts. And that information will be used to finalize a complete task list that’s associated with that position. And it will be used as part of the skill analysis process where employers will look at the different skill areas and determine the level of skill that is associated with the skill area so that it can be in turn used on the assessment to determine how someone needs to score in order for them to be effective when they are hired for a position.
Wendy: Gotcha you. So you have the job profile, you have the Work Keys assessment and the training area.
Sam: yes
Wendy: Now, is this a mandated process by the State of South Carolina to use Work Keys?
Sam: It is not a mandated program just yet but the state of South Carolina is in the process of becoming a Work Keys state. In other words, the Work Keys assessment are becoming a recognized work readiness credential and Greenville Tech along with several other organizations in the upstate are going to be awarding a career readiness certificate so that employers can use those certificates if they have profiled the jobs internally in their company so that if an applicant has a Work Keys certificate, they have taken the Work Keys assessment they can be matched up to available jobs that an employer is looking to fill.
Wendy: You mentioned several other agencies you are working with, who are those agencies.
Sam: Over the course of the past last year we have Greenville Tech, along with the Greenville Chamber, Career One Stop, South Carolina Adult Education, and the Employment Security Commission, all have been meeting on a regular basis to determine how we can better coordinate efforts to better serve employers in the Upstate through the use of Work Keys. There have been some exciting things happening how we are all working together to best service employers in the Upstate.
Wendy: That’s great, now you talked about the job profiling side that of course a company would use. You also offer, we at Greenville Tech the assessment for individuals wanting to know how well they tested in various areas for certain positions. Let's talk about that a little bit.
Sam: That's correct. We have just recently started a public offering of the Work Keys assessment. Every Thursday morning we will be assessing those individuals in the public who would like to take the Work Keys Assessment and find out what their Work Keys skills are. And the three tests that we will be giving Thursday morning for those who set up an appointment to come in and take the assessment is reading, math and locating information. Someone from the public can come in and take the assessment, find out what their Work Keys skills scores are and get an idea as to whether or not they are tracked with their career goals. We have information available of skill requirements of different jobs and they can look at that information and work keys scores and see where they match up and if they don't match up we have training available so that they can work on improving their Work Key scores so they can become qualified for those positions that they are interested in seeking.
Wendy: That’s great. Now once they have gone through the testing and they get the results back, what happens from there? Do they get a certificate that says that they are?
Sam: Yes we will be in the process of awarding the career readiness certificate and there are three different levels of career readiness certificate. There’s the bronze level, silver level, and the gold level. A bronze level would mean an individual has scored at least a level three on reading, math and locating information. A silver level certificate would mean an individual would score at least a 4 on the reading, math, and locating information and the gold level of course would be a level five on each one of those areas and there is a certificate would represent that.
Wendy: okay and if they are going to seek employment they can certainly take that certificate with them, to present it to human resources of the company they are desiring to get a job with.
Sam: That is correct
Wendy: that will help them; help aid in finding that ideal job. How long does the testing take?
Sam: For those three assessments they generally are, they are forty-five minutes a piece so an individual can plan on taking about three hours to complete all three assessments.
Wendy: And if someone is interested in testing who do they call?
Sam: They can call me at Greenville tech at the Buck Mickel Center at 250-8058
Wendy: Or they could call the general number
Sam: That’s correct
Wendy: It is probably a very easy direct way too
Sam: 8800, 250-8800
Wendy: 8800, wonderful, thank you so much Sam. Bill, welcome and thank you for joining us.