Forward Janesville - TheReport - Summer 2016

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4 • W W W . F O R W A R D J A N E S V I L L E . C O M
One of the five pillars of the Rock County 5.0
strategy is workforce development.
Conversations with area employers, particularly
during the last two years, have made it clear our
most urgent goal should be helping area
companies locate and recruit the workforce they
need. While the partners of the Rock County
Development Alliance focus on this task in a
variety of ways, I want to highlight what I think
may be a very useful tool for our members. It is
the new "jobs portal" called
.
First, let's get some terminology out of the way.
We call it a portal because when a local firm
posts a job opening on the site, the posting
automatically gets "ported" - or listed - on other
significant talent recruitment sites like
We are making it easy for local
employers to cast a wide net for people and
skill sets they need.
As I write this, over 70 firms have registered
and they are beginning to use the site. The
registration process is simple and posting jobs
is easy. During any given week, the average
number of job postings is about 130. Since the
site was launched a few months ago, the level of
online traffic continues to increase and so does
its reach. While this online traffic is originating
from 34 states, the majority of these 20,0000 +
page views follow the Southern WI and
Northern IL commuting patterns that are
typically associated with the Janesville-Beloit
MSA. Most importantly, over one-half of these
viewers are opening the "Find A Job" tab and
browsing the job postings.
I believe it is important for our readers to
understand this project is a result of feedback
from area employers who asked that we
consider best practices around the U.S. and then
develop a comprehensive, single-source online
tool that could assist them with talent
recruitment and retention. To the best of our
ability, we tried to make it easy-to-use and
intuitive. To leverage the ongoing career
planning efforts that are increasingly gaining
momentum in our K-12 education institutions,
we integrated the Inspire Rock County initiative
into By bridging these
online platforms, students and adults alike can
explore in-demand careers in our market, in
real-time.
also includes additional
features that make it useful, as well as different
from other online job boards. A feature called
"reverse placement" allows companies to
confidentially distribute information about pre-
qualified job candidates that were not chosen
for a particular position, but may be a good fit
for other area companies. There are also
features that help with easing relocation
anxieties, particularly when candidates are
moving their families.
The site includes additional information about
the area that job seekers may find useful, such
as: cost of living data, educational offerings,
housing costs,
healthcare and area
events or attractions
information. For
those job seekers
that have an interest
in diving deeper into
the market, there are
plenty of embedded
cross-walks
redirecting page
viewers over to the
robust website -
which is our storehouse of information about
the area.
James Otterstein, Rock County Economic
Development Director, has been a leader in the
development of the site. Clarifying his vision
for the site he says, is
designed to create a match-making avenue for
area employers and job seekers." In short, the
site, provides a value-added talent recruitment
tool that employers and their third party
recruiters can use when/where appropriate.
Over the next few months, we will be
increasing the promotion of this site in a variety
of ways and through various channels. Please
take a few minutes and explore the
learn how easy it is to
navigate, and then use your connections to
promote it far and wide. Helping each other fill
open positions is simply good business.
JOHN BECKORD - PRESIDENT, FORWARD JANESVILLE
Recruitment Made Easy Casting a Wide Net with
JOBS IN ROCK COUNTY