The Northeast Arkansas Regional Intermodal Authority (Intermodal) and Ozarka College have partnered to establish Sharp County as a “Work Ready” community which will offer new services to businesses seeking employees.
The Intermodal is a regional economic development entity that represents Sharp, Lawrence, Randolph and Clay Counties.
“We work together as one unit. The things we do, I divide the things we do into three main categories, industry recruitment and retention, the second is workforce development and the third is infrastructure advocacy,” Intermodal Executive Director Graycen Bigger said.
On April 15, a public meeting was held at Ozarka College in Ash Flat to announce the progress and plans for the new program.
“ACT has the college readiness test we’re all familiar with, but they also have an exam that tests for work place skills. Some legislation went into effect in 2021 where all schools are now required to offer this exam to students, but Ozarka College was already giving this exam to students,” Bigger said. “It really just assesses workplace skills for employers. We’ve used it as a recruitment tool in the past but Sharp County hadn’t really connected the dots on it where you’re testing kids, but you’re also working with the local employers to match those kids to those skillets. We had already started the process to become certified as a Work Ready Community and to take what we’ve already been doing and just connect the dots.”
Bigger explained Sharp County began the process after Judge Mark Counts signed off on paperwork to pursue the designation for the county in February. Other steps taken prior to Monday’s meeting included representatives from Ozarka College and the Intermodal traveling for training, testing kids which was already being done by Ozarka prior to the 2021 legislation and the final step began Monday, with the introduction of the program to businesses.
“The purpose of Monday’s meeting was to introduce this program to the employers to show we’re not starting from scratch, we’re already 75 percent of the way there to get that designation, but we want the employers to say, yes we recognize this is a valuable tool and we want to make this part of our hiring process,” Bigger said.
Those interested in entering the workforce, or currently in the workforce can utilize the tests to help them find best placement in the workplace and also, help employers better pair with employees.
“Sharp County is growing, that is one thing we’ve seen is that employment has grown about 11 percent over the last three years which is great for our business community, but it also means everyone is looking for talent at the same time,” Bigger said. “We want to make sure we are streamlining that hiring process for employers and making it as easy for them to find the talent that they need for their local business.”
Bigger explained students are taking the workplace skill exams already in colleges and high schools.
“Employers can sign up and say we want to recognize this credential. Then they have access to tool kits and data bases to assess skill levels of students and match with the jobs they need to fill,” Bigger said.
The program and tests not only help rank skill sets and talents, but can also help gauge interest levels.
“It gauges interest in aptitudes in three main categories: applied math, graphic literacy and workplace documents and so these are good baseline categories for any kind of business. One example we use is a business who needs an employee who at the most basic knows how to read a tape measure. It looks at those applied math skills, it looks at reading and all of these things that are important to the work place.”
Another useful aspect of the testing and placement is helping employers make an initial assessment of whether or not an employee would be interested in a leadership position.
“What we really look at, you could have the best employee in the world, but if they are not in a position that is the right fit for them, it is going to be hard to engage them at work and keep them employed with you. We have found making sure the employee is in the correct position with your company from the get go is so critical at building a relationship with them and lowering turnover for employers. We are just trying to help people hire smarter and not necessarily have to work as hard”
The program is free to employers and requires no financial commitment in terms of utilizing the data and programs.
“It really is just recognizing that you use this in your hiring process. To sign up, and we need as many employers to sign up as possible because it makes the credentials more valuable to students,” Bigger said. “They can sign up at Ozarka College, they can sign up by reaching out to the Intermodal, we will also have the form available on our social media for people to utilize. You can also learn more about the program by going to workreadycommunities.org.”
Currently, 51 of 75 counties in the state participate in the program.
Lauren is a an award-winning journalist who decided after 10 years of newspaper experience to venture out. Hallmark Times was born.
