Governor s Office of Workforce Development State Workforce Investment Board Centergy One Building Hodges Conference Room June 25, 2014 Meeting 10:00 a.m. Meeting Minutes Attendees: Brian Anderson Lenn Chandler Ann Cramer Wendell Dallas Doug Duncan Theresa Fisher Brenda Haught Ivan Figueroa Frank Ginn Buddy Harden Sarah Harrison Daniel Holtz Ron Jackson Liza Leiter Joseph Marks Thomas Morrill Eric Newberg Richard Ray Greg Schmieg Mel Stowers Lindsey Tippins Karen Viera Joe Vogt Joe Vignati, for Avery Niles, Department of Juvenile Justice Elmer Stancil, for Chris Carr, Department of Economic Development Pam Griffin, Technical College System of Georgia Guest Speakers: Lee Thomas, GDEcD s Film, Music, & Digital Entertainment Division Kate Russell, GDEcD s Workforce Division Steven Wilson, GDEcD s Workforce Division Dr. James Wilburn, Georgia Tech Professional Education Convene/Opening Remarks Chairman Wendell Dallas called the meeting to order and welcomed the State Workforce Investment Board (SWIB). He announced the recent changes in the Governor s Office of Workforce Development (GOWD) staff: Jamie Jordan was promoted to External Relations Director, effective April 1, 2014; Shari Chambers was promoted to Operations Manager/Executive Assistant to the Executive Director, effective April 1, 2014; Donald Kirkland was promoted to External Relations Specialist, effective July 1, 2014; Jeff Ledford is now Staff Support Director, effective April 1, 2014; Hayley Yaun, Counsel, resigned, effective June 20, 2014. Chairman Dallas welcomed new SWIB members Lenn Chandler, Northeast Region Vice President for Georgia Power Company, Eric Newberg, Chief Financial Officer for Diaz Foods, and Jack Perrett, General Manager of Rayonier Advanced Materials. He also welcomed new member Brenda Haught, Human Resources Manager for NCR Corporation. Swearing In Ceremony Chairman Dallas conducted the swearing in ceremony for the new member of the board, Brenda Haught.
Review and Approval of Agenda The Board reviewed the agenda. Ann Cramer moved to adopt the agenda and Richard Ray seconded the motion. There were no objections, and the agenda was adopted as presented. Review and Approval of Minutes The State Workforce Investment Board reviewed the minutes of the February 27, 2014 SWIB meeting. Joseph Marks moved that they be approved as the official minutes. Sarah Harrison seconded the motion. There were no objections, and the minutes were approved as presented. New Business Chairman Dallas presented the update to the SWIB Bylaws. As a provision of USDOL s January 2 nd approval of Georgia s State Plan, GOWD has updated the SWIB Bylaws composition, adding the required Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Service, the Executive Director of the Vocational Rehabilitation Agency, and two additional business representatives; bringing the SWIB in compliance with federal law. Daniel Holtz, with the Department of Veterans Service, proposed an amendment to the proposed update to clarify the title as Commissioner of Veterans Service instead of Commissioner of the Department of Veterans Service. Dan Holtz moved that the update be approved as amended. Ron Jackson seconded the motion. There were no objections, and the update to the SWIB Bylaws was approved as amended. (Please see Attachment 1 for details of the proposed update to the SWIB Bylaws) Chairman Dallas announced that, in regard to the Georgia State Plan, USDOL ETA has requested that GOWD update Georgia s State Plan to reflect the July 1, 2014 transition to the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD). He also announced that LWIAs 12, 13, and 20 were realigned at the request of county elected officials, effective July 1, 2014. (Please see Attachment 2 for details of the LWIAs realignment) Committee Reports Ann Cramer provided an update on the Youth Committee: 1. Star Academy facility in Coffee County completed its first year. The report on the program s results will be available by the time of the next Youth Committee meeting. 2. GOWD sponsored a WIA workshop for all staff working with youth, dislocated workers, and adult programs throughout the state. It is the start of building relationships across local areas to enable them to share best practices and to work together to help the state as a whole. Ms. Cramer expressed a desire to see more collaborative efforts among the local areas in the future.
3. The local youth program spotlight from the last Youth Committee meeting was the Summer Youth Program in Area 3, City of Atlanta. She praised the program s success in providing students with opportunities in apprenticeships and co-ops. Mel Stowers provided an update on the Reemployment Services Committee: 1. GOWD hosted a Veterans Employers Summit at Atlanta Technical College, featuring Governor Deal. There was a second summit hosted in Savannah. 2. The Fast Track program in northwest Georgia is back up and running. 3. The Metro Atlanta Pilot Project, which is compiling a registry of all service providers in the metro Atlanta area, is coming along nicely and should be ready for launch shortly. Walter Shamp provided an update on the Local WIA Guidance Committee: 1. Based on feedback provided by Georgia Workforce Leadership Association (GWLA), there was confusion regarding the Supportive Services policy. To address those issues, that portion of the Policies & Procedures Guide was updated to help alleviate the confusion. Ann Cramer moved that the updates to the Policies & Procedures Guide be approved as presented. Brian Anderson seconded the motion. There were no objections, and the updates were approved. (Please see Attachment 3 for details of the Policies & Procedures Guide Update) Executive Director s Report Executive Director Ben Hames thanked the board and guests for attending the meeting. He reminded the attendees that their work was important and that it was paying off with Georgia being designated as the Number 1 state in the nation in which to do business. Director Hames addressed the transition of GOWD to the Georgia Department of Economic Development. GOWD will fiscally and administratively become part of the Georgia Department of Economic Development as of July 1 st. Director Hames thanked Shari Chambers and Jamie Jordan for managing the move to the new location. The new title for the office will be the Georgia Department of Economic Development s Workforce Division. Director Hames gave an update on the Governor s High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) meetings. The goal is to get the University System of Georgia, the Technical College System of Georgia, and the Georgia Department of Economic Development together with business leaders across the state to get a clear picture of what businesses need. The potential outcome from the meetings will be reworking programs, reworking curriculum and possibly new programs to address the workforce gaps and skills shortages that exist in our state. The dialogue with the business community is always there, but this is an efficient, more comprehensive dialogue. Three meetings have occurred and there are ten more meetings to come. There is a need to engage students early, and he expressed the importance of experiential education and workplace learning. There is a great interest in co-ops, internships and apprenticeships. Director Hames asked the board for company recommendations as they go forward with the ten meetings.
Director Hames was happy to report that the Workforce Division received the PY12 Incentive Grant, which grants $1.4 million over nine common areas where they met or exceeded expectations. There was a three-part grant proposal; one-third to develop new apprenticeship opportunities in the skilled trades, one-third to allocate funding to TCSG to expand the current accelerating opportunity model to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. It would promote the upward mobility of airport employees. The last third would go towards an initiative in collaboration with TCSG to increase educational attainment and employment opportunities for citizens located in Georgia counties where 30% or more of the population lack a high-school equivalent credential and unemployment is high. This applies to rural communities with low-level jobs, and it targets individuals going back and getting a GED but have been out of the education system. It is a part of the TCSG Georgia Adult Education Quick Start Program. The Governor tasked the Workforce Division to pilot a program to assist people struggling to find and retain employment due to drug addiction. The REACT program has been drafted in conjunction with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Cobb Service Board, Atlanta Regional Commission Workforce, and some DOL. Mary Margaret Garrett will be leading the program from a local area perspective. The goal is to piece together a 17- week drug rehab program that addresses the real issue of finding and maintaining a job. The program will be paired with on-the-job training when possible to make it match to WIA funds. The program is to reach the unemployed that are unable to find and retain employment that are Stage I and Stage II drug offenders. Executive Director Hames gave an update on the Go Build Georgia campaign. Eight individuals on GOWD s staff have been given designated areas around the state to ensure the schools are offering quality programming. There are 260 schools participating in the Go Build Georgia Program. There are different partner companies that are in the skilled trades going to schools and talking about openings in their area. The Go Build Georgia website is being updated to improve and refine communications. He then reported on the two Veteran s Summits which were located at Atlanta Technical College and Savannah Technical College. The summits worked with HR professionals and executives to present the best practices to hire and assimilate veterans in the workforce. The meeting attendance was 110 in Atlanta and around 60 in Savannah. Presentations Film, Music, and Digital Entertainment Division Lee Thomas, GDEcD Deputy Commissioner Georgia has a tax credit program and it has proven to be a huge success. In FY 14 the film & entertainment industry will have $5 billion dollars in economic impact. Georgia is considered third in the nation for film production. We are #1 because we have diverse locations, Hartsfield- Jackson Airport and a stable work base. Their biggest problem is the workforce; they do not have enough people for crew productions. More than 30,000 people are employed in the entertainment industry. There is also tourism generated from the different shows and films sparking international interest.
The office has camera-ready communities that are listed in 142 counties around the state. (Please see Attachment 4 for more details about the presentation) Ann Cramer asked the question Are there across the board work skills requirements? Lee Thomas responded, No, there are not. It is different things; the nice thing about the film industry is it s something for everyone. I literally have a list of all the jobs in the film industry if you want to see what they hire. It s hairdressers, make-up artists, construction people, and accountants. I think people think of actors and cameramen, and it s across the board. Some jobs take a few years for certifications and schooling, some of it is adjusting skills. Lindsey Tippins asked The labor requirement, is it union or non-union? Lee responded, It is a right-to-work state, but most of the shows are union shows. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the Teamsters, SAG, and DGA. The union leaders will do multiyear contacts with the production companies. Mr. Tippins then repeated, That s my question, so the shortage of labor was within the union market not the non-union market. Lee Thomas responded There are some non-union jobs as well, like location scouts. Recently the union membership has gone from 700 to over 3,000, but it has not been enough to address the needs we have. Sarah Harrison stated, I was in Valdosta several years ago, and some people at the hotel were there to film a commercial; they were actually from here [Georgia]. At that time, they said Georgia was #1 in commercial production, is that part of what you work with? Lee Thomas said It is part of what the film office works with. The state used to have a Sales and Use tax exemption and that was allowed for projects that were over $50,000. We do not have that anymore, we got rid of that program. So we do have the tax incentive program but you do have to spend over $500,000 to be a part of that. So it is harder for us to track the number of projects that are commercials because they usually do not spend the $500,000. Yes, we know that it is a vibrant business here, but it is harder for us to track because they aren t applying for an incentive with us. PY 2014/FY 2015 Budget Presentation Kate Russell, GOWD Finance Director, gave a presentation regarding the FY15 State Operation Budget. (Please see Attachment 4 for more details about the presentation) Joe Vogt asked I just wanted to understand the benefits piece of the salary. Did you say that was 60% of salaries? Kate Russell responded Yes, if you make $30,000, the state ends up paying in 60% on top of that $30,000. That breaks down to about 7.5% of your FICA costs, about 30% of your salary goes back into health insurance, and then another 22% covers all the retirement costs the state takes on. We have no control over the percentages. We accept it and say thank you. Mr. Vogt then said that he is in the manufacturing sector and he is used to 30% 32%. Is it called pension? Ms. Russell responded that we officially call the 22% piece employment retirement services.
Eric Newberg asked if they would be provided with an end-of-the-year report showing growth performance in relation to the budget. Ms. Russell said We can track expenditures to date at each meeting if you would like. Doug Duncan asked Are the performance incentives in the plans? Ms. Russell responded, We haven t built them out yet, we are waiting to see how they perform this year. Steven Wilson will discuss how we measure their performance when we capture that data. We haven t set out what the amounts will look like and what local areas have earned them yet because we don t know. We won t have that data until a little bit later in the fiscal year. PY 2014 Allocations and PY 2013/PY 2014 Performance Goals Steven Wilson, GOWD Data & Information Manager, gave a presentation regarding the PY14 WIA Allocations and PY13 WIA Program Performance. (Please see Attachment 4 for more details about the presentation) The question was asked if the increase or the percentage change indicate that the dislocated worker population is increasing. Mr. Wilson replied It could, it depends on the factor. Actually on this chart, the percentage change is just the percentage change of the dollar amount they received for the program year. In addition, there was an increase in the overall pie. The areas may receive more but they don t necessarily have more or less unemployed folks or dislocated workers or whatever the factor was. It may just be a result of a little bit more money this year than there was last year. I think last year overall there was about $83 million dollars statewide and this year there is $90.7 million. Another factor we talked about before, areas 12, 13 and 20 did a little county swapping so their populations that counted are affected by that. Area 13 is a little less, Area 12 is a little more and Area 20 is a little more. Executive Director Greg Schmieg asked Could you produce a roll up that shows, not just the total amount but a roll up of all three areas into one. Please send it out, thank you. What is the age that you can still be classified as a youth? Mr. Wilson replied Fourteen to twenty-one is youth. Director Schmieg asked How do these goals and performance compare with other states? Mr. Wilson responded, That s the thing, every state is negotiated differently, the rates are not all on the same level. In terms, South Carolina could have an employment rate goal of 60% or Florida could have a goal of 90%. It depends on their historical performance, their local economies, how they are performing and also how the Feds want each state to pull the weight of the whole region. The regions compete against the other regions in the U.S. in performance and so they may need Georgia or Florida to pull the weight of the rest of the Southeast in terms of their numbers. We are middle of the pack or higher when it comes to raw number. When you look at contrast to the goal we are closer to the top. Director Schmieg then asked, What kind of improvements analysis do you do to identify what you need to do to improve the outcomes? Mr. Wilson said We look at what we have done in the past and try and project. When you deal with performance numbers it gets tricky because you are dealing with exiters that occurred a year or two years ago to try to move that forward. We are constantly looking at the programs to see if we can get our technical assistance people to go out in the field in the local areas. Local
areas are constantly on their own doing continuous improvement plans. With this new performance-based incentive, it also helps. Go Build Georgia Apprenticeships Program Ben Hames, GOWD Executive Director Executive Director Hames provided a brief presentation regarding the proposed statewide apprenticeship program. The program is designed to utilize GOWD staff as consultants to work directly with companies to assist in developing registered apprenticeship programs. Ann Cramer made a comment In addition to Go Build, another plug is Great Promise Partnership with Southwire, HON, and Shaw working with the youth side and getting their GED, high school diploma, as well as their internship or apprenticeship. Then they really are prepared for the next step so it is wonderful that Great Promise Partnership is a part of our team working on the youth side as well as doing the adult learning. Those are in-house experiences ready for work. Director Hames responded I think they will provide some of the road map as to how we expand in the future in the high school, but also we want to be informed by the Southwire model, the experience and success that they had and certainly pull over some of the mentoring piece in concert with TCSG s soft skills program. This is what we hear from companies in real time and we are hearing a key theme about the need for soft skills. Doug Duncan asked What is the penetration of Go Build Georgia in the high schools? In 260 high schools, how many are there? Mr. Wilson replied, We have about 400 high schools and change and we have 260 high school teams. Director Hames commented, In terms of prioritization, we want to dance with those that we brought and provide them with support. As well, we are signing up schools. Mr. Duncan followed up suggesting that all the board members try their best to get teams established in the schools in their hometowns. Commissioner Ron Jackson said The early connection for high school students may be easier for an apprenticeship in those college and career academies. We have 29 career academies. We had MOU s between the technical college and the local high school. We have good relationships with businesses, so those 29 career academies may be a good spot to at least intersect a more aggressive apprenticeship program. The second level would be the 260 high schools to build a relationship with and build it out. There are some issues too around the high school piece, some companies have HR practices that they don t want anyone under 17 years old or 18 years old to work in their companies for safety reasons. We have to overcome some of those challenges on the high school side. It is a little easier on the technical college side. We really have to work with our companies and the HR practice for the apprenticeship of the younger adults. Germany and some of those other countries demonstrate how well it works. We have to overcome that here in America. Theresa Fisher then said, I am an HR manager in the manufacturing world in Villa Rica, Georgia, so I currently do work on a work base education task force in Carrollton. We have the Southwire model, and it is a great program. But, what we are finding out is that model doesn t work for every company. It certainly doesn t work for our company. What we are trying to do is work with the career academy as well as the other high schools that go through the work-based learning program. This year was the first year we tried to build a model that would work with our
company. That would help other companies that say the Southwire program model may not work with you but here is another option. As far as the safety is concerned, companies are concerned about workman s comp. It is not allowable. If a school pays for insurance for football players, would they consider students that are working through work-based learning or apprenticeship? Eric Newberg responded, As someone who sits on a board with an insurance company, the insurance companies would not accept that without a fight. Theresa Fisher replied, My company wanted to support our workforce and the education system so they did a pilot program. The program worked very well this year so we are extending it into the next school year. Some other companies won t touch it. Director Hames said waiting until the post-secondary level for the apprenticeship would relieve some of the labor issues that come up with teenagers. Joseph Marks made the comment that you can have an experience day where you can let kids shadow the workers. Students from technical schools or local high school students won t work on anything but they will get exposure to the job. Doug Duncan said Rolls Royce has a plant in South Carolina called MTU that has a high school program where they bring kids through and they work in different areas in the plant. These are 16 and 17 year olds and they aren t going to college so they train with the company over the course of a few years. They are a German company and a German model that works well. Commissioner Jackson said that they have an apprenticeship program in Columbus with Pratt- Whitney. He wants to give college credit to those students that are working. Sitting in a classroom is not the only place for learning. They should get credit for time on a job. Break for lunch 12:15pm Reconvene at 12:45pm Director Hames wanted to recognize Northwest Georgia Regional Commission. It was one of twelve areas across the nation named for a partnership investing in manufacturing communities. It has been designated as an economic region and given $75 million in funding to protect the flooring industry. He wanted to thank Brian Anderson and Leah Thompkins for all of their work. Re-engineering the Veteran Hiring Process Dr. James Wilburn, with Georgia Tech Professional Education, provided a presentation about best practices for hiring veterans who are returning to the civilian workforce. (Please see Attachment 4 for more details about the presentation) Doug Duncan asked Who facilitates the Army Intern program and where is it?
Dr. Wilburn said the internships are found at the Transition Assistant Point called ACAP (Army Career and Alumni Program). At Fort Gordon, it is ran by Mr. Al Crawford. At Fort Stewart, Hunter Army Airfield is led by Mr. Patrick Bean. Ann Cramer asked about Fort Benning. Dr. Wilburn responded that ACAP has not made it over to Ft. Benning yet. He has met with Robins Air Force Base and King s Bay in the Brunswick area. Ann Cramer asked about other programs. Dr. Wilburn said Tech was able to bring in soldiers into the co-op program. Ann Cramer recognized Michael Sterling, Interim Executive Director for Atlanta Workforce Development Agency Next Steps Chairman Dallas reminded the board that the next SWIB meeting will be held on September 25, 2014. Attachment Key Attachment 1: SWIB Bylaws Update Attachment 2: LWIAs Realignment Map Attachment 3: Policies & Procedures Guide Update Attachment 4: Meeting PowerPoint Presentation Draft submitted by Jamie Jordan and Kayla Holwick, GDEcD staff members