The feedback that follows is from webinars held on March 22, 2013. The webinar participants who provided the feedback represented: Adult Education Community College Community Organization Disability Services Illinois worknet center, WIA Satellite, or WIA Provider K-12 Education Other Postsecondary Private Sector Industry Social Service State Agency The webinar participants provided feedback on the Envisioning Summary: Workforce Innovation Fund Regional Manufacturing Website and draft graphical designs for the site. Feedback was collected using polling questions and chat comments. The pie charts that follow summarize the polls. Rate how closely the purpose and vision aligns to your expectations for the site: 67% 6% 27% Rate how well the Primary Message and its supporting bullets meet your expections: 71% 29% How well do the Envisioning values align with your expectations? Rate how well the Explore functions 64% 36% 71% 6% 23% Page 1 of 7
75% Rate how well the Learn functions 25% 8 Rate how well the Connect functions 2 67% Rate how well the Qualify functions Rate how well Apply for Jobs 33% 88% 12% 93% Rate how well Resources 7% 58% Rate how well My Portfolio 42% 64% Rate how well the Media Center 36% Page 2 of 7
Design : First Impression Design : First Impression Good 88% Bad Great 12% Great 58% Good 42% Bad Design : First Impression Best Overall Graphical Design Bad 55% Great 5% 21% Good 4 63% 16% Rate how important mobile device access is to you: Which header do you prefer? 65% 35% 76% 18% 6% Which home page feature do you prefer? How important is it to have videos featured? 44% 56% Very Important 86% Important 14% Not Important Page 3 of 7
18% 29% Which login do you prefer? 53% 8 Which success stories and employer feature do you prefer? 2 Which subscription and footer do you prefer: Which News and Events option do you prefer? 46% 23% 31% 72% 14% 14% None of them 39% Which manufacturing graphic do you prefer? 11% 11% 39% Page 4 of 7
The feedback that follows is from the webinar chat comments. General I think this site will go a long way at helping manufacturers broadcast their needs and giving us resources to help our customers fulfill those needs. Identify entry points, when they happen, and where they happen. It was great to have an opportunity to observe the design in progress. Overall, I think the student/job seeker functionality is great; I'm less sure about the employer and educator/workforce functionality and if these groups will buy into and actively use the website. Seems like an interesting platform to give constituents many options; will be interesting to see which options end up being the most popular. Stay away from Jargon. The site is very captivating and looks functional. My only comment is that the audience is very broad and not sure students will use it. I am also concerned that in DuPage most manufacturers are small to midsize and they will not take the time to use it. The site needs to be accessible from tablets and smart phones. Main Message Manufacturing Today In Illinois Values Add Accessible as a value. Include career exploration as a value. Audience A great number of the manufacturing workforce are Spanish speakers. Include Spanish functionality. Are manufacturing employers really an audience for this site or should they be listed as one of the partners to engage? Clarify the role of manufacturing employers vs. users such as middle school students. Does the average student/job seeker know what a career "pathway" is? Have some quick points of entry for counselors. How will students, job seekers, training programs, and employers "match-up"? The audience should identify teachers and parents. We should also make our Veterans a main focus. Regional Branding/Identity Central Illinois developed a logo. Can each region have their own logo? Provide an option to use a regional logo already adopted by the region. Page 5 of 7
Draft Home Page Graphical Design Option Feedback First two options have way too much information on the page - very busy. Have photographs cycle through to reflect a diverse constituent pool. How viral a site or information goes depends on the content. Stay away from looking like a corporate commercial. I like the "See the Top Jobs in Your Region." Instead of text on the testimonials, just have videos with captioning. Like the color scheme of but the layout of. Needs more color, visual appeal. is a little too busy. is better overall, except for the header. seems like it would most appeal to manufacturers. Explore Explore could include networking opportunities for constituents to learn informally about each other. Explore should be a "hook" to get the person engaged. Users need to see the motivation to keep looking through. Labor market information needs to be current and update automatically, preferably in real time. Students need to be linked to online tools that help them learn about occupations. The Career Cruising web application is used by some high schools. Can the site integrate with it? Learn For employers - information on the industry credentials and what skills are behind those credentials would be helpful. Link to WIA under Financial Aid. Manufacturers want to see learning about soft skills. Need to find a better title than learn. Maybe call this heading Getting Hired." Need to have a way to identify quality training programs. Training programs that are aligned to credentials should be quality programs. On-the-job training. Qualify Qualify is important. Add NCRC assessment. Having manufacturers define and post exactly what will qualify job candidates for their positions will be extremely helpful. Need to acknowledge the need for soft skills as a part of work readiness skills and employer expectations. Students might seek job-shadowing experiences and work-based learning. Workforce readiness assessment/credentials should be included. Page 6 of 7
Find and Apply for Jobs There are other sites for posting jobs - we shouldn't duplicate efforts. Use a resume generator that takes seeker info in a "TurboTax-like" application and produces a formatted resume? Central Illinois region is thinking of common applications for production jobs like welders and machinists. Don't know if employers will identify and post the regional jobs. Having a common application in the northeast economic development region could be difficult to create. If manufacturers align their job descriptions to the credentials, this will allow a common application (within a region or regions) that job seekers can complete and HR Directors search. Manufacturers could post specific information regarding career ladders in their own companies as each can be somewhat different. Many jobs in manufacturing are through word of mouth. Current employees in manufacturing companies could post openings they know about. Maybe combine qualify and find jobs - otherwise people will skip the "Qualify" part and jump right to "Find. Perhaps break out jobs by production, engineering, maintenance, etc. Offer manufacturers an opportunity to consider talent pools they may not be thinking of. Perhaps employers could add typical promotional pathways based on education and experience. Connect Connect should include requests for job-shadowing, work-based learning, cooperative learning, etc. Include links for referrals. Manufacturers may not allow their employees to use social media sites via their secure networks. People need to connect to career centers. The inclusion of mentoring is wonderful. Trends in media are pointing to social media. Within Connect users may want to create "sub-groups" or topical discussion groups. User Profile If you have a profile, have the Qualify do a match and suggest feature. Need to bridge exploring and committing to manufacturing. The portfolio implies a person has committed to manufacturing. Tie the login to social media accounts to avoid having another id/password. Videos Videos are good to get the message in less time if they're good. Videos are super important. Page 7 of 7