Edythe Hatter-Williams, CEO, Capital Area Michigan Works! Lansing, MI, stops by the new MBN Studio to talk with Jeffrey Mosher about the latest happenings at CAMW!

So, what’s new for CAMW! In 2018? Here are some key points from CAMW!   

At Capital Area Michigan Works!, we understand the importance of continually improving and adjusting our system to better serve our region’s businesses and the community.

• We’ll remain focused on connecting with businesses and strengthening our workforce, but we’ll be doing so with a new brand and overall strategic plan.As we move forward into 2018, you’ll notice that the Capital Area Michigan Works! brand image has been updated.
• Our logo now incorporates an arrow to symbolize Capital Area Michigan Works! looking ahead, moving forward and pushing our brand in the direction of our success.
• The arrow point was originally pulled from a five-point star, which is the symbol for human connections.
• We believe this represents the core of what we do at Capital Area Michigan Works! – connecting with business and strengthening our workforce by helping people.
• Our brand colors have also been updated to add more vibrancy and variation from our standard black and red.
• We’ve added a green and a blue, which may not seem like much, but the energy they symbolize is exciting for our team and system. We’ve also launched a new strategic plan, focused on connecting with business and strengthening our workforce.
• We met with our boards, staff and visitors to each of our American Job Centers to help us understand what the community wants and needs from us.
• As a result, we’ve come to three goals for Capital Area Michigan Works! and a number of strategies that are necessary to reach those goals. Our revised goals
• Serve as a primary source of seamless and customer-oriented jobs and recruiting help for our community.
• Capital Area Michigan Works! has been serving our region for many years, which means we’ve been able to build robust service and program offerings.
• It’s important that everybody in our community is aware of the available resources they can be utilizing, and we know it’s up to us to help spread the word.
• From internal cross-training to our public communications, we’ll work to increase awareness of all the resources available to our region.
• We’ll also streamline services and access to our programs for an enhanced customer experience as well as better and easier access to these resources.
• We want to increase the number of businesses working with Capital Area Michigan Works! as a recruiting partner, supporting businesses in growing the economy and job market at all education and skill levels.
• From developing a hiring plan and promoting open jobs to finding training grants and building industry connections, our team helps businesses identify solutions for the challenges they face.
• Many regional businesses have already worked with our Business Services Team and our industry councils, but we’ll do more to give other businesses insight about how they can reach their recruiting goals by working with our team.
• Our third goal to prepare a diverse and inclusive workforce for the jobs of tomorrow at all education and skill levels.
• We strive to increase and enhance our services to all job seekers, including highly educated, high-skill job seekers.
• We also recognize the importance of an environment that encourages diversity in the people and businesses we serve, and though we pride ourselves on our diversity, we also want to ensure we’re being inclusive. § That means assessing our customer experience and ensuring we’re confronting the implicit bias and  barriers within our system to do better.Thank you to everyone who helped us to better understand what our businesses and job seekers need.
• This strategic plan is truly a reflection of what we heard from the people we serve.
• As we head into 2018, we look forward to taking these new steps to connect with business and strengthen our workforce.