Learn more about Harrisonburg’s own CUED-In from our guest blogger Seth Marsh, Founder and CEO of CUED-in:
Years ago, an inspirational commercial aired on television that brought forth a simple, but powerful message: Do Something. The commercial was set in a public restroom where two ladies watched a faucet running, making frustrated and disgusted remarks at the gushing water. From their words, it was obvious that an unknown user had just left the faucet running, not caring to turn it off, therefore wasting water. As the two women stood there gawking and gossiping about the shame of the running faucet, another woman walked up and turned the handle to fix the issue. Do Something.
Lately in the news, we’ve heard buzz around recruitment, pathways, careers, skilled trades, technology, lack-of-skilled-workers, etc. I am tired of hearing talk and seeing little action. With CUED-In, I am starting to “DO SOMETHING” about these issues on a community level.
Employers face difficulties finding capable workers to grow their company and hit record sales. While I know this is a national issue, I believe a way to begin solving the problem is to start on a smaller scale (regionally) with a focused group of students/candidates that are interested in the local employer’s industry. Countless times I’ve heard employers state that their best people come from the local community and they want them to stay. Unfortunately, a staggering majority of students neither know nor understand the career opportunities and pathways for a local industry. If we start going back to the foundational ways of finding a job (in the LOCAL newspaper where only local companies post local jobs), then enhance that method with technology, I believe we would begin carving away at the workforce issues at the community level. What is available are national job boards, which act as tools to search “one million jobs” (these searches do allow you to filter by city, but it really doesn’t focus on your community). These job searches are overwhelming and approach the problem as one big national newspaper with all the jobs!
Here at CUED-In, we are the enhanced local paper that works with an employer to build local talent pipelines. I like to compare our method with the way a professional sports team – specifically a baseball team – recruits (to learn more about this method you can read this blog). We want to help the employer develop talent pipelines by assisting them in writing a pathway(s) to their company, but also presenting these pathways to students/organizations that would fit the company and industry. Yes, ideally we want all students to sign up within the schools/organizations, but for best success we first want to focus on the interested user.
To give an example, I presented local industry opportunities to a class, and a student mentioned he was interested in construction. Within the CUED-In app on his phone, he saw a company that peaked his interest, contacted me (a positive sign of this young man taking ownership) and I connected him to the owner. If the opportunity doesn’t work out, he still talked to the owner and gained valuable insight into the industry, which he can use to apply at a later time.
In another example, I was presenting to a class about a company, Blauch Brother Inc. These students thought Blauch Brothers only did mechanical (trade) work, but after explaining the other pathways Blauch Brothers has (accounting, marketing, engineering, etc) these students were amazed at the plethora of opportunities in a company in their region.
CUED-In is turning off the running faucet of giant job search pools. We are focusing on a relational team building system that helps employers recruit like a professional sports team. This starts by identifying the correct demographic of students interested in their industry and then showing these students/candidates the pathways to a fulfilling career. Help us cut the energy wasting flow of mass job searches and integrate your company’s career pathways into the community. Do something.