Event Date: July 22, 2009
Presenter: Jamie Mitus, Ph.D., CRC, Hofstra University
Facilitator: Steffany Stevens
Steffany Stevens: Good afternoon and good morning. Welcome to the 2009 Webinar series. My name is Steffany Stevens Today we will discuss Strategies for Workplace Adjustment Using the Stages of Socialization Model by Dr. Jamie Mitus. I am a member of the Southeast TACE Region IV team. I want to welcome back many of you who have participated in many of our previous sessions and a big hearty welcome for those of you who are joining us for the first time.
As most of you already know the mission of the Southeast TACE Region IV Center, along with our other nine counterparts across the country is to work together. And work together to improve the quality and effectiveness of our vocational rehabilitation services. And for what purpose? The primary purpose is to enhance employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. Our TACE works in the eight southeastern states, we have the largest region to serve and we are very proud of that and we are working with some great people. As you know, we serve Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Our TACE is a collaboration with the DBTAC, the Southeast ADA Center. Both the TACE and the Southeast DBTAC are managed by the Burton Blatt Institute. We are hosting quite a few Webinars this year, as you know, and if you have signed up for topics of interest to you, great. If not, please visit our are website, and look at the Webinar room where you will find our website address. Hopefully you all will have that and go to site. Instructions are about how to register provided on the site. If you needed assistance, our staff stands ready to assist you.
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Sometimes, if your computer is networked in, it will shut down if it's idle for too long. At this point we are ready to begin, and we are so privileged to be joined by Dr. Jamie Mitus. Dr Jamie Mitus is the Program Director and Assistant Professor at Hofstra University, New York rehabilitation Counseling program. She also serves as on of the co-principal investigators of the Employment Services System Research, a project supported by the National Institute on Disability Rehabilitation Research. US Department of Education. Her project is investigating workplace socialization from an organizational perspective in relation to employees with disabilities. Other research interests include organizational adjustment of rehabilitation counseling profession and the psychosocial issues of people with traumatic brain injury. Dr Mitus has made numerous presentations at local and national conferences. She has three publications and has also written tow book chapters which were released in the fall of 2008, Dr Mitus has earned a Master’s of Science in rehabilitation counseling in 1993, and PhD in rehabilitation Psychology with an emphasis in rehabilitation counselors education, from the Illinois Institute of Technology, in Chicago, Illinois in 2003
I will now turn this over to Dr. Jamie Mitus.
Dr Jamie Mitus: Good afternoon, I will talk to you today about the stages of socialization as it relates to the employment of individuals with disability This Is a topic I feel very enthusiastic about, because basically it bridges between rehabilitation counsel and organizational, the business field, applying concepts, in that field and that relates over to the work we do in Rehabilitation Counseling
I am being asked to step closer to the microphone. Let me try this. Can you hear me better?
All right, so basically what I will do for you today, essentially providing for you a framework upon which to provide job placement services, post-employment services for individuals with disabilities. Many of you have a great amount of experience in terms of doing this work day in and day out, dealing with various issues that pop up that impact the way our clients are able to adjust into their jobs. What I want to try to do for you is to again give you a sort of framework upon which to work from that provides some information from an organizational perspective that will hopefully enhance the work that you do.
So before we get started I want to go ahead and highlight a few things. First, I want to to say thank you to the southeast TACE inviting me, as always to present the subject matter. I look forward to having the opportunity to disseminate this kind of information. So what I will be doing So I will read, and then elaborate, and then try to take questions as we move forward. I will look at the public chat, address try whatever questions I can. Feel free to post, and certainly, at the end of the presentation I will do that again. Says so the first slide says, Strategies for workplace adjustment using the stages of socialization model.
In the second slide it says stages of socialization outline, the bullets say adjustment issues in the workplace, stages of socialization, matching expectations and using the SOS, abbreviated for stages of socialization, this model of service delivery. So what will do start off, and I will first provide a brief description of some of the various types of adjustment issues you are likely to see your clients go through when they are attempting to assume a new job.
From there I will talk about the stages of SOSH, how that applies over, from there matching expectations, and finally I will talk about the stages of socialization model in terms of service delivery.
Types of adjustment issues. And underneath that there is a cloud Inside of the cloud there are a number of issues that I have indicated a client may likely encounter when starting a new job. My hunch is that you in your own experience have identified a number of other types of issues that have come up. Let me go ahead and read the ones I have listed in the cloud. And we can talk a little bit about some of those. First there are Issues related to coworker relationships, there's real ambiguity, supervisor relationships issues, there's anxiety about disclosure in terms of the disability; there's issues around understanding the rules, value conflicts that may arise, following the rules, and over towards the right side of the cloud we have three other issues in terms of job role conflict anxiety about fitting in, and low self efficacy issues.
So just to kind of hit on some of these issues, Thinking about your clients when they first start a job a brand new job , what are the issues they feel, experience as they are starting the first day, what as they begin to start that first day what begins to unfold before them.
We may see [indiscernible] that there could be potential issues with workers in terms of how they begin to relate to those coworkers or perhaps how they're integrated and accepted by the coworkers in order to and fit into that particular work setting and perhaps as you are doing any job coaching, and follow- up services, hey I like the job I’m doing perhaps, as your clients present concerns about hey, I like the work I am doing but I can't seem to make friends here, people don't really want to talk to me or I am not sure how to approach, talk to coworkers, those issues might be present.
Likewise N, in terms of supervisors, it may be proving to be different from what was initially expected, maybe the supervisor isn't as available as what your client had thought, to be able to ask questions or what not. A whole host of issues around supervisor relationships can crop up for clients.
Other type of issues we will talk about in relation to the stages model pertain to role ambiguity, and I’ll tie into that understanding the rules, being able to follow them. Here we are talking about, you may have a client who starts a job, pretty enthusiastic about it, seems to feel he or she has a good understanding about what to expect in terms of job role, job functions, what is expected of him or her, but yet upon starting that job comes to realize it's a bit more confusing than initially expected, perhaps what was discussed through the interview isn’t what's taking place after starting the job. So it creates a lot of role confusion and role ambiguity for your client. That can be very anxiety provoking for the client when he or she is trying to make his or her way in, trying get a sense of the lay of the land on how to make things happen.
As part of that, in terms of role ambiguity, can be understanding what are the workplace rules versus how do I actually follow those rules once I understand what they are. Part of the confusion there can really be around this idea of you have formally written rules that perhaps are in a manual of some sort, procedure manual that your client has access to, and that makes a lot of sense, but it's a lot of the unwritten rules that can be quite confusing and create ambiguity for your client, so a simple illustration might be which I actually -- in the previous ones, workplace culture, this is a true example of a client who started a job and was told, as written in the procedure manual, that he or she should wear a hat, part of the protocol in that job setting, yet when the client started the client noticed how other coworkers were not wearing their hats, and this was a client who had a developmental disability. In terms of understanding more of a concrete thinker, having a hard time understanding this was what I was told, but I am seeing something different, didn't really know how to interpret that or handle that. This created an issue for the client because of the fact that there was pressure from other coworkers not to wear the hat when yet the rule, written rule said you are supposed to wear the hat.
This seems like such a simple example, but with the ambiguity and role confusion you can see how it can blow up, become a big issue for some clients.
Others, issues, value conflicts, in terms of expectations going into a job, this can be a problem. You will see what I mean when we move forward and talk about the model. You may have a client with a certain value system that when going into the job is thinking it's one way, realizes it actually works against what his or her value system is. This can create conflicts for the client. An example might be, say you have clients who really value working around other people, perhaps your client tends to thrive, do better when working in teams, working with at least a couple other people. Maybe during the interview was led to believe that's how the work environment really is, yet when your client starts the client ends up being on his or her own a bit more than what was expected. Because of that it creates this conflict for your clients.
Of course the other symptom of self efficacy, anxiety about fitting in, anxiety about disclosure and so forth. These are all naturally issues that can come up for clients of ours, constantly dealing with do I disclose my disability or not. As I get ready to start this job If I am going to disclose, do I do it during the interview or do I wait to disclose wait until after? What's going to be expected of me when I do disclose? What can I expect as far as how people will react when I disclose about my disability. All of this thought process is going on in your client's mind as they are getting ready to start the job.
Related to that, obviously is will I be able to fit in? Will people like me? Will I be seen as a good worker. All these can produce anxiety for a client if he or she is concerned about adjusting and fitting in.
We will move to the next slide. I want to mention there's a question, I tried to respond to the chat room, wasn't able to, asking if everything is turned off on my computer, and yes, it is all turned off.
In the first oval on the left it says pre-arrival, connected to the second, with an arrow to the right, says encounter, and the third oval, next to encounter oval says role management. From there, from the role management oval there are two arrows, diagonal, one up, one going down. The diagonal going leading to a box saying staying, and the diagonal going down says leaving, and at the top says adjustment.
Here we have a three-stage model. The pre-arrival stage before the person steps foot into the job. The encounter stage is starting from day one and the process the person goes in terms of learning about organization. I will elaborate more on in a minute, and the role management stage, if the person is successful in getting to encounter stage it can lead to whether or not the person is ultimately going to stay in the organization or will want to leave. This we identify as the adjustment process because if the client is learning to manage the roles effectively in his or her new job, more than likely the client will stay as opposed to the client who may be struggling, more apt to want to leave.
I wanted to say here really quickly, I did some focus groups around socialization, what happens to clients when they are going into a new job. One of the common themes that was brought up by the participants in the focus groups, and the focus groups, I should say, were with rehabilitation providers. I did focus groups with clients and with employers, but specifically with the groups pertinent to providers. One thing they told me oftentimes happens, they will have a client start a job and perhaps the client is initially doing all right, seems to be adjusting okay, then if something turns South, goes sour in terms of the job experience, it's not uncommon where they will get a call after the fact, meaning they get the call from the client telling them I lost the job. that's a problem, because what it means is that you didn't get in to intervene see if you could make a difference. Might be one particular problem that needed to be resolved that you didn't get the chance to intervene between the client and -- in this model you want to try to get in there as much as possible before that happens, being as proactive as possible to kind of nip them, if you will, these problems that might occur in relation to expectations. Because if you can get in there early on, then more than likely you can save the job and hopefully get past whatever the hurdle is to create a wonderful opportunity for your client. What's beneficial about that, as well, not only will your client say hey, problems happen in the job, we don't always get what we initially thought we would get, but you can work through them, have a successful situation. That's very reinforcing for the client as far as self-esteem, self-efficacy, and feeling confident about being able to sit in and be successful in that particular organization.
I going to go ahead and move forward. If you were to look this up, you would find some variation among different experts who put models up together.
What I tried to do is simplify, put together the bulk of what they are saying into what's presented here today. I wanted to point that out to you as well.
We will go ahead and move to the next Slide 5
This is slide five, at the top it says pre-arrival stage. Under the bullets with the first thing, occurs prior to the first day on the job, entails new employee and organizational expectations about what it will be like. Impressions form during the application and interview process; degree of initial match is anticipated; impressions form from previous experiences, and the last bullet, impressions based on type of recruitment. And to the right of the slide is a picture showing a what I would call it a Human resource representative or a supervisor/manager behind a desk interviewing a candidate. person or The picture are is an employee, interviewee, and a supervisor at the desk interviewing a candidate
Pre-arrival stage is defined as everything that happens occurs before the first day on the job, so this is the job seeking phase, the client is out there your client is out looking at a newspapers ad, going to monster.com, looking for a job there, perhaps is networking with a friend, talking about a job prospect and getting information about what the job will entail. And so the Idea her is that Your client is beginning to form an expectation as soon as they get information about the job. Based on what your client might read in the newspaper, the client is making an assessment about o.k. this is what I’m envisioning this is what I’m thinking its it will be, and trying to making a match to how that compares to what I would be looking for or be most satisfied with in a job setting . You want to mindful as to what the client is thinking
As the client beginning to formulations expectations, some will be on target, and some will not. Part of the reason it is because they are basing it on the information they have before them. As you see when we talk later on about employers. Employers have the tendency to inflate what they present about and the organization, the job, because they are trying to capture the best candidate possible. They want to give you the best pieces of what that job will be like. We are coaching clients to tell the best pieces of him or her during the interview. As a result of that, it means the expectations formed might not be entirely accurate. You just want to be mindful of that. It's a two-fold process, especially once the client is getting in, filling out an application. Both The employee will make expectation formations, as well as the employer.
Not only will it be about the job itself in terms of what , job tasks will be ; but will also be about the culture of the organization and what it will be like. Is this a place I will fit into, is this a place be happy working in? So as it says in the third bullet as form expectations formed before the application process.
They are going to form during the interview process, here obviously a perfect opportunity for your client to try and get as much accurate information as possible. It's still going to be inflated as far as what the employer may be giving to the client, but there are ways to work that to get as much information as possible that will help your client make a better educated decision as to whether or not this will be a good organization to work for.
As it says in the few remaining bullet points, degree of initial match is anticipated. Your client is making that assessment of can fit in here or not. Another important really element to be thinking about as your client is forming these expectations, not only is the client going to be looking to this new job, gathering information, but your client will compare that to all the previous experiences that he or she has had. And Using that to make a judgment. So what I mean by that is, let's say you have a client applying for a janitorial position in an office building, and maybe your client had three other jobs working as a janitor in other settings, perhaps another office building, perhaps a school, maybe a hospital. Let's say the hospital setting and the school setting were really good experiences for the client, but the other, the first office building experience was horrible. Your client has a lot of really negative memories about that particular experience. Maybe the boss was very condescending, very derogatory toward your client things like that,. Now your client's applying for a new job as a janitor in an office building. What you want to be mindful of, your client will be thinking about his or her prior experience in the other office building and making a judgment about I had such a rot rotten experience in the other office, that now I thing is going to be awful in this experience too. think this will be too. You may have to work with the client to help them break that down, understand, yes, you had a bad experience in one office building, doesn't mean it will be a bad office experience in the next setting. So again just Something to discuss, talk with your client about as he or she is making these assessments.
And just a few other points in terms the Pre Arrival stage. On this slide at the top is says Pre-Arrival stage underneath that is says The pre-arrival stage, the counselor should explore with the consumer before and after the interview, and the bullets are his/her values, attitudes and needs, second bullet, expectations of job duties/structure; reward and cost expectations, expectations about coworkers and supervisors and coworker expectations of the client, and disability/accommodations expectations.
So here what we are talking about is when your client is perhaps in the job readiness stage and not quite into placement stage Maybe the client has just moved into the placement phase, moving forward, these bullets are things you would want to talk about with your client in terms of helping him or her understand what are my expectations across these particular areas, and when I looking for a job be, I am assessing for these things, will I be able to have these expectations met?
We kind of talked about values early on, but this is important in terms of your client, what values are fundamentally and important that your client has to have in a job, as opposed to certain values are important, but not as important, and there would be some room to deviate a little bit.
Likewise, as far as job duties, what are the duties you have to have versus the duties if you have them their nice but not necessarily those that would be nice, but not absolute. As you work through the discussions you will talk about clients ' wants and needs but you also going to be looking at this in relation to disability and what the client can do.
In terms of reward and cost expectations, what we mean here is what's important in terms of how your client's reinforced to do the work. Important to have flexible time? Time off? Good salary? So looking at the benefits, is it important for your client as a reward having good coworker relationships? What are the kinds of things that would be rewarding to your client in doing the work in this particular organization? Again, what would be absolutely necessary versus what would be I would like it but don't absolutely have to have it. On the other end of that would be cost expectations, in terms every job you go to there will be rewards, but costs involved too. You will get something, but may have to give up a little bit for that as well. Maybe your client wanted to work mornings, but this particular job, there are several rewards, it would be a cost, because the client would have to work in the afternoon. You want to get a sense of what are costs your clients are willing to sacrifice versus costs they are not willing to sacrifice, looking at those type of expectations, as well.
In relation to expectations of coworkers and supervisors, this is where you look at what kinds of relationships your client is expecting to have with the people your client is working with, is your client okay being in a work setting where maybe people don't interact that much? Or does your client require a lot of interaction? Likewise, does your client who prefers a supervisor who only comes to you as needed, prefers to be on their own, as opposed to someone who likes constant communication with the supervisors.
Talking about the nature of the coworker and supervisor relationships is important in terms of client's expectations, so a better match can be made when your client is out their looking at job ads, applying, and interviewing. On the other end of this, having your client think about what should a supervisor expect of me as an employee , and what should coworkers expect of me as an employee. It's important to have the client look at it from that perspective, too, because not only are your clients forming expectations about the supervisors and coworkers, but should be thinking about what expectations will they have of me and will I be able to meet those? What's feasible? Based on that I will want to make sure I communicating some things during the interview about myself to make sure I present myself well, but that I am realistic, too. It's important to have the client think about it from that perspective.
Lastly, in terms of disability expectations, and accommodations, basically what you want to think about here is, is this a setting, an employment setting where I will be able to have accommodation put in place? Is this a place that is disability friendly? Where I can go, if I ask, should be relatively okay to be able to put that in place. Again, you want your client to be thinking about in terms of disability, does it seem like a place that will be disability friendly, that will accepting of employees with disabilities if an accommodation will be needed, I should be able to ask, seems like it would be feasible to put that in place. Just specific areas to talk through with clients to make sure it's dealt with as the client is proceeding and looking for work.
I just want make a comment about the public chat
Back to the presentation – slide number seven says prearrival stage, underneath -- the transition is moving from outsider to inside or, recapping, talking about the more accurate of a shift up front as you client is going into the job, the easier to navigate the workplace culture, being outsider to becoming insider in the organization. That's very important for your client to fit in. We will move on to the next slide 8
Slide eight, we have a case study. I worked the case of Peter in through the three stages. You can see how the model carries out. What I will do here, read through the case scenario, then say a few pointers about it. And certainly think about this scenario, clients who have become employed and are that they are encountering as they make their way through the stages of socialization.
Peter, a 35 year old male who has a history of depression meets with you after accepting a job offer for a position you helped him find.
He says, "I am going to start my job next week at the public library as a library clerk. I am really looking forward to it, especially after going through the interview. When I met with the supervisor I told her about my disability as we discussed and explained my need to work in the afternoons. I followed your recommendation of explaining my strengths in working during the p.m. She told me working in the afternoon would be fine and I could keep a steady schedule without shifting to the morning. I am so relieved because I was worried they would shift me around in the morning like in my last job. You know I can't work in the morning since my meds make me drowsy then. But now I don't have to worry, thank goodness.
So in reading through this scenario the question I challenge you is to think about What kind of expectation does Peter have here? Could be a combination of a few things. When you look at this, depending on if he actually asks for an accommodation to work in the p.m. instead, it could be an expectation about accommodations he has, or it could be more about the job structure in terms of hours itself. Again, you would want to explore with the client in terms of what type of expectation this is, whether an accommodation expectation, job structure related to the timing of the expectation. You might even see within here an expectation related to the supervisor, that Peter seems to feel pretty optimistic he's going to have a supervisor willing to work with him, willing to be flexible with him, and so as a result he has an expectation around that.
Perhaps you also see some other types of expectations within this scenario. Again, take a look at the scenario, see if in relation to the previous slide you would see any other types of expectations aside from the three I just mentioned.
Okay, so we have a situation here where Peter got a job, seems to be pretty enthusiastic about it, seems to feel his expectations will be met, whether about accommodation, scheduling, job structure, or having a boss who is going to be flexible in working with him in terms of his work schedule. O.K. we will keep Peter in Mind on the next slide
We will move to slide nine and talk about the encounter stage. The top of the slide says encounter stage. Under that are six bullets, the first says starts the first day on the job.
New comer learns about expectations both formally and informally. May experience role ambiguity when expectations are unclear. Newcomer and organizational insiders uncover discrepancies between expectations and reality. Process of evaluation and negotiation occurs. The last bullet, this stage continues until new employee either fits in or leaves. The idea with role management fitting in a little later on here, too.
So we are saying now, in the case of Peter, he starts his first day as a library clerk. It's at that point where this evaluation process begins to occur between what he's thinking it will be like to what is actually happening. One thing to be mindful of, when you start a new job, there's very much an induction process to it. In the beginning you are going to be given give a glisms of what things look like more at the surface. Later on, that unfolds, if you want to think of it like an onion, peeling the onion, getting through the layers, more and more becomes revealed as you move from being an outsider to being an insider.
In the beginning, Peter will learn about, hopefully, his job duties, more about that as opposed to getting into understanding the politics of the workplace or the nature of all the relationships between coworkers and supervisors and coworker and such. In the beginning it will be much more straight about the job role, job duties and such. The issue is, for some employees, that can go into an organization where things are very structured and organized, very formal in terms of orientation. You are led from point A to point Z in terms of how to go about doing the work. What the job tasks will be with and how to go about them, and thirdly, time frames of when you should be up to full par in getting those particularly tasks done.
Some employers do a much better job of being very systematic, organized. Some employers are very informal and they don’t really have a very organized structured format. Some don't have a structured format, you kind of thrown in to learn how to do the job, learn the ropes on your own.
Obviously, in the first situation where there's more structure, organization, that tends to be better for people in the encounter stage in terms of learning the ropes. They are very anxious to begin with, and we think about our clients, not only are they nervous about starting a new job, but they also have this other stuff they are thinking about in terms of disability. -- thinking about, perhaps creating anxiety for them too, the more structured, organized, their initial orientation, the better it will be.
Unfortunately, that's not the case in every setting. Your job is related to trying to coach how to get information in an organized way, seek it out from the employer when they are starting a new job. We will talk about that more later on.
As you can see, this role ambiguity may be cropping up in the beginning, creates anxiety, and on the flip side of that, if it is very organized, as information is being revealed to your client it can create some relief, your client is beginning to see, I know what will be expected, what I thought it will be, and I know I can handle that. On the flip side, oh, this is what I thought it was going to be would be and I am seeing it will be something different, and I am not quite sure how I feel about that, if I can handle that or if I like that.
Again, these are things, conversations you want to be having with your client. There's going to be discrepancies between what your client thought what is actually happing on inside of the organization. A client hired into a doctor's office as administrative assistance, office clerk, and was told he or she would do an arrange a different job task, filing, setting up appointments, rescheduling, taking people to the back to get them into the rooms and set up, just a variety of different job tasks. Then, your client starts, and pretty much in the beginning your client's on the phone scheduling only appointments. It's been a month and that's all your client's doing. Here we see there may be a discrepancy, I thought I would do a variety of job tasks, and all I am doing is dealing with the phone and scheduling appointments. That’s not what I wanted something with more variety. Discrepancies like that are going to happen. It's a matter of how severe they are. Some will be livable for the client and others one will be pretty severe. Ones you have to deal and contend with. As I said, this evaluation process is going on and will continue on through the role management phase and alternately to the point of whether your client chooses to stay or leave, or being let go as well.
This is slide 10, and says encounter stage, the organization typically responds to new comers in one of three ways: Reinforcement, Non-reinforcement, and Punishment. Your client will have expectations and the organization will have expectations, so as the client is starting into the new job, what will happen is that, based on how your client acts, how your client behaves and so forth, the organization is either going to reinforce the behaviors, isn't going to reinforce them at all, do nothing, or could possibly punish. So, hold on one second, I want to step to the side. I see slide 9 didn't download for someone. Hopefully slide number ten is showing up for that person.Let us know if slide 10 is showing up.
You want to be aware of this. What happens is that As your client is trying to fit into the organization, meet expectations and so forth, your client may be making the mark in terms of acting in a way acceptable by the employer and meeting employer's expectation or may act in a way that could actually go against what the employer would expect.
Let's say you have a client who relies on public transportation to get to work. The way that schedule is, your client might show up 15 minutes past 9:00 when the start time is supposed to be 9:00. In the interview the client talks about relying on public transportation and make sure it would be okay to arrive at 9:15 as opposed to 9:00, and would be willing to stay later in order to make that up.
Through the interviewing process it's decided that's okay, no issue. Now your client goes in and starts to work. In the beginning, showing up at 9:15, doesn't seem to be an issue there’s nothing happening no reinforcement, no one is saying anything. As time goes on, maybe some coworkers start to complain to the supervisor, why is this person showing up 15 minutes late when we have to be here at 9:00.
The supervisor says we need you to make a change, get yourself here by 9:00. If you don't, I am going to have to dock you in pay or something to that fashion. It's moved from a non reinforcement way of acting to more of a punishment. I am not saying this actually happens, but an illustration of how an employer may react. Having said initially up front it's okay, forming expectation based on that, now that your client started, things are unfolding, the expectations can sometimes change and that can lead to a different way the employer may respond to your client.
You really want to be aware of this type of situation, how to help your client navigate that situation so it doesn't turn into a punishment situation, but rather remains in more of a reinforcement situation.
Reinforcement may come in the way of a supervisor giving positive feedback to your client,, telling your client they are doing a good job, coworkers are maybe befriending the client in some way, may be a special recognition after one month on the job indicating the client is doing a good job, or there's a trial period, review done and the client passes with flying marks. Reinforcing in a positive way can come in terms of how you client is behaving and acing, through as well, through different ways such as that.
Slide 11, encounter stage. Counselor should explore with the consumer while transitioning into the job: Whether the expectations were on target; And any discrepancies in expectations of his or her supervisors, coworkers, job, organization, rewards, disability, accommodations, et cetera. Feelings about these discrepancies; Problem resolution in correcting the discrepancies, between the consumer and employer.
Now, as your client started, the job placement specialist, job coach, would want to say hey, tell me how things are going, do you feel like all have all your expectations been met so far as you have been on the job about two weeks. You will listen to what your client tells you, they will talk about the supervisor, about coworkers; talk about the job tasks, rewards and such. You want to pick up where your client may be indicating some distress around different areas in terms of oh, I really like coworkers, this person is great. I have a supervisor who is okay, had said they would be available, and I am finding he's really not around as much as I thought, but that's okay, I am able to rely on this particular coworker, it's working out all right. So in that situation we see a discrepancy, but maybe not severe because the client has another avenue to deal with getting the support necessary.
Versus, the client who hey, actually, let me hold on the negative. You will see in the case of Peter an illustration of that. In terms of dealing with the feelings, it's important to talk about what is the discrepancy but is also really important and also how your client feels about it. It's the feelings that will drive how your client reacts and whether your client will feel devastated, anxious, wanting to quit versus your client feeling excited, enthusiastic, wanting to stay. It's the feeling part that will drive what your client will do. You want to hit that piece because it will help you measure how severe the discrepancy is.
Last is trying to come up with a resolution to any discrepancies that are severe or vital to your client being successful in his or her job. I put together a step-by-step problem resolutions process you can work through with your client. We will move to slide 12. Back to the case of Peter in the countering stage. You follow-up with Peter a month into his job.
You follow up with Peter a month into his job.Peter says, "I am starting to feel frustrated about my job. I was told that I could work afternoons, but five times now my hours have been switched to the morning because of staffing problems. My supervisor keeps telling me the shifts are only temporary, but my hours have been changed again for next week. I actually approached her to reiterate what we talked about when I was hired, and she yelled at me saying if I could not be flexible then this would be a problem. One of my coworkers told me this happens all the time; in fact, he said some employees have quit because of the constant switching around. This is really hard for me because I am so drowsy in the morning. I don't want to get in trouble or quit, but I'm getting stressed out and I don't need that.
So what is the discrepancy her. When we look at this scenario obviously the discrepancy is.Whether it's an accommodation, job structure, or scheduling issue, and also an issue with flexibility of the supervisor Peter had certain expectations a schedule, now shifted and changed on him several times. The issue is Peter wasn't the aware of this switching around as part of the culture until after he started. Even though, in the interviewing process it was clearly talked about. Now that he's in there, working, moving towards becoming an insider, things are being revealed to him as indicating the coworker, who told him, this is how it happens, the way things happen all the time.
More than likely Peter wouldn't have had the opportunity to know this or talk to the supervisor -- sorry, talk to this coworker because he or she would not have been -- they wouldn't have known each other yet, so not until after the fact. This often times what happens Information leaks out over time, then your client has to decide how to handle it, deal with it, that's where you can come in to try to help your client, and in this case, Peter, figure out what is he going to do. Has the discrepancy as far as the scheduling, not working for him, we see that he's beginning to get stressed about it. This is escalating, maybe not severe yet, but could be.
The other part in terms of looking at the organization. How is the organization responding to Peter, reinforcement, non-reinforcement versus punishment. Peter spoke to the supervisor about this issue, the response was not favorable. In some respects it was a punishing response because the supervisor said hey, if you can't be flexible that's going to be a problem. We don't know what a problem means yet, but we know that's definitely not a positive. This is something we, as the professional, will help Peter work through. We will talk about that in a little bit.
Moving to the third stage, role management. The slide, 13, says, role management stage, and occurs when the employee attempts to balance the expectation discrepancies. The client will either learn or are not learn to manage his or her role. Results in leaving or staying. Process of negotiating roles may occur; As well as processing of realigning expectations may occur. Under that bullet, have any discrepancies that existed been worked out? How did I as a consumer change? How did my employer/supervisor/coworkers change? How do I feel about these changes? I have a question, please explain non-reinforcement again.
Say Peter goes to a supervisor again about requesting to make a change to his schedule, he needs something more consistent. Instead of the supervisor saying you will have to find a way to be flexible, otherwise this will be a problem, could jeopardize your job, punishment. They say "we will see what we can do." nothing happens. Nothing is done to make any sort of a change that would work for the supervisor and Peter.
It's when the supervisor doesn't react or coworkers don't react to something the client is doing. Another example would be say in a work setting where there's flexibility in terms of coming in a little late, you can stay late versus where it's very structured, you have to be there promptly at 9:00. In the flexible setting maybe Peter shows up a little late, but no one does anything about it, reacts, says anything, mad about it, just is. As opposed to the structured setting its very noticed, coworkers are gossiping about it, supervisor coming, saying we noticed you have been late three times out of the week, have to write you up. That's more of a punishment. Hopefully that clarifies it. Let me know, I would appreciate that.
For the role management stage, as Peter is uncovering these discrepancies, expectations, he's weighing out can I shift, adjust to fit in here? Versus what can't shift and adjust. The employer is doing this to some extent too. It doesn't seem like it, but to some extent, certain employers more than others, may also have wiggle room in determining, oh, this employee didn't quite match what we were expecting, but we will try to work with him, we will try and make it happen.
Basically this evaluation process continues as Peter is learning about what the discrepancies are, trying to decide can I make this work for me or not. Maybe I didn't get everything I hoped for, but I got most things, therefore I can deal with the cost of giving up, being able to work in the afternoons in the case of Peter.
But, as we can see, in Peter's case, he went to a supervisor to try to negotiate about the hours. Oftentimes there is a negotiating process that can take place, trying to get more in alignment with the expectations. That's where you, the professional can be helpful in helping your client advocate to have expectations met and maybe helping them realize what is realistic in what to expect and negotiations.
As part of that process, again we will talk about the steps for problem solving, but one thing you want to do with your client when your client's working through the role management stage, evaluating whether or not any discrepancies that existed, were that severe, if they have been worked out. Be revisiting to determine, okay, we worked on these particular discrepancies, how are we doing now? Is it resolved? Then, not only resolved, but asking your client to think about okay, how did you change as a result of that? You want to be able to highlight the positives to your client that hey, look what's happened, how you were able to make some change as a result of that, a very positive thing. And the likewise how did the employer, supervisor, coworkers change? Getting your client to think about that to see that perhaps this was a two-way exchange. Again, hopefully for the positive. Lastly, how your client feels, getting into the feeling piece, just to make sure, okay, my Klein client is at a point he feels good about the job, committed, a pretty stable situation. Again, a process you want to work through with your client.
We will move on to the next slide. We're on to slide 14, the case of Peter. We have two scenarios played out in terms of role management stage. First, the case of Peter, the first play out in terms of role management. After following up with Peter, you refer him to his psychiatrist to address his medications. Peter has depression as a disability. Peter calls you two weeks after this appointment with an update. He says, "Dr. Craig Greene was able to adjust my medications so I don't feel as drowsy in the morning now. I take medication just before bed instead of first thing in the morning. The good thing is my symptoms haven't gotten any worse. I was really worried about that. So working in the morning hasn't been a problem. I think it will be okay working these hours. I can be more flexible now, which is a good thing for this job. In fact, I told my supervisor I can be flexible and she really praised me for it.
Was the discrepancy worked out here? Most of the effort came on Peter's end of it, doing more in the background, seeing if perhaps the medication change would help with these fatigue that he would feel in the morning. In this particular situation, it obviously worked out in his favor. He didn't have to go back and further negotiate with his supervisor. Hand it not worked out. If it hadn't, you would want to work through the problem further, see what we can do to negotiate further with your supervisor without your being punished. As part of that we want an understanding of why it's so important for you to be flexible, that's part of the culture here, and perhaps one thing we can negotiate, while you might not be able to be as flexible in terms of mornings versus afternoons, you could be flexible in terms of evenings and afternoons. We can present that as negotiation with the supervisor. As opposed to You are trying to think that through with your client, how to handle the discrepancy.
After following up with Peter, you refer him to his psychiatrist to address his medication, Peter calls you two weeks with an update. He says Dr. Craig Greene adjusted my medications but I am having more problems now. I take medications just before dinner instead of first thing in the morning. I am not as drowsy, but I feel more reall depressed in the morning because the medications are wearing off. It's really making me nervous when I go to work. I feel like I am going to fail and like everyone can tell. I called in sick yesterday; I just didn't feel good at all. I really don't want to work in the morning. I'm really mad at my supervisor for lying to me during the interview. I would have not have taken this job if I knew my schedule was going to be moved all over the place.
Here we see it is a very different situation. Here it's not working out. His expectation was not met. We see signs this could lead to him quitting, as far as calling in sick, feeling more depressed, clearly angry at supervisor, and all in all, not a good situation.
Again how might we intervene, well if we go back to the previous scenario flexibility, obviously an important part of the culture, I would sit down with Peter, maybe you can't be flexible in this way, but let think about all the other ways you can be flexible you can present that to your supervisor in a positive way. Role-playing with Peter as if you were the supervisor and he was talking to you, playing out both a negative response as well as a positive response to help him better prepare ability to advocate to get what he needs.
The idea is initially he was very excited about this job. It isn't a matter of him not liking the people he's working with coworker wise or not liking the job duties, it's the scheduling. You want to see, or accommodation, see if there's another path this can be worked out with the idea being if it can be salvaged, in the end Peter will have learned a very important skill in terms of problem-solving, negotiating, and advocating on the end having a job he likes and hopefully additional confidence in himself.
Let's move to the next slide. Slide 16, we just saw this with Peter. When you are working with your clients, trying to access expectations being met, what kinds of discrepancies are taking place, again, you don't want the call after the fact, in terms of your client calling and saying I quit the job. You want to make sure you are able to be involved proactively up front before that can happen. Things you want to be mindful of, tell your client] adjusting to the work setting, there would be no absences from work. Client is not skipping work, and obviously your client isn't quitting. Your client is showing up on time. Now, bear in mind, showing up in time, there can be other reasons for that occurring. Likewise, it can be a reflection of a client having an adjustment to the new job. You want to, if that's happening, explore that in terms of why is that happening? Could it pertain to these issues or more transportation? What is it?
Your client's able to maintain good hygiene, appearance, as opposed to the declining. That's another one indicative of other things happening. A client may be decomposing, having schizophrenia or something like that. You would want to explore that.
If it is related to adjusting to the job it could an indication of I don't care about the job, doesn't matter to me, why should I care what I look like?
Other signs they are adjusting, they show enthusiasm, exciting in their voice, they speak positively about the job. Or if they call you with updates, without you calling them first some clients may be able to do it, initiative to contact you because they are excited about the job.
It seems as if they are making friends or socializing in the work setting. If they are not doing this can be a variety e of reasons, some related to the disability itself, but you would want to explore that, make sure if any of it's pertinent to my client not socializing, because Peter is angry about what's going on therefore and isolating himself from everybody else, as opposed to being the coworkers avoiding him because of the disability.
Your client is able to meet the job demands; that would be another sign the client is adjusting. This organizational citizenship, what we mean here is that when someone really likes their job, feels enthusiastic, committed about it, they oftentimes are willing to go that extra mile, so whether it's the boss says hey, would you mind staying an extra hour tonight, we're short-staffed, and so peter is like absolutely no problem, I can stay that extra hour. Can you help with this additional task, the employer is and client is excite about trying to go the extra mile, the client feels committed to the place -- he's working, so that’s an indication that he's adjusting as well.
Then, acceptance of doing undesirable tasks, that means, that's the cost benefits or cost rewards, and here we are speaking of I got everything I like, there's one thing I am not really crazy about in terms of this job, but I am willing to put up with that, I feel like everything else here.
These are things that you can look for in your client that we give you clues as to whether or not the client is adjusting or not. If it's the opposite, okay, something is going on here. I need to be getting more involved, how does it relate to these discrepancies, expectations, so forth, maybe we need to start the problem solving check list.
I’m just going to look at the public chat. We have a comment here: I think it's great Peter is even calling to update you on his situations, many times the client does not call until losing the job. Exactly, that's what we were saying earlier as far as you want to avoid that. Your role in terms of clients and really enforcing are really focusing on the importance on the communication job bees, s, the experience of that communication is critically important. You want to instill that, do practicing with that, before the client has gotten a job, maybe the client is looking, having them call you with updates around that.
Role-playing around this situation happens, expectations aren't met, you start to feel like you want to skip work, show up on time, things like that, and so basically let's play out how you can handle that before you would quit. What are the steps that would need to happen before you quit that job? By putting that plan in place. Before you put that plan in place, hopefully the plan will call you. By the same token you want to put yourself --
I will take one other question. What was organizational citizenship again? Okay, organizational citizenship means you have a job. Think about your own job you have, the jobs you do, think about bare minimum that required of you.. The functional demands of your job. Think about a time you were asked to participate in a project that would help your agency get further ahead. Not written into the job description, not a part of typical duties, but because you feel motivated about your employer, excited, committed, you are wanting to be a part of that project; go that extra step, help out. It matters to you. You like the employer, what you do, get a sense of enjoyment and pride. You go the extra mile, do the extra task, work the extra hour, because you really like what you are doing. You won't see anybody doing that who hates their job. Those people will be out the door at 5:00 on the nose. These are people they really, really like what they are doing, willing to do extra for the employer. It's an indication, if your client does that, stays, helps the coworker having trouble with computer, helped on never worked on this manufacturing line before, I was willing to try it out because they were short-handed. You hear the client saying things that seem to be going above and beyond what's expected, that's telling you the client is adjusting. I hope I answered that clearly. You are welcome to let me know.
We talked about signs your client is adjusting to the organization and also signs the organization is accepting the client. If there's a probationary period, the client passes with flying marks, maybe not just bare minimum, actually excels, does well, there's a positive review of your clients, and not just in terms of the job duties. Again, we think about the culture, it's also fitting in, being able to blend in with other people.
Down the road there is a salary increase, Maybe probationary rise, you get a bump or small increase in salary. maybe be it's been six months, employer can have the client take on another role. You see the employer looking to expand the role of your clients, because beginning to have belief in your client's capability. Other things, organizational secrets are shared. This is information that is unwritten, not in a procedure manual, it speaks to relationships that go on between coworkers that you are not aware of when you first start, but as you are accepted more into the organization you begin to have access to those secrets. Sometimes it can gossip. Gossip to some extent can have truth in it, there's a lot of untruth, but there can be some truth in it, your client may not have access to any of that, then begin to get access.
An example of, secret might be, say your has the supervisor appears to be very powerful, good -- the one who makes all the decisions. But the client is beginning to see, it's actually the secretary -- if you want to get anything done here you have to go through the secretary. The secretary is the one that has the connection with the supervisor. If I don't work it with the secretary I will never get anywhere. Through sharing, coworkers sharing secrets like that your client becomes or develops an understanding of what has to happen to be successful in the work setting.
There may be initiation rites, having you join us at lunch, joining us at lunch, you have technically passed the test to be accepted as an insider. It may come in the form of a party of some kind, maybe a special recognition, but it would indicate hey, we think you are doing okay and like what you are doing, therefore we now are telling you we accept you.
Lastly, a promotion, probably won't happen for a while, but oftentimes an issue for clients with disabilities. Even if the client is accepted, seen as doing a very good job there's oftentimes a ceiling effect that hinders the promotion potential because the employer may see the client doing well in one job role, but have difficulty seeing the client moving up in a more advanced capacity. So, I want to make sure you are aware that can happen, and that might be something you want to help your client work through, even though the employer may feel confident, go back to negotiate the promotion. I will talk about that during the next Webinar in September, if you are interested, September 2.
We will move to the next slide.
Slide 18. Using the Stages of Socialization model in terms of service delivery, talking about that I want to bring your attention to a couple of handouts. One you have, if you don't mind typing in the public chat where they can access the handout. What are my job expectations? It's a tool that you can use to walk through the different stages and talking about discrepancies with the client.
Slide 18 says using the SOS is service delivery, and there are approximately seven bullets. First says walk through the expectations prior to and shortly after organizational entry. Review behaviors that are reinforced, not reinforced and punished by the organization. Assess reality of expectations based on specific facts and observation of the work setting. Identify discrepancies between expectations and reality. Measure the level of importance of each discrepancy to the consumer; Problem solve step-by-step those discrepancies considered to be more critical; and involve the employer when possible after first addressing it with your consumer.
Again I want to emphasis that it is important that you client have an understanding that you need to be aware that you are going to form these expectation before you go into the job. Some of these will be accurate, some inaccurate, and [indiscernible] excuse me one second.
By helping your client understand the process, will certainly help him or her deal with the initial entry into the job much better. Simply educating the client about this process is a benefit. Then, obviously, when your client started the job you want to talk with your client in terms of what clients are noticing, behaviors that seem to be reinforced versus those that are not, and those that are punished. It may be behaviors your client has actually done or behaviors your client observed in other coworkers. The idea is to have a discussion around as you are working Peter, tell me about what is it the supervisor seems to support you are doing? When are you praised by the supervisor? What have you done to receive praise. What have you done where the supervisor didn't do anything? Coworkers didn't do anything but seems okay for you to do? Has there ever been a time where maybe the boss reprimanded you, yelled at awe about something, tried to correct you in the way you were doing your work. Let's talk about that part of it. By the way, Peter, have you noticed any of this with respect to your other coworkers? What are you observing in them?
The ideas here is by having your client explore this, it will help them better understand what’s acceptable vs what is not acceptable and how that relates to his or her expectations. You can talk about expectations in relation to the different categories, if you look at the handout I have them listed in the last column. Job duties, rewards, benefits, coworker relationships, supervisor relationships, so on. Disability considerations so forth.
I can walk you through, talking about expectations, Peter saying oh it seems like they shift the schedule all the time. That's not what I expected.
You want to make sure you ask Peter, how do you know that, tell me what's happening? What are you observing there's this shift all the time? I don't know, just happens. You want him to be able to support what he's saying, especially if you are in the background, be clear this is actually happening. Look, I have been shifted five times. Do other people seem to get shifted around as well.
Yeah, talking to coworker, been there three years, they have done that to him the entire time. Now you have the fact to support what Peter is telling you in terms of expectations. That's important, if you are problem solving you want to deal with a real situation.
Identifying discrepancies between expectation versus the reality, and as Peter is laying out, the discrepancies that occurred, have him measure how important they are. He might say oh, I thought I would be able to take a lunch break at 12, now it's 12:30. That's okay, no big deal. Versus the issue of morning versus afternoon. You want to get a level of the importance of the discrepancies, and the severe ones are those that you are obviously going to hone in, help with problem-solving.
When possible, it is important to try to have the employer involved. A lot of times you will have to do work from the background, as we saw with Peter. Could it be resolved with a medication change to so that he could then meets the expectation of the employer. If that's not possible, it's important to make it a process that's positive between the employer and the consumer what that does is Reinforces the relationship between the supervisor and the consumer and the communication. If you are able to be involved, you can help model the good communication needed to make sure these discrepancies don't become problem.
All right, to point out, what you have on the handout, the categories, different areas of discrepancies. To the right of that are columns. The first says pre-arrival stage, encounter stage, role management stage. The idea is to have your client think through each area in terms of discrepancies, expectations about that. For example, if I take the area of coworker relationships, maybe your client was told we will set you up with a mentor. We have a mentoring program, it's been great, benefit in terms of learning the ropes. We will set you up with that, within the first week or so when you start your job. Peter starts, and the first week goes by, no mentor; second week, no mentor yet. Third week comes, finally the mentor comes, but the coworker isn't all that available to see Peter at all. It's not really panning out the way the employer presented it to be. You could say this would be a coworker relationship between the client and person assigned as mentor, you might want to explore if it's a big issue for Peter.
Let's move on, I want to make sure we get through the remaining slides.
Slide 19, step-by-step resolution to expectation discrepancies. The bullets say: Weigh the different solutions for critical discrepancies in relation to organizational reactions; Have the consumer identify pros and cons of each solution; Have the consumer rate numerically the favorability of each solution in terms of feasibility and outcome; solidify the solutions of choice as it relates to staying or leaving the organization; Design an effective tactic for approaching the supervisor, where, when, what, how? An lastly, implement solution and revaluate over time.
If you have a problem with the scheduling conflict, you obviously want to talk to Peter about all the possible solutions. Obviously, he could quit. Number two would be to try to negotiate with the supervisor. Number three would be trying to shift the medications. Another would be is there another role in the library could do, more stabilized hours. There are four solutions right there, but I am sure you can think of additional solutions. Map them all out, have Peter weigh out the pros and cons of each of these in terms of what might be the most effective solution to try first, in rank ordering, which way we want to go.
Hopefully it's not quitting. Hopefully it would be, again, whether it's the medication shift, putting the negotiating supervisor first. In some cases, if it's just such a horrible situation it may have to be simply quitting, but ideally you want to work through the other solutions, if you can, first.
Then, as you have had Peter rate the pros and cons, numerically, which one he would want to go for first, which will likely get him the out come he is looking for the second versus the third.
What you are doing is helping him put together a plan of action in terms of problem solving through. This is actually a skill that will not only benefit him here, but it will benefit him in the future when other situations come up. As we know, in organization things change all the time. New supervisor, new management, can completely shift expectations altogether.
So, then once you have them rate them, you want to solidify that choice and look at -- what's the impact staying here could have versus leaving the organization. Having him look at his choice as it relates to the outcomes in terms of staying or leaving the organization.
Next to that I wanted to point out, it's important when your talking about a problem resolution include in the discussion about if you are going to go talk to your supervisor, think about the best way to do that. You want to optimize your chance of getting what you needs. The way to do that is approaching your employer in the ideal condition. What we mean is where is the best place to talk with your boss? When have you had the best conversations with your boss? In the office? Out on the floor In the teacher's lounge? Where have you had those best conversations? That's maybe the best place to have it. When? If you boss is really busy earlier in the day you don't want to approach then because they are not as willing to listen. Pick a time that's optional, in terms of what you are going to say, thinking about your approach, is this a boss where you can be direct or need the indirect approach. Let's talk about what you are going to say in terms of contact to supervisor. Then how you are going to say it you don't go in and say I want this, want it now. You think about delivery, tone of voice, to increase your odds of, obviously, getting the more stabilized schedule.
You want to talk through each of the points as it relates to approaching the supervisor. And then obliviously at that point you will leave it for Peter to hopefully go on his own, have a discussion, you come back, reevaluate in terms of how that went. I have been talking about this with the idea of you being more in the background, helping Peter to negotiate, navigate the process on his own. I recognize some of you, especially job coaches, needing do this yourself. This process can work two-fold. Obviously, whether it's you going in with Peter, or Peter on his own.
I want to point out another handout at the site called planning for the future. That handout, basically , this is going beyond dealing with discrepancies, here and now, as Peter makes his way into this new job. Also getting Peter to think about, okay, things seem to be working out, but what are potential changes that could happen down the pike? How would you go about handling those changes, again, that can shift your expectation. This is just another handout you can utilize at your disposal with your clients.
We have, I want to do 10 more minutes and leave some room for questions you may have. I want to turn directions here and in talking about expectations, I talked about this a little bit in the previous webcast about workplace culture , it's important to reiterate here. How you can best identify the work setting, helping your client make the best match possible. You will never have it perfect because employers are presenting the ideal information, and you don't have access because you are an outsider. It's not until you become an insider that things become revealed to you. Nevertheless, I think there are things we can do to help gather more information than perhaps what we are now that can be of benefit to the clients. Here we are talking about, when you are in the job-seeking phase, doing job development, you have to be a professional. If you're building relationships with employers, you are a very important resource to your client. As far as really getting to understanding what the work setting will be like, what the culture is all about and the job role. So you want to make the most of that relationship with those employers to get as much information as you can. So whether it's happening when you initially meet with an employer and it's a get-acquainted kind of situation, you want to make sure you are not asking about job duties, but the work setting in terms of what it's like there, what's the feel of the organization, things like that.
You may even, some, depending on -- some rehab settings, the tool of a job analysis could be used if time allows, of course. I would say maybe you are going out for a specific consumer looking at a particular job and want to conduct a job analysis to evaluate not only the specifics about the job in terms of physical function, cognitive, temperaments, but again is the disability firmly -- is it team-oriented, more individually, make notes as you are doing a job analysis, so this is information you can give back to consumers when talking about places to apply, helping the client to form accurate expectations.
Another way you can gather some of this information, if you are not actually contacting the employer, you are doing more of jobs that are public domain. Obviously your client can go to a Target, you can, without talking to your supervisor, walk around, get a lay of the land, a feel of how things are done there that will obviously give good information to your client as far as whether or not this could be a good setting to work in. Another tool that can be useful is job shadowing. If you are able to set up for your client, maybe your client is considering working in a doctor's office, you are able to arrange with connections you have for your client the to go to two different employers and shadow some of the people in the office to get a sense of what it would be like in that type of setting.
This can obviously give good information to your client. I encourage you to do with employers who are advertising. Say I realize you are advertising, you are presenting, trying to have the person with the consumer so you can always say. You can say, one thing is if my client could come out and visit, maybe an our or two, give you a chance to get to see him or her, while at the same time giving my client a chance to make an assessment as to whether or not it would be a good fit. That's another way you can gather information beyond a newspaper add. Obviously your client will be gathering information during the interview. I encourage you to help you client to what goes beyond the job duties. I help clients think about how the workers work together, what coworkers outside work together? Trying to get a sense of what goes beyond the job duty says, and also, volunteering doing intern experiences. Information you can share with your consumers.
It's important if you are doing job development, obviously you will keep information about your employers, but you really want to make sure you're documenting, whether on an Excel spreadsheet, hard copy files of employers; have a place where you can store this information about employers, so as you work with clients you can pull it out, look at that in terms of a potential setting for client to determine if it's a good match.
This talks about once your client is hired, obviously the client will be gathering information, whether a two-day formal training or an informal training process. Going through inform process where there is not formal training. Your client is going through and Maybe the client starts talking to coworkers, other people in the work setting, begins do gather information about what it means to work there.
Let me go back. That slide, matching expectations, post-employment. Orientation and training, during formal training; during informal socialization and under that time needed to become proficient in the job; earlier on is better for later on.
During post-employment support services. Your client will gathering information during formal training through informal solicitation, again chit chat going on, gossip that occurs. It's important for your client to understand that time will be need in other words to become proficient at the job. It's important for the client to understand, be talking with the supervisor as well as other coworkers. talk with others, how long before you got a handle on how to do this? Or asking the supervisor, what's your expectation of when someone should be up to full par in this role? You want the client to have an understanding of that, it helps clarify expectations.
The earlier on as far as understanding these expectations] the better your client will be able to navigate for later on. That is really important. Obviously, any kind of follow-up job coaching, not only is the client gathering information, but you will want to observe for all of this, not only current client, but also for other potential clients in the future.
The next slide, matching expectations; who are the expert? Here we have HR representatives, frontline managers, coworkers, if possible a higher level manager, former employees, other professionals , client networking contact, client on the job, and your site visit observation, expectation, different people can access to get information from. I do encourage you, if you have networks with other rehabilitation professionals in your area, you really want to be tapping into that to learn about the those employers], maybe job leads aren't shared. I know there's a network where I work Nation Placement Network. there's a job lead at such is and such. I would encourage you to go beyond, say here's a lead, let me tell you what this place is like, because I have worked with them before, give a real feel of what that might be like. So you can benefit off one another in terms of helping a client find jobs.
Obviously your client, if your client has friends working, talk with them about what it's like to work there. That's very helpful. Obviously once your client has started the job, your client's going to become quite an expert, but you want to make sure you are talking with the client so they can make sense of it and you yourself, making observations.
All right, Slide 23. The last thing I want to talk with you about today, it's important, we don't focus much on this in our profession, but what we call realistic job previews. Matching expectations, realistic job preview, three bullets: A tool used by employers to educate job seekers and the workplace; portrays the strengths and rewards, weaknesses and challenges of the employment setting; allows job seeker to make educated decision about applying.
Employers inflate information about their organization when they are advertising and looking to hire and recruit. Again, they are demonstrating the best pieces of the organization. But what the research shows is that's not beneficial. It's better to be realistic about what the environment is like in terms of pros and cons When they present both sides of the information, they are more likely to hire people that are a better fit, more inclined to stay.
That means if your client's at all looking at jobs where realistic job previews are presented they will get at least a little bit better information in terms of strengths, weaknesses, reward and challenges of what it will be like for that setting. They have more to work with as opposed to the employer who does not utilize realistic job preview.
Then basically tell you a little about amounts about what that is, not nothing you are going to do, but I think as professionals it's something we can advocate for when out there, doing job development with employers, saying that this is a tool that is found to be helpful to employers in making a good match. Is beneficial to employer and also beneficial employee hired, of which of course are going to be some of my consumers let me go to, to the next slide tell you a little about what they are.
Basically a realistic job preview can be a number of methods. It stems beyond basic job duties. It gets a bit more into what the workplace culture is, what the temperament of the work setting are, of the setting, talks about the values, philosophy, how that's carried out in the organization.
They will often reflect some of the negative aspects of the job you might not see in the job description. The multiple formats I will talk about in the next slide. By doing this, they inflate on realistic expectations, meaning that when I as a job seeker am reading g about a job or listening to a preview, I am more inclined to make an expectation about that, and compare to whether it's good for me or not. By doing that it helps reduce job failure, anxiety about starting the job. What will happen, the client will get hired, the student is going to be better, the expectation will be exactly [indiscernible]
All right. Slide 25. The types of realistic job previews, RJPs, video presentations, online video clips, online/hard copy description and brochures; work simulations; on the job samples; automated job information telephone systems, I don't think you [indiscernible] you can do a Google search on realistic job previews, you can find employers with video clips. They oftentimes not only have a supervisor talking, but may have coworkers as well. That's helpful it gives you different perspectives.
They may have you watch a video when you go for an interview that speaks to the culture, the expectations they have of you. On line or hard copy brochure, obviously a written description that gives you all the information we have been talking about. Work simulations are where they would let you go in, observe, see, much like job shadowing, you go in and see a demonstration of the work itself, how it's done, carried out.
Likewise, an on the job sample, kind of the same thing, actually. Technically, the telephone and brochures, not as effective as video presentation, but of all of these, the best is work simplulation and on the job sample. That actually gets the person in to see live what's happening, as opposed to the brochure which is just written information. Obviously if a work simulation is done that would be even better for your client.
I will end, have highlighted some URLs of realistic job previews that exist. One being Shell, a human service agency and Bell South. I welcome you to take a look to be more familiar with that. Also, as your clients seek work, you might want to look, see if there's a preview your client can have access to.
All right. With that, said, I will take any questions anybody has or comments. I should mention there's one other handout, called realistic -- tips for -- it's a summary of the realistic job preview.
The floor is open for questions. Are there any questions at this time? If so, you can type them in the public chat.
Steffany: Well, great. This is Steffany I hope you got all your questions answered. I would like to thank Dr. Mitus for her presentation today. If your questions were not answered or you think of questions later, you can contact Dr. Mitus on the slide showing now, send her an e-mail, and she will respond to your e-mails. Okay, next slide.
Thank you very much. You have the contact information for our TACE center before you. We encourage you to keep an alliance and communicate your needs. That would be very, very helpful. Thank you, Dr. Jamie Mitus, we appreciate your expertise. A transcription, along with handouts will be posted on the TACE website within two weeks of the session. You can find that at TACEsoutheast.org. Please remember to complete your evaluation of today’s session. This session has been approved for CEU credits. Remember to complete your evaluation, your feedback is very important to continued planning so we can address your specific needs and concerns.
As all presentations that offer so much information, if there are other questions that bubble up you don't think about at the time, if your questions were not answered, feel free to contact TACE from at 866 866-518-7750, or e-mail at TACEsoutheast@law.syr.edu. With that I will bring this session to a close. We look forward to your participation in future sessions. Have a great day. Good-bye.
[Event Concluded July 8, 2009]