Have you considered what the Mesa County Workforce Center in Grand Junction could do for your business? At a time when it’s difficult to recruit and retain staff, free resources from the center are more valuable than ever.

According to Curtis Englehart, director of the  Mesa County Workforce Center, here are some of the things complimentary services and programs can do for you:

Help you write job descriptions that target the skills your business needs. Too often, job descriptions are written in ways in which many potential applicants don’t see themselves as candidates. The descriptions could include too many qualifications or come across as too specific or too vague. Adding flexibility to your job descriptions increases the pool of applicants. 

Offer skills and personality assessments to ensure a better fit once you’ve developed a short list of candidates for a position. The Mesa County Workforce Center has a tested list of more than 900 prove-its to verify candidates actually have the skills they claim. In addition, the center offers the National Career Readiness certificate — a nationally recognized, evidence-based, work-ready skills assessment to further qualify your work force.

Provide financial support for on-the-job training. Sometimes the right employee doesn’t possess all the skills you need, but still constitutes a good fit for your company. Wouldn’t it be nice to get some financial support to pay part of the new hire’s salary during on-the-job training? You hire the employee you want, provide them with an opportunity to learn the skills you need and get some financial incentives. Financial support also is available for paid internships. Englehart said the center served nearly 500 individuals through this program last year. 

Post job openings. The Mesa County Workforce Center participates in a statewide labor exchange platform located at www.connectingcolorado.com on which employers post job openings. In addition, the center can notify job seekers in its data base with the skills you seek about your job openings. Employers also have the ability to look up these job seekers by creating an employer account. Job posting and matching services are supplemented by job fairs and hiring events. You can have the center tailor a hiring event for your company or join with other employers in events hosted and marketed by the center.

Provide skills workshops and improvement services. Too often, potential new hires lack the critical skills needed for your job opening or company culture. The Mesa County Workforce Center can develop or tailor many types of training to help you fill these gaps. If the center doesn’t offer what you need, there’s the possibility of finding or developing a new program or course. Last year, the offered 36 unique workshops to a total of 486 participants.

Partner with Colorado Mesa University to connect you with soon-to-be or recent graduates and alumni to fill job openings. Visit the website at https://mcwfc.us/aim-higher-get-hired to connect with a work force development liaison.

For those looking for jobs, the Mesa County Workforce Center offers access to technology in a resource room as well as skills development training through tailored or general sessions. Other services include workshops in resume writing, job interviewing, job search techniques and effective social networking. That’s not to mention the job openings posted on www.connectingcolorado.com.

In the event you need to lay off staff, the Mesa County Workforce Center offers free resources to those employees, including counseling, resume support and hiring activities.

For more information about the Mesa County Workforce Center, call 248-7560 or visit www.mcwfc.us.