Partnership with the Cleveland Clinic

As the largest employer in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland Clinic regularly receives requests from various social service agencies seeking to market their job seeking populations.  As a committed community partner, Cleveland Clinic approached The Cleveland/Cuyahoga Workforce Investment Board and Employment Connection (EC) to assist in the management of these requests in a way that would appropriately address the needs of the job seeking populations.  Employment Connection was asked to serve as the exclusive agent for social service agencies with job seekers interested in working in the healthcare environment.   EC accepted the opportunity and is meeting the challenge through an innovative and successful business model, the Career Advancement Skills (CAS) Workshop.

The Career Advancement Skills Workshop, an innovative and successful business model, is a hybrid recruitment/contextual training program for entry level job seekers  CAS seeks to alleviate the healthcare worker shortage in Northeast Ohio by developing a talented and “job ready” workforce for our healthcare employers. 

Job seekers, who have an interest and perhaps some training/skills in healthcare, are screened and then engaged as participants for the CAS.  Through a curriculum of leadership skills and soft skills, which was designed in partnership with Cleveland Clinic, Tri-C, Employment Connection, Jennings Center for Older Adults, and Eliza Bryant Village, job seekers are given insight into the expectations and requirements of healthcare employers in the area.  During the five-day workshop, participants are also provided job readiness, job search skills, career counseling and others information needed to advance in careers in healthcare. 

On day four of the workshop, healthcare employer representatives participate and a pre-recruitment process takes place.  Human Resource representatives from hospitals and long term care facilities meet the job seekers, talk about their workplaces, pre-screen and recruit job candidates.  This model allows the employer to more thoroughly screen applicants and provides the job seeker an additional benefit in their search for a job in the healthcare field.  The model has been so successful that other area healthcare providers have joined the initiative including; MetroHealth Medical System; Southwest General Health Center. 

“This collaboration between Cleveland Clinic and the Employment Connection has resulted in positive opportunities for many job seekers in Northeast Ohio,” said Reginald Stover, Chief Talent Officer at Cleveland Clinic. “Our culture has benefited greatly from the addition of the employees we’ve added through CAS as many of them are role models in their pursuit of ongoing career advancement. To date, the CAS hires have a 95 percent retention rate at Cleveland Clinic.”

The CAS workshop program has a job placement rate of 75%.  Cleveland Clinic alone has hired 39 CAS workshop graduates to date.  An additional 111 CAS workshop participants were hired by other employers in Northeast Ohio.   CAS has emerged as a local best practice business model by demonstrating creative techniques to engage employers and foster collaboration.  With equal investment in and agreement on a final goal, Employment Connection is meeting the human capital needs of our healthcare employers.  The CAS workshop is recognized as a proven business model by Cleveland Clinic and other engaged healthcare organizations. 

Initially, Employment Connection had limited capacity to execute the program and was only able to run four workshops per quarter.  The ARRA allowed for expansion of this effective program through the hiring of workshop facilitator staff to increase capacity.   The CAS workshop is now offered twice a month at two locations within the county.  This stimulus-funded program expansion has allowed us to more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of a local demand industry, healthcare, and provide quality service to our job seeking population.