At Arvo, our clients understand that one of the keyways to increase your WOTC credits is to increase the number of WOTC eligible employees you hire. To do this, you can’t just depend on eligible candidates walking through your doors. In this blog post we want to give you 3 tips you can immediately put in place to improve the number of WOTC eligible candidates your company hires.
#1 WORK YOUR WOTC ELIGIBLE LIST
For staffing firms it’s imperative that you are screening for WOTC at the application stage if you want to achieve maximum results. By screening candidates at application, you now have a list of candidates that are both qualified for work assignments but also who are WOTC eligible. What this means is within your ATS system (with the right integration) or using the Arvo client portal you will be able to have a WOTC eligible list of candidates. You will want to ensure your recruiters are reviewing this list either in their daily or weekly huddles or in real time and selecting the candidates first that are both qualified and WOTC eligible for the assignment. By doing this you are increasing the number of WOTC eligible employees that you have working and ultimately increasing your potential WOTC credit.
#2 JOB FAIRS AT MILITARY BASES
Generally, once per month military bases have job fairs for soldiers that are exiting from the military. This is to help them find a way to transition into civilian life smoothly, which is an incredible opportunity for your organization. You can reach out to their Transition Assistance Program (TAP) office or the Family Readiness Center to inquire about upcoming job fair events and to register your organization. It will be important for your organization to have materials displaying all the advantages you offer to veterans. Also be sure your representative understands the needs of the soldier so they can connect and build rapport. Finally be sure to have a way for candidates to complete the WOTC survey whether its electronically or via a paper form. In doing this you give your organization an incredible opportunity to recruit very qualified and a dependable group of candidates.
#3 PARTNER WITH NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
Partnering with a non-profit organization can provide you with a mutually beneficial relationship. Non-profits many times are helping the same WOTC population that you should be targeting such as veterans, ex-felons, individuals receiving government assistance, and unemployed individuals. The benefit of partnering with a non-profit is that they are typically providing education and training that can make eligible candidates more attractive to staffing firms and their clients. They also usually have the same goal of helping these individuals to gain employment and build an even better life. The key will be to establish a streamlined process for the non-profit to refer potential WOTC eligible candidates to your firm. This can involve creating a referral form or system that could include WOTC screening. You may want to offer an incentive to the non-profit which could be a financial incentive or other forms of support that align with the non-profit’s missions and goals. Incentives can motivate them to actively participate in your WOTC program by referring eligible candidates to your staffing firm.
FINAL THOUGHTS
By implementing these 3 tips, you will dramatically increase the number of WOTC eligible candidates your staffing firm is placing on assignment resulting in increased WOTC credits. At Arvo, we work with our clients to implement best practices just like these and more so that we can help you to optimize your WOTC program resulting in you getting the greatest potential of credits possible. Be sure to reach out to us today so that you don’t leave money on the table.