Zoom: OmniRide Employer Council: ZPTR-9084 - jstainsby@omniride.com

Participant: Wordly [W] English (US)

[>> W] We can go ahead and get started, Joe.
[>> W] Okey dokey.
[W] Give me one second here.
[>> W] Just a couple more people in the waiting room.
[W] Three more.
[>> W] All right.
[W] We can.
[W] We can go ahead and get started.
[W] So let's get this recorded.
[W] We are going to be recording this today.
[W] To get a notification about that.
[W] All right.
[W] So very very good morning to everybody.
[W] My name is Joe Stainsby.
[W] I'm the chief development officer for Omniride.
[W] And I want to take a second here at the beginning of this meeting to thank everyone for coming to our third and final Mobility Council meeting for spring 2026.
[W] Thanks to all those of you who've been at the other two.
[W] We have great content for you today.
[W] Sarah and Gabby have done a great job of pulling everyone together and making this useful for you guys.
[W] So thank you all for being here.
[W] It is being recorded.
[W] There will be transcript and a video of this meeting available on our website and also on our YouTube page.
[W] First things first, I want to drag everyone's attention to our worldly, which is our our live translation software.
[W] I think you have.
[W] There we go.
[W] Sarah's putting up a slide with a link for that.
[W] There's a link in the chat there.
[W] You can click on that link.
[W] It live transcribes everything that everybody is saying.
[W] You can choose it in Spanish.
[W] You can have multiple different versions of Spanish, Spanish, Spanish, American, Spanish, whatever you would like.
[W] Also, I believe up to 40 different languages available at this point, not the ten that you see on that slide.
[W] So you can do a live translation if you need that.
[W] And if not, then just sit back and relax and everything's good.
[W] So anyway, as I said, this is the spring 2026 version of the Employer Council.
[W] These councils, there's three of them.
[W] There's the Vanpool Council, there's the employer council, and then there is the Hispanic Council, which actually met last Friday.
[W] The Vanpool Council met last night.
[W] They form three legs of kind of our our stool of somewhat community outreach.
[W] So in 2019, we went through a strategic planning process to look at ways that we could improve our service and improve how we work with the community.
[W] And one of the big outcomes of that was that, you know, we needed to pivot from an organization of telling the community what to do, they want to do, as opposed to listening to what the community wants to do and then trying to do that.
[W] So community engagement was something that we were challenged by our board to do.
[W] And one aspect of that was these mobility councils.
[W] So, you know, to that point, these are your councils.
[W] You know, Sarah and Gabby do an amazing job of of putting together useful content and keeping it interesting for you guys.
[W] Please participate and attend.
[W] And I thank you all for that.
[W] Because if you didn't, then we would all be here talking to ourselves.
[W] And that would be extremely awkward.
[W] So that is that's everything I have for this morning.
[W] It's over to you, Sarah.
[>> W] Good morning.
[W] Thanks for joining us.
[W] My name is Sarah McGowan.
[W] I'm the transportation demand management program manager at Omniride.
[W] That's a mouthful here today as well is Gabby Serrato.
[W] She's Omniride TDM specialist.
[W] We work with employers here in Prince William County, the city of Manassas and Manassas Park to identify alternative commuting options for employers to provide to their employees and other clients other than riding in a car alone.
[W] So taking the bus or carpooling, vanpooling and the like.
[W] Safe, reliable transportation is a key to employee recruitment and retention, and Prince William has some great options.
[W] It's local busses are free, and Omniride actually has a ride share program that we're going to be telling you a little bit about before we go into more depth about our transportation programs, a little housekeeping, we are going to do a short, very short presentation on what we can do for you, and then we will hear from Sergio Vaca from Mueller, as well as Bobby Mahoney from Virginia Career works and Northern.
[W] And we will leave time for questions after each speaker.
[W] Just raise your hand if you have a question.
[W] We'll call on you.
[W] You can unmute yourself or we can do it for you.
[W] And we again, as Joe said, we want this to be nice and interactive.
[W] So here we go.
[W] Gabby, you want to share a little bit about the rideshare program?
[>> W] Awesome.
[W] So my name is Gabby Serrato.
[W] I'm a specialist and I oversee the ride matching program, which essentially is one of the mobility services Omniride offers to individuals who are looking for a sustainable and cost effective commuting options.
[W] Through our program, commuters can submit an application.
[W] It is super user friendly.
[W] They can either submit it through Omniride website or commuter Connection's website.
[W] And once the application is submitted, I use the Commuter Connections database to identify potential matches based on similar commuter routes, work locations, and schedules, and preferences.
[W] In addition to making those connections, we also provide commuters with informative, available incentive resources and also other commuter resources that might be available for them.
[W] If you guys have any questions about the program, please send me a message and I will be more than happy to answer those questions.
[W] And yeah, back to Sarah.
[>> W] All right.
[W] So in addition to our ride match program, as I said, we work with employers to create and expand transportation options that they're able to offer to their employees.
[W] So, you know, whether that we're working with you to identify bus stops near your offices so that folks can take our free local busses, showing them how to take the local busses, helping with ride matching, or helping employers think through a hybrid work schedule.
[W] Having these options improves the workplace, helps reduce turnover, and can assist with recruitment.
[W] Usually we work with human resource staff to identify what would work best for them, and then we can help human resources promote it.
[W] Some of the ways that we do this is through lunch and learns.
[W] We can table at your health and wellness fairs, transportation fairs.
[W] Earth day events is a great time to start thinking about alternative modes of transportation.
[W] And we can also come out to your employee benefits fairs.
[W] Some partnership examples that we've done this year.
[W] You know, I mentioned I touched on showing folks how to use our busses and this can be for maybe your clients.
[W] You can see here we did a travel training with a nonprofit called beacon.
[W] We came out and did a classroom presentation on how to read schedules, where the busses go, things like that.
[W] And then we brought out one of our busses actually so people could get on.
[W] We showed how you can identify where the bus is going, how to, you know, pull the cord to make the bus stop, how to bring your bike onto a bus, those types of things.
[W] We also did that with Georgetown South for some of their residents.
[W] We partnered with the city of Manassas this past fall to declare September Car Free Day, and we hosted our first ride, the Bus.
[W] We had folks meet us at a bus stop and took them for a half hour ride along.
[W] It was a lot of fun.
[W] And then we've done some more traditional outreach.
[W] We've worked with George Mason University to table at their welcome fair, where we showed bus routes to staff and students, as well as tabled at their Meet the coaches event.
[W] So it doesn't matter.
[W] You know, it's just anytime you're getting a group of folks together, we can come out and table.
[W] So this is last week launched our third year doing this.
[W] It's we are very invested in our Best Workplaces for commuters program.
[W] It's a national designation.
[W] But locally here in Northern Virginia, a lot of the jurisdictions have kind of made an effort to get local employers on board and get them what this designation, the year is a small cost, but we cover that for two years.
[W] We also help employers to qualify for it, and we can pretty much work with you to submit your application.
[W] It helps you stand out from other businesses and kind of shows that you care about your employees.
[W] Some of the ways you could qualify are having hybrid or remote work.
[W] Vanpool benefits, bike racks, bike storage if you have an EV charging station in a parking lot, and then like if you are in a, a place that has some on site amenities like restaurants, daycares, fitness centers.
[W] This year, you can see these folks receive the designation and we honor them at our board meeting in March.
[W] You might recognize some of the businesses advanced Program analytics.
[W] City of Manassas.
[W] George Mason, micron, both in Nova Community College campuses.
[W] We qualified Potomac Mills Mall, did as well as systems planning and analysis.
[W] If that is something that interests you, please leave your information in the chat and we'll reach out and we can help you with that.
[W] Again, you know, we also host these councils.
[W] If you're interested in speaking, please reach out and let us know.
[W] We're always looking for interesting speakers and see here.
[W] Oops.
[W] I need to stop sharing here.
[>> W] All right.
[>> W] Gabby, would you like to introduce our first speaker?
[>> W] Thank you.
[W] Sarah.
[W] So our first guest speaker is Sergio, AKA.
[W] He is the source and business partner with Mueller.
[W] He works closely with workforce and community partners to connect them with opportunities.
[W] So please join us.
[>> W] Yep.
[>> W] Thanks for the introduction, Gabby, and thank you for having me.
[W] Both you, Gabby and Sarah.
[W] So I want to, first of all, introduce the company that I work for, but also the services and kind of also shine a light on how our services sort of help improve the, our communities, right?
[W] Where we live, where we live, where we commute to work, right.
[W] So let's start with introduction of the company, right?
[W] So I work for Mueller Inc. we're actually a civil construction company based in Manassas, Virginia, and Reston, Virginia.
[W] The type of work that we do, it's anything I always like to joke around and say, we do everything that you don't see once the construction is completed.
[W] So we don't do vertical building, we don't build the building that you're working on, but we do all the underground infrastructure, all the underground utilities.
[W] When you turn on the faucet, that water has to travel through some sort of pipes or underground utilities to get to you.
[W] Right?
[W] So that is what we install.
[W] That's what is what we repair.
[W] And so everything that we do, it's basically underground.
[W] Think of, you know, what utilities, your storm, your water, your sewer lines.
[W] That's what we install typically on the public side of things.
[W] So on the streets, highway, that type of thing.
[W] We also do dry utilities work, which is basically your electricity, right?
[W] Your underground telecommunications, electrical conduits for commercial work.
[W] And we also do the site development.
[W] That's one of our actually how the company started doing site development.
[W] Site development is basically.
[W] The preparation of the terrain before you start building anything, whether it's a new community of townhomes, whether it's a new commercial building, we need to make sure that the building is not gonna is not being built on a sinkhole.
[W] Right.
[W] So that is what we do.
[W] Site preparation, site development.
[W] Some people call it dirt work earthwork.
[W] We just call it site development.
[W] So with that said, I think the company and I believe the company and the owner are pretty committed in this type of work because like I mentioned before, it does help improve our communities, right?
[W] Our infrastructure, our highways, where people, you know, how people are getting this public resources, right?
[W] Like your water storm, sewer, that type of thing.
[W] As a company here at Mueller, we're also pretty, we're also pretty involved in how our work impacts the environment.
[W] So we really do try to make.
[W] Or establish environment, environmental friendly practices.
[W] So one of the things that we do, for example, is that we're very big on our storm water management services, which is basically all the water that gets collected from the streets, highways, even sidewalks.
[W] We provide a service where essentially all that water goes into us into into a basin and filters it out before it gets released back into the environment, right back to the, you know, forest, back to the streets, back to the sidewalks, and public access roads, right?
[W] That's actually something that the owner of the company is very, very proud of, right?
[W] Because it's only very few companies that sort of try to push that to, you know, to, to developers, to clients, to GCS, general contractors, and we've, we're one of the few ones in the area as far as workforce goes, us being in the construction business.
[W] And I think this is something that.
[W] Gavin, you both Gavin and Sarah touched on earlier.
[W] One of the major struggles that we have as a construction company is we're not just operating or working in one single place at all times.
[W] Our project sites, it's I mean, right now we have like 14 different project sites in different areas of Prince William County, Fairfax County, even Spotsylvania County, even down south.
[W] So it is a bit of a struggle on the workforce side of things to try to get folks to be able to commute to these different job sites that we have throughout the area.
[W] Right?
[W] Especially somebody, for example, a laborer who is starting their career in construction will typically be someone straight out of high school with little to no experience in construction, may or may not have a method of transportation to get to the job site, right?
[W] So that it's something that I'm glad that you guys, you know, we have an organization like you guys being able to sort of bridge that gap, right?
[W] And help folks out to get to their, to their destination, in this case, to their work, right.
[W] What else do I have for you guys?
[W] And lastly, with that said, I mean, it does, it does impact our sort of our hiring strategy, right?
[W] We do try to get folks and we do try to work with folks that don't have a method of transportation to get to the job sites or even to our satellite offices where we keep our equipment, our yard, we call it.
[W] We do this by even providing shuttles, vans, where if they are within a certain route, we have a shuttle that goes and is able to pick them up.
[W] The problem with that is that we only have two vents, right?
[W] And the other problem with that is that typically these folks will not be.
[W] A lot of these folks do not live within the route that the van can go.
[W] Right.
[W] Another thing that we do here to try to sort of, you know, help with that problem of transportation is our formats.
[W] So our formats typically somebody more experienced, right?
[W] They're forming with us.
[W] We give them a company vehicle.
[W] If again, anybody from the job site they're going to or that they're getting assigned to, it's within route.
[W] We highly encourage the formats to pick up some of the crew members right on the company, on the company vehicle, the company truck.
[W] Again, the problem with that is that sometimes those workers are not within such route.
[W] Right?
[W] Maybe the foreman will have to take 30 minutes, 40 minutes off route just to pick up somebody.
[W] Right.
[W] We do encourage that.
[W] And, you know, we make that option available to our to our employees as well.
[W] So yes, it is, it is a bit of a it is a bit of a, I don't, I don't want to call it problem, right.
[W] But it's something that we really, we're trying to solve here.
[W] As we grow as a company, we have 150 employees now.
[W] So it's 150 field employees that not all of them need a method of transportation.
[W] But I want to say good, 2015 to 20% of them rely on public transportation or rely on a sharing a, you know, ride share, right?
[W] Or riding with somebody.
[W] And hopefully here with Gavin introducing me to some of these services that you guys provide, maybe we can, you know, with within time talk about something, how we can collaborate here and you guys can help us out.
[W] So that's it for me.
[>> W] You have a question, Daniel.
[>> W] Yeah.
[W] Hi, Sergio.
[W] Thank you.
[W] I was wondering, how is technology changing the way construction and infrastructure projects are managed?
[>> W] Yeah, absolutely.
[W] So, you know, that's actually a question that I would love to have.
[W] One of my project engineers and project managers here to answer you that very specifically.
[W] But I can and I can try to answer that from my line of work here at Mueller, which is more on the HR slash recruiting side of things, right?
[W] So in construction, we face two challenges when implementing new technology, right?
[W] One is trying to educate and train our field folks to feel comfortable with such new technologies.
[W] So for example, I'll give you one example.
[W] It wasn't wasn't that long ago when ten, 15 years ago, everything on the field side of things, meaning our foreman's our hands on folks on the job sites, everything was basically done on paper handwriting, right?
[W] Just from clocking in hours for the field folks, all the way to seeing our blueprints, like our cut sheets that tell us exactly how much dirt we need to remove from certain areas or such.
[W] Now we're implementing actually here at Mueller, in two and a half years ago, we started giving out our foreman's iPads, where they're able to do everything by hand anymore, but using softwares, using apps specifically to manage our projects.
[W] It's been a bit of a learning curve from the workforce side of things, trying to teach and train our foreman's to feel more comfortable with iPads and not just the iPad itself, right?
[W] The instrument itself, but rather the tools within.
[W] So for example, our project management apps where they're able to download the blueprints or cut sheets and, and be able to make notes and make changes within.
[W] It does help out once they're able to fully grasp the concept of it and be trained on the different tools and softwares that we use, it has made our lives much easier, less paperwork.
[W] Things can get something as simple.
[W] For example, the client wanted to do a change order on the job site change order.
[W] Meaning, hey, by the way, we don't want that storm installed anymore, right?
[W] Everything had it had to be before be submitted a job ticket, change order all by paper, whereas now it just takes them letting us know of the change of order within the software tool.
[W] And the Foreman's gets live updates on anything that needs to be changed.
[W] On the scope of work.
[W] So yes, it has definitely changed or helped us a lot in how much the job or how faster can the job get done accurately.
[W] But on the workforce side of things, E we it is a bit of a learning curve.
[W] Sometimes implementing or training our foreman or even our superintendents on the new technology that we use in today's modern construction world.
[W] Right?
[W] So that's a really good question.
[W] I hope I answered kind of what you were asking.
[>> W] Oh yes.
[W] Thank you very much.
[W] That was insightful.
[>> W] Absolutely.
[>> W] Another question, Kim.
[>> W] Hey, good morning and thank you again, Sergio, for your presentation.
[W] I'm just wondering how your company, Mueller, is partnering with other workforce organizations like schools and the community.
[W] And community groups to build a pipeline.
[>> W] A pipeline for, for employees.
[W] Is that correct?
[W] Perfect.
[W] Yeah, that's a really good question.
[W] So I will first of all, I'm, you know, I'm going to kind of brag here a little bit about my company because I think we're very forward thinking in that sense.
[W] Most construction companies don't necessarily have the personnel, the resources, the resources or, or knowledge to be able to put themselves out there, right, to present the companies in different communities, events, organizations that may be able to help us bring in people or even have make people interested in what we do right here.
[W] We're very different.
[W] Our owner is very progressive in that side of things.
[W] He he knows that there's a, a, an extreme shortage in construction workers, right?
[W] So something that we did or something that he implemented as soon as I came on board here at Mueller was that he told me, Sergio, I want you to reach out as many organizations out there, as many public schools out there.
[W] Get the name out there, get our name out there.
[W] And, and, you know, not necessarily if you don't get it, hire if you don't, if we don't get hired from these events, I, you know, it doesn't matter.
[W] We just want to go out there and share what we do and make people interested in what we do.
[W] So to answer your question, we partner a lot with, for example, Virginia Career Works, the different offices and regions, right?
[W] Whether it's down in Fredericksburg, Culpeper, even Loudoun County, right.
[W] We you know, the thing that we do is also we reach out to many public schools, right?
[W] Especially high schools and even middle schools.
[W] Hey, guys, when are you guys doing a career?
[W] When you guys are doing career event for your seniors, looking to looking for a career straight out of high school, right.
[W] We partner with many schools in Prince William County, Fairfax County, Manassas City Public Schools.
[W] This year.
[W] Our goal is even to go down as far as some public schools down in the Richmond area and even Fredericksburg as well.
[W] That's high school, middle school, obviously, here.
[W] In order to work here at Moreland, you have to be over 18 years.
[W] You're 18 years or older, right?
[W] So with middle school, our approach is a little bit more different.
[W] So it becomes more about teaching what or putting a light, putting a spotlight on what we do. Right?
[W] As a construction company and not just construction company, you know, it's, it's also letting them know, hey, it's not just such thing as construction, you know, there's this type of construction, there's that type of construction, there's plumbers, there's electricians, there's drywallers, but there's also civil construction companies like us, right?
[W] So just putting a spotlight on exactly the type of construction that we do and getting folks interested at a very early age, right?
[W] So when they're able to, you know, graduate high school, they, they have an idea of, of, of, you know, if, you know, construction interests them, what, what branch they want to go into.
[>> W] Thank you.
[>> W] Yep.
[>> W] So my question is more straightforward.
[W] And that is what are some of the exciting projects that you guys are working on right now?
[>> W] Absolutely.
[W] That's a really good question.
[W] I wish actually more people would ask me that question.
[W] So personally, I'm gonna I'm gonna I can answer that question.
[W] I'll have two answers for that question.
[W] Personally.
[W] One of my favorite, one of my favorite projects that we're currently working on right now is actually the work that we have for some of these military bases.
[W] So I'll give you one example.
[W] Last week I had the I had the pleasure to ride along with one of our superintendents, and he took me to a job site that we actually just started about.
[W] I want to say almost a month ago, three, three weeks ago, something like that in for me, right?
[W] For me in Maryland, it's a secure site access project.
[W] So we had to do all sorts of background checks.
[W] They inspected the vehicle.
[W] I mean, it was pretty cool just trying to get in there.
[W] I felt like I was it was like a top secret project, right?
[W] But once we got into the project, once we got site access, I learned that what we're trying to build there is actually a.
[W] It is going to be we're built, we're doing two things.
[W] We're doing a community center for the military members, visitors, family members that come into the.
[W] The base to visit their, their, their family members.
[W] And the other portion of the project is actually building a.
[W] Meant it's it's a, it's going to be aligned with the community center, but it's going to be a center where folks in the military, active active members or even reserve members can go in and seek help for, you know, mental, mental, what do you call it, a mental assistance, right.
[W] That's, I feel very intrigued by that.
[W] And that kind of hit me because it's, it's something I think that I take personally.
[W] I have many family members that are in the military, and I have also a lot of friends that have served and seen action right serving for their country.
[W] And that's just something that I think I found very interesting that that, that we're not just being, we're not just building or helping build these resources for our military, but it is something that we can say that, hey, you know, we helped build that, right?
[W] And that's just sort of our small footprint there to give more resources to our active military members.
[W] The second, the second project that I think not just me, but everybody that works here at Mueller is very excited about.
[W] It's some of the projects that we're now getting underway that we're on the pre-construction phase down in Richmond area.
[W] It wasn't it wasn't seven, eight years ago.
[W] We only did local work.
[W] So most of our jobs, 80% of our jobs were mainly in Prince William County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County.
[W] Fast forward to now.
[W] We are expanding, we are expanding, and now we're even getting awarded many jobs down south, down in Richmond, Spotsylvania County, Fredericksburg.
[W] And that's a significant milestone, I think, for the company.
[W] So those are some of the projects that we're definitely excited about here as a whole in the company.
[W] That's a really good question.
[>> W] That's great.
[W] It's nice when your work can be that meaningful.
[>> W] Absolutely.
[W] And and absolutely, I think it's, it's really impactful.
[W] Also, when the work is done and you drive by it and you could say, oh, we did that as a company, right?
[W] It was a collective effort.
[W] And now this community, for example, has a better stormwater management system.
[W] This community now has a better infrastructure, right?
[W] It's it.
[W] Yeah, it's definitely speaks for itself.
[W] Sometimes when you drive by these projects and you see the finished product.
[>> W] Awesome.
[W] So we'll take one more question, Matt.
[>> W] Yeah.
[W] Hi, Sergio.
[W] Thank you for the information.
[W] I'm actually leading an initiative called Welcome Us.
[W] We are supporting newcomers Employment and my initiative supported by manpower Group.
[W] You talked about water management.
[W] There are some states in the United States that they're facing shortage of water.
[W] And on those forms actually there there are a lot of immigrants working.
[W] And as a result, immigrants losing their jobs.
[W] I thought that do you have programs or projects that would supply water from states that are have plenty water to those facing shortage of water?
[W] So we can save those forms and, and eventually jobs for immigrants?
[>> W] Absolutely.
[W] 100%.
[W] So.
[W] I am actually in charge of all the recruiting efforts here.
[W] And I'm also myself a hiring manager.
[W] I, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's actually, I think, yeah, I mean, we love that we're more than happy to welcome anybody interested in what we do.
[W] Anything regarding stormwater, sewer, water lines, what utilities as a whole, as we like to call it.
[W] Yeah, absolutely.
[W] We're more than happy to meet folks and be that extra resource, right, of for employment opportunities for people looking, looking for work.
[W] The second question that you asked there, I couldn't really understand what your I think you got cut off there for a second.
[W] You said that you want to.
[W] Were you asking for resources or something?
[>> W] I think that I was asking that if you have any program connecting states that have plenty of water to those with faces, shortage of water so we can save jobs for people on those farms.
[>> W] So I don't know, I, I don't think I'm able to answer that question 100%.
[W] I mean, it's something that if it's something that probably something is that I, I can get in touch with one of our project managers or project or directors of the company.
[W] And I can definitely pass on that information on to you.
[>> W] So you kind of have that for your, for your records.
[W] If you I know a couple people in the chat have wanted to connect with you.
[W] If you want to drop your email in the chat.
[>> W] Absolutely, absolutely.
[>> W] Connect.
[W] That would be lovely.
[>> W] Yeah, absolutely.
[>> W] It's my this will also be for you as well.
[W] That way you can reach out to me again or and you can have that.
[>> W] Ask.
[>> W] Thank you.
[W] Thank you so much.
[W] That was that was wonderful.
[W] Gabby, do you want to introduce our next speaker?
[>> W] Yeah.
[W] Thank you sir.
[W] Yeah.
[W] Our next speaker is Bobby Mahon.
[W] He's the business engagement manager with Virginia Career works at northern.
[>> W] He has more than 15 years of work force development experience and work closely with employers across Nova to connect them with talent, training, resources and workforce solutions.
[W] Thank you so much, Gabby.
[W] I am going to share my screen here and hopes that it works.
[W] How's that looking guys?
[W] Good.
[W] Fantastic.
[>> W] Good.
[>> W] All right.
[W] Well thank you guys so much.
[W] It's a pleasure to be here this morning especially.
[W] Thank you to Sarah and Gabby for the invite.
[W] I about a quarter of the attendees here are actually some of my colleagues and partners.
[W] So I really appreciate the support here.
[W] And hopefully if I miss something, I'll have some of these folks plug in and help me out here.
[W] What I'm doing today is kind of giving a macro overview of of who we are and what we do from a Virginia career works northern region standpoint, but also representing the Prince William County Center as well.
[W] So all right, so who are we?
[W] We are the Virginia Career Works northern team.
[W] And it's a team of of private and public sector partners who share a common goal to promote economic prosperity among Northern Virginia businesses, residents within our community.
[W] So every, every stakeholder, right, you guys are stakeholders is as business owners, stakeholders as job seekers and community partners as well.
[W] So we're right down the street from from Omniride right off of Minnieville Road and Catonsville, right next to the DMV, Wawa, 7-Eleven or the familiar spots over there.
[W] So you're you're more than welcome to come in.
[W] We've also, since Covid, been offering a fair amount of virtual services as well.
[W] But, you know, feel free to come in and, and provide, you know, we're basically providing employment and training services to, to everybody.
[W] And we also have about five different locations here in the northern area.
[W] One being in Prince William County, we have a couple in in Fairfax County and one in Loudoun and one in, well, I guess two in Alexandria.
[W] But technically I think it's the city of Alexandria or roughly on the border line.
[W] So, you know, coming in and services available could be see a lot of typing tests.
[W] So the Prince William County public schools, in order to get certain jobs there.
[W] And same with the Prince William County government.
[W] They utilize our centers for folks to come in and do some typing tests, you know, basic computer use for for job search assistance, you know, faxing, printing, scanning, those types of things also offer, you know, job search assistance, interview preparation, you know, anything that that has to do with trying to obtain employment.
[W] There.
[W] Sergio being on this call, he's participated in some hiring events and job fairs that we've hosted and several of our, our counties.
[W] And so we also subcontract quite a few of our of our program services to Fairfax County.
[W] So I know, Sergio, you've been working with Jamie Hudson and Kellen Graves and those guys out there.
[W] We really appreciate that.
[W] And we also also offer.
[W] And by the way, those hiring events and job fairs are both brick and mortar and virtual.
[W] Again, same with the workshops and the trainings, just depending on the calendar and the availability of the trainers there.
[W] All right.
[W] So this is just a good overview of our partners that are actually in our one stops.
[W] So, you know, you see a couple familiar faces there, I'm sure, and I'll show you kind of more of a list here just to get an idea.
[W] And the we're undergoing some changes here and I don't, I don't want to get too far in the weeds with that with the, the brick and mortar space over here in Prince William County kind of shrinking the space, you know, as we kind of dive into more of a virtual world, you'll, I'm sure as a lot of you have noticed, you start to kind of see the footprint of real estate for some organizations start to shrink when, when virtual opportunities are a little bit more available.
[W] All right.
[W] So I'm going to kind of go through this relatively quick in some instances, because this is a very well-rounded overview of a lot of different programs.
[W] And, you know, components of our ecosystem and centers.
[W] So, you know, we're, we're Ada compliant, a bunch of different types of assistive technology available.
[W] So anywhere from the Jaws software to, you know, ergonomic chairs and trackable mouses also have ASL interpreters, language interpreters as well.
[W] And, you know, try to try to accommodate any and everybody that come into the center as we have tens of thousands of folks virtually and in person come through each year.
[W] And also there's, you know, several different spaces and rooms that we can provide areas, you know, to study or read.
[W] If that's the prerogative.
[W] I'm not going to get too, too far into the weeds.
[W] We do have a Virginia Works representative here that that might be able to, to dive more into this, if there are any questions.
[W] But essentially this is more to differentiate from the VEC Virginia Employment Commission versus, you know, Virginia career works.
[W] And there's going to be some rebranding here pretty soon.
[W] So we'll probably run through this again.
[W] If I ever come back and do something else like this.
[W] So stay tuned for, for, for that fun stuff as well.
[W] So just to give you guys an idea, and this is for employers and job seekers alike.
[W] So the Virginia Career works northern Jobs Board is a regional jobs board that we rolled out during an American Rescue Plan funded, work based learning project called Talent Up.
[W] Fairfax.
[W] And it's it's really started to catch fire with a lot of our our regional, you know, employers, it's a free jobs board that you can post your jobs on.
[W] And also we have, I think, close to a thousand, if not over a thousand resumes that are now housed on that site as well from a variety of program participants, post-secondary resumes, quite a few.
[W] So I, you know, if you have any questions and obviously I'll plug my, my information in after all of this, please don't hesitate to, to reach out the statewide Job Opportunity forum as well is kind of the similar jobs board.
[W] But, but from a state aspect.
[W] So Virginia works ties in a little bit closer to that.
[W] This is just kind of this is the the state's version of this is just this.
[W] Well, how do I, how do I put the Virginia career?
[W] I don't want to go over Virginia career works or the Virginia workforce connection too much.
[W] It's it's a state branded state ran overall infrastructure based system that incorporates job leads, unemployment, the whole gamut of statewide services.
[W] Yeah, that's side conversation.
[W] We can have another day.
[W] I don't want to jump into that too much, but it is available.
[W] And that's kind of how we track our program participants as well.
[W] The state does want, you know, employers to participate in that.
[W] It's it can be a little bit cumbersome to post job on there.
[W] I, I, I have not had the, the good fortune of working on that.
[W] I did once upon a time when I was a case manager, and I have my own feelings and opinions about it, that I'm not going to share with you guys today.
[W] So here are some program highlights.
[W] I'm just going to run through really quick.
[W] So the the Workforce Innovation Opportunities Act, formerly known as the Workforce Investment Act, has been around since the Clinton administration.
[W] It's the Department of Labor's title one kind of golden goose when it comes to training and upskilling.
[W] So a good portion of it was used for occupational skills training for job seekers.
[W] So job seekers will come in and different forms and fashions.
[W] And essentially we utilize the good lion's share of that funding to upskill them through a modality of credentials.
[W] Commercial driving being one to relate with with omnilink and other types of certifications, from IT to healthcare and everything and beyond.
[W] So if you have any more questions about this type of program, I mean, we also use this funding to offset hiring.
[W] So employers that have an interest in hiring an individual that's participating in the Wioa program could reach out and we could establish an agreement, and we would offset the cost by up to roughly five K in the form of reimbursement.
[W] Also, work out work experience opportunities that are run through this, where the employer gets an opportunity to try an individual without putting any capital into it for the first several weeks, depending on which program it is, the young Adult program is, you know, geared for, I believe it's either 16 to 24, 17 to 24.
[W] Oh, there it is, 17, 24.
[W] And essentially, you know, a little bit more of a guidance emphasis there for the young folks, but also very similar services that are that are provided through this program.
[W] And there's a summer I young adult internship program that's coming up here very soon.
[W] So if any employers are interested in hosting somebody from that program, it's, it's a, again, no capital up front.
[W] You just have to have the capacity to host maybe some things to, to learn for, for them as a work experience, because a lot of these guys that will be their first experience at work.
[W] And there's a wide range of job seekers.
[W] So plug there for my, for my folks in the summer I program and I can go over that a little bit more.
[W] If anybody has questions about that.
[W] I do have a colleague on here who has been instrumental in implementing and promoting this LinkedIn learning license, Angela Harris at the Prince William County Workforce Center.
[W] This is I mean, you know, if you don't have one as a resident here in Northern Virginia, you definitely need to reach out to her and try to obtain one.
[W] It's it's invaluable, I think, to go on to LinkedIn learning and check out the thousands and thousands of courses that are free to your avail with this particular license.
[W] Again, we work with the the local high schools and county public schools, city of Manassas as well to assist folks with with GED and Esol classes as well.
[W] And so now I'm going to get into my bread and butter.
[W] You know, I used to be a case manager for a fair amount of my workforce development years.
[W] I also prior to that, I had some business services experience.
[W] So this is kind of full circle for me the last 4 or 5 years with Virginia Career works.
[W] I've been exclusive to business services, and I currently chair the region's business services team.
[W] And I do have several members on here from that team, which again, I appreciate all the support that you guys provide and even being here today, you'll have to excuse the seven centers.
[W] We did have seven at one point here.
[W] And again, you know, the employer solutions team is comprised of a plethora of partners from economic development to the local chambers to the county business services leads and workforce centers, as well as the, the partners that we listed out earlier from we owe it to Dars and other folks that I might have missed.
[W] And.
[W] And we do serve Fairfax County, Loudoun, Prince William counties, as well as the cities of Fairfax Falls Church, Manassas City, and Manassas Park.
[W] All right.
[W] And this is something I'm specifically working on.
[W] And there's no shameless plug here.
[W] So essentially, I, I, my focus over the last, I'd say year and a half or really since it started happening was how do we assist these folks that were laid off by the federal government?
[W] The Doge effect, essentially, you know, the largest employer in our country, laying off a lot of folks in our region.
[W] And so we reached out to the governor's office.
[W] We were able to obtain funding through through them.
[W] We also were able to obtain rapid response emergency funding through the state to assist this, this demographic.
[W] So roughly, we've enrolled about 65 ish.
[W] I think people affected dislocated workers, 23, 24, I think, have been able to obtain employment.
[W] We've put folks through work based learning opportunities, which is the whole modality of the program.
[W] It's a it's an upfront funding mechanism for employers to utilize as a, an onboarding ramp.
[W] So it's a $30 an hour minimum upfront funding model, roughly six, potentially eight weeks or more, depending on the likelihood of hire afterwards, which we hope is 100% based on the the opportunity being budgeted for the year is a big deal for us.
[W] And essentially, we want to do our due diligence in the right thing by this population.
[W] A lot of these we've never I've never seen a a job seeker field such as this because these guys are 20, 25 years in.
[W] A lot of them were at the finish line, if not close to the finish line, making a fair amount of money and, you know, kind of had the rug pulled out from them.
[W] So in a fair amount of them were also from the US aid.
[W] And that department was unique in the sense where they were able to bring on federal employees that were not U.S. citizens based on their skill set and tie to whatever potential region they might have been from.
[W] A lot of them moved over here within the last several years.
[W] And then again, had the rug pulled out from under them, hard for them to find opportunities because they're not citizens.
[W] And USCIS is kind of on pause right now.
[W] So that's just to give you kind of an overview, a little bit of talent up.
[W] I if you guys are looking for any, you know, it and project management folks, I do have some interesting.
[W] I have other.
[W] Epidemiologists.
[W] I have Emmy winning producers for, for content.
[W] If you guys are looking to potentially, you know, utilize somebody in that sense, we're looking at other opportunities that employers are kind of a little hesitant to, to hire right now.
[W] And, but they're, they want to utilize the program.
[W] So we're really taking our time to vet carefully because it's, it is a very established group of folks.
[W] And we don't want to, you know, lead them into an opportunity that might not turn into permanent employment.
[W] So I can't emphasize that enough.
[W] If you all guys are all stakeholders, if you have employers, you know, if you're an employer that, you know, fits this, this modality, if you have friends that are, you know, were affected by the layoffs dating all the way back to January 2025, you know, please, you know, take all this information and let me know if you have any questions.
[W] And I think this is the yeah, this is the last slide here.
[W] Now, this is for an incumbent worker training funds.
[W] This is something that I'm also working on right now.
[W] And this is for all employers that have been established for at least two years, have at least two employees that have been that have been on the books for at least two years, that are looking to upskill their current employee roster.
[W] You can be a company with 150 field guys that that we would essentially share the cost of 50%.
[W] So, Sergio, if you're looking to upskill any of these guys in the field with X, Y, and Z credentials or certifications, we would establish an agreement.
[W] Once you show a proof of purchase and the certification of completion, you invoice us, we reimburse you 50%.
[W] That's just an example for for Mueller, if it's a smaller organization, I know they've recently adjusted it from a state perspective.
[W] As far as what is a small organization in certain instances, for right now, I believe it's 49.
[W] And below would receive up to a 90% reimbursement.
[W] So and that can be up to, I believe, about a $5,000 cap per employee.
[W] So we've worked with Sentara Hospital, we've helped Aaron's become Bsns.
[W] We've worked with organizations that have turned a, a driving aid into a commercial driver so they could drive.
[W] So a lot of different opportunities there as well.
[W] And we like to get creative and workforce.
[W] So, you know, please don't hesitate to come up with any questions or any, any thought provoking ideas and more than happy to have a discussion there.
[W] And that's, that's pretty much it.
[W] Now I'll say this, that email address right there is going to go straight to Prince William County.
[W] So I'll put I'll plug my email address in here because I don't want Angela to get bombarded with everybody asking her a bunch of questions from, from this particular presentation.
[W] So let me stop sharing.
[W] And any questions and I'll.
[W] Sarah, you can be the facilitator for questions if you don't mind.
[>> W] Okay, okay.
[W] Those are amazing resources.
[W] Bobbie.
[W] I know you shared them with us before, but when you explained it again, I was like, oh my gosh, these are these are fantastic.
[W] Let me start.
[W] I think Daniel had his hand up.
[W] Go ahead Daniel.
[>> W] All right.
[W] So hey, Bobby, thank you for that presentation.
[W] Definitely will want your information after.
[W] What workforce trends do you believe employers should prepare for over the next 3 to 5 years?
[>> W] Okay.
[W] I think it really does depend on industry and the adoption of technology.
[W] And that was a question that you kind of alluded to a little bit earlier.
[W] I also think employers need to understand that every single year you obtain more in the job seeker market that never experienced work prior to Covid.
[W] Employers do not think about stuff like that.
[W] Right?
[W] So now you have folks that are entering the workforce that had to experience that as middle schoolers and high schoolers, and it's going to become more and more prevalent.
[W] So that work, that previous mindset of brick and mortar.
[W] And I know, Sergio, you that you can't, you guys can't get away from that.
[W] But I will say from a younger perspective to Sergio's point of the shortage, a lot of them are not open minded enough, or maybe they're just not being presented the option of how, you know, fulfilling or how in demand those opportunities are going to be in the future.
[W] So I think that employers are going to be optimizing.
[W] They're going to be augmenting, and AI is going to be a part of that.
[W] It's an ambiguous time right now, and I think there just needs to be a lot of preparation in the future, just in general, from a capacity standpoint.
[W] And I also think that there needs to be an entrepreneurial aspect to, to things as well.
[W] And I can go into that a little bit further, but I know we're kind of running short on on time, but Daniel, definitely, you know, I'll plug away some some info in here.
[W] Put my, my email in the chat.
[W] Would, would love to chat with you more about that.
[W] I'd like to get philosophical to.
[>> W] Thank you.
[W] Thank you.
[W] Absolutely.
[>> W] Thank you for that.
[W] Sergio.
[>> W] Hey, Bobby, you touched a little bit there towards the end about the training grants that you guys are implementing here, working alongside businesses in the area.
[W] Can you how does that work?
[W] And maybe I can also tell you this from our perspective and see if, if it's something that aligns with your efforts, there a lot of.
[>> W] So every new employee here that we that we on board into the company, we give them their safety trainings, right?
[W] Such as your OSHA ten there's CPR trenching and excavation, you know, safe practices, right?
[W] Is that something that you guys would be willing to partner with us on as well?
[>> W] From an onboarding standpoint, it would be one of those instances.
[W] I think the, the, the best utilized for onboarding would either be that on the job training, so that reimbursement.
[W] So you guys, essentially, it's kind of like an open, open line item to where you can have it applicable to however you deem it applicable from an onboarding offset standpoint, right?
[W] So that's the work experience or the on the job training, the incumbent worker training is say you have say you got a guy that, that you want to move up, you want to, you want to get him a PMP, you want to get him something that he's been there for a little while and you want to move him up and you want to share some cost on that.
[W] I think that's the best use of an incumbent worker trainer just because of the, the, the requirement of having to have a certain amount of years of longevity as an incumbent worker.
[W] But let me tell you, there, there is one of my favorite sayings is there is more than one way to eat a Reese's.
[W] And so if you.
[W] You want to come up with some sort of, you know, brainstorming package of onboarding offsets, I am all ears on how to potentially work something out because we.
[W] We also want to keep in mind, you know, you guys are really, you know, you're, you're an industry expert.
[W] And so your expertise is also valuable just from an industry standpoint, not just from a standpoint.
[W] And it's valuable for us to understand it too.
[W] So, you know, I, I, I appreciate it and I would, I would love to continue that conversation with, with train anybody else on this call as well that's interested Omnilink included, by the way.
[>> W] Perfect.
[W] Thank you Bobby.
[>> W] Thanks, Sergio.
[W] One more question is in the chat.
[W] So many employers focus on recruitment, but retention also remains a challenge.
[W] What strategies have you seen work best for retention?
[>> W] Okay, so retention that's so one incumbent worker training right.
[W] Like to continue having, you know, upskilling and not feeling, you know, I mean, there's a lot that goes into employee psychology, right?
[W] You know, I mean, cost of living increases, wage increases, feeling appreciated.
[W] You have a, you know, are there programs that keep morale high and culture high?
[W] I mean, that's a, I know we got like two minutes left.
[>> W] I.
[W] I know.
[>> W] Listen, I would love to dive into that a little bit more because that's a, that's a roundtable conversation that I think not only I could provide value to, but I think you guys as well could.
[W] Great question.
[>> W] Though.
[>> W] Yeah, that was a good question.
[W] So Gabby says she's going to send a follow up email to attendees with your contact information.
[W] Again.
[W] Thank you so much, Bobby, and thank you, Sergio.
[W] This is really great.
[W] I feel like you guys could talk so much, but yes, maybe we'll just continue those conversations offline.
[W] And again, we thank you so much.
[W] And thank you for everyone for joining us.
[W] Have a great weekend.
[>> W] Thank you guys.
[>> W] Thank you guys.
[W] Thank you for having me.
[>> W] Have a great weekend.