Giving Up is Not an Option!

As a Business Solutions Professional, the job is to engage with employers and promote the various opportunities open to them and their employees through GST Michigan Works! That is sometimes easier said than done. This was the case with Memorial Healthcare in Owosso.

Memorial Healthcare (Hospital) is the largest employer in Shiawassee County and has footprints in several counties employing over 1500 people. I have worked with the hospital for five years promoting programs offered through GST Michigan Works! without much success. Although the relationship has always been good, there was never much movement on the program front. I would post jobs on PMTC (The Pure Michigan Talent Connect), and Memorial would come to our job fairs.

Finally, after many meetings and presentations, we were able to start training to upskill some of the qualifying current employees to get their CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) certifications. After seeing the success and ease of working with this program, we were able start talking about USDOL (United States Department of Labor) Apprenticeship programs and have since started the OJT (On-the-Job) program.

These programs not only help the hospital but greatly assist the new hires with supportive services, training, and stability by having another source for assistance. The hospital is able to train the new people to be the exact fit for their new positions and recoup some of those costs.

Memorial Healthcare is now using and working with most of the programs available to them and couldn’t be more pleased with the outcomes. The only question they have is “Why did we wait so long?”