All Employment Network (EN) Call

All Employment Network (EN) Call

January 9, 2014

Welcome/Updates –Felix Stump,Deputy ProjectDirectoroftheOperations Support Manager (OSM), welcomed participants and turned the call over to David Weaver, the new Associate Commissioner for Office of Research Demonstration and EmploymentSupport (ORDES). David spoke on his background and informed the audience of management changes that resulted in the Office of Employment Support Programs (OESP) being combined into the newly created ORDES division. Next, Felix went over the agenda for the call and provided general updates;

• Upcoming training on the Annual Performance Outcome Report(APOR) scheduled for January 16, 2014.
• As of January 6th OSM is processing IWP's received up to the 3rd and the Secure Provider Portal and theIntegrated Voice Response (IVR) phone system, are both providinginformation updated through January 1st
• New payment rates for 2014 will be posted to yourtickettowork.com no later than January 24th.
• Ticket Training Tuesday on January 14th will go over the Beneficiary Referral CD and how to use it for marketing and outreach purposes.

Prologue to Section 503 Readiness Training

Darren Bates, National Workforce Strategist, gave a brief history on the new Section 503 rules implemented by the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).Section 503 prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discriminating in employment against individuals with disabilities and requires these employers to take affirmative action to recruit, hire, promote and retain individuals with disabilities.

503 Presentations

Darren introduced the two presentations for the call: “What Employment Networks Should Know About American Job Centers”, will feature Kevin Nickerson from the National Disability Institute located in Washington, DC, and “Voluntary Disability Disclosure”,featuring Susan Webb from ABLE Employment Services in Phoenix, Arizona.

The learning objectives for these presentations included:

• Explaining what American Job Centers (AJC) are and how you ENs partner with them,
• Explaining and ensuringan understanding of the rules for voluntary disability disclosure,
• Providing an overview of essential components of an Affirmative Action Plan, and
• Providing an overview of required outreach under the new Section 503 rules.

After the presentations, Darren opened the call to questions from participants.

Questions and Answers

Q: Why would an American Job Center that's already operating as an EN be willing to partner with a private EN since they are a competitor?

A: All ENs provide different services. They can partner by referring to other agencies for services that they don't provide. ENs can also mentor other ENs for success in the program. There are enough beneficiaries not receiving services that we don't consider it "competition". You can get an idea of the number of Tickets not assigned by going to and entering "Ticket Tracker" in the search engine.

Q: Is there a way to get a list of local Federal contractors or information suchas the number of employees since we're talking about a 7 percent hiring goal? I've been on the SAM site but it's a bit awkward in trying to access that information. I just wonder if there is anything else available.

A:Darren: Visit the Section 503 page in the Information Center on the Ticket to Work website ( You will find information on how to locate Federal contractors and research information on their contracts.You may also email any of the presenters

Q:I was wondering when Federal contractors go out and look for resources or agencies that work with individuals with disabilities. AreState Vocational Rehabilitation agencies listed anywhere? Is VR recognized as one of the referral sources?

A: Susan Webb: The answer to that is yes. VR was always a part of those linkage agreement requirements that were in the prior 503 rules. These required linkage agreements were not include in the new 503 regulations.

Q:Kevin, you mentioned in your presentation that the American Job Centers sometimes have specialists and you mentioned they might have specialists that serve veterans. Can you talk a little bit more about that? What would those specialists do if a military veteran walked in the door of an AJC?

A: You know our centers have representatives that work with all customers. Most offices are going to have veteran representatives, i.e., folks with a specific focus on the needs of veterans because they have specific types of benefits, different backgrounds and needs that we found over the years are more adequately served by somebody who fully understands them. Since some veterans representatives are veterans themselves, they certainly understand where these individuals have come from and how to transition them back into civilian life. Some types of disability benefits are only available to veterans, for example some tax incentives.

Q: Can ENs get access to the American Jobs Center Portal where they have a job exchange so we will electronically be able to access those job postings?

A: Kevin: The advice we are trying to give is get to know the AJC management first and establish that locally and then seek access to their leads. It's the same with any partnering arrangement, you have to develop trust first and be clear about what you are trying to accomplish. When an AJC understands who you are trying to serve and what you are trying to accomplish, you probably will nothave any problem getting access to their job postings.

Q: Are AJC's state agencies, Federal agencies or private organizations?

A: AJCs are state operated using federal money.