Ninety Bible. Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It's time now for our community connection right here on KAY one, the one you trust and joining us by telephone today we have trade Ray Kill and he is with Oh yes, that is the Oklahoma Employment Services Systems. So how you doing today, Trey?
I'm doing just fine.
Thank you.
How are you?
I tell you what? I can feel my toes today. It's it's quite a difference from last week. So it's all you do it.
I agree. Nice to be able to field the toes for a change.
So what's going on now? We got a new year here and we're well into it now. But what's what's going on with the Oklahoma Security Systems? Tell us a little bit about it.
Yeah, So the Employment Security Commission is the state's workforce development agency. So can you hear me?
All right? I can now, okay.
So what we do basically is workforce development for the state. So we work with the different school districts and systems and training providers to make sure that people that are going into the workforce have good matching options, that they know what they want to do, that they know they'd be good at, and that we can help kind of facilitate them matching well with industry, so we do reemployment services, unemployment services, veteran services. So yeah, it's a new year.
We've got a lot of new projects launching and some systems that are available to all people and all employers. So it's exciting. Twenty twenty five will be I think really good for us.
Well that is great. You know a lot of people whenever, you know, a new year rolls around, they start thinking about things. They start thinking what can they do better? Can they do something? Can I actually start working again? And this is a good place to start.
Yeah, that's right. And we we you know, look at ourselves in the same way every year, well a little more frequently than that, to say, well, what are we doing we need to be doing differently and uh and so yes, some of these you know, systems that the government agencies have used for a long time to serve people, they're not capable of some of the more advanced kind of matching and placement and uh analytics that we'd like to see, you know, how how well are we serving business?
How well are we connecting people to the workforce. So we've launched some enhancements and some replacement systems so that we have a little better picture of that. And so when people come to see us, whether they're employers or job seekers, we can say, well, we know with a lot more sophistication now that we could do this and this and this and that might match better to you than you know, something that's a little bit less sophisticated or doesn't use data analytics quite as well.
Well, very good, you know, keeping up with the times and and making good matches. That's really what it's all about. And you know, people, uh yeah, well we'll often ask a lot of questions before they really dive in when it comes to a matter like this too. And sure, because really nobody wants to say, hey, I'm looking for a job, unless you know, they're really like, hey, I'm looking for a job.
They can't yeah, touchy, yeah, yeah, it could be touchy. You know, a lot of times people are looking for a job, they already have a job, so they kind of want it to be quiet. Sure, sometimes people don't have a job and they're and they feel a certain way about that. But ultimately, you know, there's a lot of businesses and a lot of people that don't need our services to find the right matches or to be
gainfully employed of what they want to do. But there's a lot of people that are unsure or they went to school for something and then they've changed their mind, and so we try to make it a very easy, customer friendly approach to finding out kind of what employers are looking for out there and what they might need to do to put themselves in a position for success. So some of that the government helps with and some of it we're just playing matchmaker and letting them know
where the needs are. So some of these tools help us to It's really it helps us in a way because we serve the whole state. But the cooler things about these tools are that their self service, so a person can use it all on their own without doing business with our agency, or an employer can go on and see what people are around in their areas for particular skill sets without ever you know, using the government agency.
Well that's that's really pretty cool. These a new set of tools. It's uh, it's it's kind of nice that way. It kind of cuts down a little bit on the red tape. Is that what I say?
Yes, thank god, Yes, we got plenty of plenty of red tape and product it. We bring our We each of us have two pairs of scissors on us at all times. So yeah, we don't like seeing that.
I've had jobs like that before. Yep, I know, I know where you're coming from. It's like, oh golly, yes, sir, we can make this happen. But hang on, folks, We've got a couple of hurdles.
Yeah, yeah, put your helmet on and strap in. This is gonna be a little bumpy for a second, but we're going to get through it this time.
That's right, you know, with these tools, I'm familiar with with these outside of government as well. Uh in many organizations and businesses are going toward similar matching type tools, and uh yeah, what what it's what it's really able to do is it's a time saver, is what it is for most of importantly, time is everything.
If you're unemployed, right well, and if you're a business, you know.
Yeah, if you're short of people, that's right, that's right.
You know, for far too long, and I think the pandemic exacerbated this problem in every state, but for a really long time. Industry, it doesn't really matter what industry, but so many of our industries have struggled to find the right fits for people that will engage in their
work the way that they want them to. And so you see people show up and not be you know, the exact person, your skill set they've been looking for, and they get into a place of desperation where they're hiring just a warm body or something, and they're thinking, what, you know, what do I have to do to get someone to show up on day two, day three and
show up on time? And you know, and I think if you have a more sophisticated set of criteria that you can use to evaluate someone's fit, and you work closely with industry to understand what those needs are, then you can say, this little list right here, this group of candidates right here is going to cut down on that time element, Like you're saying, quite a bit, because you may have to sort through one hundred resumes and find someone who's not a good fit, or you could
sort through a fraction of that and have a lot better chance of finding a good fit. It's ten times better for.
Business, my goodness sakes. Now, where can we find these tools online? Okay?
So the news system, the it's our basically case management system, but it's an employment system for all of the public. It's called employe Oklahoma and it's employe Oklahoma dot gov, and that will take you to the portal itself where people can set up accounts and make sure that they have, you know, everything, everything in there to where they can they can be visible to others and they also they can see what's in there, and so people can do
that on their own at employee Oklahoma dot gov. And then our normal website for OESC is Oklahoma dot gov slash workforce, and so people can go to our website and they can find out about everything else that we do. We have a calendar of events on there that says when we have hiring fairs going on across the state and training opportunities, offering training classes, connecting people to different populations,
and doing hiring fairs for specific employers or industries. So there's a lot that we do that someone might want to know about without just looking at the Employee Oklahoma tool. But those are the two websites, employ Oklahoma dot gov and Oklahoma dot gov slash workforce. They're going to be able to get a lot of information if they go there and you.
Know something it's time well spent. If you're looking for a job or if you're looking for workers, those job fairs are quite beneficial. I mean, you really get to see what's out there. You get to see what's available as far as employment, and of course the employers get to see what the attitude and what the mindset and what the capabilities are ye people possibly coming in the door real quick.
Yeah, that's right. We hosted over I think around three hundred and ninety hiring fairs last year, my gosh, across this day. Yeah, And so those are happening all over in different towns where we serve, and then you know some of the big cities as well. And some of them were industry specific, so we would gather employers for instance of like construction and transportation was all that we did.
And so all the kids that are busting from the career techs or that are there on the college campus, or that are just in the community looking for a job, they can show up and they can talk to employers in a very specific area that they're hoping to work.
And in some cases we partner with other agencies, like for that event, we hired free training or offered free training courses for some of the two highest demand occupations, and so they were able the week of to get assistance with their resume and a free training course to you know, get the certification that they need. So when they got to the event, they were able to be hired in the room.
Wow, that's great, you get that. That gets people just so over the hump. It's unbelievable that what a great resource you provide for people.
Well, thanks, We've got a lot that we still need to do to you know, kind of be everything that business needs us to be. And we've got a lot of partners that we couldn't do this stuff without. So it's a big team sport, but we're definitely happy to be playing on the team.
Well, goodness, gracious, thank you very much for being with us here today. Is there anything you'd like to add.
For No, just that I might I see you this summer because I'm coming up there to play in the Hill Blast with my buddy Jacob Atkinson, so if I'm around, and Bartlesville is one of my favorite towns visits, so we have an office there and I've got some buddies there, so I'm looking forward to sending some time in your in your lovely town this summer.
All right, drop by, We'll got the door open, coffee going all right, well, thank you very much. Okay, Trey Rayhill, what's this here? And thank you for being with us here on our community connection right here on K one, the one you trust. It is eight forty three