Employer Presentation to Set Up

Employer Presentation

To set up the meeting, I first wanted to identify a good candidate company. I decided upon Dunkin' Donuts. I had a couple of choices with respect to my initial contact. I investigated a regional head office but ultimately I determined that the manager of a given branch was the best person to interview, since most of the hiring is done at that level. To prepare for the face-to-face meeting I wanted to prepare an employer presentation plan. For me, this involved a substantial amount of background work. Because my job is to match candidates with positions I realized that I needed to research both fairly extensively. This involved not only online research about Dunkin' Donuts in general, but spending a few minutes in the outlet as a customer to get a feel for the day-to-day working environment, watching the employees and just generally trying to picture my clients working there.

The next step in the process was to brainstorm some of the questions I wanted to ask the manager. I broke this down into categories and developed some specific questions from there. I also knew that the manager would want to know about my role as a rehabilitation counselor and about the people in the community that I represent. So I prepared some responses to the sorts of questions I anticipated would be asked of me.

2. The meeting went well. The manager was an affable lady who seemed genuinely interested in the rehabilitation program and what role she might be able to play. I was able to establish a rapport with her, and I think that helped the process significantly. I would characterize the manager as an easy-going individual but very professional. She was able to answer my questions simply and courteously.

The meeting went as well as I had expected. The conversation flowed fairly well, so I was able to ask most of my questions. I received answers to my questions that were direct. If anything, the conversation was more casual and less stilted than I had expected. I had anticipated that I would receive as many questions as I asked and this was the case. I knew that this was an important part of building a good working relationship with the outlet so I was prepared.

I was able to get a tour of the facilities. The manager showed me around the restaurant. It was in the middle of the afternoon, so a bit of a lull point in the day. This afforded the manager ample time to spend giving me a tour. I learned a lot about the back room operations and the systems that go into making a Dunkin' Donuts. The job is fairly regimented as the company operates with tight margins, so everything is precise. The company does not leave much room for creative interpretation among employees, and that is a good situation I think for most of my future clients to be in.

I also gained a sense of the teamwork that goes into a Dunkin' Donuts. I was not sure what to expect prior to the tour -- I had half expected a group of disaffected people who hated their jobs. It was nothing like that. I saw people who enjoyed working together and took pride in their jobs. To me, that was exactly the kind of fit that I can see being of benefit to my future clients. All of the staff were supportive of one another and I could see the environment was very positive all round.

Going into this meeting, I had wanted to get a sense of what kind of fit Dunkin' Donuts would be for my clients and whether the company would be receptive to working with a rehabilitation counselor to place clients. In that respect, I believe that the meeting was a success. I was able to strike up a relationship with the manager and was able to determine that the work environment at Dunkin' Donuts was quite positive. I believe that this employer will be very receptive in the future when I seek to place a client with their establishment.

3. The most important thing that I learned from this experience was the value of preparation. I took the time to get to know the company not only on the informational level but by spending time there as a customer. I think that my preparation made it easier to ask the right questions. I also feel that my preparation allowed me to be more comfortable with the process in general.

Because the process went smoothly, I would not do anything differently. I feel that the employer presentation went about as well as I could have expected. I suppose what concerns me is that because it was a success I may not have been able to learn any lessons from it about things not to do. I would not change anything, but I envision that in the future I would have to change a few things about my process, as I encounter difficulties and learn from them. Even in this process, I may encounter difficulties in the future, and that is something I need to be prepared for.

I like the idea of the employer presentation plan as a tool to support job development. I know that there are only so many employers in town that are good candidates for placing rehabilitated workers, so it is important to make good first impressions. This means being prepared and being able to sell the manager on how you can help him or her.

One of the things I like most about having these different forms is that the forms guide you to think about this issue from a number of different perspectives. By keeping a Job Development Log, for example, I can tag each log entry for easy reference later -- this will allow me to learn more easily from past experiences. For example, when I have a particular experience discussing a certain type of client with a manager -- a client with a particularly stigmatizing issue for example -- I can log that response so that next time I have a client that issue I will know what to expect. I see these different techniques as being something I can use over the long run to build better knowledge of the entire process that goes into meeting employers.

4. As a rehabilitation counselor I will be asked to create opportunities for my clients when they are ready to re-enter the workforce. This is a challenge, but if I have a variety of tools and frameworks to help me prepare for meetings then I will be able to succeed in setting up job opportunities for my clients. I feel that with these tools I have the core of setting up jobs. From there of course there are a few things that will need to be adjusted. As I grow into the role I will need to be able to handle more difficult interviews and be able to convince managers who are perhaps less receptive. These challenges will present themselves and I will need to build upon this foundation of knowledge in order to develop effective responses.

In addition, I feel that by having specific outlines I can always be guided to be consistent every single time I conduct an interview. I believe that by having a system, I can deliver consistent results from these meetings. I can learn from the problems that I faced knowing that I did everything else well. For me, I think the techniques embedded in this approach will serve me well going forward.

Employer Presentation Plan Student Name:

Company Name: Dunkin Donuts

Industry:_Fast food retail

What is the intent of the meeting and your expected outcome:

Going into this meeting, I wanted to get a feel for the process of setting up and conducting meetings. I wanted to learn about some of the things that I would need to do in order learn about the process of finding good employers for my clients. I wanted to get a sense of what it was like to meet a manager and tour a facility. I also was interested in seeing what a manager's response would be to the issue of hiring a rehabilitated worker.