MassHire Merger Streamlines Services for Employers, Job Seekers
To explain why the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board merged their operations in July, Maura Geary first explained how the MassHire network is set up.
“There are 16 workforce areas in the state of Massachusetts, and every area has one workforce board and at least one career center,” she noted. “And the career center has two customer bases. One is job seekers; one is employers. We work with employers to find out what jobs they have, how we can help them find the talent they need, and we work with job seekers to find out what barriers they may have to employment in the jobs that exist in our region, and how can we help them overcome the barriers so that they’re prepared with the skills they need to enter the workforce.”
Meanwhile, the Workforce Board is more of a “30,000-foot view,” Sarah Wilson said. “We’re looking at regional trends, labor market information for the region. We’re convening employers. We’re bringing all this information to the Career Center, which does more on-the-ground work.”
Until July 1, Geary headed up the Career Center, while Wilson helmed the Workforce Board. But today, they’re co-executive directors of the first MassHire operation in the state to merge their operations into one, simply called MassHire Franklin Hampshire.
“Having the labor market information and understanding what trends are happening, we ask, ‘what are the challenges that exist in our region? Where are there opportunities? How can we bring in more resources to support the workforce that we have or the economy that we have?’” Geary told BusinessWest. “This merger really helps us align even more closely with the big picture of the region and the strategies that exist.”
When the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board announced the merger, they characterized it as a strategic unification and a significant milestone in the region’s efforts to deliver more coordinated, efficient, and impactful workforce development services across Franklin County, Hampshire County, and the North Quabbin region.