BEAR–Sharon Rendle’s story is a familiar one these days. Used to working since she was 14 years old, Rendle now has been looking for a job for a year and a half.
“Right now I would do whatever it takes to go ahead and get a job and have a paycheck coming into the house,” said the Bear resident, who has a management background.
Rendle’s quest for work led her this month to an intensive customer service training program funded by the Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO). The program aims to train people and connect them with employment opportunities at tourist attractions, hotels, motels, and casinos.
The tourism-related sector already is Delaware’s fifth-largest employer, providing jobs for about 40,000 people. The Delaware Department of Labor (DOL) wants to expand employment in the sector.
The training program drew a diverse group of 28 job seekers at the New Castle County location in Bear—from those with high school equivalency degrees to those with master’s degrees; a new mother, a former auto worker, an ex-pilot, and married couples.
Sharon Rendle explains why she got involved with the program.
Diana Johnson of Newark took the course with her husband, Calvin. She has been looking for a job for eight months, following a 35-year career with the U.S. Postal Service.
“It’s how you treat the customer,” Diana Johnson said. ‘You always want the customer to come back.”
“The hospitality field is what I’m looking for,” said Calvin Johnson. “And what they teach here is customer service, and the different aspects of customer service: How to [get] the people who have visited Delaware to come back again and tell their friends about the customer service that they received in the State of Delaware.”
Calvin Johnson believes the program gave him new insight into customer service.
Anton Associates of Wilmington was awarded a DEDO Blue Collar Training Grant of more than $49,000 to design and conduct the six-day training program in each of the three counties.
Anton Associates president Neva Anton explains why she believes the program is effective.
“It was designed originally to be entry-level training,” said Anton. “But because of the way the market is right now, we are getting a mix of people in the training. For some people, it’s a refresher.”
The sessions were based on input from the state DOL, Delaware State Parks, Southern Delaware Tourism, Dover Downs, Kent County Tourism, and the Greater Wilmington Convention and Visitors Bureau.
“We asked them specifically what constitutes excellent customer service,” said DEDO Workforce Development Director Sonia Aguilar. “The training was based around the employers’ feedback and their prerequisites when they’re interviewing individuals for frontline positions.”
Lisa Newton of New Castle lost her job at General Motors, went back to school for massage therapy, and enrolled in the customer service program to find something more stable.
“Right now, because jobs are not as plentiful, you have to be at the top of your game,” Newton said. “By taking this class we get a slight edge, because we are reminding ourselves, this is what it takes.”
Irene Taylor of Wilmington, an accounting student originally from New York, says the program helped her become better acquainted with Delaware, which is important “because you can’t have a job in the area and not know the area. Other people come to visit, and if they ask you a question as to where places are, you should be able to answer it.”
On the final day of the program, potential employers attend graduation and offer on-the-spot recruiting. In the Sussex County program, 8 of 10 participants are now employed, while 11 out of the 22 Kent County participants received job offers.
Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats in Rehoboth hired one Sussex County trainee. Human Resources Director Cindy Dunson said Dogfish Head looked to the program to provide “a pool of applicants who had a better understanding of not just customer service as it pertains to the business, but customer service as it pertains to the tourism industry and bringing folks into Delaware as a whole.”
The program delivered. “Everyone was certified for job readiness, references have been checked, and all of that diligence had already taken place,” Dunson said. “So it was really a matter of making sure that folks were really interested in working for our business.”
DoubleTree Hotel Human Resources Director Kathy Suter interviewed New Castle County trainees in search of someone with “personality, somebody that is outgoing and really friendly. Also, somebody that can think on their feet is really important in a stressful situation. You never know what you’re going to run into in a hotel.”
New Castle County also interviewed with Carvella Jackson, a recruiter for the Christiana Care Health System. “Our patients are our customers, and that is the business of healthcare,” Jackson said. “We need customer service in every aspect—from housekeeping to CEOs, from surgeons to building processors.”
Christiana Care recruiter Carvella Jackson explains why she sees this kind of training as useful.
Although the training targets the tourism industry, graduates gain skills that transfer well to other types of jobs. Some trainees have interviewed with SIMM Associates of Glasgow, which provides account collection services to creditors. “We’re looking for people with telemarketing, people with sales experience, customer service experience, a lot of different areas,” said Human Resources Director Wendy Griffith.
DEDO plans to expand the training programs. “We have instituted a similar program in the collections industry,” Aguilar said. “What we’re trying to do is identify the industries that are actually growing, or have a growing need for entry-level positions, and develop a customized training program that meets those needs.”
