When I was elected county executive, in the midst of the worst economic downturn in decades, I knew I would need some creative ideas, call it a new way of thinking, to help people who had lost their jobs get back to work.
Recognizing that jobs are the key to a growing economy, I instituted job fairs to link the unemployed with businesses and corporations in need of workers. I also invested funds in job training and retraining centers with our local towns. In partnership with the county’s Industrial Development Agency, I offered incentives that helped create and retain over 3,500 private sector jobs. My administration worked hand-in-hand with businesses and corporations to ensure they – and their employees – stayed in Nassau County.
Building on my efforts to help put people back to work and reduce citizens’ reliance on social services, I launched a free job finding application – Nassau Works – that notifies job seekers of job opportunities. This innovative jobs platform provides a comprehensive and integrated social and mobile job solution that connects job seekers and employers.
This new platform is offered to county businesses for free, as to help reduce their recruiting costs and ensure they gain access to qualified candidates. One of the largest databases of available jobs on the Internet, Nassau Works also includes a one-of-a-kind augmented reality feature that allows seekers to view job openings in the geographic proximity of their smartphone.
Available at www.NassauWorks.com or at the App Store for your mobile device, getting started is as fast and easy as easy as pushing a button to find jobs or for employers to instantly distribute their job listings to every corner of the digital landscape. Nassau Works leverages social media to drive local employment solutions.
Job seekers can choose to receive job notifications “pushed” to them via text message on their phone, e-mail or through social media networks like Twitter.
Nassau Works is also integrated with Facebook so that job seekers can easily see if any of their friends are connected with the hiring company. Through the site seekers can request a referral from their friend to the hiring company making their chances of getting the job 20 times higher.
Going forward, all of the county’s economic development compacts through the IDA will require that businesses post job openings on Nassau Works, thereby expanding the database.
This innovative jobs platform is the perfect complement to the initiatives I have already instituted. Utilizing this technology, Nassau County will gain access to data and analytics that offer unprecedented insight into the county’s local employment needs and will help steer key decisions that will provide the foundation for future job growth. It is a vital tool in today’s economy.
