Baltimore City and Baltimore County host fourth annual awards ceremony celebrating “Regionalism that Works”
Five employers receive Baltimore Regional Workforce Innovations Awards for innovative approaches to building and strengthening workforce

Baltimore, MD - Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith, Jr., along with the Baltimore Workforce Investment Board and Baltimore County Workforce Development Council, honored the recipients of the fourth annual Baltimore Regional Workforce Innovations Awards this evening at the Sheraton Baltimore North in Towson. These awards were presented to area businesses that exemplify innovative approaches to workforce development. The winning businesses and organizations below were selected from nominations received in the following five categories:

Preparing Youth for the 21st Century Workplace – BITHGROUP Technologies inaugurated an annual summer program designed to provide Baltimore youth with direct exposure to a wide range of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics(STEM) related occupations. Each year since, the intensive five week STEM Summer Program immerses a select group of bright young people in a world of technology and entrepreneurship, where they are challenged to explore areas that they may have never considered.

Creating a Work Place that Celebrates the Mature Worker – The Baltimore County Public Library maximizes the talents and experience mature workers have to offer by encouraging and facilitating the transition of retiring full-time staff members into related part-time positions. Specifically, 45 days from their retirement, BCPL full-time staff members can move into related part-time positions, and receive special consideration with regard to compensation. When 
placed in a related part-time position, such individuals will receive wages at the top of the pay scale for the new position, so as to closely approximate the equivalent hourly wage for their former full-time positions.

Overcoming Barriers to Employment and Retention – Second Chance is a nonprofit organization delivering training and employment programs that promote and encourage each participant to achieve lasting results in the emerging field of ‘green’ careers. It creates employment for and retrains ex-offenders and displaced workers in deconstruction methods. Second Chance participants learn how to reclaim building material in order to reduce the demolition debris that is overloading landfills, renew valuable materials, and preserve the region’s rich architectural heritage.

Successful Incumbent Workforce Initiatives – CitiFinancial North America identifies employees as “High Potentials” and works with their managers to create development plans targeted to helping them build the skills necessary to rise to the next level. High Potentials are given networking and exposure opportunities to interface with senior managers from all divisions of the company, and participate in training and development activities well beyond what many companies are offering their workers in these tough economic times.

Small Business, Big Ideas – Helion Technologies created a seven tier career path program for its skilled workforce, aligned with the company’s emerging service model. This career map features the development of detailed occupational descriptions that define roles, tasks, job knowledge and qualifications. Management actively communicates expectations for each role, helping employees to understand how to be successful where they are, but also how to move up in the company by providing professional growth opportunities.
                                                   
“It is important to recognize local businesses that are using innovative techniques to cultivate productive teams of employees who help to create successful organizations,” said Mayor Rawlings-Blake. “The organizations honored today demonstrate unique ways to prepare workers, retain and improve the skills of current workers, and reach out to the next generation – our future workforce.”

"The Workforce Innovations Award winners clearly demonstrate that business has a significant role to play in the development of a skilled and talented workforce. Their efforts, whether in Baltimore County or Baltimore City strengthen our entire region as a whole,” said County Executive Smith. “Each jurisdiction may be separated by a line on a map, but what happens in the county affects the city and vice versa. That is why the city and the county work together time after time – because we know that our commitment to collaboration benefits our entire region."

This year’s awards ceremony featured the addition of the Innovator Award – an honor bestowed upon one of the five winning organizations that exemplified innovation in an area that is especially crucial to our future competitiveness. This year’s award went to CitiFinancial North America for their success in creating an initiative that supports the professional growth and development of their high potential employees. 

“We identify those people who have the ability, aspiration and the engagement to rise to much higher levels in the organization,” said CitiFinancial North America’s Senior Vice President and Director of Talent and Organizational Development Shari Ekelchik. “We work with them to create individual development plans and identify development areas that might be non-traditional.”

Baltimore Regional Workforce Innovations is the new name for the Baltimore Regional Employer Institute that was launched four years ago as a partnership initiative between Baltimore City’s and Baltimore County’s workforce development offices.

The Employer Awards event was organized by Baltimore City’s Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and Baltimore County’s Office of Workforce Development in order to assist their efforts in promoting successful workforce development initiatives for their customers.

Sponsors contributing to the 2010 Baltimore Regional Workforce Innovations Awards include MedStar Health, Baltimore County Public Library, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Sinai Hospital, Verizon, Whiting-Turner, University of Maryland Medical System, BITHGROUP Technologies, Wachs Water Services, and the Daily Record.