Module 2: Establishing Business Relationships

In Module 2, you will learn about strategies for engaging with businesses and the knowledge about businesses that will help enhance the effectiveness of VR-business interactions.

Click here to download a PDF version of the Module 2 presentation slides.

Transcript of Module 2

The Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research, KTER, housed at the American Institutes for Research, is proud to present the Business Outreach Training. This is Module 2, “Establishing Business Relationships.”

Welcome! Thank you for participating in the KTER Center's Training for Business Outreach. I'm Linda Hedenblad, and I'll be your instructor.

In this module, we'll discuss strategies to create and maintain relationships with businesses. We'll also discuss the importance of understanding how businesses operate as essential to building working relationships with those businesses. Finally, we'll introduce strategies that will help you prepare for partnering with businesses, making initial contacts with them, and, ultimately, build the collaborative partnerships that benefit all involved, including the people that we serve with disabilities.

Recall from Module 1 that, in this course, we will discuss the topic for the module by first showing you what research tells us about the topic. Then we'll present the practitioner's perspective based on field experience. This will give us a solid foundation as well as the practical boots on the ground viewpoint. So let's get started with Module 2, establishing the importance of business relationships.

First, we'll examine the research. Swanson, Becker, and Bond, 2013, recommend a simple sequence of steps that you can use to begin developing relationships with businesses. First, you should meet your business contacts in person to learn more about that business.

A good way to do this is to use the contacts you already have in your existing social network. Meeting in person also helps facilitate a consulting relationship based on the business's needs. By meeting in person, you can communicate more openly with your contacts and work with them to determine the short-term as well as long-term needs of the business. This collaborative needs assessment is part of building a consulting relationship with the business.

Second, try to see the business from the business perspective. It may help to create a community of practice with Human Resource professionals to promote communication and build relationships within that group. And while a top-down approach or meeting with senior leadership in HR is highly effective, relationships with middle management is valuable as well. Middle management can be impactful, and you can leverage them and the stories of successful job candidates that you're going to refer to gain approval from upper management.

Another way to build relationships and gain business perspective is to engage with the business community. There are a variety of ways to do this, including getting involved with community organizations, such as a Rotary Club, and integrating your VR agencies with the business community through the creation of employer advisory board. You can also host business fairs and organize employee recognition events.

A third recommended step in building relationships with businesses is to follow up with businesses. This, of course, includes circling back with them about qualified individuals. But it also includes general follow-up activities, like sending thank you cards, and keeping track of your contacts for future communication.

It's also important to stay in contact with the businesses frequently to maintain an active level of engagement. Remember that you're building long-term relationships, so don't let businesses fall off your radar. These steps are not meant to be all-inclusive. Rather, they offer a good starting point and a reflection of the research on the topic. VR practitioners have reported that there's no substitute for hands-on experience for building relationships.

With that in mind, we now turn our attention to the practitioner's viewpoint on building relationships with businesses. As with all of the modules, after demonstrating what the research shows us—in this case, building relationships with businesses—we then turn to the practitioner's view. Given the importance of field experience in building relationships with businesses, including the practitioner's voice in this module is essential. So without further ado, we turn to the practitioner's voice on establishing business relationships.

Over the next several slides, our practitioner's voice will relate strategies for business outreach. These strategies illustrate the process you can use to build relationships with businesses and maximize the effectiveness of your outreach. We will focus on a few of the strategies at a time.

In this section, we will explore strategies to understand the business, establish relationships, and ask and listen. The first step in executing these strategies is to understand the business and establish a relationship based on trust. Of course, you'll want to do your homework on the business. But also remember from our research section on how important meeting the person is. This helps establish rapport, so get out there and get connected.

There are many opportunities to connect. A few examples include Chamber of Commerce meetings, professional HR meetings, like the Society for Human Resource Management, or diversity and inclusion networks. Don't forget to leverage your existing connections. You can collaborate with labor partners or get referrals from businesses you already have relationships with.

Remember, we said you need to understand the business. The first step to understanding the business is to go through a discovery process where you research the company. Learn about their structure and goals, their reputation in the industry, and their business activities. For example, if they've had any recent news coverage, such as a merger or new product line, this is great to know. You also can leverage your network for information about working with that particular business.

Next, discover what their diversity and inclusion goals are. You'll also want to evaluate the work environment and setting to understand what may present barriers to access or accommodations. Knowing this will help you inform your conversations with business. Doing so in advance not only makes you look more professional, it will help you know what questions to ask in your conversation and can help inspire ideas for how businesses could benefit from VR services.

To be effective at relationship building, ask questions and listen for the business' response. To get organized, generate a list of questions based on the discovery research you did in advance. And don't only focus on HR, but ask about various lines of the business within the organization.

This doesn't mean just HR. Other lines of the business can be good conversation starters and opportunities to get involved with the organization. These examples on the screen are just a few ways to help you think about engaging with business.

Remember to use the language that business understands. Don't use the terminology we use in VR. The business may not understand it. Instead, talk to them using the same terminology that they use. This is another great area where your research can be important. Also, ask your questions strategically, and you'll be able to identify some key pieces of information about the business that may be vital to your effectively working with them.

Support and resistance can come from any of the lines of business. It'll be important to where you may have allies and where you may encounter resistance. If you anticipate resistance, try to find out what the key issues or fears are.

Be specific in your questions to determine the business employment needs. What are the skill sets they're looking for? Are there any skill sets they're lacking or trying to build? What other qualifications are they looking for in their workforce?

For example, is there a strong corporate culture that is important for all employees to fit in? Are their personal traits necessary for their workforce, such as adaptability or independence? Asking and listening shows the business that you've done your homework, and that you have an interest in understanding how you can best help them. It also gives you critical information that you'll need to provide services effectively and to continue to grow the relationship.

In conclusion, let's review what we've learned. In this module, we looked at establishing relationships with businesses. We first reviewed the research and went over three overall steps for developing relationships with businesses. Those steps are, number one, meet in person to learn more about the business; two, adopt the business perspective; and, three, follow up with the business.

We then heard the practitioner's perspective about how to make this happen. We introduced the strategies for business outreach. We talked about the importance of connecting with businesses and showed some examples of how to do so.

We also discussed ways to understand the business by doing your homework about their diversity and inclusion goals and any potential barriers. Finally, we considered how to use strategic questioning and listening to determine the business needs, including those for specific lines of business, employee qualifications, and other important information that will contribute to the success of your working relationship with each individual business. We hope you've enjoyed this training module and that it's given you some practical guidance and steps toward developing relationships with businesses.

And with that, you've now completed Module 2. References are available on the following slides. When you're ready, you may close this presentation and take the knowledge check to be eligible for the next module.

[Note: knowledge check has been removed.]

Click here to proceed to Module 3.

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