New Employer Enhancements to the Commonwealth Workforce Development System

On May 9th, 2009 several upgrades affecting customers were made to the Commonwealth Workforce Development System (CWDS). On the Employer side, several new features are designed to enhance jobseeker and employer matching capabilities and allow for better communication between CWDS users.

When running a match to search for potential candidates, employers now have the option of making test changes to their job order in order to determine whether modifications to fields such as salary level, education, and amount of experience required could improve the quantity and quality of matches. Employers can choose to then make the changes permanent if they find that there are more candidates that meet their specifications.

Another new feature on CWDS allows an employer to send letters or emails to participants.  The purpose of this new functionality is to make it easier to contact participants after they have applied or been referred to a position or when the employer is performing a job match within CWDS.

CareerLink staff is now able to designate and prioritize preferred contact people for a business.  Up to three employer contacts may be marked as preferred contacts and are numbered in order as to who should be contacted first in regards to any issues with the business’s registration or job orders.

Employers have always been able to add detailed information about their company under the Company Profile section. In this section, employers provide specific information about their hiring process, company work environment, and benefits. However, with the recent upgrades to the system, this section has expanded to include the ability to indicate hiring preferences. For example, if a business is veteran friendly there is now a section to designate that preference to any CareerLink staff, including Veteran’s Representatives.  Adding information under this section can be helpful to all CareerLink staff as they work to match qualified applicants with open positions.

As always, your local PA CareerLink business development staff can provide training or assistance with any employer or job order related CWDS questions.