Employ Prince George’s Is Nearly Completely Virtual - And One Of The Best Workforce Development Agencies In Maryland. The Goal Is To Take Care of Prince Georgians

By Raoul Dennis

Since coming on board and launching the new Employ Prince George’s office in Lanham in 2016, President and CEO Walter Simmons has been of the mindset that Prince Georgians are one family and, along with a talented and aggressive team of professionals, he has endeavored to build one of the best workforce development agencies in the state.

Today, he’s convinced that Employ Prince George’s is number one in the field. Prince George’s County has the second-largest workforce system in the state of Maryland.

“I think you would be hard-pressed to find another workforce development agency doing all that we do in terms of services and effectiveness,” Simmons says.

With the stature of a former player with the NFL, Simmons came into the position with significant credits. He’d been named a national leader in family financial stability center management by the White House in 2014. And, by invitation, he joined the U.S. Secretary of Labor on a panel to discuss veteran employment in 2015.

Employ Prince George’s made headlines April 1 when it announced that it was launching a program that would distribute $200 gift cards for hourly workers from the county laid off as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak.

The agency, which is now more than 80% virtual, had been mounting an aggressive – and successful - track record in the business. The county has led Maryland in job growth over the past six years. Simmons explains that the agency is connected with “all the economic development drivers in the county,” and that EPG has the financial packages to help grow those jobs. He also points out that local hiring requirements are demanded of companies coming to the county. Those requirements also aid Employ Prince George’s in developing a successful track record because they help to fill that need.

“Employ Prince George’s is the key element in helping businesses hire skilled Prince Georgians to fill positions,” Simmons says.

And there is the talent development fund: about $250,000 per year to hire those residents.

As a result, EPG helps some 7,000 -10,000 people get jobs per year.

The agency has been working toward becoming fully virtual even before the coronavirus spread forced residents and job seekers indoors. “[Over] the next two weeks we will be the only workforce system in Maryland that is 100% virtual.

“Prior to the pandemic we were already investing in telework,” he says of the agency’s push to become completely virtual. Simmons explains the pace of EPG’s effort with an analogy of a very fast car. “We are moving from a neighborhood road to 65 mph on 495. We can take people from enrollment to 100% training completely at home.”

The veteran manager says that the determination to get to this level comes more out of necessity than due to the Coronavirus pandemic – which was an unexpected development.

“People can’t always afford to get to a center,” he says. “Some can only get to their local libraries.”

On The Move

From day one, the EPG team has allied itself with major county institutions and with resource–building partners around the nation. Within the county, it has woven into the bloodline of county improvement organizations that represent the Hispanic community, the business community, the faith and education communities, and more. The philosophy has been to get EPG connected to everything growing in Prince George’s in order to be of service to new and potential clients.

“We are on all the webinars, all the telemeetings. We are in on all the branding and marketing programs. We work with the schools, colleges, etc. to improve skills and connect people to jobs,” Simmons says. “We do over 500 community events per year. We do strong social media. And we have a solid outreach and recruitment team.”

Externally, EPG connects with best practices companies around the nation to deepen its arsenal of resources. Such partnerships include The Career Team in Connecticut. EPG worked with The Career Team to develop a portal for the EPG website called the Career Edge. The portal allows new clients to register with EPG and form an ongoing account. EPG also partnered with Metrix Learning in New York (aka “New York Wired”) to develop and launch Skill Up Prince George’s—a new program for EPG that will allow clients to enhance their skillsets through 4,000 free online courses. The program will launch in late April.

Employ Prince George’s recent partnership with the Greater Washington Community Foundation has been especially fruitful as it gave rise to the $200 cards for hourly wage earners sidelined as a result of the coronavirus spread and job closings.

“We thrive on Partnerships with local, private and national institutions to provide resources in Prince George’s County,” Simmons says.

Family Looks Out For Family

Employ Prince George’s leaders say they plan to continue to find innovative ways to stay ahead of the ravages of Coronavirus and aid residents in this new environment.

“This is an unfortunate situation but it will make us stronger after it’s all done,” Simmons says.

“Some will say that it seems like we’re working eight days per week. We have to pick up her pace,” says the 30 year old. “We believe that the Prince George’s County community is our family. When something goes wrong with someone in your family you are there no matter what. Remember, 20,000 Prince Georgians became unemployed last month and that means a lot to us. We have to do something about that.”