Hire Expectations: How Can We Better Prepare DeKalb County Job Seekers?

In February of 2025, leaders from DeKalb Township, DCEDC, and Passion Pursuit NFP invited several representatives from major companies around the county to ask about their recruitment experience during an Employer Forum. Each of our roles allows us to hear from local job seekers quite often, however, we wanted to give the floor to our local employers, encouraging them to share openly and honestly, with the hopes of gaining insight into how to better prepare the job seekers we serve in our community. There is a disconnect in the language of job seekers, from entry level to executive, and hiring managers that most social service professionals would love to remove to get more of our caseloads into sustainable employment. To start the conversation, the following survey was created: https://form.jotform.com/250570887817065

During our session in February, we heard from DeKalb County HR, City of DeKalb HR, The Suter Company, DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, NIU HR, and Kishwaukee College. Will you share your experience and help us do a better job of preparing local job seekers to take advantage of workforce opportunities in what some regions are deeming as the “next frontier”(see DCEDC.org)?