Series Of Workforce Summits Scheduled To Help Hire Personal Care Attendants

The Louisiana Department of Health and the Louisiana Workforce Commission will host a series of workforce summits as they seek to hire qualified individuals to work with people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

“To give them some really good information, no cost tools and resources to assist them with onboarding, retention and how to use their services with the workforce commission.”

The first summit is today in New Orleans at the Jefferson Parish East Bank Regional Library from 9 am to 3 pm. Dickerson says there is a high rate of turnover in this industry as employees are often paid minimum wage or slightly above. She says the summit is designed to benefit healthcare providers when it comes to recruiting individuals to work with those with disabilities and the aging population.

“They will help them understand how to craft the perfect job description to attract the kind of direct support worker that’s needed in their organization.”

Additional summits are scheduled to take place Thursday in Lafayette and Friday in Alexandria. Dickerson says the outcome of the summits is to streamline and improve the hiring practices of providers, bring down onboarding costs and identify training opportunities.

“We want to help these businesses grow, and retain and attract the types of employees that are needed to care for the individuals that our agency has been tasked with supporting.”