Staffing and search agency Milliner & Associates recently received an honorable mention Care award from the American Staffing Association for its work with Jobs for America’s Graduates. Their corporate social responsibility initiative seeks to assist at-risk juniors and seniors at Decatur Central High School.
“Our initiative is called Mentoring Today’s Youth into Tomorrow’s Leaders, so we have partnered with JAG for the last two academic years. It’s a career readiness and college preparedness program at the high school level,” said Nicole Bieker, Milliner vice president of operations.
They work with students on interviewing skills, the importance of internships and job shadowing. They’ve created a four-step mock interview process that lets students practice several types of interviews with Milliner staff members and interns.
“We’ve created the format that by the time they graduate from high school, they will have gone through four different interview formats which consist of a face-to-face interview, phone interview, panel interview and then a group interview. It’s just a way for them to hone in their interviewing skills and to get comfortable with marketing themselves,” Beiker said.
This is a second year in a row that Milliner, 4181 E. 96th St., has been recognized for its work. In 2015, the company founded by Zionsville resident Rich Milliner won the Care award. Going into their second year, program organizers realized they needed to work harder to keep the initiative innovative.
“I was told we should be very, very proud of that honorable mention recognition. It is very difficult to repeat, because the criteria the judges use are pretty stringent as far showing proper growth,” Beiker said. “You can’t just continue showing what you did the previous year. You have to show an advancement of that initiative. Our team was very proud that we were able to show that and continue to give back to the students and to be recognized by our national association.”
For more information, visit millinerandassoc.com.
