IDES: New email effort to help inform, educate customers

Emails will not seek personal information

[October 27, 2012]  CHICAGO -- Emails will be sent to more than 800,000 business leaders and workers to highlight information and services available at the Illinois Department of Employment Security, officials announced this week.

"This is an employment office. The email blast is another tool to share that message," said IDES Director Jay Rowell. "We offer job training and career counseling. We can work with companies to help them hire, set wages and build a business plan. The ultimate goal is to put people back to work as quickly as possible. Doing so is best for our businesses, our workers and our economy."

The emails will be sent to business leaders and individuals who have shared their addresses with the IDES. The initiative builds off previous successful email blasts, such as those that informed veterans of job fairs.

The emails will not seek personal or banking information. There will not be a reply feature. If an individual receives an email that claims to be from IDES but seeks such information and encourages a reply, it should be viewed suspiciously. The emails will include links to IDES content, and that content will be clearly labeled.

The emails will not replace official correspondence between IDES, employers and workers at this time.

An example of potential email content is from Illinoisjoblink.com. There are 120,000 help-wanted ads on Illinoisjoblink.com, the IDES employment website that links job seekers with employers. This no-cost career-related resource allows individuals to create multiple resumes that emphasize different talents and allows businesses to search for specific skills. The keyword-matching technology increases the likelihood of a successful new hire. Illinois JobLink emphasizes Illinois jobs, scrapes other commercial job boards and compares favorably with private efforts that cost hundreds of dollars for a single advertisement.

Business leaders can access the no-cost human resources recruitment services of the IDES at www.ides.illinois.gov or by calling 877-342-7533. The department can assist employers with hiring individuals and evaluating what tax incentives might be available, such as the $5,000 state tax credit for hiring qualified veterans.

Appointed by Gov. Quinn and confirmed last summer by the Illinois Senate with strong bipartisan support, Rowell was entrusted with three goals as the department director: turn the IDES into the state’s employment office; assist families facing economic hardship; and advocate for taxpayers by correcting waste, fraud and abuse.

[Text from Illinois Department of Employment Security file received from the Illinois Office of Communication and Information]