Through the U.S. Department of Labor, Local Workforce Development Boards (LWDBs) offer services to help during a layoff, natural disaster, mergers, and permanent closures. Referred to as Rapid Response, this no-cost program provides your company with employee relations support and guiding affected workers.

The service is delivered via coordinated local Rapid Response teams coming together quickly to deliver customized and confidential services. They can confidentially review your situation and help plan a customized presentation to fit your needs either in-person at your location or virtually, along with the ability to offer translation services in languages other than English. Customized presentations can outline publicly available job seekers services, training opportunities, healthcare options and unemployment insurance benefits. This helps soon-to-be displaced workers connect with available resources early on, so they can get re-employed as quickly as possible. Additionally, we could arrange an onsite “reemployment” hiring event just for your employees with support from other local employers that are hiring.

Lastly, way before any layoffs take place there are public workforce retention programs to support companies with upskilling current staff, to prevent and/or minimize future job loss. Please see the retention section below and reach out to a coordinator for more information.