Client Solutions Specialist

Job Description Position:

Client Solutions Specialist (Participant Advancement Specialist) - WIOA Department:

Workforce Development Reports to: Manager of Client Advancement Status:

Full-Time / Exempt Hours: Full – Time – 40 hours per week / Some evenings and weekends, as needed

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday 9am-5pm (onsite)

Salary: $55,000 - $60,000

Organizational Description: North Lawndale Employment Network is a comprehensive workforce development agency on Chicago’s West Side dedicated to advancing the economic outcomes of the community’s residents through innovative employment initiatives, including our social enterprises. In August 2021, the North Lawndale Employment Network transitioned to a new campus which features a premier community café for residents and stakeholders.

Our Mission: To improve the earning potential of the North Lawndale community through innovative employment initiatives that lead to economic advancement and an improved quality of life for residents.

Opportunity: The Client Solutions Specialist empowers individuals to achieve meaningful, lasting employment by providing personalized, participant-centered career services from eligibility through job placement. Serving as a trusted partner and advocate, this role helps participants identify their strengths, overcome barriers, and develop clear pathways to success through individualized career coaching and comprehensive Individual Employment Plans (IEPs). By connecting participants with resources and opportunities, maintaining accurate program documentation, and ensuring compliance across required data systems, the Client Solutions Specialist plays a key role in creating sustainable career outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

Participant Assessment, Planning, and Coaching (40%)

Purpose: Guide participants from eligibility determination through high-quality coaching, individualized goal setting, consistent engagement, and successful program progression.

• Screen and assess participants to determine program eligibility, training suitability, supportive service needs, and likelihood of successful placement.

• Develop, review, and update Individual Employment Plans (IEPs) with realistic short- and long-term employment, education, and advancement goals.

• Provide individualized career counseling, mentoring, accountability, and follow-up for scheduled appointments, missed appointments, and participant milestones.

• Maintain a consistent caseload-management process that supports participant engagement, program completion, and employment entry.

Career Readiness and Employment Advancement (30%)

Purpose: Prepare participants to secure employment by strengthening job-search skills, workplace behaviors, and connections to employment opportunities.

• Assess and reinforces job-readiness standards, including workplace expectations, professional communication, business attire, behavior, attitude, and reliability.

• Assist with workforce training program facilitation as needed.

• Coach participants in identifying and resolving employment challenges, such as restrictive job preferences, childcare, and transportation.

• Support participants in developing professional portfolios and other employment materials in collaboration with the Associate Manager of Digital Equity.

• Collaborate with the Manager of Customized Skills to align participants’ skills and interests to upskilling opportunities related to available jobs in the marketplace.

• Share job leads and prepare participants for interviews and job-related employment opportunities in collaboration with the Manager of Business Solutions.

• Collaborate with the Manager of Business Solutions to capture 30/60/90/180/365-day retention for participants with unsubsidized employment.

Data Management, Compliance, and Team Coordination (30%)

Purpose: Maintain accurate records, support grant and program compliance, and coordinate information and services across NLEN teams and external partners.

• Enter timely, accurate case notes, service activities, outcomes, and required documentation in participant hard files, Salesforce, and other designated data management systems.

• Track correspondence, contracts, referrals, provider placements, and supporting documentation and compile reports or results as requested.

• Coordinate with program, employer engagement, digital equity, and supportive-service staff to route participants through services and resolve gaps that affect outcomes.

• Support outreach and special projects as needed, maintain current knowledge of program and training terminology, and provide monthly success stories or program updates for organizational communications.

Qualifications & Skills

• Education & Experience: BA/BS degree in liberal arts, social work, phycology, behavioral science or a related field, with 3-5 years of experience required.

Strong knowledge of the vocational training market.

Ability to establish a liaison and interact with private and public agencies.

Prior WIOA program experience is highly preferred.

Experience using CRM and case management tools such as Salesforce, IWDS 2.0, Career Connect, Illinois workNet, and ECM are strongly preferred.

• Writing & Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Preferred training and skills: Trauma training and experience working with justice involved and individuals with employment barriers to include but not limited to housing, transportation, domestic and food insecurities or a plus.

• Commitment to Mission: Passion for NLEN’s mission and a strong commitment to social and economic justice.

• Other Requirements: Excellent self-management, time management, and follow-up communication skills.

NLEN Core Values

Neighborhood-focused employment initiatives are fundamental. Successful programs are neighborhood-focused and community-driven so they meet the specific needs of individuals. Quality of work matters. People who work hard should not be poor. A full-time job must meet basic needs and offer conditions for engagement, advancement, and respect. Economic mobility is essential to reducing poverty. Family supporting wages and financial literacy are core to addressing economic insecurity, which disproportionally affects African American, Latino, and other families of color. Economic insecurity is not only impacting the poor; it has grown to threaten the middle class. Self-employment and entrepreneurship are critically important economic mobility strategies to generate income and boost household finances. We must address the racial wealth gap and social inequality. The United States’ history of racially charged public policy has created the modern racial wealth divide not just through the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow, but through the more recent race-based discrimination in hiring, housing subsidies, tax subsidies, and veteran benefits as well as other implicitly and explicitly racist public policies. Everyone deserves human dignity and empowerment. To uphold this belief, we do all of our work in a manner that values human dignity and eliminates shame, humiliation, and stigma by building on the strengths that help our participants and community survive loss and trauma and rebalance the power dynamic between participants and authority figures.