Bloom partners with Ivy Tech-Bloomington

Friday was an important day for the Bloom Marketing Group as it celebrated a $1 million workforce program, which will lead to new skills and higher wages for the current employees of the company. Ivy Tech Community College-Bloomington, WorkOne Bloomington and the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation were among the conference attendees.\n“Bloom has grown into a significant employer in the Monroe County area,” said Ron Walker, president of the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. The corporation revealed an economic impact to Monroe County of more than $21 million per year in personal income and $78 million per year in new economic activity resulting from Bloom’s operations, Walker said in a press conference.\n“We compete for workers, for talent, internationally, locally and statewide,” Walker said, commenting on the importance of investment in company employees.\nIn previous years, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development’s focus was largely on serving unemployed workers, but that has now shifted to providing more training opportunities to existing workers so the workers in Indiana can increase their skills and be more competitive, benefiting everyone in the state.\nThe company currently employs 506 people, and as a result of these jobs at Bloom, an additional 223 jobs will be supported in the local economy through new supplier activity and new household spending. \nBloom will also invest its own money in the development of its employees. Together with other awards, the funds will provide $1 million to train people in this region and to improve employee skills, employee productivity and increase employee retention, said Richard Rampley, the business services director for WorkOne Bloomington. Employees completing these programs will receive various credentials depending on which program they complete.\n“We customized the training program (for Bloom),” said Brenda McLane, the executive director of workforce and economic development for Ivy Tech-Bloomington. \nA customized career-development certificate, also known as the Bloom sales associate certificate, will be available to Bloom associates. Among the classes are personal and professional development, customer service, computer classes and a health insurance education course.\nIvy Tech will train about 480 Bloom employees in various areas, including the aforementioned classes. In addition, some Bloom employees will have Spanish-language training pertaining to their area of work, and 47 employees will attend Ivy Tech’s “Management and Supervisory Institute.” The management program helps train the most critical of Bloom’s personnel in communication, leadership, interpersonal skills and managerial performance. \n“This is a great opportunity for Ivy Tech-Bloomington,” said John Whikehart, Ivy-Tech-Bloomington chancellor. “We are pleased to be involved in this partnership.”\nIvy Tech has already helped in the training of more than 115 Bloom employees before this partnership, Whikehart said. \nWhikehart congratulated Bloom for the group’s investment in its own employees – a sum of more than $650,000.