Meet Mary Beth Walters | Regional Business Solutions Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mary Beth Walters and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mary Beth, what principle do you value most?
Honesty…transparency, this principle I can’t live without. I was raised to believe that honesty is the best policy, but knowing the truth can cut both ways. You can be honest about something and destroy someone, especially if you speak insensitively, or you can empower and challenge someone by boosting confidence or giving credit for a job well done. I wasn’t always honest or transparent early in my career. I was uncomfortable telling my managers or co-workers how I felt about things, especially when I didn’t agree with something being implemented, or a change that affected my role or the company I worked for (change isn’t always good). However, as I gained confidence in my career, I started sharing more of my thoughts with co-workers and managers, and many times, they had the same concerns or issues that I had, or I was bringing up something that hadn’t been thought of and was something that needed to be addressed. My advice on this subject is this, you have to become an expert in “reading the room” to be honest or transparent and be a champion of your own vocabulary and verbal delivery. As they say, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. If you’ve been asked to share your opinions, by all means, do, but that doesn’t mean be as blunt as a spoon. You want to be respectful of others, but, at the same time, also want to be heard and get your point across while not being perceived as aggressive. Supervisors should also be transparent. I can speak from both sides of the fence on this, and as the subordinate, I have always appreciated when my supervisors have trusted and respected me enough to tell me the real deal. Again, honesty is the best policy, whether there is good news or bad news to share; supervisors should let their subordinates know. No one likes being blindsided. Whether it’s a policy change, new employees hired or a company closure, people should be informed about what’s happening at work. It’s a sign of respect and trust. As the supervisor, I won’t betray any confidential company information that I have been specifically told not to speak on, I can respect that and comply with that type of request, but I always share with my team anything that may be impactful to them so they are aware and prepared.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I work as the Regional Business Solutions Manager at SC Works Greater Upstate. I have a team of two Regional Business Consultants, Ben and Kayla. Our job is to go out and meet with employers to tell them about programs and services we offer to any businesses in our footprint, Greenville, Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union Counties in Upstate South Carolina. Our programs are funded through the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) and everything we offer is free to employers and jobseekers. We can help employers in so many ways, we can help you post jobs, find candidates, screen candidates, host job fairs or events, provide reimbursement for hiring qualified candidates, and assist you with training incumbent workers, to name a few,

WIOA is a federal program that allows us to provide employers with a 50% up to $3000 reimbursement in training wages for eligible hires. This is called On-the-Job Training (OJT). Eligible candidates fall into three categories: they are dislocated (permanently laid off due to no fault of their own), chronically unemployed (more than 13 weeks), underemployed (earning less than $14 in Spartanburg, Cherokee, or Union Counties; $14.39 in Greenville County) and the individual being hired has a skills deficiency that the employer is willing to train and get them upskilled to fulfill the duties of the role they were hired for. We are not a staffing agency, the employees you hire through us are the employer’s workers from day one. If a candidate, meets the above criteria, whether they are someone we refer to an employer or the employer refers them to us, we can provide the financial incentive. Before the employee’s first day of work, we will need a copy of the application the employee filled out for the employer or a resume. We will reach out to the employee you are hiring, and schedule a time to have them come into one of our offices and get them enrolled in the WIOA program (so we can track the funds for the state). We ask that the employer make the employee aware that someone from SC Works Greater Upstate will be contacting them; oftentimes, if they are not aware they will not respond and we may not be able to enroll them. That does NOT mean you can’t hire them without using our services. Once through the enrollment, we create an agreement between the employer and SC Works Greater Upstate that lists the training dates, start to finish, the wage/rate of pay, and the skills they will be trained on. Once that is completed and signed, the employee is ready to start. Please note: we need to have 1-2 weeks to schedule employees for enrollment and complete an agreement. Beyond that, the employer is responsible for sending a timesheet for the employee by the 5th of each month the employee is under the agreement, a 30-day evaluation must be completed and a picture of the employee “on the job” sent to us after the first full 30 days of employment (we realize that businesses may have proprietary processes or machines and don’t want to show that publicly – if you can provide us with a photo of them with your business signage that will work). We will schedule a monitoring call at some point later to speak with the employee and the employee’s supervisor. You will receive reimbursements for 1/2 of the wages the employee is being paid during their training time.

We also offer Incumbent Worker Training (IWT) which consists of local grants that our Workforce Development Boards: Greenville County Workforce Development Board (Greenville County) and Upstate Workforce Board (Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union Counties) award when funds are available to help businesses offset the cost of training to help employees stay upskilled and competitive in the workforce. For more information on this, Greenville County Businesses: https://greenvillewib.com/news/. For Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union businesses: https://www.upstateworkforceboard.org/IWT.

If a company in our footprint is facing potential or imminent layoffs or closures that, with training, could save the jobs and company, there are funds available all year through the state and they are called Rapid Response IWT grants, There is a process to access these funds that our local workforce boards can help you get. Please reach out to me to get the process going: mwalters@scworksgreaterupstate.com.

The fact that we are in workforce development and provide free services sets us apart from any other workforce development-based organizations. Many individuals and businesses in the local area think that we are the Unemployment office, but we are not, We are the RE-employment office, SC Works Greater Upstate is an umbrella organization that makes us a One-Stop location for needs, Under one roof, you can find assistance through SC Department of Employment and Workforce DSS, Veterans Services, Adult Education and Vocational Rehabilitation. We have two comprehensive centers: one in Greenville, and one in Spartanburg, and two satellite offices in Cherokee and Union. We have been called the little gem of the Upstate in helping employers and job seekers. If you don’t know us, please get to know us, we’d love to hear from you! We can also get people connected to services outside of our organization. We do love being conveners!

I’m very passionate about helping others. It gives me a sense of purpose and a sense of pride when I know that someone I’ve worked with is living their best life. It’s so easy to be kind and helpful when you know that people in the community face all sorts of barriers and with the help of SC Works Greater Upstate, we can help remove them. Everyone deserves to have a job they are passionate about, that makes them want to go to work every day and pays them a sustainable wage. We are so fortunate in the Upstate to have so many new companies moving into and strengthening our area and economy. The sky really is the limit here and we want to be the organization that can show our communities th

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’d take them downtown to some of the great restaurants there. Go get coffee at Coffee Underground. Maybe take in a game at the Greenville Drive or to see the Triumph. Go to Unity Park, the Reedy, and definitely the zoo, the art museum, the West End. Go shopping at the cute stores downtown and out on Augusta Road and to the BMW Zentrum for a tour. Honestly, I’m more of a homebody than a gotta-do-something-body.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to give a SHOUTOUT to Nikki Burgess, my former supervisor. When I stepped into my current role, I was completely green and Nikki was our Project Director at SC Works Greater Upstate, I will never forget how she supported me, encouraged me, and often picked me up when I fell. She was always there to pitch in if I got overwhelmed with all of my new duties and if I had questions that she didn’t know the answer to, she always said, “We’ll learn together!” That always felt good because that is exactly what we did! She was 100% invested in my success and cared about me as an employee and mentor. She celebrated our team’s successes; and gave advice when we crashed and burned. She encouraged creativity and thinking outside the box. She was a part of everything and had such a great attitude, but even when she had an off day, she was there for us. Before this job, I didn’t typically form friendships with coworkers, but Nikki’s friendliness and caring were heartfelt. In May, Nikki accepted a new role within the SC Technical School System, and she’s killing it, of course. I miss her, but I’m proud she took the next step in her career. Thanks for everything, Nikki!

Website: https://scworksupstate.com/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/ marybethgossettwalters

Image Credits
Mary Beth Walters