Jennifer Cook, NFI Industries
Jennifer Cook, NFI Industries, receives the 2023 IWP Business Leadership Award from DCEO Deputy Director Julio Rodriguez (center) and Past IWP President Tony Furhmann (left).
The Business Services team from the Workforce Services Division of Will County nominates Jennifer Cook and NFI Industries for the Business Leadership Award. We met Jennifer back in March 2023, and it has developed into a true partnership for our On-The-Job Training program. Jennifer has been amazing at communicating where the OJT candidates are in their pipeline. Here is what Jennifer had to say about our partnership:
“The partnership with Will County Workforce Services has been a great resource for the attraction and recruitment of quality candidates for our CDL Class A Driving needs with our Trader Joe’s account. This account has one of NFI’s highest driver needs in the country, and the partnership allows us to reach a larger segment of qualified drivers. The OJT program supports our mission for comprehensive and safe training for new CDL Class A Drivers,” Jennifer says.
“Because we have an ongoing need for CDL Drivers in a very competitive market it allows us to promote our position for both new and experienced drivers through their job board to Will County residents. The proximity of these candidates is key. It makes the placement very successful because typically the driver only lives 20 minutes from the account. Before this partnership, we were mainly attracting candidates from other counties that were unfortunately too far away for the candidates to work out successfully,” Jennifer explains.
“The length of most new driver training programs is 4 weeks or less. NFI has a 9-week training program. Because the training is more than double most carrier programs, it is very costly for our company. Through the Will County OJT program, it helps to support this training program and continually improve upon it. This ensures that at the end of the program, we have confident, experienced, safe drivers which allows them to be more efficient and ultimately make more income at the end of the program,” Jennifer adds.
“I have worked with many workforce offices in multiple states, and I have to say I have had the smoothest experience with the Will County office. Pam and John have been amazing and very supportive of our program. Communication has always been great. They both are very approachable, and it is so great to see how much they care about the clients that they are servicing and how hard they work to put them on the right path with rewarding career opportunities,” Jennifer says.
“NFI Industries has also partnered with us for the Incumbent Worker Training Program, so NFI can retain valuable NFI warehouse and distribution employees by being able to offer training to upskill them into a CDL driving position. This is amazing for employee morale and promotes loyalty within the company. It is a way for us to actively show our employees how we are here to support them in their career pathing and professional growth,” Jennifer adds.
