Two Uptown Businesses Receiving Training Grants
December 13, 2006
Greenwood, SC - Two Uptown Greenwood businesses are among several area companies who are tapping into federal Incumbent Worker Training funds in hopes of improving their bottom lines.
The Inn on the Square and Thayer’s Gift Shop are among nine companies who were awarded as a second round of training funds from the 2006-2007 Incumbent Worker Training (IWT) Program were recently announced. The others are four Greenwood County businesses, two in Laurens County, and one in Saluda County.
| The purpose of the IWT program is to provide resources for employers to train current workers in hopes of increasing the productivity and growth of their company. Training is often needed to meet challenging skill requirements caused by new technology, retooling, and new product lines. |
ABOVE - Attending a training session for Incumbent Worker Training Program funding recipients recently are, seated from left, Dot Hipps from Village Crest Antiques, Inn on the Square General Manager Bill Gommer and Thayer's Gift Shop Owner Bill Wilson. Standing are Upper Savannah Council of Governments Workforce Development Specialist Amy Dowell, who was conducting the training, and Rosemary Walters from the Heritage Company. |
The purpose of the IWT program is to provide resources for employers to train current workers in hopes of increasing the productivity and growth of their company. Training is often needed to meet challenging skill requirements caused by new technology, retooling, and new product lines.
The Upper Savannah Workforce Development Board awarded IWT grants in August to 23 companies representing all seven counties in the Upper Savannah Council of Governments (USCOG) region of Abbeville, Edgefield, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry and Saluda counties. The second round of grants brought the total to 32.
The Upper Savannah region received $206,303 in IWT money funded by the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in the first round announced in August, and an additional $28,176 awarded in the second round in November.
“Funding was given to companies with 50 employees or less and companies which had not received Incumbent Worker grants in the past two years,” said USCOG Workforce Development Specialist Amy Dowell.
Inn on the Square will receive $4,000 to provide customer service and hospitality training to 15 employees. The training is part of the hotel’s efforts to become part of a national chain.
“We are in the process of becoming an upper end Clarion hotel,” Inn on the Square General Manager Bill Gommer said. “That is the goal that we are working toward for us to get to the next level in terms of national name recognition.
“The Inn on the Square is well known locally and even in the six-county area,” Gommer said. “But a national salesman doesn’t know about Inn on the Square. If he doesn’t run into somebody locally or drive by it, he doesn’t know it’s here. The Clarion has a nationwide reservation system that will take our overnight lodging up a substantial percentage.”
Gommer hopes the Inn can make the switch in time for the 2007 Masters Golf Tournament next spring. The business is currently working on a “financial package” that must be submitted to join the chain, he said. The Inn on the Square is a full-service hotel that arrived in Greenwood in 1986.
Gommer said the funds would be used to train the employees to adapt to the Clarion system. He said he would be going to Clarion’s national headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., soon to learn more.
“You’ve got to have your best face on all the time,” Gommer said of the hotel business. “Your first point of contact is usually the person at the front desk. Take housekeeping, for instance. A customer might have 45 seconds of contact with a housekeeper. But if the housekeeper is helpful in meeting their needs, then it’s a good, positive experience.
“Whether it be a front desk person, a restaurant server or housekeeper, customer service and hospitality are of utmost importance. If you have a positive experience (at the hotel), you will come back. I can’t buy that (training) on television or in a newspaper.”
The $4,000 will enable Inn on the Square to meet these training needs.
“When this grant application came along, it just fit very well with our needs and requirements for us to grow into that next level so that we can continue to be successful here in Greenwood,” Gommer said.
If successful, the change will “generate higher incomes for our employees which generates new employees,” he said.
Thayer’s has been in business in Uptown Greenwood for more than 90 years. Bill Wilson, who bought the store in 1976, said tax records show Thayer’s in business here as far back as 1916.
The business was originally called Oregon Pharmacy and was located across the street from the current Thayer’s. It was located in the old Oregon Hotel where the Greenwood Mills executive offices sit today. It sold prescription drugs, gifts and started the city’s longest running bridal registry.
The business eventually dropped the pharmacy and continued with gifts and its bridal registry. The store has grown from 1,000 square feet in 1976 to 5,000 square feet and has added fine furniture and an interior design center. The shop has an interior designer, Taylor Wilson, on staff.
But through all the changes and progress over the last century, today’s staff of four full-time people and one part-time person has relatively basic computer knowledge that it hopes to take to another level. The $846 in IWT funds will be used for training courses in Office applications, QuickBooks and web page design.
"We are hoping to do more with our computers with our customers,” Bill Wilson said. “We need to be more efficient with the computers that we have. I think it will be advantageous with setting up budgets and communicating with customers, just to bring us up to speed in the computer world. These courses are going to make our work easier and make us look better.”
Wilson sees an opportunity to better market the shop’s products with a web site.
“We have a lot of well-known name brands in gift items and furniture. I feel like we can market that,” he said.
The training must end by June 15, 2007 in this IWT funding cycle. For more information about the program, call the Upper Savannah Council of Governments Workforce Development Division at 941-8050 or 1 (800) 922-7729.
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