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Goodwill Logo Goodwill Model Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Goodwill model?
Who can use the Goodwill model?
What is the difference between placements and operations?
Once I own the Goodwill model, where do I start?
How do I calculate a weighted average in Excel?
What should I put in the Industry column?
What should I put in the "jobs" column?
What is the Hourly/Annual input?
What do I enter in the Hourly Rate / Annual Wage input?
What do I enter in the Hours/Week column?
What do I enter in months employed column?
What about the weighted average for the operations entries?
How do I run the model?
Why do I have to enter the Name of Organization?
How do I enter data on Placements?
How do I enter data on Operations?
What if the jobseeker is paid by Goodwill but not officially an employee of Goodwill?
What if the jobseeker is placed internally to Goodwill but not being paid by Goodwill?
What if the jobseeker is solely working to pay off community debt?
How do we aggregate all data for the State as a whole?
If a job seeker works 45 hours per week, how do I enter his hours per week?
If a job seeker is placed in December, but works for 3 months, how do I enter his months employed?
When choosing the industry to run the placement impact, do we use the specific occupation or do we use the industry that the job is being placed in? For example, if we placed a janitor in a hospital, do we select the industry for a janitor or for hospital services?
What is the Goodwill model? Top
The model is an easy to use Excel application that calculated the economic and fiscal impact of both Goodwill placements and Goodwill operations. Each Goodwill model is customized with the respective State's multipliers, demographics and tax rates.
Who can use the Goodwill model? Top
Once purchased, the model can be utilized by any Goodwill organization within the state in order to run the model for its own uses (city council meetings etc). In addition, it has been requested that each state provides an Aggregate State-wide Total Impact. This will require the aggregation of results from each Goodwill organization within the state.
What is the difference between placements and operations? Top
The Goodwill Model offers the ability to run the impact of Placements as well as the impact of Operations. However, there are times when clients are placed internally (such as at a Goodwill store). To avoid double counting, only EXTERNAL (outside of Goodwill) should be entered in the Placements section of the model. The operations section will then account for the operations placements.
a. Community Placements- are the job placements facilitated by Goodwill into other businesses or companies and should exclude the placements of employees into jobs created by Goodwill (as these will be counted under the Goodwill Operations Placements).
b. Goodwill Operations Placements- are all employees that work at a Goodwill store, admin office or placement center (etc) INCLUDING community placements that placed jobseekers in a job at your Goodwill.
NOTE: As an exception to external placements rule, if the user is attempting illustrate the impact of TOTAL placements to an audience, and not providing the impact of operations, all placements (internal and external) can be entered in the placements section.
Once I own the Goodwill model, where do I start? Top
Data collection should start with the Data Collections Worksheet.xls. The model is intended that each row (labeled "Industry 1", "Industry 2", etc.) contain the sum of data for all placements within that industry for the period being reported. In other words, you do not enter data on a person by person basis but for all persons placed within an industry classification. The user can develop a weighted average for each industry where there is more than one placement using the "Data Collection Worksheet.xls". This worksheet is set up in a similar format as the inputs required for running the model. However, here, each individual placement can be entered and weighted averages by industry can be calculated.
How do I calculate a weighted average in Excel? Top
The weighted average should be calculated based on jobs. In other words, if there are 10 employees that make $10 per hour and 30 employees that make $20 per hour, the weighted average would be $17.50 per hour for all 40 employees. The simple formula for this in Excel is as follows:

=SUMPRODUCT(Jobs*Wage)/SUM(Jobs)

This formula is provided in the blue shaded row of the Data Collections Worksheet.xls
What should I put in the Industry column? Top
Use the drop down list to select the appropriate industry classification for the group of individuals you are entering. The drop down list contains all NAICS codes available. You must choose one of these industries for placement impacts data entry.

When possible, please use the industry specific to the occupation when selecting the industry. This is because we want to make sure the salaries or production value be as close as possible to the impact we are attempting to generate. The production value of a janitor would not be anywhere near the average for the hospital sector. 

However, if the specific industry is not known, placements may be categorized according to industry in which they are placed. For example, if a person placed as a cook in a hospital, it would be best to classify them in the Food, beverage and tobacco (311-312) category.  But, if it is not known that they were placed as a "cook" but only that they were placed in the hospital, it is ok to classify them in the "hospitals (622)" industry from the drop down list.

What should I put in the "jobs" column? Top
Enter the total number of persons placed by your organization for the time period being reported within each industry. Include only those placements outside of Goodwill Industries.
What is the Hourly/Annual input? Top
From the drop down list select either hourly or annual. If you have a mixture of hourly and salaried placements within an industry, convert so that all are expressed as either hourly or annual. Hourly wages can be converted by multiplying the hourly rates by 2080 hours (and vice versa ).
What do I enter in the Hourly Rate / Annual Wage input? Top
From the drop down list select either hourly or annual. If you have a mixture of hourly and salaried placements within an industry, convert so that all are expressed as either hourly or annual.
What do I enter in the Hours/Week column? Top
Enter the weighted average hours per week for the placement. If the placement is part time, you are safe to be conservative and choose 20 or 30 for this field.
What do I enter in months employed column? Top
Enter the average months of retention for employees placed. Most states are choosing to use just 3 months, but others are going with an average of 6 months. It is unlikely all placements would stay in their new job for a full 12 months.
What about the weighted average for the operations entries? Top
The Data Collections Worksheet.xls also has a tab to enter the operations data. The data entry for the operations section is similar to the placement section. However, since the user is reporting an employee census, it can be safely assumed that 12 months of employment impact will occur; that is, if one employee leaves a position, another employee is hired. So, in effect, the user is representing a census of positions, not persons.
How do I run the model? Top
The user should start by opening Excel and from within Excel open the file "Goodwill [state].xls" The user will have to "Enable Editing" and click "Continue". The model will then open to the Inputs page. The first step is to make the following decisions:
  • Entering Placements or Operations (or both).
  • Time period you are running the model for (full year, one month, one quarter).
  • Organization you are running the model for (one placement center, all placements centers for specific Goodwill organization, statewide total, etc.)
Why do I have to enter the Name of Organization? Top
This entry will appear on all exported tables and thus can be used to distinguish between reports (i.e. by quarter, by year, by placement center, by organization).
How do I enter data on Placements? Top
It is intended that each row (labeled "Industry 1", "Industry 2", etc.) contain the sum of data for all placements within that industry for the period being reported. The user can develop a weighted average for each industry where there is more than one placement using the "Data Collection Worksheet.xls" (see above). All results (wage, hours worked/week and months employed in each industry) should be reported as the weighted average from within that industry that has been calculated in the Data Collection Worksheet.xls.
How do I enter data on Operations? Top
It is intended that each row (labeled "Operation 1", "Operation 2", etc.) contain the sum of data for all employees within that operation for the period being reported. In other words, you do not enter data on an employee by employee basis but for all employees within an operation classification. The user should enter the weighted average for each entry developed in the Data Collections Worksheet.xls.
What if the jobseeker is paid by Goodwill but not officially an employee of Goodwill? Top
If a jobseeker is placed internally and the placement is paid for by Goodwill, but the individual is not officially an "employee", the job should still be included as a Goodwill Operations Placement.
What if the jobseeker is placed internally to Goodwill but not being paid by Goodwill? Top
If the jobseeker is placed internally and the placement is working for Goodwill, but is not being paid by Goodwill, the job should be excluded from Goodwill Operations Placements, but included in Community Placements.
What if the jobseeker is solely working to pay off community debt? Top
If the jobseeker is placed in a Goodwill and not paid, but is working to 'pay off' fines connected with speeding or parking tickets' (aka a Community Service Worker) these individuals should not be run through the model at all, but should be tracked so that the following sentence can be added to any statistical report: "The results of this model do not include the 'X' # of community service workers who worked off their public debts to government/courts by volunteering part-time at Goodwill".
How do we aggregate all data for the State as a whole? Top
Each State should choose a contact person to be the State coordinator. This person will collect the data worksheets from each individual Goodwill organization and run an aggregation for the model.

The state coordinator should provide the following information to each organization at initiation.

1. The Data Collections Worksheet.xls should be sent to one chosen representative of each Goodwill Organization and the representative should be directed to name the file with their organization as an extension: "Data Collections Worksheet - Goodwill Socal.xls" (for example).
2. Direct the representative to enter their organization name in the column listed as "Date" (this will allow the state coordinator to run pivot tables with the data in the future).
3. Direct the representative whether to provide information on placements or operations (or both).
4. Direct the representative the time period for which the data should be entered.
5. Consider the estimated "months employed" for any organizations that do not have access to accurate retention data. In other words, a statewide decision should be made as to whether all users should enter the same retention ("3 months" to be conservative, for example).
6. Provide a due date for the Data Collection Worksheet to be turned in.
Once the state coordinator has collected the data worksheets from all Goodwill organizations within the state, the weighted average rows can be cut and pasted into one worksheet and new weighted averages can be calculated by industry.
The weighted average rows can then be entered into the model to calculate the total state impact.
If a job seeker works 45 hours per week, how do I enter his hours per week? Top
The model assumes annual impacts, so you must either (a) leave the job seeker at 40 hours per week, but bump his hourly rate up (formula would be: $ / hour x 45 x 52 / 2080 = new hourly rate) or (b) put him in as an annual employee by multiplying his hourly rate x 45 hours x 52 weeks.
If a job seeker is placed in December, but works for 3 months, how do I enter his months employed? Top
This is up to the State representative, but should be done uniformly throughout the state. The user can either choose to enter the total months employed (effectively calculating the total impact of all job seekers placed in that year, even if it bleeds into the following year) or enter just the months within the year that worked (effectively calculating the impact of all job seekers within that year). In the first example, if the job seeker is expected to remain employed for 3 months, the user would enter "3" in the months employed column. In this second example, the user would enter "1" in the months employed column (because if they were placed in December, there is only 1 month left to work in the year).
When choosing the industry to run the placement impact, do we use the specific occupation or do we use the industry that the job is being placed in? For example, if we placed a janitor in a hospital, do we select the industry for a janitor or for hospital services? Top
Please use the industry specific to the occupations. This is because we want to make sure the salaries or production value to be as close as possible to the impact we are attempting to generate. The production value of a janitor would not be anywhere near the average for the hospital sector.