Get 24-hour, on-site assistance to help laid-off workers get jobs, training and income support if eligible. Rapid Response services are available regardless of the layoff or closure’s cause.

Rapid Response, an information-sharing service for employees and employers, expedites access to South Carolina’s public workforce system and services. Its goal is to help workers get new jobs as quickly as possible. When plant closings and layoffs affect 50 or more workers, the Dislocated Worker Unit (DWU) goes into action for these reasons:

• Trade Impact
• Company Downsizing/Restructuring
• Natural Disaster
• Plant Relocation
• Bankruptcy
• Other Factors

DWU quickly contacts an employer to offer and coordinate Rapid Response services:

• When it receives a layoff notice or plant closure as the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act mandates.
• When an employer voluntarily notifies a local SC Works center or DWU.
• When the DWU otherwise learns of such an event.

A meeting with the company’s management staff comes first. (For unionized companies, it’s vital an employee representative attend the meeting.)

This meeting covers crucial information:

• Anticipated Layoff Schedule
• Employee Demographic Data
• Re-employment Services
• Unemployment Benefits
• Retraining Programs

Next, based on an agreed-upon schedule, the Rapid Response team informs affected workers in an Employee Group Orientation Session on-site prior to the first layoff.