GALION — Dwayne Castle’s mission in life is to help people “find a better way to engage” with others and develop relationship skills.
Castle is the owner and operator of Buckeye Workforce Development, a firm dedicated to his mission that provides consultation, evaluation, training, coaching, workforce readiness programs, and other services. He founded the company that would become Buckeye Workforce Development in 2016 under the name Relationally Driven LLC and officially launched that business in 2017.
Castle’s journey to establishing his own business began while he was an employee at Lifetouch in Galion. As a newly promoted group lead in the customer service department, he was challenged by the company human resources manager to cultivate and develop more effective leadership skills.
“I started eating up everything I could on leadership and engagement,” said Castle, who has lived in Galion for the past 30 years. “I was watching videos, going to conferences, and things like that. Over the course of 20 years or so, I developed a few principles. People have a lot of things in common and I’ve been able to hone in on how to approach those things in a way that the people that you’re working with — whether it’s your customer, co-worker, or the person you’re leading — how you can approach them in a way that lets them know they’re valued and that you see them as a human being and not just part of a transactional situation.”
Castle developed a client base that included the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in Crawford County, Waycraft Industries, North Central State College, and other organizations.
“It is all about interpersonal skills training,” he said about the programming he offers. “My focus right now is on things like customer service, especially employee retention and attraction. You look around right now and see all the ‘help wanted’ signs and businesses are struggling to find people to fill these jobs. Who are your best recruiting assets? It’s the people that are working for you now. If they’re not advocating (for the business) and telling people, ‘Hey, you need to come work with us,’ then you’ve probably got an issue.”
Part of what Castle does for businesses and organizations is to help them evaluate the state of their company culture and mindset of employees.
“What’s your turnover rate? If you can’t hold onto the people that you have now, then you’re going to have a hard time attracting more people,” Castle said. “So, I’m of the belief that we really need to figure out what it takes to take care of the folks you have right now, build up that base, and then you can really start attracting people if you’re known as one of those work places that everybody just loves to come into work. They feel like they’ve got a purpose. They feel like they’re seen. They’re more fulfilled while they’re doing the job. Those are some things that I can help with.”
Castle, who has a background working as an assistant pastor in local church ministry, has provided one-on-one coaching for people over the years and still plans to offer that service, but his goal is to expand his client base to include more businesses, both locally and around the state.
He noted that he wants to further develop a workforce readiness program that focuses on helping youth prepare for the world of work. He also wants to continue his work with Waycraft Industries, providing training and coaching for people the agency serves and the staff members who work there.
Castle is the author of two books: “The Relationally Driven Approach” and ‘The Parent’s Guide to Workforce Readiness.”
For more information about Buckeye Workforce Development and the services Castle offers, contact him at 419-961-1265 or email [email protected]. The company website address is www.buckeyewd.com.
