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MassHire Merger Streamlines Services for Employers, Job Seekers

By
Executive Directors Sarah Wilson (left) and Maura Geary
Features Special Coverage

Making It Work

Executive Directors Sarah Wilson (left) and Maura Geary

Executive Directors Sarah Wilson (left) and Maura Geary

 

To explain why the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board merged their operations in July, Maura Geary first explained how the MassHire network is set up.

“There are 16 workforce areas in the state of Massachusetts, and every area has one workforce board and at least one career center,” she noted. “And the career center has two customer bases. One is job seekers; one is employers. We work with employers to find out what jobs they have, how we can help them find the talent they need, and we work with job seekers to find out what barriers they may have to employment in the jobs that exist in our region, and how can we help them overcome the barriers so that they’re prepared with the skills they need to enter the workforce.”

Meanwhile, the Workforce Board is more of a “30,000-foot view,” Sarah Wilson said. “We’re looking at regional trends, labor market information for the region. We’re convening employers. We’re bringing all this information to the Career Center, which does more on-the-ground work.”

Until July 1, Geary headed up the Career Center, while Wilson helmed the Workforce Board. But today, they’re co-executive directors of the first MassHire operation in the state to merge their operations into one, simply called MassHire Franklin Hampshire.

“Having the labor market information and understanding what trends are happening, we ask, ‘what are the challenges that exist in our region? Where are there opportunities? How can we bring in more resources to support the workforce that we have or the economy that we have?’” Geary told BusinessWest. “This merger really helps us align even more closely with the big picture of the region and the strategies that exist.”

When the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Career Center and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board announced the merger, they characterized it as a strategic unification and a significant milestone in the region’s efforts to deliver more coordinated, efficient, and impactful workforce development services across Franklin County, Hampshire County, and the North Quabbin region.

“They basically have paid internships at local businesses, where the grant pays for the wages of the participants. Employers get that labor, and they also have the opportunity to expose their businesses and their career pathways to the next generation of the workforce.”

The newly merged organization aims to streamline operations and enhance services for job seekers, employers, training providers, and community partners by combining the strategic oversight and policy leadership of the Workforce Board with the direct services and employer engagement expertise of the Career Center.

The merged organization will continue to operate offices in Greenfield and Northampton; its headquarters are still in the Greenfield Corporate Center, where the two halves formerly had separate space on the same hallway but now operate out of shared space.

“We were sort of set up for this in some ways because we were already co-located; the Workforce Board used to be just across the hall,” Wilson said. “And we shared resources — besides the space, we also shared HR and IT. And we’d been working hand in hand for many years.

“But this really solidifies it, and it brings together disparate teams and disparate strategies,” she went on. “I had my own thing on the Workforce Board, and Maura had her own thing in the Career Center. We would collaborate, but it wasn’t as structured as it is now. The communication between teams is now streamlined, so we can really streamline the work. This makes it much more efficient.”

The two MassHire Franklin Hampshire divisions were both located in separate offices at Greenfield Corporate Center, and now share space — and operations — as a single entity there.

The two MassHire Franklin Hampshire divisions were both located in separate offices at Greenfield Corporate Center, and now share space — and operations — as a single entity there.

Allison van der Velden, chair of the MassHire Franklin Hampshire board of directors, agreed.

“The merger is a natural next step in the evolution of our work,” she said when the merger was announced in June. “It strengthens our ability to deliver results and ensures that public workforce dollars are used efficiently, effectively, and equitably.”

 

Early Exposure

Another example of how the merger makes sense has to do with its young adult programs, Geary said.

“There’s separate funding for three different young adult programs, major funding that we oversee. Some of that funding was directed to the Workforce Board, and some of it was available to the Career Center. But now that we’re under one roof, we have completely merged all three of those programs into one unified program.

“When they existed between the Workforce Board and other providers and the Career Center, we were not maximizing those funds,” she went on. “So there’s a lot of opportunity to integrate programs on the ground, and we weren’t able to do that before because of the artificial silos that were in place.”

Mass Hire Franklin Hampshire’s state-funded YouthWorks programs are, in fact, among its most robust offerings; the organization receives about $530,000 in funding over both a summer cycle and a year-round cycle, and serves youth from ages 14 to 25.

“For the youngest participants, we’re going into the schools during the year and setting up after-school programs or different ways to engage them so they are learning about what career pathways are available. So the earliest contact is really about career awareness,” Geary explained. Meanwhile, the second tier serves 16- to 18-year-olds with paid work experiences.

“It’s the future of workforce development — it makes us more streamlined, more efficient. I think it’s better for the customer as well, whether that’s an employer or a job seeker.”

“They basically have paid internships at local businesses, where the grant pays for the wages of the participants. Employers get that labor, and they also have the opportunity to expose their businesses and their career pathways to the next generation of the workforce.”

Young people can also access a curriculum that delivers work readiness skills, financial literacy, and other competencies needed to enter the workforce.

“And with our oldest participants in YouthWorks, we actually are paying for them to enter into training programs and get their first job,” Geary went on, giving as one example a partnership with Greenfield Community College (GCC) to help young people earn clean energy HVAC certifications.

Meanwhile, from a Workforce Board perspective, MassHire convenes employers to learn about the different needs of the region, Wilson said. “But we can also think of training opportunities, grant opportunities, how we can bring funding into the region to help support some of those needs. It’s not just connecting to the workforce, but determining how we can go about that.”

One strategy is through on-the-job (OTJ) training and registered apprenticeships.

“Both of those get money to the employer, and they are also paid training opportunities. With OJTs, we can reimburse the employer up to 50%. And we’ve been doing that for manufacturing over the past year.

“We’re starting to get into registered apprenticeships, but there’s a tax credit that could be applied to that,” Wilson added. “It really helps with retention for the employer because they’re investing in that employee. There’s a structured training program and wage boosts that are built into that. There’s mentorship. So we see a lot of positives other than just the tax incentive.”

Much of MassHire Franklin Hampshire’s funding targets workforce training in its priority industries of education, healthcare, and manufacturing, Geary explained, while helping job and career seekers find a path that works for them.

“One of the models that we’re moving toward is recognizing that most people, when they’re looking for a job, can’t afford to go to training. It’s a paid training, and that’s amazing, but most people can’t take 12 or 16 or more weeks in a free training without having an income. So we’ve been promoting, with our employers, models where people are getting paid while they’re in the training. That’s something we’re excited about.”

 

Ready to Learn

Geary noted that, when MassHire surveys employers about what they’re looking for, they often say they can give people the technical training needed to do this job, but too often, prospective employees are coming in without professional skills or soft skills — what she and her team more commonly call ‘work readiness skills.’

“So we have a workshop team here developing content that is specific to different trainings. We’ll go into a training program and deliver the work readiness workshops and make sure that we’re preparing people across multiple industries to just be ready to be good employees.”

Speaking of training, MassHire Franklin Hampshire also has a strong relationship with GCC.

“We’re really lucky that GCC is a community college that is really interested in being innovative and responsive to the employers in our region,” Geary said, adding that the college has expanded and invested in its workforce training programs on campus over the past few years.

“If you look at their website, you’ll see they have really comprehensive career pathway programs that match our priority industries and engage employers and students. So we partner with them all the time. When they have a new grant-funded training program, we help them recruit students. We help provide the work readiness.”

MassHire is also expanding its business services team that works directly with employers, she added. “We want to make sure that, when GCC has any training program ending, we have employers who are in that industry lined up to receive them. So we’re doing more events early on, helping people prepare for the employers that are going to come to a job fair that are specific to that training cohort.”

Besides key sectors like education, healthcare, and manufacturing, MassHire Franklin Hampshire also keys in on industries that are particularly relevant to its region, including clean energy, outdoor recreation, and agriculture.

“We are seeing, nationwide, a decrease in the agricultural industry. But in Massachusetts, we’re seeing a slight increase. And Franklin Hampshire holds about 20% of the state’s agricultural industry right here,” Geary said. “So we’re really looking at what we can be doing with small and mid-sized farms. It’s a lot of small businesses, so we want to have an industry sector partnership where we do some of the legwork and say, ‘what do you need? Let us help you design some strategies that will meet your workforce needs.’

In the realm of clean industry, she noted that GCC has partnered with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, which funds clean energy grants and workforce training, among other things.

“They’re really developing a comprehensive career pathway and training program, and we’re working on engaging young adults, but also the adult population, to get trained in that industry as we’re seeing more and more employers start to pop up in our region.”

It’s a region that has unique challenges in that it has the largest geography of any of the 16 workforce areas, but with relatively few residents.

“We’re serving 50 cities and towns in Franklin, Hampshire, and the North Quabbin, and a lot of it is rural. So we have fewer funds than other workforce areas that have larger populations. And some of the challenges of the rural communities that impact the workforce are the same challenges as everywhere else, like transportation and childcare, but they have a little different flavor up here,” Geary explained.

“So those are really difficult barriers to overcome when we have people trying to get to jobs over this 1,400-square-mile region, and there’s not really any transportation infrastructure to speak of.”

 

One-stop Shop

The majority of MassHire’s funding comes through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which brings up another current challenge: the general uncertainty organizations of all kinds are feeling about federal funding.

“That’s very much up in the air. We don’t really know what’s going to happen,” Wilson said. “So coming together gives us a little more stability to be able to weather that. But it’s also setting us up for the future, no matter what. It’s the future of workforce development — it makes us more streamlined, more efficient. I think it’s better for the customer as well, whether that’s an employer or a job seeker.”

Geary said that speaks to something she hears all the time from clients on both sides.

“Once they’re engaged with our services, they all inevitably say, ‘oh my gosh, I had no idea I could get so much help by working with you. I didn’t know you existed.’ We hear that all the time, so streamlining our messaging helps with that, too. We don’t have to get into that confusing conversation — ‘you’re going to work with them over here for that, and then you’re going to come to us for this over here.’”

Instead, she said, “we can eliminate that point of confusion and just say, ‘come to MassHire Franklin Hampshire, and we’re going to help you solve your workforce needs.’”

State Launches New Stipend Program for Eligible Job Seekers in Training

By
Manufacturing Special Coverage

Reducing Barriers to Employment

Earlier this month, the Healey-Driscoll administration launched the Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund, a pilot stipend program to provide financial support for eligible unemployed and underemployed Massachusetts residents enrolled in job training, including the Career Technical Initiative and Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund programs.

Administered by the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development in partnership with Commonwealth Corp., the Workforce Skills Fund is designed to reduce barriers to job training and employment by providing financial support for eligible trainees and also attract and retain untapped talent pursuing skills and credentials for in-demand occupations in manufacturing, construction, healthcare and human services, and more.

The Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund builds on strategies outlined in the administration’s Massachusetts Workforce Agenda, titled “Meeting the Moment to Attract, Retain, and Develop a Future Workforce,” released earlier this year. The document outlines the administration’s vision, goals, and strategies to support workforce development statewide, and recognizes a stipend program as a resource to attract and retain talent by providing greater means to pursue and persist in job-training programs that ultimately lead to employment outcomes.

Stipends are awarded to participants based on training duration and issued upon completion of three milestones. Participants in training programs that are fewer than three months will receive $3,000, and participants in training programs longer than three months will receive $5,000. Stipends are issued following the first two weeks of training, at the completion of the training program, and upon post-training employment.

“This new program through the Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund is a meaningful step toward eliminating barriers to employment and building a strong and inclusive workforce,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “By addressing financial obstacles, this initiative will increase access for more individuals to succeed, compete, and contribute to our growing workforce.”

Gov. Maura Healey

Gov. Maura Healey

“This new program through the Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund is a meaningful step toward eliminating barriers to employment and building a strong and inclusive workforce. By addressing financial obstacles, this initiative will increase access for more individuals to succeed, compete, and contribute to our growing workforce.”

Added Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, “as we support economic opportunity and mobility for Massachusetts residents, this new stipend program is an actionable approach to empower unemployed and underemployed individuals who we need active in our workforce. By offering this resource, our administration will maximize the labor potential of untapped talent, supporting both labor productivity and addressing larger social inequities within our workforce.”

 

Targeted Impact

The Workforce Skills Fund is being implemented for two specific, pre-existing programs that focus on unemployed and underemployed workers: the Career Technical Initiative (CTI) and the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund (WCTF). The stipends are a fixed amount of flexible dollars provided directly to individuals who will enroll in either of the two eligible approved training programs.

WCTF and CTI programs are designed to attract unemployed and underemployed workers. Yet, an array of barriers may hinder participants and prospective participants from enrolling, completing training, and entering the labor market, such as costs for childcare, transportation, and digital equipment. The stipend program through the Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund aims to address these and other challenges, facilitating greater access to workforce opportunities.

“As Massachusetts strengthens its world-class workforce, we must provide a world-class support system with greater intentionality to reduce barriers to employment and support persistence and success in job-training programs,” Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones said. “By launching he Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund and initiating this stipend program, the Healey-Driscoll administration is teaming up with training providers and proven workforce programs to further attract and retain untapped talent and provide added resources aimed at improving outcomes and opportunities for more job seekers in Massachusetts.”

Lauren Jones

Lauren Jones

“As Massachusetts strengthens its world-class workforce, we must provide a world-class support system with greater intentionality to reduce barriers to employment and support persistence and success in job-training programs.”

Molly Jacobson, president and CEO of Commonwealth Corp., said her organization is excited to see the tangible impact the Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund will have on job seekers’ lives across the Commonwealth. “This initiative not only provides essential support for people who need it, but also encourages participants to seize new opportunities for their future.”

Meanwhile, Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) Commissioner Jeff McCue said the Workforce Skills Fund will be an instrumental resource for clients to utilize as they strive to reach their career goals and full employment potential, by providing flexible dollars that will help individuals and families overcome barriers to participating in the workforce.

“The Department of Transitional Assistance currently serves one in six Massachusetts residents with food and cash assistance,” he noted. “In addition to providing essential resources to the most vulnerable people in the Commonwealth, DTA also aims to connect clients with meaningful employment to improve economic mobility for families and ensure their long-term success.”

 

Statements of Support

Aisha Francis, president and CEO of Franklin Cummings Tech in Boston, called the Massachusetts Workforce Skills Fund a crucial resource for the Commonwealth’s technical and trade workforce.

“Stipends make it possible for individuals to complete high-quality training and secure jobs,” she added. “In partnership with the Workforce Competitive Trust Fund and JVS, Franklin Cummings Tech sees the positive impact of financial support on program outcomes. I applaud the Commonwealth’s leadership for recognizing this opportunity and acting quickly to innovate.”

Paul Bello, director of Career and Community Development at South Shore Vocational Technical High School in Hanover, noted that the school will train hundreds of veterans and unemployed or underemployed residents on the South Shore to prepare them for fulfilling jobs in carpentry, manufacturing, landscaping, welding, hospitality, automotive, and HVAC, and looks forward to assisting residents as they embark on new careers with new skills.

“There is great confidence that this program will make an immediate positive impact in people’s lives and will help produce vital members of the workforce in the South Shore area and around the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he added.

Meanwhile, Susan Almono, director of Grants and Workforce Development at Greater Lawrence Technical School in Andover, noted that the school has provided adult workforce-development training to hundreds of area residents through the Career Technical Initiative.

“We are proud to facilitate entry into lucrative technical careers. However, often candidates can’t take advantage of this opportunity because they need to work rather than increase their skills, in order to pay the bills. We’re thrilled with the new Mass Workforce Skills Fund stipend program and the impact it will have on the lives of area residents. Trainees will be sustained through training and have access to career ladders to stability.”

 

MassHire Career Center Responds to Changing Landscape

By
Kevin Lynn
Employment Special Coverage

Hire Expectations

Kevin Lynn

Kevin Lynn, executive director of the MassHire Springfield Career Center.

 

It was the spring of 2022, and Kevin Lynn was starting to think the job fairs conducted three times a year at the Basketball Hall of Fame by MassHire Springfield Career Center — which he serves as executive director — had run their course.

Attendance among job seekers, which had been running at roughly 300 pre-pandemic, had dropped to maybe 100, even though employers across the region and in virtually all sectors of the economy were seeking help — many of them desperately.

As for the job seekers themselves … the very generous unemployment benefits awarded at the height of the pandemic, when millions of jobs disappeared almost overnight, were all but gone. Yet, many people were still sitting on the sidelines, not at all anxious to enter the workforce.
“I didn’t know what was going on — nothing made any sense, really,” said Lynn, who has spent more than 20 years with the entity now known as MassHire Springfield Career Center, 10 as its director. People were still hunkered down, and people like me were asking, ‘how can these individuals not afford to work?’”

While waiting for an answer to that question — one that never really came — two things happened. The first is that the picture started righting itself with regard to people getting back to work. The second is that MassHire Springfield, in Lynn’s words, “started acting more like a business.”

By that, he meant the agency started to more aggressively market itself and its services, especially through digital platforms.

“We had to get our name in front of people and remind them of exactly what we do and how we do it,” he recalled. “Also, we had to pull in what I’ll call a new generation because we’d been on pause for the better part of four years. That natural flow that we had established since 1997 had been disrupted, so we needed to prime that pump again with our core constituency.”

Those efforts have succeeded in bringing the customer base back to pre-pandemic levels, as we’ll see. And roughly two years after he was thinking about retiring the job fairs, attendance is pretty much back to where it was pre-pandemic, said Lynn, adding that the program will actually be expanded this year from three fairs to four, with the fourth likely to take place at the agency’s facility on Liberty Street in Springfield.

“We had to pull in what I’ll call a new generation because we’d been on pause for the better part of four years. That natural flow that we had established since 1997 had been disrupted, so we needed to prime that pump again with our core constituency.”

“We think we need a fourth because of the demand,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes.”

As for the job market itself … Lynn said things have not exactly returned to normal — whatever that is — although he is seeing an overall softening of the job market, with many challenges remaining for those needing skills, older workers (over age 55), and other constituencies.

Most employers are still struggling to find good help, he said, adding quickly that, while some are willing to train and shape candidates who may not have the full package, others are holding out for the “fully formed” applicant, and sometimes losing out in the process.

Meanwhile, on the wage front, many employers are still not fully embracing the need to move the needle higher. Instead, they’re focusing on what they think they can afford, and not the proverbial big picture — meaning what they spend to hire, and then to hire again when someone brought in at a comparatively lower wage leaves after a few months, or a few weeks, because he or she can secure a dollar or two more an hour elsewhere (more on this later).

These are just some of the observations made by Lynn as he talked about his agency, the job market, and what could, and likely will, come next.

 

The Job at Hand

“Blocking and tackling.”

That’s what Lynn said MassHire Springfield is back to focusing on these days after what can only be called a turbulent period that includes the pandemic and its aftermath.

By blocking and tackling, he means work with both employers and job seekers to put people in jobs. Such work with job seekers includes training available through the agency’s upskilling program, workshops on everything from handling tough interview questions to helping mature workers prepare for today’s job-search process, job fairs, connecting individuals with resources, and much more.

job fairs

Kevin Lynn says the job fairs conducted in partnership with Audacy Springfield and the Basketball Hall of Fame are back to pre-pandemic numbers.

As for the pandemic and its aftermath, this was a difficult, stressful time, when the agency’s mission — connecting job seekers with employers and helping those job seekers garner the skills needed to not only land jobs, but secure careers — didn’t really change. But the overall need for it did — sort of.

“COVID killed our customer base,” he said matter-of-factly. “Customers weren’t coming in, and they weren’t even using us virtually.”

Quantifying the matter, he noted that, in fiscal 2019, prior to COVID, the agency served roughly 11,500 people over the course of the year. For fiscal 2020, which included the first several months of the pandemic, the number fell to 8,500. And for fiscal 2021, a full and very traumatic year of COVID, the number of customers tumbled to 4,300, roughly a third of the pre-pandemic total.

Why? There were several reasons, Lynn recalled. First, many were content to collect those generous unemployment benefits and not enter, or re-enter, the workforce, he said, adding that, during those times, people not actively seeking employment could receive unemployment benefits, something that wouldn’t happen in more ‘normal’ times. Meanwhile, many of those who had jobs were content to stay put given the large amounts of uncertainty that accompanied that environment — and a desire to work remotely.

“It was the devil you knew versus the one that you didn’t know,” he recalled. “Also, people were desperate to get working-at-home arrangements set up; everyone wanted to be remote. And if you were in a remote situation, and it was solid, you weren’t going to risk that by going to a new employer.”

Meanwhile, with the pandemic came the loss of day-care services for many, he went on, adding that some people had no choice but to quit their jobs — or not seek a job or a better job — so they could be home with their children. It was the same for many of those caring for elderly parents.

“A large section of the labor market just literally pulled back and chose not to work,” he said. “And that impacted us greatly.”

Indeed, the phone started ringing at a much slower pace, and there was a considerably quieter atmosphere at the career center, Lynn recalled, adding that, by the end of 2022, as the number of customers served rose slightly to more than 5,000 (still less than half the pre-pandemic totals), the agency responded by being proactive.

It launched a six-month advertising campaign, much of it digitally with Audacy Springfield (the agency’s partner on the job fairs), designed to raise awareness of the agency, its services, and those fairs.

“A large section of the labor market just literally pulled back and chose not to work. And that impacted us greatly.”

And for fiscal year 2023, the customer base jumped to more than 9,300, a 56% increase, he went on, adding that this was a byproduct of both those aggressive efforts to prime the pump and what he considers a softening of what had been a very attractive market for job seekers, with employers struggling to replace retiring Baby Boomers and simply handle the turnover that was impacting almost every sector.

 

Searching … for Answers

As Lynn explained, “if you have skills, you’re in a good spot in terms of being able to find job opportunities and get offers. But the job market has softened over the past few months; it’s not as strong as it was prior to this.”

Elaborating, he said the market remains challenging for many subgroups within the workforce and those looking to join it, including older workers, many of whom have skills but struggle to find employers willing to recognize and pay for them.

“They continue to have problems breaking through and getting jobs simply because of their age,” he told BusinessWest. “We see it all the time; you look at people, and they have a solid résumé, and you think, ‘this person is at least worth a conversation.’”

But often, they aren’t part of the conversation.

“Maybe the person isn’t right for the organization; I get all that,” Lynn went on. “But when you have people who have come to us, and they’re working very diligently and a lot of times working with our job developers even, and they’re trying to find work … it can be a tremendous struggle to come out on the other end.”

For those older workers who do come out on the other end with a job, their search will have been much longer than for those who are younger, as many employers are hesitant to look past someone’s date of birth and instead focus on what they might be able to bring to an organization.

Overall, and as noted earlier, Lynn said many employers are still looking for the full package, the “fully formed” applicant, as he called it, when hiring.

“They’ll vocalize that they’re not,” he said, noting that many will say or hint that they are willing to train. “But that’s not the case. They’re holding out for the fully formed applicant, and that’s a problem for the job seekers.”

Another problem is what he referred to as “ghost postings,” which are, well … what that phrase indicates they are: postings that aren’t exactly real.

“They may not have the opening, but they’re posting the job on the anticipation that they may have an opening,” he explained, adding that such phantom postings are prompting him to question the actual level of demand in certain fields and for certain jobs. Meanwhile, they are bringing new forms of stress to job seekers, who are investing time, energy, and emotion in pursuit of a job that may or may not exist.

Meanwhile, for those pursuing work, or a better job, the bigger challenge may not be finding a job, but finding one they can live on.

“It takes more diligence to find the right job,” he said. “Anyone can find a job; the issue is finding a job with a living wage — pay and benefits that you can live on. We see companies that post jobs that do not pay a living wage.

“My staff has conversations with employers on this topic; they’ll say, ‘we can post this job for you, but at the wage you are offering, you are not going to get any applicants,’” he noted. “If you’re at $17 or below, you’re going to have a tough time — a very tough time.”

He said most employers fully understand that a lower wage number shrinks the applicant pool. What they may not fully appreciate is that, even if they do hire someone, that lower wage serves to further increase turnover, bringing costs that will likely exceed a higher wage.

As for those job fairs, they certainly provide a window into what’s happening with the job market, he said, noting that the one in May drew more than 300 job seekers and 54 companies, a growing number of which were represented not by recruiters, but by decision makers — even the CEO.

Such was the case with Conval Inc., a Connecticut-based valve manufacturer. The president of the company was behind the table at the job fair and managed to not only talk with an applicant for a machinist’s position, but hire him on the spot.

“That made his night because he can’t find machinists anywhere,” said Lynn, adding that, while such on-the-spot hirings are quite rare, the goal of these fairs is for employers and job seekers alike to make connections, and these are, indeed, happening.

In short, the clock hasn’t been turned all the way back to 2019, but it’s looking and feeling more like those times.

Companies Need to Understand What Matters to Job Seekers

By Contributor
Employment Special Coverage

Coping with the ‘Great Resignation’

By Sarah Rose Stack

 

You’ve just woken up. As you sip your morning coffee, you open your e-mail and give it a quick glance. Wedged in between your work and personal mail, you have several e-mails with the subject line ‘We’re Hiring’ or ‘Join Our Team.’ You switch over to social media and see that your neighbor just announced she’s left her place of employment for a new opportunity. There are few more posts from friends who are frustrated with their employers’ lack of communication or insistence on returning to the office.

How many ‘We’re Hiring’ signs have you seen or talked about today?

There has been much discussion about the current hiring crisis, and while many thought that this would be resolved once Pandemic Unemployment Assistance ended, that has not been the case. In fact, the Bureau of Labor (BOL) recorded the highest number of people who quit their jobs in August 2021, with 2.9% of people quitting (4.3 million people). This is the highest number of quits since the BOL started recording this data in 2000. Probably even more concerning is that August was the sixth consecutive month of massive quitting numbers.

Coined the ‘Great Resignation’ by Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M, people are leaving their jobs at record-breaking rates as the pandemic is waning. This is only expected to be amplified as 2021 comes to an end and people reflect on what they want in life. Employees are demanding more from their current and potential employers. Companies should be very careful to pay attention to the change in dynamics if they want to retain or attract new talent to their workforces.

“Employees are demanding more from their current and potential employers. Companies should be very careful to pay attention to the change in dynamics if they want to retain or attract new talent to their workforces.”

As part of my position at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, I assist clients with finding new talent, such as controllers, accountants, HR, marketing, and other administrative professionals, for their organizations. Prior to the pandemic, I would see 50 to 100 applications from people in Western Mass. applying for every posted job opportunity. That number has drastically declined, the geographical representation has widened, and the questions and concerns from potential employees have also significantly changed.

So, what are employees expressing that they want? Here’s a hint: it’s not just about salary. People had a lot of time to reflect during the pandemic about what work means to them and what role they want their careers to play in their overall lives.

 

Work-life Balance

Prior to the pandemic, Americans were obsessed with ‘hustle culture.’ People were happy to rise and grind and wear their burnout like a badge of honor. Perhaps people were too distracted working around the clock to ever consider what they truly wanted. You’ve probably noticed the shift in sentiment in social media from #hustle to the idea that inner peace is the new success.

Working through the pandemic came with its own unique set of stresses. Some workers had to compensate for poorly staffed jobs, while others lost a feeling of security at their jobs, causing them to work even harder to show their value. Indeed recently posted a study that surveyed 1,500 employees about burnout, and a shocking 80% of people said the pandemic made the burnout worse.

As a result, potential employees have been asking:

• What is your company’s view on work/life balance?

• Does management regularly e-mail or call after hours or on weekends?

• Is the schedule flexible if I have a family event or event for my child?

• Do people actually take their paid time off?

According to PR Newswire, “poor work-life balance tops the list of job-seeker deal breakers, ranking above other immediate turnoffs, including lower salary (50%) and a company’s decreasing profits and lack of stability (48%)”.

 

Flexibility and Remote Work

Employees are actively seeking remote or hybrid work opportunities just as many companies are now demanding that employees return to in-person work. Some have even pre-emptively started seeking flexible work opportunities out of fear that their current remote-work situation might change.

Many are expressing that the ability to work from home and have more flexible work schedules in general have helped to prevent burnout. People have enjoyed ditching the morning commute and 5 p.m. rush hour. The returned pockets of time have come with myriad benefits, including more sleep, more time with family before and after work, less wear and tear on vehicles, more time with pets, and an overall more comfortable environment.

It isn’t all hypothetical, either. Stanford conducted a study of 16,000 remote workers over a period of nine months and showed that productivity increased by 13%. Further, with more workers reporting they were happier working from home, attrition rates were cut by 50%.

Time is the only non-renewable commodity, so when employers are demanding that their people return to in-person work, employees are asking themselves, “at what cost?” The most-asked question I have received from potential employees over the last year is: “can this position be done fully or partially remote?” If the answer was no, most candidates politely declined to continue in the application process, presumably in favor of remote opportunities.

I would also attribute the increase of applicants from other regions to the normalization of remote work. I’ve seen applications from all over the country because most people in professional positions are now of the mindset that they can work for anyone, from anywhere.

 

Company Culture and Shared Values

At its core, company culture is its identity. It’s how the company’s values, attitude, approach, and ideals dictate the inner workings of the organization. Generally, this is set and modeled by the leadership and then mirrored by the people within the organization, driving the way the company does everything.

Companies with attractive corporate culture actively value their people in ways that are both tangible and intangible. They may have perks such as food, drink, cocktail hours, paid time off, tuition reimbursement, and professional-development opportunities. More than that, they will also have a solid mentorship program, encourage open communication, speak to each other with respect, and show clear indicators that the work and growth of their people are valued.

As part of corporate culture, shared values are another important consideration for many job seekers today. Whether they are directly impacted by certain causes or not, they are looking to work for companies who have values that align with their own. Employers need to understand that potential employees are doing as much vetting and interviewing of the organization as the organization is doing of them.

Employees want to know what your company culture is like and what your values are. They are asking direct questions such as:

• What is the company’s leadership like?

• Describe the company’s culture.

• Does your company have a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program?

• How does your company implement its DEI statement?

• How involved is your company in the community?

• How does your company handle discourse among employees?

 

Pandemic Protocols in General

While we all have pandemic fatigue and want the pandemic to be over, there are still so many open issues that need to be faced head-on. Potential employees are very concerned with how companies handle current guidelines regarding masking, social distancing, quarantine, and vaccination.

This would be simple if everyone had the same passionate stance on the subject, but they don’t. Employees tend to be divided into three camps: Those who wants the strictest protocols in place, those who prefer more lax protocols, and those who are indifferent and will simply follow whatever protocols are set. Regardless of which camp your organization falls into, companies should be aware that their response to these questions will either encourage or deter certain prospects from continuing with the interview process.

I’ve found that most candidates were generally satisfied to hear that the organization is simply following the current federal, state, and municipal guidelines. In addition to the actual protocols, candidates have been very concerned with how those protocols are communicated. They routinely ask:

• Does the leadership communicate changes to protocols in a timely manner?

• Have they listened to employees’ questions and concerns?

• Are protocols safe, fair, and reasonable?

 

In Conclusion

We are in an employee market, and employees want the best of it all. They want work-life balance and more remote-work opportunities, but also want to feel connected with their company’s mission and their colleagues.

This may feel like an impossible balance to achieve, but I believe it can be done. People want to work, they want to feel connected, and they want their work to mean something. That’s the good news. Companies who understand these needs can take action and translate them into powerful employment opportunities that almost certainly will yield happier and more productive workers, better products and services, and stronger businesses.

 

Sarah Rose Stack is the Marketing and Recruiting manager for the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.

 

United Personnel Aims to Make Life Easier for Clients

By
President Tricia Canavan
Employment

More Than a Job

President Tricia Canavan

President Tricia Canavan

At its core, the mission of a staffing agency is to connect employers with job seekers — a task United Personnel has tackled with success for 35 years. But creating those matches doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Rather, building a healthy workforce is a region-wide effort that makes demands of employers, colleges, training programs, K-to-12 schools, and lawmakers. United Personnel President Tricia Canavan recognizes this big picture — and her firm’s role in closing the gaps.

Tricia Canavan’s job is to help people get jobs, and to help companies find those people. It’s that simple — only, it’s not.

“Workforce development and education are things I’m really passionate about and involved in in a variety of ways,” she told BusinessWest. “We’ve heard about the skills gap and the disconnect between people who are not working or are underemployed, and employers who are saying they can’t expand because they don’t have the staff they need, and they have to turn work away because there’s not enough employees. There’s a real disconnect. So, what are the strategies we can use to be able to bridge that gap?”

As president of United Personnel, Canavan connects job seekers to regular paychecks every day. But the challenge of doing so runs far deeper than many might assume. In fact, for many, it starts well before kindergarten.

“I think we need to be really comprehensive and innovative in how we look at workforce develoment and education, even K to 12. They call it cradle to career — you want to start kids with a really good background to enter kindergarten.”

Consider, she said, that only 7% of Springfield children are considered kindergarten-ready when they enter school, and if they don’t hit reading proficiency by third grade, it sets them on a never-ending pattern of playing catchup.

“It’s said that, from kindergarten to third grade, you’re learning to read, and from third grade on, you’re reading to learn,” Canavan said. “So if your reading-comprehension skills are not where they need to be, it’s a very tough thing to make that up. The gaps start young, and they persist, and continue through high school.”

Beyond high school, in fact, contributing to what are commonly known in the employment world as skills gaps. Which brings her back to her daily role, one she tackles with a decidedly big-picture view.

“I think the disconnect and the skills gap we see is not only a challenge and a missed opportunity for local residents, but it also is an economic-development concern,” she said. “Ultimately, employers need the skilled workforce to be able to grow, and if we, over the long term, or even the medium term, are not able to produce better results at a time when Massachusetts population is pretty flat, we’re going to have a problem. It’s critical that we’re engaging as many of those residents as can work and want to work, and making sure they have the skills they need to be successful for themselves and their families, too.”

In today’s reasonably healthy economy, Canavan said, good jobs exist. She knows, because she’s got a large roster of clients that want to fill them.

“If we cannot access candidates that have the skill sets that employers need, we will not be viable as an organization. So we have some serious skin in this game,” she went on. “But I also see it as a social-justice issue. If we can do better in these fields of education and workforce development, if we can connect people with the opportunties that exist in ways they had not been connected before, that can be a game changer.”

“I think the disconnect and the skills gap we see is not only a challenge and a missed opportunity for local residents, but it also is an economic-development concern.”

For this issue’s focus on employment, BusinessWest sat down with Canavan to talk about the ways her 35-year-old firm continues to close the gaps between job creators and job seekers, and the myriad ways that task is complicated by a lifetime of factors.

Steady Growth

Jay Canavan, Tricia’s father, transitioned from a career as president of Springfield Museums to launch United Personnel in 1984; his wife, Mary Ellen Scott, joined him about six months later, eventually serving as the company’s long-time president until eight years ago, when Tricia took the reins.

Jay and Mary Ellen opened their first office in Hartford, specializing in professional, administrative, and finance services. A few years later, they opened a second office in Springfield, focusing on support to the light industrial sector. Today, the firm also boasts offices in Northampton, Pittsfield, Chelmsford, and New Haven.

Meanwhile, its roster of specialties has grown to include manufacturing, hospitality, information technology, nonprofits, medical offices, and even a dental-services division, which has proven to be a significant growth area.

“Then we continue to focus on some core competencies,” she noted. “We do a lot of vendor-on-premises account management, where we provide turnkey human-resources support for our clients.”

One example is Yankee Candle, a business whose staffing level fluctuates through the ebbs and flows of the retail seasons. “Back in the day, people would hire and lay off, hire and lay off, Now, using a vendor-on-premises model, we partner with their human resources and production teams, and we manage seasonal staffing for them in a turnkey way. We have management on site 24/7, so their human resources and production teams can focus on their core business, and we supplement those activities.”

Cavanan said she enjoys working in partnership with clients because it allows United to become a part of their business and operational strategy and provide real value.

“Because we deal with such a wide variety of clients, we’re often able to take best practices and lessons learned and apply them to new clients. It’s almost like a knowledge-sharing service that we offer. And we’ve been really pleased with the results of some of that expertise we’ve been able to implement.”

Whether it’s helping clients with continuous improvement, staff-retention strategies, or joint recruiting events, she said United does its best work when it’s able to take on that level of partnership.

“If clients are open to this, we’re able to take an advisory and consulting role where we share with them, ‘here are some things we’re seeing in the marketplace.’ Oftentimes, it’s even current employment law,” Canavan said, noting that, just last week, United showed a client that one of its incentive programs was no longer legal due to changes in the law.

“We’re really proud of being able to serve as subject-matter experts in terms of recruitment, but also often in terms of human-resources compliance,” she went on. “We’re not attorneys, but because of the nature of what we do, we frequently have a very good finger on the pulse of what’s happening in compliance and employment law.”

Those various human-resources services are often crucial to smaller clients that may not have an in-house HR team or, at best, have one person handling everything from benefits and compliance to performance management and recruitment.

“To recruit well and comprehensively in a very tight labor market is extremely time-consuming,” she said. “Not only are we doing it all day, every day, but we have the infrastructure to find not only candidates that are actively seeking employment, but also candidates who might be open to considering a new job. And being able to partner with small and medium-sized customers allows us to bring them support with services they likely don’t have time to do. We’re really proud of that aspect of our work.”

Work Your Way Up

But Canavan is also proud of the big-picture view United takes of the region’s jobs landscape, citing efforts like the Working Cities grant that aims to better align workforce-development efforts and produce positive results for both job seekers and employers. “The economy is good, so let’s use this time to focus on training those who need it.”

Many well-paying careers, she noted, are in reach without a college education for those who are willing to access training, start small, and work their way up — in advanced manufacturing, for instance. The MassHire career centers offer training programs in that realm, but the classes aren’t always full. “How do we do a better job helping people build awareness of those opportunities, connecting them to those opportunities, and supporting them through it?”

United Personnel has been headquartered in Springfield

For most of its history, United Personnel has been headquartered in Springfield — currently on Bridge Street — but its reach expands far beyond this region.

There are institutional barriers as well, such as the so-called ‘cliff effect’ that throws up financial disincentives to people on public benefits who want to work. She said a bill currently making its way through the state Legislature would address that scenario through a pilot program that would help low-income Springfield residents access jobs while reducing the need for public benefits.

On an individual level, part of United Personnel’s mission is to dismantle as many roadblocks to employment as it can, Canavan explained. For example, employers typically prefer to hire someone with at least six months of recent, steady work without gaps. But, realizing there are reasons those gaps exist, United offers myriad short-term jobs to help people build a portfolio and references and prove they can handle something more permanent.

“It’s not that hard to be successful. It’s being on time, paying attention, staying off your phone. And, if you’re successful, you’ll find lots of opportunities for career pathways.”

“We’re really proud of being able to serve as subject-matter experts in terms of recruitment, but also often in terms of human-resources compliance. We’re not attorneys, but … we frequently have a very good finger on the pulse of what’s happening in compliance and employment law.”

She understands that some job seekers, especially younger ones, often struggle with those ‘soft skills.’

“It may be a lack of awareness, or not being super engaged in the work they’re doing. Entry-level jobs can frequently be boring or repetitive — it may not be the most exciting day you’ve ever had in your life,” she went on, noting that one of her first jobs out of college was a temp role in Chicago, doing numeric data entry all day. “It was terrible. But we’ve all had those jobs.”

The idea is to use every opportunity — whether a temp job or a training program — as a chance to move up to something better. And when job seekers do just that, it’s especially gratifying.

“It’s not our success, it’s their success. We just helped them get a foot in the door,” she said. “A lot of people don’t realize the opportunities that come from working with a staffing firm. We can be your advocate. We can help you. Lots of jobs are available — start small, and you can work your way up.”

Community Focus

United Personnel has certainly worked its way up over the past 35 years, not just in helping people find jobs and helping clients run their businesses more efficiently, but through a culture of community support. Team members are encouraged to volunteer and serve on boards, while the company itself offers financial support to numerous organizations in areas like workforce development and education, women’s leadership, community vitality, and arts and culture. One program is an endowed scholarship at the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts for first-generation college students from area gateway cities.

“We’re interested in leveraging what we do and whatever financial resources we have available to us,” Canavan told BusinessWest. “We consider it a privilege to be able to do that. We don’t just want to be here to do business; we want to be a part of the community. We are all very cognizant of the fact that we are successful because of our community.”

That said, she noted that legislative mandates from Boston continue to burden employers and make it more difficult than ever to do business in Massachusetts. Which makes it even more important for her to make clients’ lives a little easier.

“We feel honored to be able to do this work with our customers and candidates that come to us. When a client is happy with what we’ve done, or a candidate comes to us with a table-sized box of chocolates to say ‘thank you,’ that’s rewarding. It’s a privilege to help people find work and help companies find that talented staff they need to drive the success of their organization.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]