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Chapter 4
Promising Practices in Employment Retention
Retaining employment is key for low-wage workers, as individuals progress toward the long-term goal of raising their family’s household income. Recognizing that some amount of job change is natural and can be beneficial, the emphasis of employment retention efforts is not just on retaining one particular job but on retaining attachment to the workforce. The key is to shorten periods of unemployment between jobs and to help workers make choices so that each succeeding job moves them farther up the career ladder.
In terms of factors that could jeopardize employment, low-wage workers have the following disadvantages compared with higher-wage workers:
- More fragile child care arrangements because of limited subsidies
and fewer low-cost options
- Greater likelihood that children or others in their care have special
needs
- Limited access to employer benefits (such as paid sick or vacation
leave and dependent-care benefits)
- Less flexible work schedules and greater likelihood of working night shifts1
Given these many challenges, low-wage workers can benefit from employment retention services, which many potential partner organizations already provide for welfare recipients or other groups. Although retention services for low-wage workers were much less widespread than preemployment services at the sites visited in this study, the field research discovered promising strategies across three major categories:
- Enhanced approaches to postemployment case management
- Working with employers to improve job retention
- Offering additional retention services to fill in gaps (for example, emergency child care, financial literacy education and asset development, and transportation services)
Providing Enhanced Postemployment Case Management
Providing or continuing case management after clients become employed usually involves helping them to connect with available services, assisting them with job and personal problems, and providing assessment and counseling to help them retain employment.2 To be effective, case management is often combined with other work supports and services and may include long-term problem solving and planning as well as helping clients in a short-term personal crisis.3
Many case managers described going the extra mile to help working clients survive short-term emergencies with their jobs intact. One retention specialist at Working to Achieve Growth and Employment (WAGE) Connection — a TANF-funded service center in Harford County, Maryland — described her job as mostly “putting out fires” for employed welfare clients, such as visiting the Motor Vehicle Administration or child care providers on her clients’ behalf, to prevent them from missing a day’s work.4 Case managers also described preparing clients for future changes in work supports or employment status. Case managers for West-moreland Human Opportunities — a community action agency in Pennsylvania — described helping clients make financial contingency plans for when they reach “income cliffs” in making transitions from welfare to work or are between jobs.
Because case management often involves referrals to programs and services offered by other public or private providers, collaboration is an essential component, as evidenced by the following example from the field.
Work Central Call Center
One innovative model for postemployment case management is the Work Central Call Center, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, operated by Connectinc., a community-based organization. The center provides case management services to low-income workers via the telephone — at convenient daytime, evening, and weekend hours — through a partnership with public and private organizations. The ultimate goal for Work Central is to prevent future reliance on cash assistance. The call center serves former TANF recipients, dislocated workers from the tobacco industry, and other families with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. It is able to maintain 8,200 cases across 10 rural counties in the state, using technology to link clients with training, placement, and family support resources in their communities as well as with prospective employers. Work Central’s seamless and nearly paperless case management processes address four customer goals:
- Reemployment typically involves job-finding
and job placement activities such as job matching, interview scheduling,
and résumé assistance. The North Carolina Employment Security
Commission supports this goal by assigning a full-time employee to serve
Work Central’s customers.
- Job retention services include assistance
with applications for family-management supports (like daycare, emergency
economic relief, child support, and domestic violence services), addressing
employment barriers through counseling and referrals, and providing
consistent social support for the development of optimism, persistence,
and a work ethic.
- Career advancement is promoted by supporting
longevity of employment and by encouraging customers to upgrade their
academic and employment credentials. Strategies include referral to
low-cost correspondence or community-based programs for General Educational
Development (GED) classes and skills training; facilitating registration
at local postsecondary and adult education and training institutions;
accessing financial aid, Individual Training Accounts (ITAs supported
by Workforce Investment ActWIA] funds), and other resources to support
education and training; and encouraging the completion of such programs.
- Asset accumulation — viewed as a significant motivating factor for the three preceding goals — is addressed through outreach concerning the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), helping customers open accounts at cooperating banks, making referrals for credit repair and financial literacy counseling, and connecting customers to resources to purchase vehicles and homes.
Work Central is principally a call center, but its systems include automated mail service as well. Outreach letters are mailed to prospects included in an electronic database imported from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, another public agency partner. Other automated correspondence congratulates customers who reach their goals, notifies them of failed attempts to reach them by phone, and ensures that they receive promotional information about opportunities like the EITC.
Work Central’s case management software automatically schedules outreach and follow-up calls for case managers and allocates incoming calls to a toll-free number. Technology makes it possible to serve a large caseload over a wide service area for just over $100 per customer. State TANF funds and a combination of county Department of Social Services contracts, private foundation dollars, and in-kind contributions from partners (such as phone service from Sprint) support Work Central for just under $800,000 per year.
Box 4.1 features additional examples of innovative practices in case management at sites participating in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project.
The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project — initiated and funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, with supplemental funding from the U.S. Department of Labor — is a comprehensive multisite evaluation of employment stability and wage progression programs for low-wage workers. Fifteen sites in eight states are participating in the evaluation and are testing a range of services, staffing configurations, and program goals. A number of sites are working intensively with employed TANF recipients and former TANF recipients to help them advance in the workplace by assisting them to (1) identify and articulate career goals, (2) map out career ladders and steps to advance in their career track, (3) identify barriers to job retention, and (4) connect to local resources. Case management practices are designed to help support these working parents in reaching their goals.
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Working with Employers to Improve Job Retention Efforts
Employers are important partners for public or private organizations that are interested in promoting employment retention for low-wage workers. Recognizing the high costs associated with employee turnover, some employers are providing retention services themselves. Through field explorations, MDRC and the NGA Center spoke with private employers who have been testing a number of strategies to retain their low-wage workforce. Field researchers also found intermediary or community-based organizations (CBOs) that have sought to partner with employers to offer retention services to low-income individuals, both preemployment (including soft-skills and job-skills training) and postemployment (counseling, training, or referrals to social services or work support programs). Another option is for partner organizations to provide benefits or services typically offered by employers, such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) or similar approaches that provide counseling and help with employees’ personal problems related to health, family, finances, substance abuse, legal issues, and stress.5 Companies that employ low-wage workers are less likely to offer such services, but following are two examples of initiatives that are attempting to bring corporate EAP services to a broader spectrum of employees.
EarnFair® LLC
Seedco, a nonprofit intermediary organization, has created EarnFair LLC, a limited-liability staffing agency, to place low-income (WIA-eligible) clients with New York City employers and to provide them with postemployment services. After a trial period, employers either can put successful temporary employees on their own payroll or can retain them as contract workers for up to two years. While working in temporary placements, EarnFair LLC clients receive postemployment services and supports, including health benefits, case management, and an Employee Assistance Program through partner CBOs. The EAP includes such services as:
- Seedco’s family loan program (a resource to cope with emergencies)
- Referrals for work supports, social services, and postsecondary,
adult education and training programs (Some training options are available
on-site at the CBOs.)
- Asset development and financial literacy services, including free Citigroup checking accounts, personal financial management training, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), and assistance filing income tax forms6
The project is a result of the EarnFair Alliance, a large-scale collaboration between Seedco and a host of other public and private organizations, including the New York City Human Resources Administration, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (another intermediary organization), nine CBO service providers, and the City University of New York. As an intermediary, Seedco has developed new foundation and public funding resources, has offered economies of scale, and has assumed for the smaller CBOs the risks involved in performance-based contracting. The program is supported by nearly $20 million in private funding from foundations, a range of innovative financing strategies (including welfare diversion grants, wage subsidies, and loans), fees from employer clients, and financial or in-kind contributions from other partners.
Portable Employee Assistance Program
Another employer-focused retention initiative is the pilot test of a Portable Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for low-wage workers in St. Paul, Minnesota, sponsored by the McKnight Foundation. The program involves an unusual private-public partnership to reach both low-wage workers and their employers. The St. Paul Port Authority is managing the project in conjunction with its affiliated workforce development organization, Employer Solutions, Inc., and an established EAP provider for low-income families, Family Service Employee Resources. The pilot test aims to bring intensive EAP counseling, soft-skills training, and referral services to employers of selected low-wage workers (earning $12 or less an hour), in an effort to increase the workers’ job retention rates and career mobility opportunities. If the low-wage clients switch employers, they take their EAP services with them. A secondary benefit may be to influence the employers to provide greater advancement opportunities more broadly throughout their workforce. If successful, the Port Authority hopes to provide the portable EAP on a much broader scale. The pilot test draws on existing EAP and community services, including:
- An intake interview to evaluate clients’ soft skills, job skills,
and psychological status
- A consultation by Employer Solutions regarding the employer’s
advancement opportunities and barriers to advancement for all workers
- An individualized advancement plan for each worker
- Face-to-face counseling, including referrals to services offered
by the EAP (such as domestic violence counseling); by Family Services,
Inc., the parent organization of Family Service Employee Resources (regarding,
for example, housing and legal services); or by other community providers
(for such problems as substance abuse)
- One-on-one soft-skills training (in such areas as contingency planning and workplace conduct) and help accessing adult or postsecondary education programs
Directly helping employers to improve their workers’ job retention rates is a promising approach that benefits both low-wage workers and the companies that hire them.
Offering Additional Employment Retention Services to Fill Gaps
Several public and private organizations are working together to provide unique employment retention services that attempt to address some basic threats to job stability in the low-wage workforce: fragile child care arrangements, poor financial literacy skills and limited assets, and transportation problems. Table 4.1 presents additional examples of postemployment case management strategies, employer-focused retention efforts, and other retention services featured in this chapter.
| Focus/Organization | Stategy |
|---|---|
| Postemployment case management Involving the entire family, Sonoma County Department of Human Services (SCDHS), CA Workplace-based services Cascade Engineering, Grand Rapids, MI |
By working with clients’ entire families before
job placement, SCDHS case managers believe that they are able to interest
more clients in retention services. They provide both pre- and postem-ployment
family activities, like outings and events, as well as simultaneous
events for children (like homework clubs) while their parents are
attending retention activities. Cascade Engineering partnered with Michigan’s Family Independence Agency to provide on-site retention case management for welfare-to-work hires. Cascade found the services so effective in increasing retention that it donated funds to the agency to cover the staffing costs of outstationing TANF case managers. Cascade also offers a home-purchasing program in partnership with the Home-Link Employer Assisted Housing Program. Employees take money management classes and can save up to $1,000 for home down payments through matched payroll deductions. |
| Partnering with employers America’s Family, Colorado Springs, CO Goodwill/Easter Seals (a member of the Neighborhood Employment Network), Minneapolis, MN Achieve Program, Towards Employment, Cleveland, OH Aramark Staffing Centers, Aramark Corporation, Philadelphia, PA |
America’s Family is a nonprofit organization that
works with employers in several sectors. One of its program features
is training employer partners’ staff to be an “ambassador”
— a point person who directs entry-level peers to community
supports and services. Ambassadors are often located in participating
partner locations; for example, when an employee visits a health clinic
that belongs to the program, ambassadors are available. Goodwill offers mentoring through group support with its “Lunch and Learn” series for low-wage employees of the local banking industry. Thirty or so employees meet once a month for lunch to discuss retention issues and career advancement plans. In this program, a community based organization (Towards Employment) provides employer-based services for low-wage workers, including training modules for frontline supervisors; lunchtime workshops (“Lunch-and-Learns”) that facilitate discussion and provide information on topics that threaten job retention and career advancement (budget management, on-the-job conflicts); and one-toone customized support by Achieve Advisors. This is a site in the Employment Retention and Advancement evaluation (Box 4.1). Aramark created its own staffing agency to hire welfare recipients and other disadvantaged individuals. After six weeks, hires can become permanent employees of Aramark or the employer who initially contracted their services. In Philadelphia, the center partners with the local One-Stop to recruit staff and provide preemployment training. Supervisors also frequently connect with clients’ outside case managers to address employment barriers. |
| Other retention strategies Asset development Seedco, New York Transportation Cascade Engineering, Grand Rapids, MI |
Seedco is offering Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) to low-income
families in New York City with a grant from the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services and matching foundation and Seedco funds,
through its EarnAssets IDA Program. Many of the 76 IDAs open thus
far have been used for home ownership, followed by education or training
purposes. Cascade Engineering’s working welfare recipient employees can access door-to-door transportation services for the first three months on the job as well as stipends to purchase cars through the Family Independence Agency. Cascade has also funded a CBO, Angels Wings, to provide employees with free van rides to and from work, for all shifts. |
Emergency Child Care
While the availability of quality child care has itself been described by working parents as a critical work support, temporary problems with child care arrangements can also be a major barrier to retaining a job. Some employers of higher-wage workers have offered emergency child care benefits, but low-wage workers are unlikely to have access to similar benefits, until now. Seedco and the New York City Human Resources Administration have joined with other public and private organizations to offer a pilot program, Community Child Care Assistance, to working former TANF recipients in the Bronx and to some of Seedco’s EarnFair clients (low-wage workers) in other areas of the city. The program is supported by funds from New York State Children and Family Services, the local Human Resources Administration, and private foundations. Seedco staff discovered that family child care providers typically had several slots available at any given time, and so they created a database of emergency care providers. Working parents can enroll for services through local CBOs and at participating employers, and they can visit local providers to keep their preferences on file. Enrolled participants can call to arrange for emergency child care on the same day that their regular arrangements fail.
Financial Literacy and Asset Development
To help low-wage workers prepare for personal crises that can threaten job stability, some public and private organizations include financial literacy education or counseling as part of their package of services.7 Such programs aim to improve financial literacy and help low-income working families build assets; they may refer clients to money-management classes in the community or may offer these classes on-site. Organizations may also offer Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) for low-wage workers, or they may partner with banks or credit unions to try to expand access to low-interest savings or checking accounts in low-income communities. For example, through the Finanzas program, a public-private partnership in Delaware provides bilingual instruction in financial literacy and home ownership to low-wage Latino immigrants working at Perdue’s chicken-processing plants; besides the employer, the partners include the state’s housing authority, NCALL Research (a housing counseling agency), the Fannie Mae Delaware Partnership Office, Citizens Bank, and the U.S. Department of Labor. NCALL Research provides an instructor to teach a six-week, 12-hour course, in English and Spanish, on the fundamentals of the U.S. banking system. As part of the program, participants open bank accounts and establish direct deposit, and they receive paid release time from Perdue for hours spent in class. After completing the first course (or instead of the first course, for more advanced students), workers can take a two-week, 4-hour course about predatory lending and how to avoid and repair poor credit. Finally, participants are referred to a home ownership counselor.
Transportation
Another major job retention issue is securing reliable transportation to and from work and other destinations, such as child care providers and work supports or social services. Lack of transportation is a particular problem in rural areas, which rarely have public systems in place. One strategy is to create new public transportation options for low-income working families. For example, the Sonoma County Human Services Department in California, working with several community partners, launched a van pool to help incumbent workers get to their jobs and to the local One-Stop. The vans have logged over 4,000 trips since the fall of 2001. The partners are also pilot-testing a new service to transport clients’ children to and from school and child care, so that parents do not have to disrupt their work.8 Another approach is to help low-wage workers access loans to purchase cars; many state and local welfare agencies partner with CBOs and car dealerships to provide low-cost or used cars for low-income families.9
Conclusion
Connecting families with employment retention services can prevent returns to cash assistance for former welfare recipients or costly spells of unemployment for low-wage workers in general. Helping workers maintain entry-level employment is only part of the puzzle in promoting long-term economic stability. To complement the promising practices in work supports and job retention efforts for low-wage workers, Chapter 5 next describes promising state and local practices in promoting career advancement.
1 Heymann et al., 2002. (back)
3 Strawn and Martinson, 2000. (back)
4 Personal communication with retention specialist at Harford County Department of Social Services. (back)
5 For more information, see "What Is an Employee Assistance Program (EAP)?" on the Employee Assistance Professionals Association Website: http://www.eapassn.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=507. (back)
6 IDAs are similar to savings accounts but are set up for specified purposes (home ownership, college, and small business development) and typically involve matching funds from a variety of public or private sources. See Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2001. (back)
7 For a number of reasons, it can be difficult for low-income families to maximize their limited income to weather future financial crises. Low-income families are less likely to use financial services than higher-income families because of the limited availability of financial services in low-income neighborhoods, a lack of familiarity or wariness concerning banking, and the high costs of financial services (such as minimum balance requirements). Further, predatory lending practices like check-cashing services (which can charge fees as high as 20 percent), payday loans, and rent-to-own plans can erode low-wage workers' already-limited earnings. See Carr and Schuetz, 2001. (back)
8 Funding for transportation-related services was recently cut, and both programs were discontinued on July 1, 2003. (back)
9 For examples of public-private car loan partnerships, see Table 4.1 for Cascade Engineering's employer-sponsored transportation program; for additional car loan examples in New York, Minnesota, and other states, see the Welfare Information Network's Website: http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/win/transport.asp. (back)
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