Job seekers with significant barriers to employment often need additional training or support to succeed and retain jobs in a non-subsidized work environment. Although there are a variety of approaches used in supportive or transitional employment programming, two of the most effective strategies are worksite job coaches and transitional work assignments. Both strategies are effective with TANF and multiple-barrier clients who have failed in the more traditional workforce employment models.
To illustrate how these strategies translate into the real world, here are two workforce models that have successfully used on-site job coaching and transitional work strategies.
MWS, based in Portland, Maine, is a private staffing business that focuses on high turnover, entry-level jobs - jobs that employers often find difficult to fill and keep filled. MWS contracts with employers to fill these jobs and guarantees the employer that productivity and quality standards will be consistently met.
They are able to achieve this because they staff an on-site job coach or "working supervisor." These job coaches work in tandem with MWS employees and model appropriate workplace attitudes and performance. When problems arise, the MSW worksite supervisors act as mediators and advocates to resolve issues and preserve the employee's job, or, when necessary, transfer the employee to a more appropriate position, often with a different company. The concept is to provide the employee with rapid attachment to work, with more time to tackle the learning curve and with a supportive, hands-on work experience. The majority of MWS employees transition off the MWS payroll within six months - either to the company where they were training or to another employer in the same line of business.
During the past ten years of operation, MWS has had a 70 percent or higher retention rate with TANF and physically or mentally challenged workers. For more information, contact: Rob Franciose, 207.775.1924, etimaine@aol.com.
Transitional Work Corporation runs its Philadelphia@Work program like a temporary work agency. It hires welfare recipients and places them in subsidized six-month transitional jobs in public and nonprofit workplaces. When the six months are over, TWC helps them find permanent, unsubsidized jobs. TWC's clients work in their subsidized positions for 25 hours each week, enough to satisfy the demands of state welfare laws and keep their benefits flowing. Employers do not pay the TWC employees' salary - the state pays it using the same funds that pay the workers' welfare grants. To ensure their success, TWC workers are supervised and supported by a network that includes career advisors as well as "work partners" -onsite job coaches - who are paid a stipend and are employed by the worksite employer. Since its launch in 1998, TWC has enrolled more than 4,000 welfare recipients and placed them in temporary supported jobs. Of those that completed their temporary assignment, 98 percent have moved into unsubsidized private sector jobs - more than 1,300. For more information, contact: Richard Greenwald, CEO, 215.965.3000.
|
|
