MANSFIELD — Before the economic shutdowns brought on by COVID-19, local unemployment was at a historic low.
It could be easy to assume that people who can’t find or keep a job simply don’t want to work. The truth is a little more complicated.
Many of the area’s unemployed face significant obstacles that make it difficult to find or hold down a job, such as a lack of affordable childcare or access to transportation.
With those obstacles in mind, Temp2Higher launched its alternative schedule pilot last year. The program, which wrapped up in early March, was designed to help participants transition to full time employment.
“They’re absolutely employable. They were just folks with varying degrees of crisis going on in their life,” said Amanda Cooper, business development coordinator for NECIC’s Temp2Higher program, in early March.
“They needed income, but working 40 hours a week wasn’t going to be able to give them the time during the week to address the things they had going on.”
Participants began working part-time in the entry-level manufacturing sector with the goal of transitioning to full-time employment after a 90-day period. Meanwhile, Temp2Higher coached workers and helped them develop a plan to eliminate or decrease any barriers to maintaining a full-time job.
“Not everybody has a family support system or people in place that want to help them and encourage them and help them problem solve,” Cooper said.
Mansfield Engineered Components partnered with NECIC for the pilot, offering 10 part-time jobs. After the 90-day period, three of those 10 were hired as full-time employees. A fourth person was able to find a full-time job at a different company in a similar field.
“Retention was about 30 percent, which is higher than probably your typical temp-to-hire,” said Sonja Osborne, production personnel coordinator at Mansfield Engineered Components.
Unlike most part-time jobs, participants in the pilot were given a set schedule with two to three days of second shifts per week.
According to Cooper, a set schedule can go a long way in helping workers address factors that could otherwise interfere with their work. People recovering from health issues can schedule medical appointments outside of work. College students can work nights while they finish up their classes. Parents now coping with unexpected school closures can arrange for consistent child care.
“I think it’s fantastic,” said Osborne. “There’s a demographic of people who need to work part-time. I think manufacturing is a great opportunity to do it.”
Cooper said she was pleased with the initial success rate.
“Most people are going to look at 30 percent and think that’s not a stellar number. Considering some of the issues that we worked through, I absolutely feel like it is stellar,” she said.
“We did not pick people just ready to go to work. We chose people specifically on a wide range of challenges to see if, with coaching and supportive services and part-time hours, they could get to a point where they could work full time.”
Cooper encouraged employers interested in partnering with Temp2Higher to reach out to NECIC, noting she would be willing to tweak the alternative schedule program to meet the needs of different companies.
“I feel like with what we were able to achieve, there are solid numbers that indicate that there is a group of people that our employers could be capturing if they just viewed their traditional work schedules a little differently,” she said.
With COVID-19 restrictions increasing demand on the childcare industry and new realities of schooling and working from home, flexible transition schedules could be a helpful alternative to even more workers.
Tionna Perdue, staffing manager at Temp2Higher, said she was pleased with the success of the first alternative scheduling pilot. Temp2Higher hasn’t begun a second round yet, since most manufacturers are still in the process of bringing back existing staff, but Perdue hopes to eventually partner with more employers and have a second cohort.
In the meantime, the staff at Temp2Higher is continuing to meet with job seekers by appointment and help with placements at local stores, restaurants and other essential businesses.
