When Emil B. Friesenhahn, director of managed care and business development at Community Medicine Associates (a part of University Health System in San Antonio) needs to fill one of his staff positions, he’ll likely not place an ad in the local paper, but instead pick up the phone and call Project QUEST.

He first learned about this kind of outsourced-training organization about 10 years ago when it was in its infancy. A worker his company had just hired was raving about the program and what it had done for her. “I liked her enthusiasm,” says Friesenhahn, “and when she said it changed her life, I decided to connect with them.” The connection continues to pay off.

Sometimes called “intermediaries” or “brokers,” these nonprofit groups – developed under the reformed U.S. Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and totaling between 250 and 300 nationwide – serve as liaisons between the employer and potential employee by setting up training programs within specific industries for low-income workers. The relationship works for both: Not only are people in financial need put into livable-wage jobs, but companies throughout a region and within a specific industry get the workers they need, which raises living and working standards across the board. Most of these organizations are located in urban areas and help a wide range of people.

Friesenhahn now estimates about 25 percent of his workers come from QUEST, also of San Antonio. He likes using workers from this organization, he says, because it goes “above and beyond” in training potential employees for a whole spectrum of physician-office duties.

“We consider ourselves a ‘broker,’ ” says Mary Pena, executive director of the organization. She stresses the difference between organizations like hers, which are available in most states, and other generic training programs is that hers makes sure to involve the company.

“It’s key to have [an employer] as a partner, not just as someone we supply people to,” she says, adding that she hopes HR executives see her organization as an extension of their departments.

Some of the organizations like QUEST, in fact, get together with employers to determine what type of curriculum the learning institutions within their communities should follow to prepare students for that industry. Others, like the Jane Addams Resource Crop. In Chicago, may come in and train pre-existing workers.

JARC was started as an industry-specific training organization in Chicago in 1985 by the local government and area businesses when the metal working and stamping industry suffered a dearth of skilled workers.

Gene Cottini, manager of training services at Chicago-based S&C Electric Co., a provider of equipment and services for electric utilities, says his company partnered with JARC because it could no longer find a skilled workforce in the area.

“It became evident in the mid-‘80s that if [my] company wanted to continue to operate in the city of Chicago, we would have to develop our own trades people,” he says.

And they did. S&C Electric Co. teamed up with JARC and began to put together internal training programs to help its 1700 workers develop their machinery skills. They also offered math and English as a Second Language classes for those who needed it. That was about seven years ago and Cottini says S&C has been working with JARC ever since.

Although employer-based training programs might sound like the future of job training, many companies have yet to implement them, especially smaller employers that don’t have the necessary income or staff. What makes QUEST and other industry-specific training programs so helpful, say employers who have used them, is that they work within the company’s budget – securing grants when necessary – and make a huge effort to tailor the programs to the company’s culture.
What the future brings in this arena remains to be seen. However, experts predict more and more employers will eventually turn to these organizations as a means to recruit and retain quality workers.

“Clearly this is an idea that’s taking off. There’s been so much growth over the last five years in the number of programs being designed and the benefits to employers and industries in the communities in which they exist,” says Cindy Marano, director of the National Network of Sector Partners, a project of the National Economic Development and Law Center headquartered in Oakland, Calif. “We’re very hopeful that this is the kind of approach that can really begin to make a difference in communities around the country.”

Organization heads, however, agree lack of knowledge about their programs can impede that growth, which is why it’s paramount they get the word out.

CREATING A PARTNERSHIP

As multi-source funded organizations, employer-based training groups developed under the federal WIA mostly prepare individuals for entry-level positions and cover 23 industries – largely in the health care, information technology, manufacturing, construction, office services and telecommunications fields, says Marano.

These organizations take shape when community institutions “recognize a particular industry in their [area] has significant workforce needs,” she says, adding that what all these groups have in common is a focus on improving the regional economy by working in an industry that’s growing or at risk.

As with Friesenhahan, it’s as easy as picking up the phone and dialing 10 digits to get one of these groups to work with your business. Employers looking to create such a partnership can contact their local Employment and Training Administration’s office (http://wdr.doleta.gov/contacts/regional_office.asp) or the National Network of Sector Partners (www.nedlc.org/nnsp), which will help them locate the industry-specific group in their area or start a program.

Telly Doak, supervisor of HR at Regence BlueShield, an affiliate of the Regence Group in Seattle, was actually on the receiving end of the phone three years ago when an industry-specific training group – the Seattle Jobs Initiative – contacted her asking Regence to partner with SJI and sponsor a few interns. The marriage was off and running. The two teamed up to create a curriculum for local colleges and universities that would train potential interns for customer-service positions at Regence.

“One thing we really liked about [SJI] was that they really took [our suggestions] into consideration and made some changes or reformed their curriculum to include those,” Doak says.

She has been in the HR profession for 25 years, serving in this function at several different companies. She admits over time she’s hired employees who have taken part in industry-specific training programs, but with unsatisfactory results. Sometimes workers would be irresponsible or undependable or didn’t quite meet the requirements of the company even after training, she says.

In the partnership between Regence, with about 2,300 employees, and SJI, however, “We’ve taken the employers’ expectations and brought them into the training site,” says Anne Keeney, sector manager at Seattle Jobs Initiative. SJI tailors its training to the company culture and requires that individuals show up for a 40 hour work week and dress professionally. Trainees must also go through three evaluations during the training, just like they would during a performance evaluation on the job, she says, adding they are expected to perform in training as they would on the job. “The advantage is people can make mistakes with us so that they don’t make [the same mistakes] when they go on the job.”

Groups like SJI and Project QUEST say they provide not only hard skills training – the basics such as keyboarding – but also soft skills training such as team building and conflict resolution, along with career counselors that check back in with employers and workers years after placement to make sure all is OK.

THE RIGHT SELECTION

As good as industry-specific training programs may sound, business leaders would be the first to remind you that nothing’s perfect.

The employer-based training groups do try to provide some type of screening, whether it be a pre-skills test or an assessment to determine if an individual really does have a true interest in going into a particular field. “[These organizations] want to bring people into the program who can benefit from it, and also want to set people up for success,” says Maureen Conway, director of the workforce strategies initiative at the Aspen Institute based in Washington, which runs seminars, policy studies and fellowship programs. “They don’t want people to come in who won’t [succeed in] that industry.”

SJI’s Keeney admits one or two people might slip through and not be the right fit for the company. “Our workers are no more different than the other entry-level people employers hire,” she says, meaning problems such as a worker not showing up for work could occur with a new hire. “[However,] through us, employers have some input and say about what kinds of skills potential employees receive. They also get pre-screened candidates.”

In addition, the retention rate for employees hired through these organizations is much higher, says Keeney, whose organization boasts that one company’s average one-year retention rate for its entry-level workforce jumped from 40 percent to 68 percent when it recruited through SJI.

The statistics continue to impress. The Aspen Institute conducted a three-year survey of participants of industry-specific training programs like Keeney’s to find out what the trained employees’ labor market experiences were like before they entered the training and afterward. It also tracked how their experiences changed one and two years after training. “Most workers improved their positions within the labor market, often to a dramatic degree,” says Conway. Also, out of 332 respondents, two thirds remained employed year-round two years after the survey was conducted. Seventy-eight percent had access to health insurance, compared to 50 percent prior to training, and also had paid vacation, sick leave and a pension plan. Eighty-two percent said they thought their job and prospects were good.

The last finding seems to be part of the reason why retention is so high among recruits that go through these programs, says Matt Eggemeyer, vice president of operations at Keats Manufacturing Co. in Whelling, Ill., which is in the suburbs of Chicago. “If they see [the employer] is interested in their future, then they become a little more interested in their own future and decide to make a career out of it; they see it’s not just a dead-end job.”

FACING THE CHALLENGES

As with any program, HR executives can run into unforseen challenges. Eggenmeyer says the toughest task he faces at the moment is the given economy. His business, a manufacturer of metal stampings, also uses JARC. The program is structured to train all incoming operators once a year, but because of the bad economy, Eggenmeyer says, they haven’t hired anyone for a year or so. Therefore the challenge now is getting together with JARC and developing a fresh program for the workers who have already gone through the class – something he’s not too worried about, considering the good track record of the organization he’s partnered with. “[JARC is] very flexible and easy to use and the quality of education is excellent,” he says.

Another big challenge that HR might face when implementing this type of training is proving to top management that it’s going to be worthwhile, then making the program successful. Although Dave Anderson, HR manager at P-K Tool and Manufacturing Co., a Chicago-based metal stamping company, didn’t have a problem with upper management, he found he could make the program successful by providing workers with an incentive and rewarding them with a promotion or a raise in the long run if they completed the training.

Though only about 35 percent of the programs receive actual funding from employer-partners, many companies say it’s well worth the cost to partner with one of these organizations. “Frankly, I think it’s better when companies make an investment because it helps them hold whomever is providing the service accountable,” Conway says.

According to Community Medicine Associates’ Friesehahn, the positive impact such groups have on cities and communities is “tremendous.”

“From the HR standpoint, I can’t emphasize enough how they give people better skills to be better employees, “ he says.