ERIC ED429190: Getting in, Staying on, Moving up: A Practitioner's Guide to Employment Retention.

37 Pages·1999·0.78 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
ED 429 190
CE 078 435
AUTHOR
Proscio, Tony; Elliott, Mark
TITLE
Getting in, Staying on, Moving up: A Practitioner's Guide to
Employment Retention.
INSTITUTION
Public/Private Ventures, Philadelphia, PA.
SPONS AGENCY
Ford Foundation, New York, NY.; Mott (C.S.) Foundation,
Flint, MI.
PUB DATE
1999-00-00
NOTE
36p.; Support also received from the Pinkerton Foundation.
AVAILABLE FROM
Public/Private Ventures, Communications Department, 2005
Market Street, Suite 900, Philadelphia, PA 19103; Tel:
215-557-4400; Fax: [phone]; Web site:
http://www.ppv.org ($10).
PUB TYPE
Guides
Non-Classroom (055)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
DESCRIPTORS
Career Counseling; *Counselor Client Relationship;
Disadvantaged Youth; Education Work Relationship;
*Employment Programs; Job Development; *Job Placement; Job
Training; *Labor Turnover; Nonprofit Organizations; Program
Guides; Program Implementation; Vocational Adjustment; Young
Adults; Youth Programs
IDENTIFIERS
New York
ABSTRACT
This practitioner's guide to helping employment program
clients find, retain, and advance in jobs is based on the experiences of
Moving Up, an employment program operated by New York's Vocational
Foundation, Inc.
(VFI). The guide begins with an overview of Moving Up, which
has become a national model for helping disadvantaged minority youths develop
the job and interpersonal skills needed to find, retain, and succeed in
employment. The next two sections examine two aspects of the program:
(1)
enrollment, training, and job readiness (expectations and support, key staff
roles, recruitment, program eligibility, screening, training and instruction,
case management, stipends, medical and social services); and (2) placement
and follow-up (job development, career counseling, and strategies for dealing
with crises and building lasting relationships with clients)
Presented next
.
are nine principles for successful job retention: hold staff accountable for
ends, not means; introduce clients to a "culture of employment"; stress
coordination and continuity throughout the program; hire counseling and
training staff based on personal skills and professional credentials;
maintain a network of services that support the whole person; let students
develop a close relationship with at least one caring adult; after students
are employed, incorporate the program's services into the rhythm of their
workday; cultivate employers; and begin retention at intake. Appended is
information on VFI's history, mission, and activities.
(MN)
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Points of view or opinions stated in this
INFORMATION OENTOR (ERIC)
document do not necessarily represent
official OERI position or policy.
A PUBLICATION OF Pus,
/PRIVATE VENTURES
Working
Ve
2,
Working
Ventures
Acknowledgments
Public/Private Ventures is a
Working Ventures seeks to
The authors would like to thank a number of people
national nonprofit organiza-
improve the performance of
who helped make this report possible. Rebecca Taylor,
tion whose mission is to
the workforce development
Allen Thompson, Mary Bedeau,and several other VFI
improve the effectiveness of
field by providing practition-
staff members were very generous with their time and
social policies, programs and
ers and policymakers with
patiently explained the key elements of the Moving
community initiatives, espe-
the knowledge and tools
Up program. In addition, Rebecca and Mary reviewed
cially as they affect youth and
needed to operate effective
young adults. In carrying out
and made many helpful comments on our early drafts.
this mission, P/PV works with
employment programs. We
Mary also spent many hours checking VFI's data to
philanthropies, the public
support the field by,docu-
ensure its accuracy Several WITarticipants and grad-
and business sectors, and
menting effective employ-
uates were also willing to meet with us to discuss their
nonprofit organizations.
ment strategies and prac-
experiences in the program and on the job. We
tices, convening practition-
gained considerable insight about Moving Up from
We do our work in four basic
er workshops and providing
their participation.
ways:
resources to encourage
o
We develop or identib social
program innovation.
Ted Houghton conducted many of the staff interviews
policies, strategies and prac-
and made valuable contributions to our assessment of
tices that promote individ-
ual economic success and
the key program elements. Elisabeth King devoted
citizenship, and stronger
many hours to analyzing VFI's performance and
families and communities.
ensuring the report's accuracy. Elisabeth also worked
with Joe Tierney organizing and conducting focus
o
We assess the effectiveness of
groups with participants. Joe Stillman and Carol
these promising approaches
Clymer read drafts of the report and offered a num-
and distill their critical ele-
ments and benchmarks,
ber of helpful suggestions.
using rigorous field study
and research methods.
We would also like to thank The Ford, Charles Stewart
We mine evaluation results
o
Mott and Pinkerton Foundations for their support of
and implementation experi-
Working Ventures and the Moving Up report.
ences for their policy and
practice implications, and
communicate the findings to
public and private decision-
makers, and to
community leaders.
o
We create and field test the
building blocksmodel pok
cies, financing approaches,
curricula and training
materials, communication
strategies and learning
processesthat are necessary
to implement effective
approaches more broadly. We
then work with leaders of the
various sectors to implement
these expansion tools, and to
improve their usefulness.
P/PV's staff is composed of
policy leaders in various
fields; evaluators and
researchers in disciplines
ranging from economics to
ethnography; and experi-
enced practitioners from the
nonprofit, public, business
and philanthropic sectors.
GETTING IN
on
Staying
Moving Up
A Practitioner's Approach to Employment Retention
Tony Proscio and Mark Elliott
2
Working Ventures
a
day off because I
was
took
tired,"
a young woman
a
after getting
soon
recalled,
an
job through Moving Up,
employment program operated
by New York's Vocational
Foundation, Inc. (111). "I
job, but I didn't tell
called
my
my career advisor"
5
Staying on, Moving Up
GErrING IN,
3
Thus began a typical story in the ambitious
advisors, who form the backbone of Moving
job-retention effort that has made Moving
Up's post-employment strategy, pride them-
Up a national model. VFI's career advisors
selves on a "whatever-it-takes" approach to
are the front-line employment specialists
keeping young people at work and focused
who not only help graduates find work, but
on advancement.
who then stick with those graduates for
up
to two years, making sure they stay on the
Young adults enrolled in Moving Up
job, learn and advance.
describe career advisors as surrogate moth-
ers, fathers and big sisters or brothers. As
The young woman who told this story, like
one enrollee put it, "You talk to them about
many graduates of successful employment
certain things you can't talk to your parents
and training programs, had learned
new
about. And they give you advice. I
mean
skills, earned a GED and landed
a job.
that they're wise being that they're older
Working with VFI career advisor Leticia
and that they've been around the world,
so
Simmons, she had started off well. And, like
to speak. They know what's going on and
more than three-quarters of Moving Up
can help you out." Career advisors, said
placements, she was still on the job three
another recent graduate, "will take you out
months after being hired. Now, though, the
to lunch to see how you act when you're
unexplained absences were starting and her
outside the office. 'Cause sometimes when
job was in jeopardy.
you go outside the office you feel more
relaxed... But {they also know that] if you
Ms. Simmons, concerned about this
slack off at this meeting, you're going to
pattern, had phoned the workplace early
slack off at the job."
that morning and learned that her client
had once again called in "sick." Here is how
VFI's students make up a carefully targeted
the young client told the rest of the
story:
middle ground of deeply disadvantaged
young people who are nonetheless able and
[Ms. Simmons] called me and said, "I'm at
motivated to get help and work toward suc-
the subway station; get dressed because
cess. To enroll in WI, students must com-
you're going to work." She came from Jersey
plete an extensive application and enroll-
and I live in Brooklyn. She didn't tell
me she
ment process that tests their determination
was coming, but later she rang my doorbell.
and will. But those who do so are still highly
When I pressed the intercom and said,
unlikely to make it in the labor market with-
there?" and she
"Who's
said,
"Ms.
out help. Participants' academic skills are, on
Simmons," I thought I was gonna cry. She
average, far below standard for their age
sure enough swiprised me that day.
level, and the vast majority have dropped
out
of school. Their work history is negligible,
Not every Moving Up placement needs this
their occupational skills are small to nonexis-
much personal intervention. But the
career
tent, and their interpersonal skills are more
6
Working Ventures
4
(JTPA) defines as the most disadvantaged
likely to undermine than promote any
and difficult to place, this record is signifi-
progress in the workplace. In many cases,
cant. Given the lack of federal funding for
even their physical health is substandard.
job-retention programs, and few other reli-
able sources of funds for this purpose, the
Consequently, Moving Up is designed to
equip them with far more than just skills and
universe of such programs is small and poor-
ly documented. Data on longer-term reten-
encouragement. For two years after complet-
ing the program, students can expect regular
tion rates elsewhere are almost nonexistent.
and frequent follow-up contacts with VFI's
So it is not possible to say whether Moving
staff.
career advisors and other program
Up is the most successful effort anywhere.
But anecdotal experience strongly suggests
From the time they enroll, participants are
that the program's results for job retention
the responsibility of several WI profession-
and promotion are significant and that they
als, whose performance evaluations depend
in the
call for wider replication and careful study.
on the outcomes their clients achieve
VFI maintains exceptionally careful data on
labor force. The program creates an almost
its graduates and their performancea man-
immediate atmosphere of workplace disci-
agement resource that makes Moving Up
pline buttressed by close, supportive relation-
ships between the students and adult coun-
useful as a guidepost for others who may
selorspeople who are chosen precisely for
wish to develop a job-retention program.
their ability to set high standards and then
The critical factor in Moving Up's success
do whatever it takes to achieve them. That
with job retention appears to be that it is not
combination of high expectations and firm
programalthough
a separate "follow-up"
support lasts from training and placement
that is how it was originally conceivedbut a
through the long and critically important
fully integrated element of VFI's whole
period of follow-up.
employment strategy. The entire program,
from recruitment onward, is designed to
The results are impressive: two full years
focus young people on a career, not just on a
after taking their first job, more than 74 per-
cent of graduates are still active in the pro-
job; it is structured to equip them with
gram in one way or another (including
habits, skills and, most distinctively, adult
relationships that will be long-term assets for
attending college or GED classes, participat-
ing in training and seeking new jobs), and
them in the workplace. The program makes
available to every graduate a team of adult
63 percent are still working. About 12 per-
counselors and trainers, all of whom have
cent had been promoted and 31 percent
long-term career development as part of
had been given raises. At the end of two
their mission. And most important, by the
years, the average wage of those employed
fourth month in training, every Moving Up
was $8.64 an hour, a nearly 8 percent
client has begun working with the career
increase over the first year. Considering that
enrollees are nearly all among the groups
advisor who will follow and support that
?client for the next two years.
that the federal Job Training Partnership Act
Staying on, Moving Up
GETI-ING IN,
The Employment Prospects of Young Adults
Figure 1
Over the past 25 years, young people have
Median Real Weekly Earnings of Young Adults
had an increasingly difficult time succeeding
Young Adutts (under 25) by Gender from 1973-95 (in constant '95 $)
in the labor market. Prior to 1973, the earn-
ings of young adults (and older workers) had
been increasing. Since then, they have erod-
ed significantly, as illustrated in Figure 1.
Between 1973 and 1995, the earnings of
young men who were employed full time
declined from $440 per week to $303, a 31
percent drop. The earnings of young women
working full time have also fallen from $332
to $275 per week, a 17 percent drop.
While the labor market prospects of young
adults have generally dimmed, high school
dropouts are facing particularly daunting
challenges. For example, only 36 percent of
young workers under the age of 25 who do
not have high school degrees work full time
Source: May 1973 Current Population Survey, U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics, as presented in Sum et al., 1997.
(compared to 55 percent of all young work-
ers), and only one in nine are earning more
than $300 per week (compared to 28 percent
Figure 2
of all young workers) (Sum et al., 1997).1
Labor Force Participation Rates
of Young Workers
Young workers in New York City are much
United States vs. New York City; Both Sexes, Age 16-19
less likely to be connected to the labor mar-
ket than are their peers in the rest of the
60
country. Over the past 30 years, labor force
participation rates for New York youth have
50
fallen from 40.2 percent to 25 percent and are
now well below half the participation rates of
40
young workers nationwide, as documented in
Figure 2.
30
20 ...
_10
a- 0
96
92
87
82
77
72
Years 67
New York City
IIIUnited States
Source: Regional Bureau of Labor Statistics, New York City.
Working Ventures
FIRST
STEPS:
Enrollment,
training and
job readiness
ment opportunities, Moving Up provides
In 1997-1998, VFI used $1.5 million from
extensive case management and counseling
New York City's Department of Employment
before, and up to two years after, a client's
through federal dollars from the Job
initial placement into a job. These privately
Training Partnership Act UTPA) and from
funded support services are closely linked
the City's Department of Youth and
with program components commonly fund-
Community Development for its basic
ed by JTPA: skills training geared to partic-
employment and training program for dis-
ular industries, remedial math and reading
advantaged youth. An additional $713,000 in
classes, a GED preparation course, and job
private foundation grants financed its innov-
placement assistance.
ative employment-retention strategy. The
retention element, called Moving Up, had
The focus of this report is the extended
been piloted a few years earlier for certain
period of after-placement support and
students who seemed to need and want fol-
career development that makes the Moving
low-up support after taking a job. It proved
Up program unusual. Still, critical as these
so successful that WI eventually extended it
after-placement services are, they make up
to all trainees as the organization's standard
just one of many interwoven parts of the
model of training and employment service.
WI system, all of which contribute to job
Today, Moving Up describes the whole WI
retention, continued education and
program model, from intake through post-
increased confidence among the program's
employment services.
participants. So, to understand how Moving
Up accomplishes these longer-range objec-
Moving Up is designed to ensure that
tives, it is important to begin with the pro-
clients achieve "sustained employment and
gram's earlier phases.
financial stability rather than merely place-
ment in the first job." Unlike most efforts
to connect low-income youth to employ-
up
Staying on, Moving
GEMNG IN,
7
At the Core: High Expectations
think of as paychecks, as well as unflagging
and Lots of Support
encouragement and positive reinforcement
At its most basic level, the Moving Up
from staff members.
model depends on high expectations for
client behavior and achievement in an
Some clients naturally chafe at the strict
intensively supportive and structured envi-
enforcement of program rules that are
ronment. The program enrolls economical-
often more demanding than those of the
ly disadvantaged young people between the
schools they left or even of the workplaces
ages of 17 and 20 (direct placement ser-
in which they will soon be placed. For
vices are available for young fathers up to
example, male students must wear ties
age 24) who no longer go to school. Once
whenever they are on WI premises, and no
enrolled, students attend a five-month
student may chew gum; the eventual jobs
course of remedial math and reading class-
often have no such requirements. But
es, computer instruction, GED preparation
almost all involved agree that such a rigor-
and job-readiness training. At least a month
ous atmosphere is a beneficial counter-
before the course is completed, WI career
weight to the generally unstructured home
advisors and job developers begin helping
environments of most clients. Said one:
graduates with placements into full-time
jobs paying at least $6 an hour. Once
You get hypnotized when you come up here.
You get away fivm the streets. You don't see
employed, the client continues to receive
people from your neighborhood as much and
assistance and support from the program,
then you tend not to miss it
including case management, mediation
I like to get up
.. .
for work in the morning. I like myself when I
and counseling, job upgrade assistance,
go to work . . .
lost my jobl and now the
and any other necessary services for
up to
only thing I hate is being home
two years after the initial job placement.
Every day
. ..
I go down to WI just to be in Manhattan
Throughout the program, WI attempts to
and to dress up and to go in there with my lit-
create a culture of achievement that not
tle tie
.. . and you know, eventually i f you
only mimics the workplace environment
keep trying, you're gonna get it.
but also affirms the clients' importance in
Like many other aspects of Moving Up, the
that environment and the opportunities it
enforcement of strict rules during the train-
presents them. Moving Up participants
ing component of the program is intended
have to commute daily to WI's main office
to smooth clients' transition to full-time
in mid-Manhattan, punch a time clock,
paid work. While attending training, clients
wear business attire, and follow typical
can develop good work habits before they
workplace protocol in their dealings with
begin paid employment, when the
conse-
each other and with staff. In return, they
quence of failing to follow rules can be the
receive bimonthly food and transportation
'\
loss of the job. Instead of getting fired,
a
stipends, which they are encouraged to
\,
in