Thinking Out Loud with Helen Hayes

Activate Workforce Solutions

Transcript:

Compensation is not our only consideration in the jobs that we are looking for to partner with. We’re also looking for several non-economic… Factors including one, does the employee have a connection with or an understanding of his or her contribution to an overall mission, do they know why they do what they do? Do they know how the service or the good promotes the welfare of society or consumers in general? When there is a strong connection to the purpose of work, individuals are much more satisfied and much more loyal. Our goal is to break the cycle of poverty, and we can’t break it if someone is stuck forever on the bottom rung of the economic ladder. And so, we’re looking to place them in a career path job whereby they know that there will be opportunities for increased training, increased growth, increased productivity and increased earnings. That’s how we break the cycle of poverty. Well-trained employees are happier, they’re safer and they make fewer mistakes, and so we look for intensive training. We also look for… Employers who really care about their employees. And so many of our placements have told us that they feel individually cared for by their employers, by their team leaders, by their supervisors who often will take them down for game evening or game day, bring ’em breakfast, acknowledge that they’ve had a hard week. And those are the jobs and the employers that we can keep individuals happy and growing in. The last thing that we’re really looking for when we talk about career path jobs, we’re looking for jobs in which individuals can advance. And so knowing that your next step will be trainer and then your next step beyond that will be manager, then supervisor, then vice-president, when you can have that sort of vision of your future, and you’ve got a culture that is driving towards excellence, and that’s driving towards promotion, again, you’ve got a much more engaged employee. You’ve got a much more loyal employee and then that helps us achieve our mission of delivering wealth creation and not just poverty alleviation.