By DUANE M. ELLING
As he describes the work of the national membership association for the field of alternative staffing, Newell Lessell finds himself mulling over an analogy.
“The
Alternative Staffing Alliance serves as a sort of central nervous system, sending and receiving information, helping individual programs come together and work together, and acting as a storehouse for new ideas and strategies,” said Lessell, alliance director and president of the
ICA Group in Brookline, Massachusetts.
“And our members are like the sector’s hands and heart. They’re doing the hard work on the ground, engaging employers and continually evolving their staffing operations to meet the dynamic challenges of the marketplace.”
The alliance is promoting the alternative staffing model to policymakers and other workforce development leaders and advocates. |
Aaron Shiffman, executive director of
Brooklyn Workforce Innovations (BWI) in New York, considers that an apt description. BWI is the workforce development arm of
Fifth Avenue Committee and helped develop
FirstSource Staffing. FirstSource, which operates under the Fifth Avenue umbrella, is one of four alternative staffing organizations (ASO) participating in a Mott Foundation-funded national study of the model and among 30 such programs around the country that are alliance members.
ASOs build on the traditional temporary staffing model by helping low-income, low-skilled workers prepare for the labor market, matching them to the labor needs of local employers, and providing a range of ongoing services to better ensure a positive and satisfying experience for both employers and employees.
The alliance, launched with Mott support in 2007, reinforces that work in a number of ways, such as providing online and face-to-face opportunities for practitioners to meet, engage and learn from each other; cultivating ongoing development of the model through research, performance surveys and Webinars; and promoting the alternative staffing model to the public and private sectors as a sustainable workforce development strategy.
Mott support for the alliance has totaled $629,000.
Just a few years ago, many ASOs acted largely in isolation from one another, Shiffman says. Lacking a mechanism to communicate and work in a concerted, strategic way inhibited the field’s ability to grow and serve greater numbers of workers facing barriers to employment.
The alliance has made great strides in changing that environment, he says.
“To attend a conference where everyone understands your work and wants to participate in every single learning session is something few of us ever experience,” Shiffman said. “For the alliance to achieve that level of excitement and engagement at all of its conferences speaks volumes about the impact they’re having on the field.”
Sheila Maguire, vice president for labor market initiatives at the Philadelphia-based
Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), agrees with that assessment.
P/PV, along with the
Center for Social Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, is leading
Mott-funded evaluations of the alternative staffing model.
Maguire says few people outside the industry understand the complexity of the ASO model. On the one hand, ASOs operate as businesses, relying on income from employers to keep their doors open in a highly competitive marketplace. On the other, they have a social mission to help marginalized workers enter and succeed in the labor market.
There is also significant diversity among programs, she says, including how they operate, the clients they work with and the industries they target.
“The alliance gives the program that serves homeless individuals or focuses on jobs in the hospitality sector the chance to connect with similar programs around the country,” Maguire said.
“The learning that comes out of those connections can ultimately lead to stronger and better programs. And realizing that they’re not alone is a very welcome boost to staff morale.”
The alliance also is working to bring the alternative staffing model to the attention of policymakers and other workforce development leaders and advocates. The goal, Lessell says, is to raise greater awareness of the model; its impacts – including economic – on workers, employers and communities; and its role in creating effective, efficient and sustainable workforce development systems.
“Alternative staffing works. It helps people who might otherwise be locked out of the labor market to find jobs; it meets the needs of employers; and, by generating its own revenue, it’s more cost-effective than many other workforce strategies,” he said.
“Over the coming months, we’ll continue to bring the model into the state, local and federal conversations about workforce development and show how its market-oriented approach fits and supports a stronger workforce system.”
That is welcome news to Janet Wallace, enterprise director for
StaffUP Resources in Baton Rouge. StaffUP is one of three ASOs recently launched in Louisiana’s Gulf Coast region through a Mott-funded replication of the model. All are alliance members.
She says participation in the alliance has provided the fledgling programs a chance to network with more established ASOs and share ideas, challenges, opportunities and advice.
“The people that we’ve met are not only willing, but also ready to work with one another, which has made a tremendous difference for us,” she said. “Being an alliance member is truly a breath of fresh air.”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES