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So Far Away
With growing numbers of workers unable to live where they work, employers seek alternatives
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Business New Haven
9/17/2001
By: Anne-Marie Brungard
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Your dream job - right in the town in which you live. Sounds ideal, doesn't it? Maybe just a short walk, or a short drive…and you're there.
Fantasy? Maybe, for many who travel every day to employment in Connecticut's commercial centers. We are all familiar with overcrowded expressways and people packed sardine-style on trains, making frequent stops along the shoreline to Bridgeport and Fairfield, while the brave ones take on New York City.
But what about the individuals doing just the opposite - the reverse commute - leaving city dwellings for the call of the lush, green suburbs?
With a still-low unemployment rate, the competition remains strong among companies seeking ideal job candidates. Now companies find that they are forced to cast that employment net just a bit farther.
Employee Strategies
Eric Rodas, who manages the McDonald's restaurant on Interstate 95 in Fairfield, supervises a growing staff of 45 workers. When other locations are scouting for eager high-school students, Rodas and his franchise's owner have created their own labor pool. His owner also has a location in Stamford, so staffing for both places becomes an issue.
“We own a van, so we provide transportation to and from the job for our employees,” explains Rodas. “There is no fee for the employee; we drive them right here from Stamford.”
The majority of Rodas' staff speak English as second language. And although that particular location is very close to Fairfield University and at least two high schools, the Fairfield franchise is staffed mainly with adults.
“We are getting many more requests for services from the suburbs than before,” says Patricia Newton-Foster of Newton-Foster Homemaker Home Health Aide Agency in New Haven. “We recently opened an office in Bridgeport to expand services to the lower Fairfield county area. Right now we make placements from North Haven to Greenwich.”
Newton-Foster's agency trains adults in the specialized field of homemakers and home health aides. Upon completion of training a job is available within the agency. The starting salary in this field is around $7 an hour. Newton-Foster also offers incentives so that employees are able to move up to around $10 an hour within a year.
The agency's placements are made from private homes to assisted-living facilities. “The need is so great that many employers are having to look at giving incentives to get staff and to keep them,” says Newton-Foster. She recently made a placement with a family in Greenwich, who dispatch their private car and driver to pick up the home health aide at the train station each day.
Renee Roberson has worked for the Newton-Foster Agency for almost two years. Roberson, who lives in New Haven, is the mother of four school-aged children. She is willing to travel to work and has gone to East Haven, Hamden and beyond. But without transportation this is particularly difficult.
She has sought assistance from a local community agency's transportation service, but more often than not was late to work, sometimes an hour or more. Her child-care expenses are covered under the state's Maximus program, but she now pays for the bus out of her own pocket.
“I love this work, so I will do what I have to do,” explains Roberson, “Recently one of my clients passed away, so I was dropped from 40-plus hours a week to 16 hours a week. This has been rough; I just keep looking for more assignments.”
As more residential facilities for aging Connecticut residents have sprouted just about in every woodsy, green spot in our suburbs, so too has the need for such semi-skilled employees. Laurel Gardens of Woodbridge is an apartment-style, independent living facility for seniors. Its staff of 60 includes home health aides, certified nurses' aides and kitchen staff.
“We do not offer travel incentives for our staff,” explains Tammy Murphy, Laurel Gardens' assistant marketing director, “but our wages could be considered above-average.”
The job opportunity and the relatively higher wages are incentive enough for a number of Laurel Gardens employees to make the trip from New Haven to Woodbridge or Orange. It would be beneficial to employees to be able to live where they work, but with rental rates in Woodbridge ranging from $2,000 a month for a one-family house to more than $3,000 a month for a 12-room executive style home, the math doesn't add up.
Out on the shoreline east of New Haven, there are somewhat different issues - and approaches. The Big Y Supermarket in Guilford is always recruiting for sales associates, stockroom and grocery personnel. But it just isn't realistic to expect that people will come from New Haven to Guilford to work there.
“We do several job fairs and post flyers,” says Ken Mrowka, Big Y's assistant grocery manager. Most current employees are from Guilford and the towns closest to it. Big Y has taken a page from the Wal-Mart school of recruitment that survives on high school and college students, mothers with small children and a generous dose of retirees.
“We do pay mileage for transportation over a certain number of miles,” says Mrowka. Wal-Mart on the other hand, offers incentives ranging from retirement plans to stock options.
Employer Options
As many companies struggle to find creative ways to recruit employees for these lower-paying positions, the challenges are obvious. Although the state's unemployment rate continues to hover around the low 2.5-percent figure, distress in the dot.com and telecommunications industries are bringing layoffs back into fashion. The general consensus is that companies do want to make every effort to draw the right candidates - no matter where they might live.
The need for qualified employment specialists has grown apace to meet the new demands. Spherion Corp. of New Haven is a full-service recruitment and outsourcing company. Scott Morse, Spherion's branch manager has noticed subtle changes in numbers of people traveling further from home for jobs in the suburbs.
“This is something we have experienced in the Wallingford-Cheshire area and out on the shoreline,” explains Morse. Morse, who specializes in placing office support staff, notes that approximately 50 percent of placements are permanent, higher-end placements with long-term potential for growth.
“If a client of ours is considering traveling for employment, then most of the transportation issues are usually worked out,” says Morse. One advantage on the shoreline, assuming that one has a car, is that there is plenty of free parking compared to inner-city employment sites.
Rideworks is a non-profit organization providing solutions to employees and employers in a 38-town region of south central Connecticut. With a primary mission to reduce traffic, congestion and pollution, Rideworks offers area travelers assistance with carpools, vanpools or train information.
Services offered match employees with the best available form of transportation and assist employers with developing flexible work options. Two options are:
• Telecommute Connecticut offers free assistance and consulting services to employers to assist in developing worksite telecommute options for employees. “Our role is to help companies that are concerned about work life and flex-time areas, recruitment and retention tools, and helping employees balance work-life relationships,” says James Lush, project manager with the state program.
• Deduct-a-Ride is a federally funded program that is voluntary for employers. Participation allows employers to take pre-tax dollars from their employees' paychecks to purchase train, bus or parking vouchers. Up to $65 per month can be assigned to mass-transit costs, while $180 per month is available for parking.
“It's a win-win for both the employee and the employer,” says Brooke Hoberman, “The employer pays less taxes, and the employee has less taxes deducted.”
People are traveling to work. Maybe for higher paying jobs, more than likely just to find reasonable work. But the good news is they are going to work. From the inner cities to the suburbs options are now available to assist both the potential employee and the employer with transportation and the related issues that affect adults who are newly trained, perhaps moving from welfare to work or changing careers.
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