The Business Case for Helping Rural Families Get Ahead (Webinar)
For low-to-moderate wage workers, a steady job is one of the best steps toward financial security. But too often, personal financial crises and other life events can sabotage employees’ ability to stay on the job and earning an income. Barriers such as quality childcare, reliable transportation and acute financial needs get in the way of what would otherwise be dependable employees.
Employers feel the strain too. Costs of turnover can range from 10 to 30% of an employee’s annual wage [click here to see what it costs for a given profession]. Everyone, but particularly businesses and their employees, have an interest in reducing the amount of turnover.
One of the innovations in addressing the employee retention challenge comes out of Chittenden County, Vermont, where a network of fifty employers, brought together by the local United Way, put in place a number of strategies to help keep good, low-to-moderate wage workers on the job.
The program is called Working Bridges, and Lisa Falcone, the project’s director, says key to making the program a success was, “making the business case to employers to help ‘make life work’ for low-to-moderate wage employees.”
Working Bridges supports a traveling benefits coordinator, employed by the United Way, who spends 2-5 hours per week at each business helping minimize employment barriers and maximizing employee access to programs and resources to help stabilize their lives. Working Bridges reveals how a small investment can yield significant financial and community rewards.
In the seven years since the program’s launch, the region’s employers have become the most vocal advocates of the Working Bridges’ business outcomes: improved retention rates, increased productivity and reduced hiring and training expenses. The region’s providers of direct services—from the food pantry to a credit union – have adjusted policies and practices to better serve this contingent of families living from paycheck to paycheck. A local credit union has made $1.5 million in loans, with a default rate of less than 1 percent.
On August 12 from 12:00 to 1:30 PM ET, the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group will host an in-depth webinar on the Working Bridges model of helping low-income families living in rural communities get ahead. Register for the event at RuFES.org.
This rural success story is an excerpt of a Rural Family Economic Success (RuFES) Action Network Alert. The RuFES Network is a group of practitioners and support organizations, like the United Way of Chittenden County, helping families in rural communities earn more, keep more of what they earn and grow what they keep into assets. The network is maintained by the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group and supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. To learn more about the network and to subscribe to network alerts, visit RuFES.org.
On August 12 from 12:00 to 1:30 PM ET, the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group will host an in-depth webinar on the Working Bridges model of helping low-income families living in rural communities get ahead. Register for the event at RuFES.org.