Published: February 25, 2016
By Andrew Ragali Record-Journal staff
HARTFORD — Osprey Strategic Research, a sales consulting firm, has expanded its operations since opening in Cheshire just over two years ago. A portion of that growth can be attributed to a state program to help the long-term unemployed find work.
Tim McNeil, the company’s co-founder, said he has hired 10 people in the last year. Four people in that group of new hires graduated from the state’s Platform to Employment program, established through 2014 legislation. Established in southwestern Connecticut in 2011 through The WorkPlace, a workforce development board, the program is now used nationwide to help long-term unemployed workers.
“We started off with hopes and dreams just like any business,” McNeil said Wednesday at the state Capitol. “Platform to Employment has been a huge reason we’ve got to where we are in such a short amount of time.”
A total of 124 people graduated from the program during a ceremony at the Capitol Wednesday. Half the graduates were unable to attend because they had already been placed in jobs and had to work, said Joe Carbone, president and chief executive officer of The WorkPlace. Since 2014, the program has placed over 550 people into new jobs.
In 2014, the legislature created a statewide Platform to Employment program and funding was approved for the program the following year.
The program starts with a five-week preparatory course that covers topics like interviewing and salary negotiation. Platform to Employment then helps place people in jobs on a trial basis. For the first four weeks, the employee’s salary is subsidized by Platform to Employment, with the expectation that the opportunity will lead to a permanent position.
McNeil spoke during the ceremony on the advantages of Platform to Employment.
“One thing we’ve been so successful with is being coachable,” he said. “The people we have in our office, they’re coachable.”
Two people hired through the Platform to Employment program are already being promoted because of their willingness to learn on the job, McNeil added.
After Osprey Strategic Research opened in November 2013, McNeil and his business partner, Robb Rogers, heard about Platform to Employment while attending an economic development meeting in Bethany. They now partner with the program to find employees. McNeil said the program is far more effective than job seeking websites in finding prospective employees.
“This has honestly been very successful,” he said.
Lieutenant Gov. Nancy Wyman attended Wednesday’s graduation ceremony, as did newly appointed state Department of Labor Commissioner Scott Jackson. It was Jackson’s first public event since accepting the job three weeks ago.
“This is the type of thing that the Department of Labor needs to be part of,” he said. “For my first public event, I couldn’t think of anything better.”
Carbone noted during the ceremony that he was once unemployed for nearly nine months and avoided going to a grocery store near his house so that he didn’t have to explain to people that he still didn’t have a job. He commended graduates for staying on the right course, no matter how difficult times can be.
“I don’t promise a job, but I can make one promise,” he said. “You won’t be alone again.”
Ernest Turner, who graduated from the program Wednesday, said when class started in mid-January he didn’t know what to expect. By the third week of class, “we were a family,” he said.
On Monday, Turner started working a construction job he found out about through a classmate. He was given Wednesday off so he could speak during the graduation ceremony. While interviewing for the job, Turner said, he was so well prepared “I shocked myself.
Source Article: http://www.myrecordjournal.com/news/state/8488207-129/statewide-employment-program-helps-cheshire-company-grow.html