Leader-Telegram

Employers, workers must compromise to aid W-2's success

By Dan Lyksett

From his experiences as operations manager at Eau Claire's Minnesota Wire & Cable, Brian Wagner thinks Wisconsin Works will work. But he said it won't be easy.

"I tell everybody that business isn't charity, and we can't be giving things away," said Wagner, an experienced partner in the Language for Work programs in Eau Claire County.

The program has many components parallel to Wisconsin Works, the new welfare program that takes effect Monday.

"If it doesn't bring something to the business, it isn't going to work," Wagner said. "But if it's flexible, and everybody earns a benefit, then it can be a win, win, win situation."

Employers' willingness to hire people being moved off welfare rolls will be a linchpin to W-2's success.

Under W-2, the state no longer will distribute monthly grants to families under Aid to Families with Dependent Children.

In its place will be W-2 with its requirement that parents work for their benefits and its promise to help them find and maintain employment.

The reform is happening at an opportune time: Many employers are hungry for workers.

Unemployment rates in west-central Wisconsin hover around 3.7 percent.

But many of the people on the state's dwindling welfare roles are by personal or family circumstance the most difficult to employ. These people will provide challenges for both the business community and the agencies administering W-2.

"I think employers are going to be receptive to the changes, but they're also going to be finding themselves dealing with some issues they've never had to deal with before," said Robert Klimek, plant manager at Tiffany Fine Woods in Whitehall.

Klimek is serving on the Trempealeau County W-2 Steering Committee, helping oversee the program in the county. He said discussions in the committee and with other employers highlight some of the challenges ahead.

"We're going to be working with some people who have literally never held a job," he said. "Some have gone from high school to having children to AFDC. They're missing what they call 'soft skills,' what I've always called the work ethic."

These include showing up on time, punching a time clock, having a dependable car and finding dependable day care.

Pat Malone, development resource agent with the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Trempealeau County, agreed that employers will face familiar and new worker issues.

"We know that there are things like child care and the issue of reliable transportation," she said.

"But a lot of these things are going to be things that a lot of us take for granted. How do you dress? You can't talk back to the boss," Malone said.

Dick Reinhart, owner of Dick's IGA in River Falls, has seen W-2 in action during its pilot run in Pierce County. He said employers have seen some of those problems and more, but in many cases there were solutions.

"The teamwork has got to be there, from the worker to the employer to the agencies," he said.

"What do you do with somebody who for 18 or 20 years hasn't had to be anywhere on time? You teach them to be to work on time. You teach them to get along with other people in the workplace.

"But the people themselves are going to have to work just as hard as the employer and the agencies."

Nancy Laird of the Pierce County Job Center said the W-2 "employment ladder" was designed to provide support and training for people coming into W-2.

"Some of them are engaged in the program in limited ways, maybe in a work experience placement a few hours a week, nutrition education training, things like that," she said.

Laird said Social Security likely will be the answer for the most dis-advantaged, although acceptance into that program is both difficult and slow.

"For the rest, I think we are able to get people engaged at the appropriate level," Laird said.

W-2's employment ladder has four levels ranging from unsubsidized employment--basic help finding a job--to what is called W-2 Transition, the level for people unable to work.

W-2 Transition contains a monthly grant in return for participation in work or development activities and education and training.

In between those two steps are two others, trial jobs and community-service jobs, which are designed to teach "soft skills" to find and hold a job.

Laird said the goal is to have people moving up the ladder to find self-sustaining employment.

Richard Best, director of the west-central Wisconsin Private Industry Council, said employers have had an impact, pulling hundreds of workers off the welfare rolls.

"Caseloads are down significantly in our region because of the genral economic situation," he said.

Employers know the type of worker they'll see as the result of W-2 will have some different characteristics, he said.

"Awareness isn't necessarily the solution, but it is a big step forward."

Experienced employers say there are no magic bullets, no master plan that will fit every county or every company's situation.

"Some company might want to consider a four-day work week, or total flex time or adopt another strategy to deal with the different issues," Wagner said. "Something that we might try would not necessarily be a prototype for the world at large.

"The big thing is to try to come up with something that helps you achieve your goals as a business."

Klimek said his company has studied a company-operated day care.

"That seems to be one of the biggest issues we're hearing about," he said. "But that's a very complicated step. It could turn into a whole can of worms."

He said the company is examining its training programs. They may be changed to better help former welfare recipients.

Wagner has worked closely with the Language for Work program, which involves creating job opportunities for the Hmong who have limited English proficiency. Minnesota Wire & Cable worked with the county Department of Human Services and the Chippewa Valley Technical College in the program.

DHS and CVTC identified candidates and helped prepare them for their jobs, while the company supplied work experience.

Several of the workers have stayed on with the company, some earning promotions, while others used the experience and references to move to other jobs.

Wagner said that program's success can be a learning tool when determining how W-2 deals with its tougher clientele.

Programs have to be flexible, he said. "If you get locked into a lot of bureaucratic rules, you're going to lose the employers," he said.

The company also has to benefit from the program. "For me, the way (Language for Work) operates," Wagner said. "it supplied me with pre-screened applicants, and that saves me time. There have to be those kind of tangible benefits."

The programs have to be simple and easy to use, he said. "If they're not, forget it."

From his experience in Pierce County's pilot program, Reinhart is convinced W-2 will succeed.

"I don't know of anyone who has been hurt by this," Reinhart said.

"What it all means is that some people are going to have to try a little harder, and employers are going to have to be a little more patient."