FAQs: Associate Support Network

Questions

  1. What is an Associate Support Network?
  2. What is a Community Health Worker?
  3. Who benefits from the Associate Support Network?
  4. Why should employers care about this?
  5. What is an Alternative Staffing Agency?
  6. How does this make NECIC Staffing different from regular staffing agencies?

Answers

Q. What is an Associate Support Network?
A. Our Associate Support Network offers supportive services to your NECIC Staffingassociates, with the goal of improving retention, productivity, and the stability of your workforce. These services are direct access to a Community Health Worker, transportation to and from work, and education and training for your associates.
Q. What is a Community Health Worker?
A. A Community Health Worker (CHW) is a trusted, certified public health worker that serves as a bridge between the community and the health care, government, and social service systems to facilitate access to services and improve the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.

CHWs are highly qualified to address challenges that associates face in their personal lives before they spiral out of control and connect them with the necessary resources to resolve these issues so that they can be productive and effective employees at work. Click here to read more about CHWs.
Q. Who benefits from the Associate Support Network?
A. NECIC Staffing associates benefit from having stable and reliable transportation to work, which is something that we know has been a huge challenge for them. Access to a licensed Community Health Worker (CHW) will provide them with support for life challenges through referrals and connections to community resources. Examples of these challenges include housing, pregnancy, drug counseling, medical issues, and more. The access to education will help associates be well-equipped for full-time, regular employment and help them work towards positions with greater responsibilities and higher rank.

Employers benefit from having a more stabilized workforce which will reduce job turnover and increase employee retention, engagement, and productivity. When people have too many personal challenges and crises to deal with in their lives, they simply cannot be effective employees. The Associate Support Network will preempt these issues before they become so big that they lead to your associates being terminated or quitting their assignments.

Our community as a whole also benefits when the workforce is stable and individuals are contributing members of society.
Q. Why should employers care about this?
A. The stability of your workforce is crucial to your business success. When people have too many personal challenges and crises to deal with in their lives, they simply cannot be effective and productive employees. This results in them quitting their jobs or simply not showing up anymore.

We’ve heard about so many situations: A person can’t get transportation to work, so fails to show up. A person is struggling with a housing problem, finances, or overdue bills, so isn’t fully present at work. And so on.

These are problems that directly impact you and your bottom line as an employer. As a result, we aim to use the Associate Support Network to address these issues before they become crises and before they lead to turnover.
Q. What is an Alternative Staffing Agency?
A. Alternative Staffing Organizations (ASOs) combine the business model of a staffing firm with the social mission of a workforce development agency. The result is well-screened, professionally matched employees who receive the pre- and post-placement supports they need to excel on-the-job.

ASO workers receive supports – case management, child care, transportation, coaching – to keep them working.
Q. How does this make NECIC Staffing different from regular staffing agencies?
A. Since every staffing agency obtains its associates from the same labor pool, we realized that we needed to do something different in order to provide value to our business partners.

Regular staffing agencies will only send you associates to work. However, we realized that it’s not what happens at work that makes a great employee, it’s everything that goes on in his/her personal life that determines how productive (s)he will be at the workplace. Therefore, the best way to improve the quality of the NECIC Staffing workforce is to provide associates with supportive services that resolve issues in their personal lives.

We don’t just look at the associate, we look at the entire human being.