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How are CNY's human service agencies trying to overcome the labor shortage?

The CYO building on N. Salina St. operated by Catholic Charities provides a wide array of services for refugees and New Americans.
Scott Willis
/
WAER News
The CYO building on N. Salina St. operated by Catholic Charities provides a wide array of services for refugees and New Americans.

The labor shortage and record-breaking inflation are forcing Central new York’s non-profit human service agencies to be more proactive in order to recruit and retain employees. The jobs usually pay a lower wage, have high turnover, and lower retention. But Executive Director of Catholic Charities of Onondaga County Michael Melara says they took a very intentional, multi-pronged approach. They issued significant salary increases, absorbed higher health insurance costs, offered flexible schedules, and handed out referral and sign on bonuses.

"We've been happy about this plan. It seems this plan is producing the desired outcome. Our vacancy rate is going down. I think our retention rate will improve. We haven't quite rounded the corner yet, but the wheel is turning."

Melara says their 40 percent turnover rate in 2019 dropped to 14 percent last year. He says it’s also taking less time to fill positions. Felicia Castricone has seen it firsthand. She’s the program officer for refugee resettlement services at Catholic Charities.

"It was a little bit of a challenge a year ago when we'd advertise a position, we weren't getting very many resumes. Now it's better. Definitely the last couple of jobs we posted, we have gotten a decent number of resumes, and were able to hire people pretty quickly."

The improving trend is the same at ARC of Onondaga. A staff of about 400 provides care for as many as 800 people with developmental disabilities. Executive Director Ellen Gutmaker says the board of directors approved an increase in starting salaries last November.

"If we had not done that, I don't know where we would be. We were really spinning our wheels last fall in trying to recruit, we couldn't hire staff. We weren't getting the caliber of people perhaps that we would, we would want to have working in this field. The board approved an increase in starting wages as well as for our existing staff. And that helped. Our applicants went up. I think in a six week period, we had a hundred applications as opposed to the prior six months where we hadn't even had a hundred applications."

This story comes from WAER's City Limits: A Working Dilemma podcast.

ARC of Onondaga's offices on the city's west side.
Scott Willis
/
WAER News
ARC of Onondaga's offices on the city's west side.

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.