Workforce Innovations

CONNECT! Partner

Daylight Saving Time Ends: Fall Back
... and Springboard Forward

According to recent statistics, 63 percent of people living below the poverty line have jobs but little hope. Most see no way out of the cycle of low wages and dead-end jobs. Springboard Forward, a nonprofit organization based in Mountain View, is out to change that. The organization offers innovative career-development programs in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties that help low-wage earners chart paths to sustainable careers. As a result, the business community also benefits, because with hope, these employees tend to develop a greater interest in job performance. Because of this, retention rates also improve.

Founded in 2002 with a grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Springboard Forward has already garnered national acclaim and recognition for its programs. In 2004 it received Fast Company Magazine and Monitor Group's Social Capitalist Award. Springboard was one of 25 organizations recognized for its business excellence and social change achievements. In 2005, Springboard Forward founder, Elliott Brown, was one of 14 social entrepreneurs from the U. S. and Canada inducted into the International Ashoka Fellowship. He was honored for developing an entirely new model for career development that offers hope to low-wage workers. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich sits on Springboard's advisory board.

Innovative Services

Springboard Forward partners with business and community organizations to teach low-wage workers to lift themselves out of poverty. Since its inception, Springboard has served over 2,000 clients, recruited over 500 volunteers, and worked with more than 20 businesses and community-based organizations. Springboard's customized services include:

Developing Star Performers: This on-the-job coaching program helps people work on improvement in specific areas such as customer service, communications, and teambuilding.
Success Teams: These small groups give workers the opportunity to practice new job skills in a peer-support setting.
Career Mapping: Employees are taught to "map" their future. They discover what career opportunities are attainable for them and the steps needed to get there.
Circle of Opportunity: Similar in concept to "speed dating," the Circle of Opportunity program offers "speed networking" events during which volunteers meet with low-wage workers one-on-one for 15 minutes at a time. In just one hour, these volunteers help low-wage earners build confidence, practice informational interviewing skills, develop career clarity, and meet people from a variety of professional backgrounds. Springboard has hosted more than 25 of these events since the program began in October 2005.

Successful Track Record

Springboard has worked with such companies as Home Depot, Solectron, Verizon, and Stanford University, as well as the cities of Redwood City and Palo Alto in implementing on-the-job coaching and mentoring services for low-wage workers. The agency can point to a track record of notable successes:

86% of Springboard graduates remained employed at Home Depot after one year, in contrast to the company's overall annual retention rate of only 38%.
100% of responding managers at Home Depot reported increased satisfaction with their respective employees’ performance.
Over 90% of Springboard's clients reported increased levels of self-confidence, a key indicator in future job success.
97% of Springboard's clients who have completed coaching programs have developed individual development plans for career advancement.

The benefits to business from Springboard's programs include:

improving on-the-job performance and job retention;
increasing employee engagement and morale;
developing skills that enhance worker effectiveness and performance; and
assisting employees in developing career plans that foster hope and lead to success.

Funding Supports Retail Demonstration Project

In August of 2006, the agency received a two-year, $300,000 grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to expand its Retail Demonstration Project, an undertaking in partnership with Kenexa Corporation of Wayne, Pennsylvania, a publicly traded company that provides hiring and retention solutions globally. Kenexa's work includes measuring the relationship between employee engagement and profitability for national retailers.

Springboard and Kenexa are collaborating to launch this demonstration project with a national retailer. The purpose is to demonstrate the business value of investing in the career development of entry-level workers. The project, planned through 2009, will quantify the value of Springboard's programs in improving retail business performance while empowering and inspiring employees to identify goals and pursue their own advancement.

For more information about Springboard Forward, visit them online at www.springboardforward.org, or contact Jessica Skylar at (650) 968-6600, x24, or by e-mail at jessica@springboardforward.org.