How the Employer Resource Network helps employers and their employees

Since 2018, Kelli Adams has served as director of the Employer Resource Network (ERN)®, which is part of the Center for Workforce Innovation and Solutions and serves four counties:  Kalamazoo, Calhoun, St. Joseph, and Branch. She recently sat down with Institute editor Ben Jones to highlight the work that her team does through ERN. Here is a partial transcript of their conversation.

As director of ERN, how many field representatives work for you?

They’re what we call “success coaches.” They’re the ones that go on-site at the employers who are ERN members and do direct services: real-time referrals with employees of each of those member companies. Currently, we have four success coaches, and we have 26 active member companies, representing over 20,000 employees. Those four success coaches assist the employees of those 26 companies. So it’s a lot. Typically, each coach has around six to eight companies that they’re responsible for: that’s the sweet spot, because we don’t want them to get burned out. Anything over eight is pushing it.

What is the schedule like for the success coaches that make up your team?

They have scheduled on-site hours every single week at each company. So, for example, at on firm, our success coach has a set schedule. The employees know that she’s there every Thursday from eight to noon, so they can stop in and see her if they’re able to. All of our coaches are available to help folks outside of those on-site hours as well. But really, that’s the standard benefit, is four hours a week on-site, every single week.

What personal attributes make someone a good success coach?

You have to be very empathetic, nonjudgmental. You have to have a welcoming personality so people feel comfortable talking to you. You have to be understanding, able to problem-solve very quickly. Those are the top attributes. All of our coaches are very empathetic, they’re very supportive, and they just have a very welcoming nature about them. So they have no issue building relationships, because people love to sit down and talk to them.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I work more on the administrative side of things, so I typically meet with a lot of the employers themselves. And I also do a lot of employer recruitment. So I’m out in the community doing presentations, creating awareness around what the employer resource is and how it could benefit their workforce. I have a lot of one-on-ones with individual companies to create that awareness. And then I help set up the contracts with all the active or member companies. And also, on a daily basis, I’m there for the team. So if there’s something they can’t figure out, I’m going to help support them to navigate through what next steps might be to help someone. So I would say a typical day for me is all about relationships. That’s pretty much what I do, is cultivate, build, and foster relationships.

Maybe we could talk a little bit about what actually is an Employer Resource Network.

I like to emphasize “-er” in the name because a lot of times people will say “Employee Resource Network.” But it’s “Employer” Resource Network, and really, our goal and mission is improved workforce retention. So we are working with folks who are employed, and we’re working to keep them employed. When people experience instabilities outside of work, that directly flows back to the employer: if someone is struggling with housing or transportation, the employer is going to feel that instability as well, because they’re going to be calling in and missing work. We’re there to help provide resource solutions so that they can be productive at work and stay employed—so that they can thrive and not just try to survive.

You stepped into the job a little before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. How did that public health crisis affect your work?

It was very difficult. We had to pivot quickly and get creative about how we were able to reach employees, because a lot of our employers were not allowing guests to come on-site. And so what we did is, we created space virtually to meet with folks. We would set up “Zoom Rooms.” Each company knew: during [a given] time, their success coach would be available if somebody wanted to pop in and meet like this.

What we also did, too, is all the coaches would put out a weekly video that the employers would include on their communication blast in terms of emails. These would play on screens and in break rooms. Really, we just wanted to stay connected with the employees and let them know, “Listen, we’re all struggling. You’re not alone. We’re still here to help you.” Those videos really made an impact. So it was a hard pivot, but we made it work, and we still had really high utilization. That was a time where people needed extra support. The pandemic exacerbated the struggles that people were having. It really became very multilayered needs.

What’s an example of how ERN helped an employee, specifically?

One of my favorite success stories is someone I worked with during my time as a success coach. He was working full-time but living out of his truck, due to circumstances resulting from a really nasty divorce that left him homeless. But he would still make it to work every day on time. He did not miss a beat—but he just couldn’t get over the hump. He had poor credit due to the divorce, all the things that will keep you homeless, basically. So we had to really dig in. Through our partnership with our financial credit union, which we work very closely with, I was able to get him some help in terms of a garnishment, helping him to boost his credit score. We worked together for over a year to get him in a position where he could actually get housing: we were able to get him an apartment.  Fast forward: he was able to buy a motorcycle, and I am happy to say he is now a homeowner.

So it’s just that layer of support—not knowing where to turn, having that success coach that can help you with different variables of what you’re dealing with so you’re not overwhelmed. It’s like, “Let me help you break it down into steps, and I’m going to be with you through the entire process until this is resolved.” It could take a month, it could take a year. But that’s my favorite story: to see someone that’s in dire straits, and then see them as a homeowner. So we helped him—but he also put in the work. An important piece of it is, he put in the work that was needed to get where he ended up.

On the other end of things, what’s an instance where your group has helped an employer?

Last year, we had an employer who lost an employee in a tragic car accident, and the staff there were just completely distraught. The employer reached out to us and said, “What can we do for our staff? We don’t really know what resources even exist for something like this.” We worked with them to get a rapid response with a grief counselor who went on-site to meet with folks who were struggling. We also provided a lot of different handouts dealing with workplace grief. If someone needed help outside of that grief counselor being on-site, we could make recommendations for a counselor to meet with. That was a big one, and it actually ended up being really helpful.