The following piece appeared in the May 6, 2011 issue of Foster’s Daily Democrat in the Letters to the Editor section. It was originally released as a Press Release.
To the editor: Kingswood Leasing has taken advantage of the “Return to Work” program and has successfully added five employees to our staff.
On Monday, April 17, we had the chance to share our success with the Seacoast business community. Our president, Clifford Metcalfe Jr. was invited to join in a discussion about the state program “Back to Work” with Mrs. Sarah Morrissey of N.H. Somersworth unemployment, Mr. Timothy Dabrieo and Ms. Janine Parsons of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, and hosted by Mark Miller.
The Return to Work program takes “The Fear of Hiring” out of bringing on new staff members. This program gives the employee and the employer time to work together and become orientated in advance with the position and its responsibilities.
For up to six weeks the potential employee can work and be trained with no cost to the employer (even workers’ compensation is paid for by the state). The employee continues to receive unemployment benefits and if it does not work out, parting is easy and painless on both parties.
The stigma of hiring from the unemployment pool is a thing of the past. Each of the nine state unemployment offices has a representative like Morrissey who will work with the employer to prescreen applicants and find the right candidate for the job. They then go through the interview process, as you normally would. When you decide on a candidate, you get to observe them and start training them for 24 hours a week for up to six weeks.
Kingswood Leasing went through dozens of prescreened resumes and interviewed 4-5 people per position. We had a few come through first that we tried out and it just did not work. As said, on the show, anyone can act a certain way to impress an employer during the interview, but it is hard to keep up that act for 6 weeks without the truth showing through. While we do not want to disclose by name the employees who came to us through this program, the five staff members are doing a great job and two are approaching their anniversary.
As businesses approach new hiring today, I cannot stress enough how this takes the “fear” out of making the wrong choice. Info on this state program can be found on the web at www.nh.gov/nhes/nhworking/ReturntoWork.htm.
Kingswood Leasing has been helping small businesses grow for 20 years and is the premier lease broker. Find out more about them at www.KingswoodLeasing.com.