On September 25, 2008, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce's President and CEO Carl Hum testified before the New York City Council Small Business Committee about the state of workforce development programs for small business in New York City. Following is his testimony:
Good morning, Chair Yassky and members of the Committee on Small Business. My name is Carl Hum, and I am the president and CEO of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. The Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce is a membership based business assistance organization dedicated to helping the Brooklyn business community, as well as those with an interest in the borough, grow and remain sustainable in the borough’s economy. The Chamber works to support Brooklyn businesses with several lines of programming.
Through advocacy programs, the Chamber represents the borough’s businesses by acting as a voice on critical business issues at the local, state and federal levels. Through promotional programs, the Chamber supports Brooklyn businesses by creating opportunities for them to network, gain exposure and market their businesses to consumers. It is our critical support programs, however, that remain the most active and utilized by businesses, not only within the borough, but on a citywide basis as well.
In order to understand the Chamber’s perspective on the state of workforce development programs, allow me to provide some background on how the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce became involved in providing workforce development services.
Workforce development has long been a critical component in the Chamber’s wide range of business services. In 1998, the Chamber embarked on a new era when it formally introduced a demand driven employment and staffing service to small Brooklyn based businesses called Good Help. The premise behind the program was that chambers of commerce know business, and can readily understand and translate the needs of small business to workforce development agencies, many of which were focused solely on the needs of their participating job seekers.
In 2005, the Chamber began promoting worker training grants, which were originally available through the New York State Department of Labor. These grants were available on a statewide level to encourage businesses to train incumbent workers on necessary skills needed for both the employer and employee to remain competitive.
These programs were widely recognized and utilized in many of the upstate and Long Island regions, but rarely accessed by New York City businesses. Acknowledging that incumbent worker training was a way to advance the competitiveness for businesses in the borough, the Chamber expanded its traditional workforce development services to encompass technical assistance for employers wanting to access these funds. To date, the Chamber has been successful in getting over $250,000 to businesses through such programs through both the state and the city.
Since then, the Chamber has also facilitated on-the-job training programs to business, supported businesses by screening and providing access to qualified high school and college interns, and most recently, designed and piloted a workplace-based, vocational English as a Second Language program for industrial and manufacturing clients called English @ Work. Programs like English @ Work support employee growth and the advancement of the local labor force. In Brooklyn alone, nearly half of all residents are non-native English speaking.
The challenges to the field of workforce development vary by perspective, from the social perspective that the current programs are designed to help the unemployed with multiple barriers to employment and fails to assist the segment of the population that is considered working poor: those too rich to access benefits, but too poor to live adequately in a city like New York, to the business perspective that the system lacks efficient methods of effectively serving those that create jobs in the first place – our business community.
Equally important is the definition of small business. While most of the city considers small businesses those with less than 100 employees, Brooklyn – like most of the outer boroughs – classifies small business as companies with less than 20 employees. This classification of business by size is crucial to they way organizations work with business. In fact, nearly 85% of Brooklyn businesses employ less than 20 people, a staggering number in comparison to Manhattan.
The Chamber understands that businesses are the linchpin to workforce challenges and how we address them. Unfortunately, they are usually involved much too late. Bringing business to the table first provides a perspective with real life solutions to workforce issues, solutions backed by theory that is often missed by publicly funded programs; efficiency, cost savings, and the true understanding of skill sets needed in a particular industry.
A prime example is the recent opening of IKEA in Red Hook. IKEA came in with a plan, committed to the success of the store. The training and support provided to the community allowed for a win-win situation for all involved. Parties that were originally skeptical to the project could be found today applauding the efforts of this retail store. IKEA provided the community support to residents, and helped them take advantage of resources available to get them into family sustaining employment.
The glaring issue at hand is why the worlds of workforce and economic development don’t speak, or rather, don’t speak the same language. WIA (Workforce Investment Act) funding, the largest source of funding for workforce programs, is prescriptive in use and does not lend itself to cohesively leverage other sources of funding. While there are many sources of funding for a mixture of workforce programming, funding like WIA, and economic development funding, doesn’t mix. When organizations have the opportunity to get access to both types of funds, they are often used separately, and rarely cross paths.
The Chamber recommends that workforce and economic development funding be used in conjunction to complement one another. And, with businesses at the table, we need to focus on ways to leverage these funds for additional capacity. The Chamber also recommends engaging chambers of commerce and similar business associations that can provide a unique perspective on the needs of businesses.
Through programs such as the New York State Department of Labor’s On-the-Job training program, earmarked specifically for chambers of commerce, many new and incumbent workers have accessed much needed training to help advance and obtain living wages. Programs like these also support the economic sustainability of businesses by making sure their workforce remains competitive in the marketplace.