Center for Employment Opportunities: Innovation in Time and Attendance Tracking
People who have spent time in prison face unique challenges when they return to their communities, including limited employment opportunities. According to a 2018 study, formerly incarcerated persons have a 27% unemployment rate, which is exponentially higher than the unemployment rate in the general population (3.7%). Yet, formerly incarcerated people are just that – people. Just like everyone else, they need employment in order to support themselves and their families, pursue life goals, and strengthen their communities.
For justice-impacted individuals, returning to the workforce doesn’t happen overnight. It takes training or re-skilling, as well as wrap-around services and ongoing support. One study shows that transitional jobs programs, which provide temporary paid work coupled with job search assistance, case management or other wraparound services, can significantly reduce recidivism rates among formerly incarcerated individuals. The need for these services is even more vital when you consider that 44% of people released from prison return before the end of their first year, according to the National Institute of Justice.
While we may not be on the front lines, we do have a team of systems experts creating the technological infrastructure to support the vital work of our changemaking clients. As a social venture, we are honored to serve organizations on the front lines of providing life skills education, short-term paid transitional employment, full-time job placement, and post-placement services for people at their most vulnerable point: when they are first released from incarceration.
Meet the Center for Employment Opportunities
The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), the nation’s largest reentry employment agency, provides comprehensive employment services exclusively to people recently released from incarceration. They provide people returning from prison immediate paid employment, skills training, job coaching and placement, and ongoing career support. CEO currently operates in over 30 cities and is dedicated to ensuring that justice-impacted job seekers have opportunities to achieve socioeconomic mobility. To learn more about their mission, visit ceoworks.org.
Partnering with Exponent Partners and Exponent Case Management
With over 600,000+ people coming home from prison every year, CEO’s transitional job services give people a chance to break the cycle and succeed. It has been our pleasure to work with CEO since 2015, helping to provide scalable and sustainable systems to support their vital work. Since 2017, CEO has used Exponent Case Management to run its employment program and services while the managed services team at Exponent Partners has been helping to continually mature and improve their use of the Salesforce platform.
A Time-Sensitive Situation Meets an Innovative Solution
At the start of 2022, CEO’s time and attendance tracking system was set to expire but the new system would not be operational until later in the year. Time and attendance systems are used to track when laborers start and stop work. As same-day pay is a core component of transitional work, no lapse or delay in daily payroll processing could occur. Includes speakers: David Finger, from the Center for Employment Opportunities and Skye Tyler, from Exponent Partners. Access the on-demand recording here.
Webinar:
Just in Time: Tracking Time and Attendance with Exponent Case Management and FormAssembly
Speakers:
David Finger, Operational Strategist
Center for Employment Opportunities
David Finger leads CEO’s Strategic Operations team and oversees process design and implementation for cross-functional projects across the organization. His work at CEO has focused on improving coordination between programmatic and back office functions to ensure efficient operations as the organization scales. David holds a BA in political science from Vassar College.
Skye Tyler, Solutions Architect
Exponent Partners
Skye is passionate about the role that nonprofit organizations play in our society and believes that they should have access to the best technology to better meet their missions. She has been implementing and improving Salesforce instances since 2015 and loves how versatile and extendable the platform is. Skye has a Masters of Science in Education specializing in Training and Performance Improvement and a Bachelors in Theatre. Combining excellent communication skills and analytical thinking, she works with clients to uncover root issues and design elegant and efficient solutions.
As a prior military spouse, Skye is deeply connected to the military community. She volunteers with Salesforce Military (formerly Vetforce) and Merivis to mentor veterans and military spouses seeking careers in Salesforce. When she’s not working, Skye spends her time gardening, camping, and creating art in North Carolina.
