‘Success Coaches’ Help Berkshire Employers Keep Workers

iBerkshires.com  reports a local nonprofit wants to help employers in Berkshire County retain workers by bringing "success coaches" into the workplace.

That's the goal of the Berkshire Bridges-Working Cities Initiative, which is pitching the new proposal after four years of research.

The group recently signed a memorandum of understanding with a national organization known as the Employer Resource Network that would supply success coaches to help employees manage ongoing or sudden barriers to job retention, such as transportation issues, or personal and social problems.

If such a program is established in the Berkshires, it would be run under the auspices of Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity.

The agreement between the Berkshire Bridges-Working Cities Initiative and ERN establishes a framework for how the two organizations "are going to be communicating and working together" to bring such a program to the Berkshires, said Nathan Mandsager, who runs a similar ERN program in Schenectady, N.Y.

On Wednesday, at Hotel on North, Mandsager outlined how ERN programs work and the services that they can provide employers and employees as Berkshire Bridges pitched the idea to the local business community for the first time.