Tech cos.’ bridge gap between work, community needs

HELPING HANDS: Cynthia Toti, left, inside sales manager for Bridge Technical Talent, helps The Greene School Assistant Principal Melissa Hall learn how to use salesforce.com. / PBN PHOTO/STEPHANIE ALVAREZ EWENS
HELPING HANDS: Cynthia Toti, left, inside sales manager for Bridge Technical Talent, helps The Greene School Assistant Principal Melissa Hall learn how to use salesforce.com. / PBN PHOTO/STEPHANIE ALVAREZ EWENS

Corporate time for employee volunteering is part of the structure at East Greenwich-based Bridge Technical Talent. Employees get one day a month to volunteer.
Scott Deutsch, a business-development manager for the IT-staffing firm, said the designated day is one more element that can help Rhode Island attract and retain technical talent in the highly competitive national landscape.
“I think it can help tip the scales. It’s something I thought about when I came onboard,” said Deutsch, a Rhode Island native who started with the company in October 2012. “I worked at a large company before and they would do walkathons, but they were never as proactive as Bridge.”
In the monthly volunteer day, Deutsch saw more than time away from work. “When you’re shopping for a job and you see the volunteer time, it tells you a lot about the character of the people you’ll be working with,” said Deutsch, who volunteers with Habitat for Humanity.
But in the tech world, where there is a national shortage of qualified workers, some of the perks offered by top companies can make it tough for talented techies to even find Rhode Island on the map.
For instance, Forbes magazine named Facebook the best company to work for in 2013. On forbes.com Facebook’s perks are listed: paid vacation days, free food and transportation, $4,000 in cash for new parents, dry cleaning, day care reimbursement and photo processing. Despite the dazzling array of perks offered by some tech companies, Cynthia Toti, Bridge Technical Talent’s inside-sales manager for Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, said she’s found the company’s monthly volunteer day valuable, because it’s added a meaningful connection to her life.
Toti, who was teacher for a couple of years before she found her long-term place in the business and technology world, volunteers at The Greene School, a charter high school in West Greenwich that focuses on environmental science. “The school is using salesforce.com to track donations and I used it on a past job,” Toti said. “So I’m helping them build a database of donors and other people who are interested in the school. I’m also training other volunteers on the software.”
It’s standard procedure at many companies to give money and employee time to community organizations. But Toti likes the structure of Bridge’s monthly volunteer day.
“In my 35-year career, I’ve worked for about half-a-dozen companies in Rhode Island, major corporations and small companies, mostly in accounting and software sales,” Toti said. “For me, it’s totally different for a company to allow you to take time off from work, get paid for it, and go into the community.”
Tech companies make it a priority to be involved in the community, said Kathie Shields, executive director of the Tech Collective, the technology-industry association of Rhode Island, which has about 120 IT companies that are members.
“We have hundreds of people who volunteer each year, especially with youth initiatives and workforce development,” said Shields. “They talk about their careers, do mock interviews and speak to people about educational opportunities. It helps to bring students into the mix of our future, as well as adults looking for an alternative path in their career.
Many of the tech companies in Rhode Island are small, and they might mention volunteering to potential employees, but they don’t necessarily promote it as part of their benefits package, she said.
“I think volunteering does help retain technical workers,” said Shields. “Once someone volunteers they get tied to the community. They have an emotional connection. They get a sense of being part of something that has a future.” Technical companies make a critical investment with volunteering, she said.
“The majority of tech companies want to be part of the community and part of developing their future workforce,” said Shields.
Warwick-based Atrion Networking Corp. has ongoing volunteer projects in the community, said Rachel Croce, the company’s coordinator for talent development. The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Center at Rhode Island College is a major one.
“Our CEO was one of the speakers at the STEM event last year and we recruit millennials and [younger prospects] within STEM events,” she said.
Some of Atrion’s 200 employees serve as mentors at technical schools; at Chariho High School; with Year Up Providence, an intensive one-year program that provides low-income young adults, ages 18-24, with hands-on skill development, college credits and corporate internships; and with GRRL (Girls Reaching Remarkable Levels) Tech RI, which encourages females in the STEM industries.
“We’re really pushing volunteerism and we are looking at ways to make it more formal, maybe to dedicate a day or other ways to allow more employees to participate,” Croce said.
“I think encouraging volunteering helps attract and retain employees,” Croce said. “A core purpose of our company is to have a positive impact on the lives of others.”
As a growing company, Atrion looks for ways to stand out above the crowd in the stiff competition in recruiting.
“There’s a lot of time and effort we put into our recruiting,” she said. “There is Rhode Island talent, but still sometimes it’s hard to fill technical roles.
“So having diverse benefits like volunteerism does aid in our recruiting practices,” Croce said. “We know being involved in the community has a personal impact that resonates with candidates.” •

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