4/30/2010
Job-training nonprofit weathers hard times
By ANNE FISHER

One day last fall, Mary Mulvihill, executive director of Grace Institute, and Jolene Handy, its head of career services, were in an Upper East Side coffee shop trying to figure out how to entice employers to hire the institute's graduates. The nonprofit, which gives tuition-free job training to disadvantaged women, had seen its hire rate plummet from 80% before the recession to 56% in 2009.

"We had tried e-mail campaigns and phone calling, but got very little response," says Ms. Mulvihill. "We needed to try something different. And since we have no advertising budget, it had to be something inexpensive."

Their solution: a postcard mailing. In November, about 1,000 of Grace Institute's well-wishers around the city--including the 100 or so companies that had routinely snapped up Grace grads in the past--got a 5-by-7 postcard bearing color photos of Grace students, with the tagline "Send us one job." Within three weeks, 18 firms stepped forward; one company hired five women. When Ms. Handy gave a postcard to her dentist, he hired one, too. "We're still puzzled about why postcards worked when our other efforts hadn't," says Ms. Mulvihill. "Maybe it was the photos."

Now that the employment market in New York is showing signs of life, Ms. Mulvihill hopes Grace's rate will creep back up to 80%.

Located on Second Avenue near East 65th Street, Grace Institute was started in 1897 by chemicals tycoon and mayor W.R. Grace to train underprivileged women, especially new immigrants, for office jobs. The Grace family still funds the institute, which has a $2.5 million annual budget. Grace puts about 200 women at a time through a four-and-a-half-month curriculum of business writing and math, Microsoft Office Suite, and clerical skills.

Only one in three applicants gets in. "We want to make sure everyone we accept can make it, because it's a tough program and it takes commitment," says Ms. Mulvihill. "But plenty of very smart women come in here with lots of untapped potential--and man, do they fly!" Employers back that up. Margaret "Peg" Harrington, chief operating officer at for-profit charter school company Victory Schools, has hired several Grace alumnae in the past five years, including one who has been promoted twice and now holds a job formerly reserved for a college graduate.

"We know we can call on Grace and get a good person quickly, and for no fee," says Ms. Harrington. "Ordinary employment agencies take anyone off the street, but Grace trains its people in the intangibles, like how to dress properly, smile, be on time, answer the phone correctly--all those things that can be an issue with entry-level hires." Claire Kaiser, who has brought five Grace grads on board at various times for administrative-assistant positions at midtown law firm Kane Kessler, agrees. "These are the type of people we are looking for. They work hard and take their jobs seriously," she says. "I've been very impressed not only with their skills, but with their attitudes and their aspirations."

Got a job opening for someone like that? Employers can mingle with students, staff and newly minted grads at a job fair Grace plans on June 17.

Has it been difficult for you to find skilled and dedicated office help for your business? What has been your best source of entry-level hires?