Nine months ago, James Payne reached a breaking point. For nearly two years, he averaged 60- to 90-hour work weeks as a convenience store manager, routinely filling shifts left empty by staff shortages or covering sick calls from the store’s associates. When he left work, he was on-call, day and night, to meet the needs of the mart’s 24/7 operation.
“We were understaffed and overwhelmed,” Payne said. “As the store manager, I was the last line of defense. If we didn’t have workers, I stayed and worked above what I was already scheduled. It was a lot of pressure all the time.”
The long hours and constant stress exhausted him emotionally, mentally and physically, and it absorbed the energy and time he had at home in Lincoln, Rhode Island, with his wife and three children.
“It would be impossible to see my family, and I was run down when I did.”
After more than 30 years working in various hospitality, customer service and retail roles, Payne decided to make a change. He left his role as a store manager in hopes of working in a new field — but mostly to find a job opportunity with an improved work-life balance, flexibility and strong company culture.
Guided by a friend’s referral, Payne contacted Skills for Rhode Island’s Future (SkillsRI), a nonprofit that matches unemployed and underemployed Rhode Islanders with local employers. Within days, Payne said, he felt like he had “a free personal job coach” aiding with each step of the job-hunting process, from reviewing available listings to updating his resume and preparing for an interview. All of which he last did three decades ago.
Roughly a month later, Payne had a new job. His new employer? Brown University.
A new job agency model
Challenging the traditional staffing agency model, SkillsRI is demand-driven and works to meet the hiring needs of employers by customizing talent development services and workforce training for job seekers. The program — which started in 2016 through a collaboration between Rhode Island’s Department of Labor and Training and the Greater Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce — aims to close the state’s workforce skills gap and promote local economic development by connecting residents with meaningful employment opportunities.
To do that, SkillsRI recruiters serve as expert sources for open jobs with local employers that are committed to hiring local talent. To match candidates with vacancies, recruiters act as career counselors to support individuals through the job search process — everything from assessing skills to defining career interests, lifestyle and salary needs. They also offer help with resume writing and coaching for interviews and serve as advocates for job candidates throughout the hiring process.
“The SkillsRI program is impressive,” Payne said. “They talked with me every day. When I expressed interest in Brown, they went that extra step to describe the job openings on campus. They followed my progress, from the initial application to the interview to the job offer.”
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