Manpower Bereshit in Israel, a joint venture led by Manpower partnering with a young Ultra-Orthodox
social entrepreneur, is a prime example of our workforce development programs in action. The
Ultra-Orthodox” Jewish community is deeply committed to its cultural and religious values, and has
historically been sustained outside the Israeli labor market via government funding. However,
financial support has been reduced, making it necessary to integrate them into the workforce.
Because of their lack of work experience, Ultra-Orthodox candidates lacked the education and
training required to acquire and maintain gainful employment, while employers lacked understanding
of how to engage them. The Bereshit branch meets the unique cultural need for gender separation
among Ultra-Orthodox candidates. Consultants only interview and train candidates of their own
gender. Potential employers are trained on the unique value that members of this group bring to the
workplace: strong work ethics, stability (especially the low-turnover they have within an industry),
high learning potential and loyalty. Job-seekers receive training in soft-skills to prepare them for
the interviewing process and professional work environment. Client needs are met in unique ways such
as in-community call centers and work shifts by gender. Manpower Bereshit accompanies employees and
employers during the first months of work through an established set of procedures in order to
ensure a smooth integration.
The program is deeply rooted in our values and is a natural extension of Manpower’s culture. For
over 60 years, connecting individuals to the dignity and independence of work has been at the very
core of our mission. Manpower’s workforce development programs – the cornerstone of the
company’s social responsibility agenda – connect disenfranchised job seekers with employment
opportunities they would not otherwise have. Manpower follows an inclusive practice of determining a
person’s unique abilities, then finding matching opportunities. This mindset uniquely positions
Manpower to help disadvantaged job seekers overcome hurdles to employment.
Manpower believes wage earners participate more effectively in their communities. Their wages help
support their families and drive commerce, thus contributing to the sustainability of their
communities. Our core mission – helping clients win and providing jobs for people – is a robust
and ongoing socially responsible agenda. As we provide people from all walks of life with
sustainable livelihoods, we also provide our clients with the access to the talented individuals
they need to run their operations more effectively.
Despite the current difficult economic environment, 30% of companies globally cannot find suitable
talent. Faced with this talent mismatch, it is in everybody’s best interests to tap into
underrepresented populations. We don’t seek favors for individuals; we position them as key to our
solutions for clients.
The benefits of Manpower Bereshit are evident to employers, the now employed members of
Ultra-Orthodox communities and the Israeli economy. Employers find a solution to their staffing
needs. Employees gain skills and training that help them enter the workforce. The economy benefits
by having more people enter the labor force and more money circulating.
Employees’ self esteem grows as the result of being employed and by being a contributing member
(rather than a dependent of) society. The employed now spend their own money, which circulates and
impacts their local communities. This wage-earning reduces their need for government assistance.
The total financial impact on the Israeli economy is approximately $45 million per annum ($21
million per year in actual earnings that go into community, plus that amount which goes off
government stipends). This is highly significant given that over 50% of Ultra-Orthodox families live
below the poverty line.
As shown in the Partner and Migdal cases, the program’s impact extends beyond a few people from
this cultural group. As mindsets change (for employees, their new colleagues and employers) this
program has helped remove biases and this group is now attractive to employers. This success must
help break down other types of barriers to previously disadvantaged individuals in this cultural
group and others. This initiative employs practices that are replicable for other cultural groups
requiring workforce integration.
Manpower Bereshit is a separate business unit and a model that accompanies both candidates and
employers through the preparation, training and placement process.
The key to the Manpower Bereshit model is working with employers to accept a group of workers with
unique requirements and then find and coordinate practical accommodations, coupled with thorough
understanding of the Ultra-Orthodox population's social fabric, abilities and cultural needs.
Manpower’s brand and reputation provides us with access to a strong client base. We have a deep
knowledge of their needs.
Manpower Bereshit helps create employer understanding of the potential benefits this solutions
offers. We hold workshops for everyone who will come in contact with the Ultra-Orthodox employees to
explain the advantages of employing them and offer management advice and instruction. We reach
candidates via appropriate advertising, while word-of-mouth referrals are also a very powerful tool
within this cultural group.
The interviewing, selection, training and matching process for Manpower Bereshit is much longer and
deeper than traditional Manpower services. We help employers and employees initially prepare for the
appropriate workplace, practices and environment. We continue support for an extended period after
the placement. Unlike traditional Manpower services, in Manpower Bereshit 80% of placements are
first-time, thus achieving a much larger impact on employees, the community and the economy.
In the past three years, Manpower Bereshit placed over 1800 Ultra-Orthodox candidates into the
workforce with an enormous impact on the Israeli economy, estimated at $45 million. We have grown
from operating one office focusing on customer service placements, to four offices, which have also
extended into high-tech fields and outsourcing services.
Partner Communications “Orange Cell Phones” was in need of customer service workers in 2006. We
approached them with the Manpower Bereshit solution and persuaded them to develop a pilot program.
Members of the Ultra-Orthodox community were recruited as customer service agents. In the interests
of gender separation, women worked early in the day and men worked evenings. The client declared the
trial a success and asked us to double the size of the program.
Partner Communications now operates a call center entirely staffed by Ultra-Orthodox men and women.
Manpower Bereshit recruited 140 of the 180 staff, demonstration that Manpower Bereshit had helped
Partner move beyond any previous biases to a practical operating solution.
In 2008, Midgal Insurance, one of Israel's major insurance companies, was unable to find people with
a specific skill needed in their computer department. Manpower Bereshit secured funding through our
governmental and philanthropic contacts to close a skills gap and provide training for
Ultra-Orthodox women computer engineers. The client hired 13 engineers trained through the program.
Manpower’s Bereshit initiative is an innovative, practical, solution to a complex social, cultural
and workplace issue. It builds on our day-to-day business assets, values, operating capabilities and
competencies. It helps us prepare for upcoming challenges as the global talent mismatch becomes more
pressing.
The initiative is valuable to Manpower because it affirms our values, culture and our position of
leadership in the world of work, which is based on effective client solutions and work opportunities
for all. It is valuable to society because it demonstrates that worker ability is not a function of
social status, gender, race or other cultural stereotyping. Workers from disenfranchised groups can
perform well if given a chance. This mindset change helps strengthen individual people, businesses
and communities.
This sea change – providing individual opportunities, changing mindsets, mobilizing talented
people – is sustainable and replicable. It prompts us, along with our partners, to ask: how we can
help the next group of under-served, skilled workers become productive. For example, we will tackle
youth unemployment in the Middle East by establishing a public-private partnership to train and
employ youth, with a pilot in Morocco.
Manpower Bereshit has continued as a successful program in Israel. On a global scale, the
goal/objective is to take the lessons learned and apply them to other situations of culturally
unique groups. In many ways, this is a “welfare to work” story that is made successful by the
unique cultural elements and innovative response to those issues. In Israel, this program (or a
derivative) may aid many more individuals bridge to productive work in programs which merit
government participation. Manpower Israel has launched a pilot program aimed at helping Arabs in the
country gain better access to work opportunities. Ultra-Orthodox groups in other countries have now
turned to Manpower Bereshit as they deal with the unemployment created by the recent economic
downturn, in order to learn from the successes of the integration of this population into the
workforce.
Manpower’s commitment to work tirelessly to understand the needs clients and individual candidates
is key to the remarkable enduring success of Manpower Bereshit. Through this process, we learned
that the Ultra-Orthodox community is a set of many sub-groups that secular society has identified as
one. We found that specific cultural norms and resultant issues vary across a rather broad scope. To
understand that full scope, consider the diversity behind a community of “Europeans” from London
to Ljubljana or “Midwesteners” including ranchers from Nebraska and urban residents of Chicago.
Consider that set of variables and those implicit in each industry, employer and function or roles
and it becomes clear that the staff of Manpower Bereshit are very focused on understanding each
candidate’s unique set of skills, requirements, etc. and each employer’s changing needs,
locations, technologies and more.
Bereshit’s success is directly dependent upon Manpower’s commitment to understanding the needs
of each individual candidate and each individual client. This understanding requires tirelessly
engaging the wider community, including
co-workers of each new employee, families, friends, community, investors in the joint venture, the
joint venture staff and – finally – the government and any levels that need to be satisfied for
successful outcomes.
Manpower Bereshit provides specific data (some recorded above) and reports to its stakeholders each
year and at appropriate intervals.
We have promoted this success to our 4000 branch leaders throughout the world through our internal
knowledge-sharing marketplace in the hope that branch leaders will be inspired to develop similar
program. Externally, we have promoted it among our colleagues, clients and partners via articles in
Manpower’s 2009 Social Responsibility Update/Report and an articleonJustMeans.com.
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