This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
04/17/2019 08:30 AMIt’s Christine Reardon’s job to see the future. She is the manager of strategic development at Workforce Alliance, which connects employers in south central Connecticut with skilled workers. And it’s her job to know what the job market will look like down the road—even down the road at Amazon’s new distribution center on Washington Avenue.
“You have to look to see what’s going to be happening in one or two years to prepare a workforce and get all the ducks in the right place,” Chris says.
Right now, her latest project for the alliance—a New Haven-based organization affiliated with the state Department of Labor that is funded by state, federal, and other grants—is organizing a job fair for Amazon’s new distribution center. The fair is scheduled for Tuesday, June 4 in the Recreation Center at 7 Linsley Street, North Haven.
“Because this has been a real labor of love for the town and for some of its people, we wanted the very first hiring event here in North Haven,” she says.
Workforce Alliance is tasked with helping workers find new and better jobs in addition to assisting employers with expansions and downsizing. Matching job seekers to employers is often as much about culture as it is about skills, she says. In her role, Chris says a lot of what she does is community driven.
“I’ve always been interested in economics and math but in a context where you could really help the community as opposed to just being dry economics,” she says. “I’m definitely not a boring economist.”
Originally, Chris planned to run for public office. She’s grateful, she says, that an advisor persuaded her to move into a support role instead.
“Having lived here in North Haven, I’ve been really, really active in the community and in issues that affect city hall,” she says. “My professor was right. I would not want to be confined to the rules of public office.”
Chris moved to North Haven with her husband, Neal, 26 years ago. Neal, part of a family of “math people,” set up his certified public accountant’s office in East Haven while their son, Sean, graduated from UConn with dual majors in math and actuarial science.
Chris’s first major project in town came when the Marlin Firearms manufacturing plant closed down in 2011, laying off its entire workforce.
“I work with North Haven…whenever there are situations that really warrant [it, like] when there’s a massive layoff or when there’s an amazing opportunity that’s coming up on me,” Chris says. “We put together a plan to work with the affected workers and most of them got jobs.”
Finding new jobs for laid-off workers depends both on what the job seeker is looking for and what the market needs.
“It really depends on where they want to go and what their demographics look like,” she says. “There is no cookie-cutter approach.”
To help people and businesses, Chris always keeps an eye on national trends, keeps up with national and international colleagues, and deploys research to get an idea of what’s coming next.
Right now, the big thing is math and analytics, and she’s found a fun way of explaining its relevance.
“One of my non-work passions is that I’m a very serious Boston Red Sox fan,” Chris says. “Alex Cora, who is the manager of the Red Sox, built that team on skills in analytics. If you can understand and...make deductions based on analytics, that is a marketable skill across any industry.”
She says she’s looking forward to the June 4 job fair. Between logistical, supervisory, and support roles, Amazon is expected to hire 1,500 to 1,800 people initially. Job seekers will get their first shot at a hire at the North Haven event.
Chris is excited about Amazon’s arrival in town because of the wide variety of options it can provide potential employees. According to its website, the Amazon Career Choice program for longstanding employees offers to pay “up to 95 percent of tuition and fees (up to a yearly maximum) toward a certificate or diploma in qualified fields.” Some locations even offer on-site training.
“I hope that the workers when they are hired will be able to take advantage of that, because careers with a company that is as wide and has as many career options as Amazon don’t come into a community every day,” Chris says.
Amazon is taking all its applications online, but computers will be available at the job fair for this purpose. The company will also conduct brief interviews and drug tests for applicants with appointments.
“When that opens, there’s going to be an incredible amount of gratitude [from me] knowing that my fingerprints are going to be all over it,” Chris says.