Johnson County employer resource program shifting to new operator
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The Johnson County Community Foundation this week announced it is transferring control of its Employer Resource Network program to the Aspire Economic Development + Chamber Alliance.
The program, established in 2020, allows companies to access a success coach, who can assist employees with a variety of needs such as housing issues, food banks, or financial literacy resources.
“The success coach is available to work with the employees of the member companies for all things that could prohibit them from being a better employee at work,” said Stephanie Marten, vice president of development at the Johnson County Community Foundation.
The program was created with a grant from Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. Participating companies can purchase a share into the program, giving them four hours a week with the success coach, Nick Burks.
Marten said they’ve seen continued growth in the program since its launch.
“We launched the program in 2020 with five member companies; we now have eight companies participating in the program for a total of nine shares,” Marten said. “We have one company that has purchased a second share of the program, because they saw the immediate value in it and decided we need more time than four hours per week.”
The current participating companies are Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp., which has taken two shares, Endress+Hauser USA, GMI Corp., Indiana 811, Interstate Warehousing, Johnson Memorial Health, National Trade Supply, and Ulta Beauty.
In 2023, Burks helped more than 200 employees work through their various needs, Marten said, and made over 550 referrals to outside agencies.
“Year over year, we have seen the number of employees increase, the utilization rate of every single member company has increased, and the amount of referrals to community resources has increased,” she said.
Marten said the goal of launching the program in Johnson County was always to shift it to a different, long-term operator. She said Aspire has been a key partner since the program’s inception, and now is the time to make the transition.
Aspire President and CEO Christian Maslowski says having the program under the alliance’s control means longevity and sustainability but also support for human resources departments.
“I think companies are finally realizing that we have to accept the whole person, and we have to to accept who they are and all that they’re bringing in, and quite honestly, HR departments have been dealing with that and have known that and have been seeing that for years,” he said. “So this program really helps relieve a lot of the non-payroll benefits aspects of HR.”
Maslowski says the program is currently at full capacity for one success coach, but the alliance is looking toward growth.
“What’s next is identifying and ascertaining what level of demand and interest is there from other companies,” he said. “We will continue to tell the good word about the program, and our expectation is that we would be adding another success coach to take on an additional eight or nine companies.”
The Employer Resource Network is a national model led by ERN USA, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The foundation says nationally, employers that participate in ERNs have a 90%-98% retention rate.