The Civic Committee is helping companies hire more South and West Side talent through four proven employment pathways. These four pathways provide flexibility in meeting the varied needs of businesses, potential employees, and communities. Each employer can select the most suitable pathway (or pathways) and work with our implementation partners to ensure they meet their hiring goals.
Direct Hiring Pathway
Some companies have hired from Chicago’s South and West Sides for decades and have well-developed hiring networks. For those that do not, the Civic Committee is working to expand the capacity of several workforce partners who can help participating firms identify and vet talent.
Our direct hiring talent providers have longstanding partnerships with dozens of Civic Committee Members and other major Chicago employers and are leveraging these partnerships to support hiring across Chicago.
In a video interview, Tom Jackiewicz, CEO of UChicago Medicine, shares how he is leveraging his role and the hospital as institution to create lasting impact via jobs and long-term careers.
Apprenticeships Pathway
Apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship training programs are proven pathways used by Civic Committee Members and other employers to gain access to talent often excluded from corporate employment.
Chicago Apprentice Network
In 2017, Civic Committee Members Aon PLC (Aon) and Accenture set out to address challenges many large employers faced in the entry-level workforce: a lack of geographic and racial diversity and high turnover and attrition among early hires. These companies, in partnership with Zurich Insurance Group and other early adopters, developed an apprenticeship program in Chicago for employees without four-year degrees.
Implementing the program required multiple changes to participating companies’ policies and practices, such as changing job specifications, modifying recruiting processes, developing new internal and external supports for apprentices, and modifying incentive structures. Through those changes, each company gained access to a new pool of talent previously excluded from corporate employment.
Eight years later, the Chicago Apprentice Network (CAN) has become a national model with hundreds of employers, including many from the Commercial Club, and thousands of apprentices across 10 U.S. cities. The CAN exemplifies the Chicago business community doing what it does best: creating a pragmatic response to a business and civic challenge.
In a video interview, Jim Coleman of AEA Investors shares why and how the CAN was formed and the impact it has had on Accenture and on him. Jim is a member of the Public Safety Task Force, a champion of the Civic Committee’s Hiring Initiative, and was a founder of the CAN during his time leading Accenture’s Chicago Office.
City Colleges of Chicago
City Colleges of Chicago offers dozens of certification programs that prepare students for apprenticeship opportunities in a diversity of specializations. Civic Committee Members regularly hire from the City Colleges for apprenticeship and other roles. Find out more about these apprenticeship programs on the City Colleges of Chicago’s website.
Hire360
Hire360 is a pre-apprenticeship training program that prepares candidates for careers in the trades. Civic Committee Public Safety partners, including Chicago CRED, refer program participants to Hire360 for workforce training.
Third-Party Provider Pathway
For companies that want to access South and West Side talent but cannot add headcount directly, third-party providers offer alternative models. The Civic Committee encourages its Members to think creatively about creating employment through service contractors.
Locating in Communities
By creating job opportunities in historically disinvested communities, companies make jobs more accessible and create positive, second-order effects on other businesses and community residents.
Job creation through this pathway is a long-term endeavor that requires sustained leadership commitment. With such a commitment, moving jobs to communities can be transformative for the employees, the employer, and the neighborhood. Major investments planned and underway in Chicago’s South and West Sides create opportunities for “big bets” that the Civic Committee is pursuing with businesses and local partners.
