Retiring

RETIRING…AFTER 41 YEARS WITH OCO

Patrick Waite of Fulton has seen substantial change in human services over four-decade career

By Ken Sturtz

When Patrick Waite reflects on his career in human services he marvels at how different things were when he started his first job in the late 1970s.

The way society viewed and cared for those in need, such as the homeless and developmentally disabled, was dramatically different. While many things in human services have changed for the better since then, much remains to be done, he said.

Waite retired in June from Oswego County Opportunities as deputy executive director after 41 years with the organization. He isn’t walking away from helping people, but he is planning to take a break.

So, what kept him with the same agency for four decades?

“I just always embraced OCO’s mission as an anti-poverty agency and I always had a strong heart for working with people with disabilities,” he said. “That kept me going.”

Over the years he had opportunities to work for other human service agencies, but OCO constantly offered him new opportunities and challenges so the work never got old. But when Waite moved to the area for his first job it wasn’t with OCO.

He grew up in Ilion, near Utica, and considered going into special education, but changed his mind and studied human services. After college he moved to Oswego County and took a job working with adults with developmental disabilities. A few years later, in 1981, OCO hired him for a newly created caseworker position dealing with developmentally disabled adults in the agency’s residential program.

At the time OCO’s residential program for developmentally disabled adults was tiny, consisting of just four community residences, known to the public as group homes.

“Back in the day when someone was born with a developmental disability, often the doctor would say just put them in an institution and go on with your life and forget about them,” Waite said. “A lot of families did.”

But things were changing by the late 1970s and early 1980s. State facilities had long been used to warehouse children and adults with developmental disabilities, resulting in horrific cases of abuse and neglect.

After the exposure of the conditions at the notorious Willowbrook State School in New York City,

New York state started moving residents out of institutions.

Patrick Waite at his desk at Oswego County Opportunities in Fulton.

As the state began emphasizing active treatment and community-based programs, Waite spent much of his time working to find residents new homes.

“They were pushing people out of the institutions so I did a lot of placements,” Waite said. “I always found it exciting to bring someone out of the institution.”

It wasn’t always an easy job. Waite did screenings at developmental centers and worked with families to place residents. He often had to contact family to get permission to move them. Some were hard to find. Others were hesitant to move their loved ones after struggling with the decision to put them in an institution in the first place.

He also worked with parents who cared for their son or daughter at home, but were aging and knew they wouldn’t be able to care for them in the future. He said those families often struggled the most with deciding if placing their loved one in a home was the right thing to do.

As OCO needed to develop more group homes, Waite’s job changed. He became a case supervisor and then coordinator of developmental disabilities. He worked with real estate agents to find suitable houses and develop new group homes.

Opposition in the community was intense. Waite said he frequently made presentations at public hearings and was often screamed at by angry neighbors who didn’t want a group home opening nearby. He said he played a strong advocacy role and spent a lot of time trying to educate people regarding their fears of the developmentally disabled.

“They’re just people and they have some deficits,” he said. “But they still have the desire to have the same kind of life that you and I have.”

At the start of his career, OCO was taking people out of institutions and placing them in eight- to 10-bed houses. Over the years the trend was toward smaller four-bed houses. OCO still operates 15 homes for the developmentally disabled, but closed two of them. Waite said it was partly due to workforce challenges, but also because of a shift away from the group home model.

“So that for me, having been there for 40 years, was a huge turnaround in my thinking that we have to look at downsizing our footprint as opposed to expanding,” Waite said. “And if we’re going to expand, are we going to expand in a different way?”

The shift has been toward encouraging the developmentally disabled to be more involved and engaged in directing their services. Many families today want their loved ones to live on their own as opposed to having 24/7 care in a group home. Many can live semi-independently with the proper support, Waite said. OCO also operates supervised apartments.

Waite’s responsibilities at OCO grew over time. He became director of the mental hygiene division, which encompassed all the agency programs dealing with developmental disabilities and mental health. He became deputy executive director in 2013.

“I really enjoyed the development part of it,” he said. “In the last few years we’ve also gotten into more affordable housing.”

Affordable housing has become an important part of addressing homelessness. There’s been some denial that homelessness, often thought of as an urban problem, exists in rural Oswego County, Waite said. But the homeless population, particularly those who couch-surf and have no permanent residence, has grown.

Increasing affordable housing has been a struggle due to community opposition and the nature of the population being served, Waite said.

“In some ways working in affordable housing offers new challenges,” he said. “You’re working with homeless people who maybe don’t want to be housed or who are in tough situations.”

But successes have come with the challenges. In 2019, OCO opened Champlain Commons in Scriba. The complex includes 56 units of affordable housing. Another affordable housing project is expected to open in Pulaski.

OCO recently completed its strategic plan for the next three years and Waite said that in addition to affordable housing, access to transportation and growing food insecurity were other major issues identified.

While OCO has been working to address those issues, he said the agency has also had to deal with significant workforce issues in the last few years. Many of the jobs OCO needs to fill are difficult and pay relatively little, an issue the agency will need to address to sustain its programs.

“The agency is struggling, like everyone else, with people,” Waite said. “We were looking at strategies to keep people; recruitment and retention is key.”

And while Waite’s retirement means one more opening, he isn’t walking away from helping the community.

He is looking forward to a break and spending time with his four grandchildren. He and his wife still live in Fulton, however, and Waite is active in the Fulton Sunrise Rotary. He also sits on the boards of three human services groups.

And while he has no immediate plans, he hasn’t ruled out going back to work in human services.

“I’ll still have my hands in it,” he said.

High Salaries Help Keep, Attract Employees

While work-life balance is important, salary is often cited as main reason workers stay in their jobs

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Employee retention relates to more than salary, as the recent shift toward improved work-life balance has indicated.

But salary is still important.

A survey of 52,000 people across 44 countries by PricewaterhouseCoopers states that more than one-third of those with specialty skills plan to ask for a raise. Twenty percent said they are “extremely likely or very likely” to change jobs.

This kind of mobility suggests that pay is still a big motivator for workers.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more people than ever have realized that they prefer working at home at least part of the time. Other top non-salary attractions include flexible working hours and better healthcare benefits. But without a sufficient salary, an employer can count of fewer applicants for their openings.

A good salary helps employees more easily meet their financial obligations, which can mean a more stable home life and a greater likelihood of staying in their role at work. This in turn lowers the company’s cost of recruiting, screening, hiring, onboarding and training new staff, and the reduced overall productivity that can result during these transitional periods.

According to Pew Research Centers, most of the workers (63%) who walked away from a job in 2021 said that their low pay was a major reason why.

Others said that lack of opportunity for advancement and feeling disrespected at work (57%) were why they didn’t return. Still others cited childcare (48%), lack of schedule flexibility (45%) and poor health insurance and paid tie off benefits (43%). Respondents were permitted to select more than one answer. The survey, taken in 2021, revealed that 31% said that their choice to leave their job (not a furlough or layoff) was related to the pandemic outbreak, such as concerns about their own health and/ or a family member’s health, or to care for someone who was ill.

Of those who quit, the Pew study stated that most (63%) have not retired but have found work. Ninety-four percent of those said it was somewhat easy or very easy to find work.

Top Salaries in Central New York

Karen Knapik-Scalzo, associate economist with the New York State Department of Labor, division of research & statistics in Syracuse, offered the top median annual salaries in the five-county Central New York region. This includes Cayuga County, Cortland County, Madison County, Onondaga County and Oswego County.

The data “looks at the occupations with the highest wages based on our long-term occupational projections between 2018 and 2028,” Knapik-Scalzo said.

Dentists, General

$174,560

Nurse Anesthetists $166,110

Judges, Magistrate Judges, and Magistrates $159,600

Architectural & Engineering Managers $152,640

Training & Development Managers $152,630

Computer & Information Systems Managers $147,060

Optometrists $143,650

Marketing Managers $142,890

Education Administrators, Postsecondary $142,410

Financial Managers $136,850

Purchasing Managers $131,830

Natural Sciences Managers $130,840

Sales Managers $127,160

Human Resources Managers $125,720

Advertising and Promotions Managers $123,340

The total employment for all of New York state is 8,668,580. The mean wage for all occupations is $35.26 and the experienced wage is $44.89.

Employers Continue to Struggle with Filling Positions

Several sectors show decreased in employment numbers

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

Although some indicators show businesses are adapting and adjusting to post-COVID-19 life, staffing persists as a factor that’s proving sluggish for some industries.

Business Insider tabulated Bureau of Labor Statistics data it presented in an August 2022 issue that shows staffing challenges numerous industries with a big decrease in employment from February 2020 to July 2022, including in hospitality and healthcare sectors.

The data suggests that employment that requires physical presence or hands-on work is the hardest to staff.

This certainly rings true for Janet Yuckel, owner of Done Right Cleaning in West Monroe.

“Everything was going well until the pandemic and then everything changed,” she said. “I have half the staff, so that’s half the work. I turn down jobs every day because I can’t staff it. The people I have are wonderful. I need more.”

She said that she widely advertises for openings and pays her staff well. However, she believes that it is the lack of available daycare, the physical nature of the work and also distaste for cleaning that has contributed to the dearth of applicants.

“They feel entitled,” she said. “They don’t want to work. No one even calls.”

For professional positions, highly skilled positions are tough to fill as well.

Carol R. Fletcher, president of C.R. Fletcher Associates, Inc. in Syracuse, said that openings in engineering, finance, and healthcare are really tough to fill. Exacerbating the problem is the shift in applicants, Fletcher has observed.

“Candidates since COVID-19 are being more demanding and companies are turning things back to the way things used to be,” she said. “Companies want people in-house. Oftentimes, candidates want to work remotely or as hybrid schedule and a lot of companies aren’t doing that. Companies want to get back to normalcy.”

Of course, many roles in healthcare and manufacturing are hard to fill with a remote or hybrid working arrangement.

The cost of education has caused many people to think twice before investing in a degree.

Michelle Jevis, director of human resources and staffing at CR Fletcher, said that with fewer people pursuing a bachelor’s or master’s in accounting, “not as many are entering the profession. There are a lot more degree programs and not as many students are picking that. Historically, that profession has always been associated with long hours, travel and busy seasons. A lot of companies are making it more flexible, but the stigma has stuck with it.”

In addition to continuing to use their existing employment solicitations and recruiting efforts, companies should look at their existing staff for filling mid- to higher-level openings.

“Companies should always consider promoting from within,” said John R. Halleron, advanced certified senior business adviser with the Small Business Development Center in Oswego. “It provides an incentive to an employee to continue to improve skills knowing that there may be a possibility to move up the line. If the talent is there, use it.”

Offering tuition reimbursement has proven helpful in healthcare, for example. If other industries followed suit with mentoring programs, educational opportunities or other means of developing their existing staff, they may find more workers willing and capable to fill mid- to -high-level positions.

Hiring Remains a Challenge for Healthcare Providers

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

The healthcare industry has struggled for decades with a staffing shortage. The pandemic only worsened the problem, with staff absences due to COVID-19, staff burnout and subsequent quitting, excessive man-hour demands on existing staff and massive changes in protocol and PPE use.

While many industries have emerged from most of the effects of COVID-19, the pandemic’s impact on healthcare staffing continues.

Here’s how a few area providers are coping.

Upstate Medical University

“Like many hospitals nationwide, Upstate is facing a shortage of nurses and other health care positions,” said Darryl Geddes, a spokesperson for Upstate Medical University. “Staffing these positions remains our biggest challenge. Our people are our most valuable resource and they are what makes the hospital run. Without them, we cannot meet the needs of the region. As an academic medical center, Upstate offers many significant specialty services, which are always in demand.”

To address these challenges, Upstate offers premium overtime, increased per diem rates, pay bumps for most RNs and LPNs and a greater emphasis on recruiting. The organization’s strategies include virtual and in-person events, multimedia advertising and social media campaigns.

Upstate continues working with New York state on ways to improve the pay scales for many key roles across the organization.

While difficult, Upstate has also been working on maintaining staffing ratios and workloads and relying on temporary and travel workers only when necessary.

“Our staff members have gone above and beyond since the COVID pandemic began here in New York in March 2020,” Geddes said. “We’re grateful for their service and looking for others to join our exceptional team.”

Loretto

The focus is on what staff need, from pay rates to benefits packages to educational opportunities.

“We’re an organization that is continuously learning what our employees need through surveys, meetings and other communication,” said Colleen Engler, chief human resources officer. “We work on internal engagement and retention.”

She believes that trying to meet employees’ needs — beginning before onboarding — promotes better staffing through hiring more and retaining more.

Some of the innovative ideas include providing transportation to workers who need a ride. Removing that as a barrier has brought and kept employees with Loretto who may have otherwise missed work because of a lack of transportation.

Engler believes that what employees want most of all is to feel “valued, respected and recognized,” she said.

That typifies the empathetic, caring employees that a healthcare provider hopes to attract.

A few means of extending recognition to employees includes internal promotions like food truck days and team-building activities. Events such as a trip to the zoo also help build camaraderie.

“We listen to what’s important, try to be flexible with scheduling and look at competitive pay rates,” Engler said.

For some employees, this is their first job. Loretto employs personal employee coaches to help them navigate their work duties and personal issues like childcare. The coaches are part of the recruitment process and support employees through orientation to identify areas where Loretto can support employees.

“The whole organization is very collaborative, down to frontline employees,” Engler said. “We all want great people to come.”

Oswego Health

Beyond the typical use of job boards, social media and internet radio to advertise openings, partnering with local high schools has helped Oswego Health bring in more applicants. The organization also participates in career fairs, holds small group classroom discussions about healthcare and operates an early college program in high schools.

Alissa Viscome, employee experience manager, said that this allows students to nearly complete an associate degree by the time they graduate from high school.

Although teens often want to move on to a bigger, better town, “if we can create opportunities for kids to graduate, stay here and contribute to the community, they already have support here,” Viscome said. “They give back to a place they’ve grown up in.”

Programs such as tuition reimbursement can help new employees work their way up the ladder. Transportation for eligible employees can make getting to work easier. Little perks like a hot cocoa bar, coffee bar and contests with gift card prizes helps improve the employee experience.

“We’re committed to work-life balance, and taking care of themselves,” Viscome said. “We hire good staff, train them well and treat them well and they’re an employee pipeline.”

Their word-of-mouth advertising helps draw more applicants to Oswego Health. The organization also uses two full-time physician recruiters for those roles, in addition to the recruiting provided by directors and senior leadership.

“We have great retention with our staff,” Viscome said. “We have such longevity. These days, it’s strange to have healthcare workers staying 10, 25, even 40 or 45 years. People here don’t want to retire and they love what they do. The team and the patients are why they stay.”