Holding on to a Birthright

Casey Johnston was two weeks away from delivering her third child last March when she walked into the offices of National Asset Recovery Services, or NARS, seeking a job.

The company, new at that time to Cape Girardeau and looking to hire up to 400 people over the course of the year, offered her a job, telling her to get back with them after she gave birth. Over time, as the company moved to permanent quarters on William Street and Johnston took another job at a grocery store closer to her home in northwest Jackson, the thought stayed with her that the call center might be a good place to work.

At the grocery store, where she earned $6.50 an hour, there was no chance to be enrolled in the company health insurance plan. "It was optional but it was so expensive, it would have been half my paycheck," she said.

So in November, Johnston returned to NARS, where along with an $8.50 an hour paycheck, the company offers health insurance at reasonable rates, flexible scheduling so she's home when her oldest child returns from school and on-site child care at subsidized rates.

"I have to have health insurance," Johnston said during an interview at her home that was repeatedly interrupted as her two older children, Nikki Fuller, 5, and Gabriel Fuller, 3, played with action figures and the family dog.

Casey Johnston has worked at NARS since November. With three children, the 23-year-old said that a job with health-care benefits is a must. (Kit Doyle)

Johnston is also a client of Birthright, the Cape Girardeau-based crisis pregnancy and service organization that provided help to 1,231 women in 2007. Michele Moon, director of Birthright, wants more companies to open their doors to women who are pregnant and have recently given birth to keep them from considering abortions or using public assistance.

At the annual luncheon for Magnet in January, the Cape Girardeau area economic development agency funded by a public-private partnership, Moon praised NARS for its efforts to make women with children feel wanted and said more companies need to do the same.

"One-third of all babies born today are born to single parents," Moon said in a recent interview. "We are seeing an increase in the number of women we serve and what that is going to mean is that these folks are at risk from the beginning" of their lives. "If they don't have a good support network, they are going to lead lives of poverty."

Not all jobs acceptable

Johnston is married to James Beck, the father of Trinity Beck, now 11 months old. His job earns him $8.50 an hour as well, so between the two of them they have enough to make ends meet most of the time. Johnston receives diapers and formula from Birthright, and the children's health care is covered by Medicaid.

Johnston has a high school diploma, a requirement for working at NARS. Birthright helps women without a diploma obtain their GED, which opens up opportunities for continuing education and better jobs, Moon said.

NARS isn't the only company that has provided assurances to Birthright that pregnant women or women with small children will be strongly considered as job candidates, Moon said. But asking a pregnant woman to stand for long periods, as can happen at fast food locations, or work for low wages without health coverage, make those jobs unattractive.

And Moon understands that there are jobs, such as heavy lifting, that may be too strenuous or dangerous for pregnant women. But almost every large employer has something that would fit, she said. Instead, she said, she often hears about situations where pregnant women face bosses focused only on the bottom line.

"They will go ahead and say 'if you cannot do this job, you need to make a decision about whether you need to remain employed or not,'" Moon said. "Often, they will go ahead and quit."

NARS policy

At the beginning of 2008, NARS founder Chris Buehrle said his company had 507 workers and wanted to build its workforce to 650. Last week, he said the company had met that first goal and now wants to reach 750 workers by the end of the year.

The company has not made a point of hiring pregnant women or mothers with small children, he said. Instead, they focus on people who will do well as telephone representatives.

The child-care facility and health insurance are part of the company's plan to keep turnover, a major issue for call center employers, as low as possible, Buehrle said. For the same reasons, the company has an on-site fitness room and deli -- the extras are aimed at keeping employees happy.

"It is just a coincidence that the kind of job we have with flexible hours fits" pregnant women and new mothers, he said. "We obviously don't discriminate or target this group of people in any way, shape or form."

At NARS, an employee can join the health-care plan after 90 days on the job. The company's human resources department helps new workers fit in with the plan and maintain their children's Medicaid benefits so there are no gaps in coverage, Buehrle said.

The company's usefulness to Birthright, while not a planned partnership, is gratifying, he said. "Birthright is an organization my grandmother and grandfather helped start years and years and years ago."

To use the child care facility, employees must enroll their children and pay a weekly fee. But like jobs at NARS, which are scheduled for the flexible hours of the workers, the child care facility offers flexibility by not charging extra if parents are a few minutes late picking up their children and allowing parents to bring their children in during their off hours if they have errands to complete.

Johnston isn't using the day care now -- she has a neighborhood baby sitter come into her home while she and her husband are working -- but will likely need it when the baby sitter moves away in May.

Magnet response

There has been little response from her plea to the Magnet lunch attendees for help, Moon said. But she's not discouraged and hopes growing companies will think of where they can help themselves and the community by hiring women looking for ways to care for their families.

She also understands that some of the women Birthright helps need training in the basics of holding a job, and asks employers to be patient. "They are just learning the regular discipline of work, especially those who have dropped out of high school and don't have their confidence," she said.

The lunchtime plea didn't register with John Mehner, president and chief executive officer of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. He remembered the kind words Moon had for NARS as an employer, he said.

Many employers can't match the on-site amenities NARS uses to keep workers, Mehner said. For example, day care would be expensive to duplicate. "You would have to be in the multiple hundreds of people before doing that," he said. "Unless you only hired people with children."

Johnston, however, hopes she's found a home and won't be back in the job market looking for work. At NARS she sees a chance she hasn't seen at some of her other employers -- a chance to advance. "The more agents they hire, the more supervisors they need. The more supervisors, the more tier two people and trainers to train agents," she said. "There are all kinds of advancements."

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611 extension 126

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