by Johanna Ginsberg
NJJN Staff Writer

April 17, 2008

Karen Murach of Oak Ridge is hoping to land a job in sales. But unlike other employees she has one requirement that is often a bar to employment: she must telecommute exclusively.

Murach has multiple sclerosis, and the difficulty she has moving around, combined with pain management, means that any employment must be confined to her home.

An employer has expressed interest in her. If she gets the job, she’ll be the second employee placed through a pilot project and partnership that includes the Jewish Vocational Service of MetroWest.

The Telecommuting Pilot Program was formally launched on April 9 at JVS in East Orange, which is responsible for coordinating the program. (JVS professionals have already been at work on this pilot project for two months prior to the formal launch.)

The other partners are the state’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVRS), and the Henry H. Kessler Foundation. The Kessler Foundation has provided a grant of $438,687 to JVS to administer the project. The state’s role is to provide administrative oversight, technical support, and helping provide clients to take part in the project.

The first person placed was Jeff Schild, also of Oak Ridge, who found a job with BoxOfficeTickets.com working in customer service from his bedroom. Schild needs to type and speak on the telephone from a prone position to accommodate the herniated disk and lumbar damage he suffered from two car accidents, the first in 1995.

Although new medical issues have complicated his situation, and his employment is on hold, he plans to be back at work as soon as the situation “clears.” Before starting in March, he hadn’t been gainfully employed since 1995.

A recent survey by CDW Corporation found that 14 percent of private employees and 17 percent of federal government employees telecommute, although most do it from one day per month to one day per week. According to Gil Gordon of Gil Gordon Associates, a telecommuting consulting firm, only 10 percent of all teleworkers do so exclusively. According to a Society of Human Resource Management survey, 36 percent of companies offer some form of telecommuting, but just 19 percent offer full-time options.

The two-year pilot project hopes to identify and assess a minimum of 12 people in the first year and 17 in the second; and to place a minimum of eight people in jobs in the first year and 12 in the second. Twenty-five people have already been assessed in the first two months of the project.

The public/private partnership could set the model for coming government projects, according to David Socolow, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

“This is the kind of thing we’ll have to be doing more of and that we should be doing more of because we get more creativity and more good ideas by doing it this way,” he said at the April 9 launch.

Tom Jennings, director of DVRS, pointed out that new technology has leveled the playing field for people with severe physical disabilities.

“Change has opened up all sorts of new markets and new approaches for the consumers we serve,” he said. “It is no longer a negative approach to have people work from home.”

Roger DeRose of the Kessler Foundation hopes the project will become a model that other communities will follow.

“If it works, it can be scaled to meet broader uses throughout the state. And it can be passed as a best practice to other states in the country,” he said.

Len Schneider, JVS executive director, is focused on meeting the challenge.

“As a pilot project we are looking to demonstrate the efficacy of the initiative — that is, work to establish and create jobs that will provide meaningful employment for the participants,” he said.

The program is limited to people with physical disabilities so severe that their mobility is restricted. JVS offers customized training and job seeking skills and also acquires necessary equipment to enable participants to perform their role.

Part of the grant’s focus is on developing employers and encouraging them to consider creating jobs that are home-based, rather than based at a call center.

For Schild, 42, landing the job at BoxOfficeTickets.com changed everything.

“It’s great! I feel I’m contributing to my family,” he said, referring to his wife and eight-month-old son. “For me to be able to contribute and be back at work, it’s unbelievable. It’s made my relationship better and put responsibility back on board for me.”

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