- Collaboration creates career path in banking, removes
barriers to employment in Austin,
Little Village and other Chicago
communities
- Cara expanding cohort-based inclusive employment framework
to additional organizations
CHICAGO, Sept. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Cara
and BMO Harris Bank announced today a workforce development program
co-created to remove barriers to employment and increase access to
careers in banking and finance. The two organizations extended job
offers to a cohort of 12 Chicago job seekers following their
inaugural hiring event, held virtually on Sept. 16.
The program, entitled BMORE, represents a new model for both
Cara and BMO in which the organizations collaborated to recruit,
train and place individuals into customer service roles at the
Chicago-based bank. Cara and
BMO co-created each step of the program from recruitment through
onboarding to support the new team members. In addition, the
Customer Experience Representative (CER) job description was
workshopped with Cara job seekers to better appeal to local,
diverse talent.
Newly hired CERs will assist customers while building meaningful
partnerships, as well as support branch operations and serve as
critical brand ambassadors for BMO.
Recruitment for the BMORE program focused primarily on the
Austin and Little Village
neighborhoods in support of Mayor Lori
Lightfoot's INVEST South/West initiative, which is designed
to address economic disparity in key neighborhoods across the city,
but the roles were open to all Cara participants. Because
transportation is often a barrier to employment, candidates were
considered for roles at BMO branches that are easily accessible by
public transportation. Community partners Austin Coming Together,
Latinos Progresando and Instituto del Progreso Latino collaborated on recruitment for
the program in Austin and Little
Village.
"We are extremely proud to partner with our friends at BMO
Harris for this unique, but critical program," said Joe Mutuc, Cara's chief business development
officer. "Our mission is to unlock the power and purpose within our
communities and ourselves to achieve real and lasting success, and
a big component of that is working with employers, like BMO, to
recognize the untapped workforce talent across our city and
creating equitable opportunities for everyone. Our hope with this
initiative is that it will inspire other companies to assess and
evaluate their own hiring practices."
"We started building the BMORE program in 2019 to deepen our
long-term connection with the communities we serve and to remove
barriers to inclusion," said Ernie
(Erminia) Johannson, BMO's group head of North American
Personal and Business Banking. "That thinking inspired this
collaboration with Cara – creating a pathway for people with
barriers to employment to have access to a career in financial
services. We're excited to bring this first cohort into the BMO
family and look forward to scaling the program in the future."
Leveraging nearly 30 years of workforce development experience,
Cara provided candidates with work readiness training, screening
and skills assessment. Cara places people experiencing poverty and
homelessness into nearly 1,000 jobs each year. The average
one-year, same-firm retention rate for a Cara placement across all
industries is approximately 70 percent.
In October, the new BMO CERs will begin their paid learning and
development program before their official start date in
November.
Due to COVID-19, the BMORE program needed to quickly adapt to
the new environment. BMO and Cara redoubled their commitment to the
program just as it was kicking off to ensure it could go forward.
Recruiting, training, hiring, onboarding and learning will take
place virtually during the pandemic. The team also broadened
recruitment efforts to include Cara alumni whose employment was
impacted by COVID-19. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the
program exceeded its goal of extending 10 job offers for its
inaugural cohort.
Building on this work, Cara recently announced a virtual
institute series to help employers achieve similar objectives to
the BMO partnership, such as diversifying their workforces with
talent often sidelined by the mainstream economy and learning the
tactics they can take to help that talent succeed. Two separate
training cohorts will take place this fall and winter. More
information, including how to register, can be found here.
BMO Harris Bank is focused on supporting its communities and
removing barriers to inclusion. In 2019, BMO donated $10 million to the United Way of Metro Chicago's
Neighborhood Network in support of the Chicago Mayor's INVEST South/West initiative
and BMO's Purpose to Boldly Grow the Good in business and
life. Those funds were directed to Austin and Little Village to support their
neighborhood revitalization plans. Earlier this month, the bank
announced new goals in support of a diverse and inclusive
workforce.
About Cara
Cara's mission is to unlock the power and purpose within our
communities and ourselves to create real and lasting success.
Through our personal and professional development and access to
employment opportunities, Cara serves as a leader in poverty
alleviation in Chicago and beyond.
Since 1991, more than 6,500 people have been placed into more than
10,000 jobs and started on their path to self-sufficiency. Learn
more at www.carachicago.org.
About BMO Harris Bank
BMO Harris Bank provides a broad range of personal banking
products and solutions through more than 500 branches and fee-free
access to over 40,000 ATMs across the
United States. BMO Harris Bank's commercial banking team
provides a combination of sector expertise, local knowledge and
mid-market focus throughout the United
States. For more information about BMO Harris Bank, visit
the company fact sheet. Accounts are subject to approval. BMO
Harris Bank N.A. Member FDIC. BMO Harris Bank is part of BMO
Financial Group, a highly diversified financial services provider
with total assets of CDN$974 billion
as of July 31, 2020.
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SOURCE BMO Harris Bank