Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/164142
DESIGN TO IMPRESS... BUILD TO LAST... Commercial A closer look Industrial Design/Build www.alliancebuilds.com | 920-336-3400 The Voice of the Packers and Badgers in the Fox Cities Join the excitement! Let our listeners be your customers. 733-6639 whby.com 40 | Insight • S e p t e m b e r 2 013 Shipping & Logistics STEP Industries gives workers another chance Finding work after dealing with substance abuse issues can be difficult. However, STEP Industries of Neenah has been helping people overcome that obstacle for 31 years. "We hire newly recovered alcoholics and drug addicts," says Michelle Giese, president of STEP Industries. "Generally, people have gone through treatment or are currently in treatment and we're here as the next step of rebuilding their lives back together." The company not only gives recovering addicts another chance at entering the working world, but provides training such as proper workplace etiquette. "We teach people the basics of individual accountability - what the rules of a regular workplace are, how to dress for work, how to talk in the workplace, what expectations are for regular jobs," says Giese. STEP Industries offers a range of services for clients. "Anything that is labor-intensive," Giese says, such as packaging, assembly and modification. The average stay for an employee is between four and six months, but the company allows workers to stay for as long as they need or want to. The number of employees the company has ranges from 60 to 140. Currently there are 95 employees. "Afterward, they will hopefully go on to a better job," says Giese. "Fifty-five percent of our employees find another job or go back to school." –Sean Lyons explore the idea of hiring people with disabilities and finding opportunities to make it work. Talking with workers and supervisors at ProSolutions can help convey what kinds of obligations there are and what might need to be done differently. "I look at just the vast number of companies that are in our region, and if we could get a small percentage to consider somebody with a disability, the unemployment level for people with disabilities would drop," Gerarden says. "And (companies) would find that they're getting a very productive, loyal, energetic and very thankful employee." w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m