Flint Healthcare Employment Opportunities (FHEO)
Overview
Flint Healthcare Employment Opportunities (FHEO) is a healthcare sector initiative focused on improving the economic status of unemployed residents of Flint, Michigan, primarily in Flint's Renewal Community, while simultaneously addressing the workforce needs of major healthcare employers in the area. The Insight Center worked closely with local partners to establish FHEO and support its successful operation. Beginning in 2000, the Insight Center provided development assistance to the local stakeholders, including research and analysis, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and program design. After FHEO began operations in 2002, Insight Center provided ongoing assistance with resource development, system design, peer learning facilitation, and long-term visioning for the initiative.
In her 2004 State of the State address, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm cited FHEO as an exemplary model that combines economic and workforce development to rebuild distressed communities. She charged the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth with the development of 12 similar sector initiatives across the state. The resulting Michigan Regional Skills Alliance program is a leading example of state support for sector initiatives.
FHEO is led by the region's major healthcare employers and managed by the Greater Flint Health Coalition. The five FHEO partners (Flint-Genesee Economic Growth Alliance, Flint STRIVE, Baker College, Mott Community College, and Faith Access to Community Economic Development) provide entry-level vocational and soft-skills training, skills upgrade training for entry-level healthcare, support services for students attending training classes, and supervisory training for managers of entry-level healthcare staff. FHEO has received support for its operations from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
Outcomes
The Insight Center has worked with FHEO to successfully meet its goals in performance outcomes, collective and individual accountability structure, and restructuring of industry human-resource practices. Successful outcomes of the initiative include:
- Attaining targeted community outcomes for the numbers of residents recruited, trained, placed, retained, and advanced, as well as increased earnings for program graduates.
- Attaining employer outcomes including lower attrition, absenteeism, and tardiness, and better performance evaluations for program graduates as compared to other entry-level employe
- Attaining greater FHEO partner accountability by ensuring that each partner take on a set of responsibilities - such as recruitment, case management, or training - and be compensated based on performance. If the project as a whole does not meet the collective employer-related outcomes, all of the partners forfeit 15 percent of their individual earning
- Addressing industry workforce and skills-shortage needs over the long term by ensuring that all three of FHEO's major healthcare employer partners (McLaren, Hurley, and Genesys medical centers) employ, retain, and advance FHEO graduates.