The Greater Boston area and beyond is filled with many talented individuals who sometimes just need a foot through the door to launch their career and be given a chance to prove themselves.
Since opening in 1998, Contemporaries, Inc. has provided that opportunity to many diverse inner city residents and others who may otherwise have been turned away. Our culture has always been one of inclusion, celebrating and embracing the uniqueness and individualism of the area’s varied population. Long before diversity and inclusion became household words, Contemporaries had implemented operational practices with both terms in mind. Early on, Contemporaries CEO, Donna Fitzgerald, also recognized the importance of addressing income inequality and took steps to help level the field.
While many other staffing firms were paying employees hourly wages of $9 and $10, Contemporaries provided a higher rate for the same work and for the same positions. In fact, Contemporaries was the first agency in New England to offer a $15 minimum wage for the same jobs. While it was many years ago and our wages are much higher now, at the time, Fitzgerald had hoped her bold move would encourage other employers to follow suit. She also wanted to enable employees to focus on doing a great job rather than worrying about how to meet their monthly expenses. To this day, Contemporaries still offers a higher competitive pay rate as a means of retaining highly skilled workers, so they don’t have to leave a lower paying job for a more lucrative opportunity.
Diversity has been in the forefront of the Contemporaries candidate recruitment model, and our clients have been the beneficiaries of our successful efforts over the past 25 years. Sometimes a resume alone does not tell the entire story of a great candidate’s future potential and ability to add extra value to a specific position or organization. Our seasoned Recruiters have been able to identify and reach out to those candidates and place them in job slots where they not only flourished. but achieved tremendous success to the delight of our clients. In many instances, those individuals came from very diverse backgrounds and again, just needed the right opportunity to showcase their abilities.
Clients, in fact, have repeatedly thanked us for providing a varied workforce and one which helped their own organizations grow and with a diverse and well-rounded inclusive work culture.
Image retrieved from Pixabay under the public domain.