LITTLETON, N.H. (AP) - A green-and-purple sticker on the door of the Genfoot America factory proclaims the business to be “recovery friendly.”
The factory’s manager, Mark Bonta, is a strong believer in a recovery-friendly workplace. Nearly 100 people work for Bonta, running the injection molding machine that turn little rubber pellets into rain boots or stitching the upper pieces of the footwear.
Every New Hampshire employer has hired people who are in recovery, Bonta said. “They just may not know it.”
The state’s goal is a workplace cultural revolution. Company leaders pledge to support employees struggling with substance abuse and receive an official designation from the governor’s office. Under this model, managers treat addiction as a medical concern and become part of a person’s recovery support team.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu launched the program March 2018, drawing on his background running Waterville Valley, his family’s ski resort. He struggled to keep employees because of the opioid crisis.
The program kicked off with a one-time $1 million appropriation from the Legislature, plus some support through grants.
“This initiative is a win-win,” he wrote in a letter sent to governors across the country, encouraging them to adopt the program. “Employers need workers, and those in recovery benefit from being an active participant in the workforce.”
New Hampshire has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic. The state has one of the highest rates of drug overdose deaths in the country, higher than Vermont’s. New Hampshire saw people die at nearly twice the national average rate in 2017.
Both states have very low unemployment rates. Last March, New Hampshire’s rate was 2.4 percent while Vermont’s was 2.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Sununu has discussed the program with Vermont’s governor, he said. Neither Gov. Phil Scott or his opioid chief, Jolinda LaClair, returned calls for comment.
Company culture
On a Monday in late May, a conveyor belt moved cooling boots slowly over the heads of Genfoot’s afternoon shift.
Bonta points out the employee pulling the boots off the injection molding machine as one of the many workers who start with few of the technical skills needed and learn them at Genfoot.
Being a recovery-friendly workplace fits with the company’s focus on developing employees.
Signs on the walls explain development opportunities available for employees. Some of the offerings give people the opportunity to pick up technical skills. The company takes advantage of seasons when rain and winter boots are less in demand to train their people.
Bonta believes in the social mission of the initiative. He once thought his only option was to fire employees when their struggles with addiction bled into the workplace.
Now he and his managers feel empowered to help employees.
How it works
Challenging stigma is one of the main tenets of the program, Shannon Bresaw, the program’s director, said.
So employers make a public declaration to their employees to ensure everyone is on the same page. They commit to annual trainings, both for management and for their entire workforce.
The state provides the training. The six “recovery-friendly workplace advisors” help employers adapt the program to fit each workplace. The training sessions could be a basic introduction to understanding addiction, Bresaw said, or could guide people on accessing resources.
Prompted by the training, employers are encouraged to revise workplace policy or practice to be more recovery-friendly.
The program is still too new to fully see the impact, Bresaw said, but she has seen encouraging signs, like shifting from company happy hours to sober group activities.
Once companies get approved, they can display the initiative’s logo. That makes it easier for Bonta to recruit people, he said, even if they never mention they’re in recovery.
“If they see that on the door, they’ll be more confident that they’re okay here,” Bonta said.
Safely employed
Hypertherm, located 80 miles down Interstate 91 from Genfoot, began considering ways to be more recovery-friendly four years ago. Hypertherm was an early adopter of the governor’s program.
They used to fire people who failed drug tests, said Matt McKenney, the company’s workforce development program. But they began to feel like they could be helping more.
“Addiction is a powerful thing, and if somebody made a mistake or slipped up, it meant they were getting fired,” he said.
So they started to explore how they could safely keep people employed, McKenney said, and came up with a plan - one that’s been adopted by Genfoot and other recovery-friendly workplaces.
An employee who relapses or is otherwise struggling is given the opportunity to create a “substance abuse management agreement.”
The agreements are tailored for each workplace and designed to create support and accountability for the employee.
The manager may move employees to part-time work, or reassign them off a production line to reduce risk. The employee signs off on allowing a counselor or other recovery provider to speak with their boss to ensure that they are going to all their meetings and are okay to work.
A boon for employers
Kamik’s two factories are in the Littleton Industrial Park, a strip of factories and businesses a few minutes drive from downtown across from the Ammonoosuc River. Shoe factories used to line the river, but as the manufacturing industry shrank and the jobs disappeared, the town invested in the business park.
Littleton has faced many of the same struggles as rural areas of Vermont. The number of elderly people has grown, while the population of school-age children has shrunk.
The town has managed to attract some younger, hipper businesses, but Bonta still struggles to hire people.
Typical starting wages at Genfoot’s two factories are around $11 an hour, well above New Hampshire’s minimum wage of $7.25, but he still struggles to find people to work.
Companies like Genfoot need to tap into new labor pools, Bonta said.
McKenney is also struggling to hire people.
The company runs a quarterly class to teach inexperienced hires the technical skills they need. McKenney offers $18 an hour, benefits and college credits for people in the class, but has found it difficult to fill seats. Some positions remain open for up to two years.
McKenney believes his company would still be emphasizing supporting people in recovery even if the unemployment rate were higher. But some employers have been persuaded to sign on because of the need to fill spots, he said.
“It’s easier to justify why they should look at this population,” he said.
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