When Juatise Gathings planned to leave her corporate job at Discover Financial Services to pursue social service work, things took an unexpected turn that would change her life and the lives of many others. Discover announced in 2021 that it would open a new customer call center in Chicago’s South Side, saying it wanted to be part of the solution to address “unequal opportunity in our society.”
Minority communities in Chicago’s South and West Sides have some of the highest poverty rates in the city.
Gathings was tapped to oversee the operations of the new call center in Chatham and the assignment hit home. She once lived there.
“Our family grew up in a neighborhood where there had been a significant disinvestment that happened over the course of time,” Gathings says. “So my mother relocated our family to Arizona in order to have access to economic empowerment.”
Discover Builds Customer Call Center on Chicago’s South Side
Gathings calls her move back to Chicago’s South Side her “full circle moment.”
Discover pledged to hire 1,000 full-time employees with a starting salary of $17.25 an hour and benefits. By the fall of 2024, the company reached its hiring goal. Eighty-five percent of its employees, it says, live within a five-mile radius of the center and nearly 500 employees received promotions.
When Capitol One announced plans in 2024 to acquire Discover, it committed to keeping the Chatham call center going.
“Certainly, I think Discover set out to do good for the community when it brought the jobs to the neighborhood,” Gathings says. “But what we found was the community really came through for Discover.”
She recalls 15,000 applications for the first 500 jobs and then doubling the amount of hires in that first year.
“From a talent perspective, I think it helped Discover really think about the hidden populations that deserve opportunity,” Gathings says.
The ability to work close to home, along with Discover’s commitment, seemed to be a big draw for workers.
“I think it significantly increased employee retention, but also loyalty and commitment, because they found a company that they can not only work in, but it was also doing good to change the economic conditions of their communities as well,” Gathings says.
Besides bringing jobs, she says, small businesses benefited as a result of Discover’s call center.
Proud of what she helped accomplish, Gathings left her position as regional operations director for Discover Financial Services and is now co-founder and managing partner of Just Act Partners, a consultancy to attract more companies to invest in Chicago’s South and West sides.
Employer Investments, Nonprofits Spark Job-Growth Ecosystem
Gathings says Discover’s success helped spark a workforce development ecosystem in the area, along with partners like Skills for Chicagoland’s Future, which worked to get the call center off the ground. Gathings serves on the nonprofit’s board.
”I really think of us as the network for people that maybe don’t have a great professional network,” says Bridget Altenburg, CEO of Skills for Chicagoland’s Future.
The nonprofit works with unemployed and underemployed job seekers mostly from the South and West Sides of Chicago.
“We work very closely with the employer and develop trusted relationships so that we can be that last mile between the candidate and the employer and set that candidate up for success,” Altenberg says.
The organization gets referrals from more than 50 community-based organizations and prepares job candidates in the process.
“So, all of the things that you wished you knew before you went into a job interview – who you’re meeting with, how do I get there, what are the kind of questions that I’m going to ask, all of those things – we really help our candidates make sure that they’re going to not only get an interview, but be successful in that interview,“ Altenburg says.
Skills for Chicagoland’s Future counts more than 12,150 placements working with more than 130 employers and it has two criteria: Employees have to be able to commute from the South and West Sides of Chicago, and employers need to treat them fairly and get workers to a living wage.
“The living wage keeps going up, and we can’t keep up with it,” she says. “So I’m not going to not work with somebody that doesn’t have jobs over $24 an hour – but I need to figure out how we’re getting people to a career path that will get them to that living wage.”
Employers working with Skills for Chicagoland’s Future include Rush University Medical Center and Blue Cross Blue Shield, which opened a facility on Chicago’s South Side in 2020 and announced a call center in 2023.
Local Company Will Create 50 New Jobs
Another employer working with Skills for Chicagoland’s future is Freedman Seating, a small manufacturing company on Chicago’s West Side that dates back 130 years and employs roughly 700 workers.
The company makes seats for buses, trains, trucks, and boats, and recently announced a $4 million investment in its facility and a pledge to create 50 more jobs that will make the company eligible for a tax credit.
Ninety-five percent of the company’s employees are local, living on the city’s West Side, according to the company.
Freedman, which was recently acquired by Lippert, places a huge emphasis on workforce development and community partnership.
“People generally like to live close to where they work in our community,” says Craig Freedman, the company’s CEO. “There’s more people than average out of work. And so that gives us a kind of a leg up, I think, in finding talent and diamonds in the rough, so to speak.”
Company Develops a Local Labor Supply
To find that talent, Freedman says the company recruits from high schools and community colleges, works with community organizations including Skills for Chicagoland’s Future and the Safer Foundation for individuals who are justice involved, and groups that provide wraparound support to employees who need it.
The company also depends on organizations that provide skills training.
Freedman says the skills that are primarily needed are welding and computer numerical control (CNC), a skill needed to operate laser machines and robotic welders. Both jobs require a high-school diploma or equivalent.
One source of talent is the Jane Addams Resource Corporation, which provides skills training to low-income adults. And it’s located within Freedman Seating’s building. JARC’S welding training program is 14 weeks and 350 hours, and its CNC operator training is 20 weeks and 500 hours.
The median salary for welders, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics is $48,940 and CNC operators earn a mean annual wage of $51,030.
‘I like to work with my hands’
Other jobs at the company require different skills, such as reading blueprints and measurements and working with hand tools.
“I like to work with my hands most of the time instead of my head,” says Samar Hernandez, 23, who works as an assembler at Freedman Seating.
Hernandez was a carpenter and, when she was laid off, she turned to the Greater West Town Community Development Project to gain certificates in OSHA 10, warehouse operations and a license to operate a forklift. She then applied to Freedman Seating. Hernandez likes being close to home after having to travel frequently as a carpenter and she says she likes the fact she can learn new skills at Freedman Seating.
“They do help you advance, not just stay in one place,” Hernandez says. “They have open positions to see if you want to try it out.”
Aiming for Employee Retention
Hernandez now has been with the company for eight months. That is the kind of sign Freedman likes to see. He says, just like many companies, attracting and retaining employees is challenging. He finds that employees who stay for at least six months tend to remain at the company for a long period of time.
“Our average employee has been here for something over seven years, which we’re proud of that number,” he says. “There’s something about what we do here that makes people want to stay once they’re settled.”
Gathings says that kind of company investment is essential in making a difference.
“There’s only so much government can do. There’s only so much nonprofits can do,” she says.
“We need corporate community in Chicago to lead the way. They’re the only ones that can bring jobs to communities at scale. And I’m a living witness that if you add jobs on the South and West Sides, it’s not just good for the community. It will be good for your business, too.”
