Hi, I'm Arielle Hawaii. I hope you're enjoying TC mobility so far. I am here with Yvette Ellis Yvette is the co founder and chief workforce Officer of charger health and Evie charging station repair company that has had a long career in workforce development, including spending 10 years with the Department of Labor, where she held numerous roles. And also at the Los Angeles clean tech incubator where she was a career coach, we are going to be talking with Yvette today about charger helps approach to hiring and to training. Yvette, thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for having me. Super excited to be here.
Awesome. So that I understand that you met charger help co founder Camille Terry at the incubator. And when she initially approached you about starting the company together, you said no. Why is that?
Yes. She was brilliant. I had seen Camille in action. And she told me about this awesome idea of a company that she had out like You go girl, however, I had nothing, no connection to it. I just started with a great idea, especially for this industry, when she explained to me. So that's why I said no, because I think the extent of my clean tech was probably recycling. Right? So I just felt like this was an industry that you really had to know your stuff and have passion and I didn't get it. But once she explained to me how she went to workforce development to really be the heartbeat of the company and weaved into the fabric of the business model, then I was intrigued because that I do know how to do and know how to get folks jobs. And I know how to negotiate with employers with training centers. I do know how to do that. And if there was room for me to do that for underrepresented communities, I was all in.
Great. So let's talk a little bit about the workforce development side of the company. Now I know when charged or help is hiring, you reach out to workforce development centers and help them use them to solicit applications. Why was that so important to you and to Camille from the very beginning?
Well, when we think of opportunities that we've had or not had, and the programs that we've been involved in as well, I don't know, if tech companies were a part of that group. And working for the job corps system, Department of Labor's Job Corps system in particular, I know there are certain industries that we focus on there that would allow certain people to work there, right. So there were these like, invisible nuances that existed in our workforce that really kept us divided. So we really, really wanted to pioneer this idea that you can work with a workforce development center, who our federal government pays lots of money to train, and do all the things that you need to get a great talent source, right to create that pipeline to use those pipelines for industries outside of construction are our entry level medical, but also for Texans. Old tech is the biggest industry in our company in our country. And it's really running the show right now. We want to make sure that underrepresented communities you can get left out of the shift that is clearly happening.
Right. So the other thing about charger help is that you train and you hire using a cohort model. So let's say there are 20 people, right? So you train all of them and even if I know you're expanding at the moment, so all of them will likely be hired. But let's say in the future, a certain number of them are hired. But even if you aren't offered a job, you will leave with this training certification that a person can take forward with them in their career. You In terms of kind of dollars and numbers, how did you determine that this model made the most sort of economical sense for the company?
Yeah, for dollar numbers. Really, a lot of that was just good old common sense, right? You have your minimum wage, you have your living wage, right? And we just really looked at what is the general formula for what number can we add to minimum wage to make a living wage for each thing, that that middle number was $30, right? One would need $30 to live without having two or three jobs, you know, to be able to take care of a family, not just say you live in ritually, but you're living right? Now. That's what we really want to provide. Because the work that we expect, and the training that we provide, we really want to be the best in our business. Aside from workforce development, we have great technology, and we do a really good job at fixing Evie charging stations. So it's not a charitable feel to it, we really want good people that have great soft skills that are patient and flexible with how this infrastructure has been important in to really be able to do the work of represent our company well. So that's how we came up with those figures. And number. Also, you know, to be perfectly honest, there's a lot of money in tech, there's no reason why we have to pay entry level folks, $15 there's a lot of money. So we really believe that we can pay people decent and pay people will and become a very profitable and lucrative business because that is a big plan of ours, right? We do want to take over the world, we do want to make a lot of money. We have our own dreams and aspirations. However, I don't believe I have to pay someone crumbs or pennies in order to do that. Hmm. Okay, so
I think we have time for just one more question. So, obviously, there's been a lot of talk in tech and beyond about equity. And yet, the workforce development model that charter health is pursuing is quite unique. It's I certainly haven't heard of it in any other kind of tech or clean tech company. Why do you think that is?
Well, we are two black, African American women. So we have experienced the inequity, which really motivates the right, the equity that we want to see, we have been privileged and and have the opportunity to be in spaces that I know everyone that looks like me have not. And there's no particular special thing about me, and will allow that other than we have a great idea, a great company, but there's lots of great ideas and lots of great companies. So I would say the the thing that we want to say is that this should not be abnormal, we should not be highlighting a company because they're equitable. We should really be looking at companies who don't do this at all and say, why are you not diverse? Why Why is this normal and abnormal for us to do something that really pushes equity when people are treated equally, and get benefits and shares why that far fetched. And that's what we want to like shine the light on that this should be the norm, we really want to change the landscape of workforce development.
Okay, that we are out of time. But thank you so much for joining us, and I'm looking forward to following the company throughout the rest of the year and into the future. Thank you. Thank you so much.