A FEW DECISIVE STEPS NOW WILL ENHANCE WELFARE-TO-WORK SUCCESS.

Byline: Phil Quigley and Thomas McKernan Jr.

IN 1996, Congress passed and the president signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, ending the welfare system as we knew it. Cynics and wags, on both ends of the political spectrum, argued it wouldn't work - couldn't work - using dramatically opposite reasoning.

But, both the premise and the promise of welfare reform - that there should be work for every able-bodied welfare recipient - means that both the public and private sectors together face an enormous challenge: hundreds of thousands of jobs must be created over the next 5 years and welfare recipients must be capable of successfully competing for the available pool of jobs.

If welfare-to-work is to be a success, we must be successful in achieving a strong and healthy business climate. By taking a very few but specific and positive actions to enhance California's business climate, state policy-makers can provide welfare-to-work with the solid foundation it needs to build the 750,000 new jobs California must have between 1998 and 2003 to fulfill the new law's requirements.

What kind of specific and positive activity? A 1992 study by the Rand Corporation found that wrongful-termination laws, developed during the tumultuous 1980s, eroded businesses' traditional ``employment at will'' doctrine. This has resulted in employment-level reductions of 4 to 5 percent over the last decade.

This session, the California Legislature is considering several employment litigation reform bills, which, if passed, could alone account for an additional 250,000 to 400,000 new jobs.

Continued job creation is also dependent on the maintenance and improvement of the state's public facilities. Approximately 15,000 to 25,000 new jobs for Californians at every skill level are created for every $1 billion the state invests in its public works projects.

Even if these kinds of policy initiatives were adopted, however, business can and must undertake independent, creative and effective welfare-to-work efforts without waiting for government support or mandate.

Each individual company in California has, within its control, the power to provide better access to jobs for qualified, motivated, former welfare recipients.

For example, Pacific Bell, working in partnership with Jewish Vocational Services, has initiated a ``best practices'' pilot project which would recruit, train, test and hire welfare recipients for entry level jobs in San Francisco. The three-week training session uses a ``work-first'' model. The business community, utilizing organizations like the California Taxpayers Association, the California Business Roundtable and the California Chamber of Commerce, will share information with nonprofit and for-profit member companies on the best practices and most successful techniques used to integrate welfare trainees into the workplace.

Business should also work closely with successful nonprofit and community-based organizations to create a capacity building system wherein welfare dependents can transition to self-sustaining employment. Both small and large California businesses can already do a lot to nurture these enterprises by:

Using temporary employment agencies or nonprofit job training to assist with transition, while testing a new employee's job skills and work habits.

Financing and staffing an in-house brokerage to assure employee information flow, quality control and process improvement.

Using corporate philanthropy, including the business sector's heavy reliance on organizations like the United Way, to encourage change.

Participating in using private/public matching fund programs that increase the supply of licensed, quality child-care facilities.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, say in the year 2002, when these welfare-to-work reforms are evaluated for their effectiveness, it is our hope that the cynics will be forced to admit that the policy-makers and business leaders of 1997 accepted the challenge and moved aggressively on all fronts to create the climate which fostered tremendous job growth and employment opportunities for all Californians, including those making the transition from welfare to work.