2024 Ones to Watch - Innovators in CRE: Rose Fathers, Building Skills NY

Rose Fathers joined BSNY in January 2024 to advance the organization’s mission of preparing local job seekers for construction careers while helping employers find a ready, willing, and able workforce. She manages relationships with a network of about 100 employers to build and sustain a healthy job pipeline. She presents job opportunities to her team of two direct reports who then source and screen candidates referred by community partners. While the majority of BSNY projects are in affordable housing, the pipeline also includes large-scale mixed-use developments. 

Innovative Solution: 

NYC real estate moves fast and thrives on relationships. Since joining BSNY I’ve sought to optimize our systems so that our team can devote more time and thought to cultivating those relationships. I’ve found that many employers lack a source of truth for progress toward local hiring goals. I’ve introduced tracking systems to address this, encouraging more employer engagement and accountability. In a few months, we saw the number of developer partners using these tracking systems grow from 1 to 12. After years of running biweekly recruitment events to enroll more job seekers in our program, I’ve also moved us to an “as-needed” schedule that makes better use of job seekers’ time and more closely reflects our current job pipeline. 

Innovative Outlook: 

My position affords me a unique level of insight into hiring trends in the city. I see how challenging it is for employers to find talent at the speed they require; at the same time, I see abundant interest and potential among community members who are out of work for one reason or another. In my communication with employers across the five boroughs, I see a lot of room to borrow tools and tricks from the tech sector to simplify the processes of tracking current and future opportunities, sorting through local hiring requirements, and sourcing talent through intermediaries like BSNY.

“As director of business services for the workforce development nonprofit Building Skills NY, Rose Fathers connects NYC’s leading developers and general contractors with local talent. Rose implemented two strategic shifts this year: introducing local hire tracking systems to improve collaboration with employers and streamlining job seeker recruitment to better serve the candidates in the pipeline. These enhancements have allowed for 25-35 monthly job placements and a lean ratio of enrollments to job placements (roughly 2.5:1).” - Taylor Smith, Building Skills NY.