New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Hearst Top Workplaces deadline extended
It’s a busy time of year at a hectic time of recovery, and if you’ve been thinking about nominating your company for a Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces award, we’ve extended the deadline.
The contest is now open until April 16, giving employers in Fairfield, New Haven and Lichfield counties time to seek recognition for great work at a time of change.
Twelve months ago, as we launched the 10th year of the Top Workplaces contest, the biggest worry for most people managing companies was finding good workers. Unemployment hovered well under 4 percent, the range where employers struggle on the market for talent.
Now, of course, your biggest headache is about coping with the pandemic and your colleagues’ safety — and returning to a
“normal” work life that won’t look like what came before.
One constant: People matter the most in any organization. And one of the most effective claims you can make is that you’re a Top Workplace.
That means the Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces awards for 2021. It’s a great way for all businesses and nonprofits to showcase all the ways they’ve valued employees throughout the pandemic.
We’re looking to honor the best places to work — whether they’re privately owned companies, publicly traded corporations, subsidiaries, partnerships, nonprofits or government agencies. A company need not have its headquarters here to compete. The contest is open to any employer with 35 or more people in the three counties. Recognition is given for small, midsize and large organizations, and the contest also rewards the best executives.
The cost to compete — and win — is zero.
Last year, Hearst Connecticut Media honored 49 employers. Awards are based on short, 24-question employee surveys by our partner, Energage, about how well employers value their ideas, communicate, puts their strategies to work, operate ethically and create a culture of teamwork and competence.
The reigning top winners from 2020 include Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New England Properties (1st place among large employers for the third consecutive year), and Indeed at No. 2 for the large size category. Wheeler Clinic Inc. was No. 3 among large employers. For midsize employers, Sheltonbased Barnum Financial Group finished at No. 1. No. 2 was HAI Group, a specialty insurer to housing authorities, based in Cheshire, which anticipated the COVID-19 crisis ahead of most of us. And third was Splash Carwash, based in Milford with 14 locations in the region.
Criterion, a small but global software developer in Norwalk, won 1st place among small employers in its first year on the list and its CEO, Sunil Reddy, won the top leadership award in that category. Autism Behavioral Health, a Danbury company, was No. 2 among small employers. And Greenwich Emergency Medical Service was No. 3.
Only one company, ICON International Inc., the corporate barter firm, has made the winners list all ten years. All of these winners, and all 49 from the 2020 list, have amazing stories to tell about working through coronavirus. And they can tell you why their Top Workplaces designation matters.
Hearst Connecticut Media Top Workplaces winners will be featured in the Connecticut Post, The NewsTimes of Danbury, Greenwich Time, The Stamford Advocate, The Norwalk Hour, New Haven Register and The Register Citizen of Torrington in September — and will be highlighted on all of the associated websites.
For complete coverage of last year’s winners, go to any of those media outlets’ websites and type /topworkplaces — such as www.ctpost.com/topworkplaces.
Energage, formerly known as WorkplaceDynamics, carries out the Top Workplaces surveys for more than 40 metro newspapers including some of the biggest. The company has surveyed more than 20 million employees at tens of thousands of organizations.
Employers can be nominated online at topworkplaces. com/hearstct or by calling 203-6170727.
NEW HAVEN — School officials are preparing to take the next step for a gradual return to normalcy: allowing fourth- and fifth-graders to attend school in-person for four days per week instead of two.
Presently, students up to eighth grade can choose to attend school in person. The district is planning to reopen high schools on April 5. In all schools, Wednesday is a day when teachers receive professional development and school custodial crews do a deep cleaning of every building while students learn remotely.
However, only students up to third grade currently are able to attend school in person four days per week, with all other students who attend in person being split into two groups that attend school in a classroom with a teacher on either Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday.
Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey said the decision on students in fourth and fifth grades will not take too much extra planning “as it is the same group of kids.” The district’s reasoning for splitting its older students into two groups was a space consideration, she said.
“We had to ensure that it would not impact capacity in buildings due to social distancing guidelines,” she said.
However, as teachers in the district now have had the opportunity to receive or schedule a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and community transmission of the virus is decreasing to pre-Thanksgiving rates, the district has begun to increase the use of its school buildings.
Board of Education President Yesenia Rivera said she supports the move as long as it is done in collaboration with public health officials.
“As we have done in each phase of our reopening, we’ll continue to work with our public health professionals to ensure the next phase agrees with the science,” she said.
Parent Sarah Miller,a volunteer organizer of NHPS Advocates, an organized parent group that has criticized the district’s decision to reopen some schools while there still is community transmission of and no herd immunity from the virus, said “the absence of clear guidelines is a ... problem.”
However, she acknowledged that the increasing number of people who have been vaccinated in the community has led to a diminished risk.
Mehul Dalal, the city’s community services administrator, said his team is in constant communication with school officials about public safety.
“We are in continuous conversation with Dr. Tracey to ensure we are applying the latest evidence-based guidelines,” Dalal said.
“From the city side our team is committed to making that transition as safe as possible for the kids,” he said.
SHELTON — The family of a Shelton man who died earlier this year is raising money in his memory to help a Bridgeport-based operation that helps feed the hungry.
Anthony Mobilio, a Shelton resident for more than 25 years, spent much of his working career in the heating industry, which is why his family felt The Thomas Merton Center’s need for a replacement boiler system would a perfect way to honor his memory.
Mobilio’s sister, Carol Mobilio, said on Jan. 14 — the day before her brother died from cancer — Sabine Kuczo from the center called his nephew, Joseph Mobilio Jr., of Cheshire-based Mobilio and Son Heating and Cooling, for help with replacing the building’s heating boiler system.
The cost for the boiler is about $30,000, and the family hopes to raise money toward the project by April 5.
“Anthony would have loved helping the Merton Center with this project,” Carol Mobilio said. “My family and I informed the Merton Center we would like to support this project in Anthony’s memory to help raise funds and they established a memorial in his name.”
Anthony Mobilio started Anthony’s Fuel in Bridgeport with his brothers, twin Vincent and Joseph, which was in operation for 25 years. In 2008, he joined Southern Connecticut Gas Co. while also owning his company, Salem Heating and Cooling in Shelton.
“Anthony enjoyed helping serve families with all their heating needs,” his sister said.
The family is raising money to support a new heating boiler for The Thomas Merton Center, a Catholic Charities program. The center is a food service program which offers breakfast and lunch daily through its soup kitchen. Groceries are provided once a week through its food pantry.
Anthony Mobilio was born in Bridgeport and, his sister said, was raised with “strong family values and a highly motivated work ethic.”
She said her brother started his education and training in the heating industry at the age of 18, working for Hoffman Fuel for three years before starting Anthony’s Fuel in Bridgeport with his brothers.
“He was a mentor and inspiration to other HVAC technicians in the heating business, especially his nephew, Joseph, Jr.,” Carol Mobilio added