When Mike Attea first heard about Joblio from a local contractor who used its global network of talent to hire a handful of roofers, it immediately piqued his interest. 

As director of property management at Good Carbon Community, LLC, a real estate development company in Buffalo, N.Y., Mike’s initial thought was, “How and where are these New Americans finding places to live?” Those questions led him to a partnership with Joblio as a resource to find housing for immigrants and refugees. 

At the same time, Good Carbon decided to work with Joblio to address its own labor challenges, bringing on three workers who have now been with the company for about a month. 

“They show up on time, they’re thankful and they’re offered fair work for fair pay,” Mike says. “We trust them to work independently at tenants’ apartments and on other people’s grounds.” 

Good Carbon landscapers Eduardo Corova, top, and Aubin Nsemi, above.

Eduardo Corova from Mexico and Aubin Nsemi from Congo help to landscape properties all over the area, riding to work daily with one of Good Carbon’s employees. Sergii Koltslov is from Ukraine and is a maintenance worker at one of the company’s larger facilities in Lockport. 

With some properties that have predominantly Spanish-speaking tenants, Mike says he was excited to add some diversity to the workforce. 

“We’re a bootstrap company that had one employee 10 years ago, and that was me,” Mike says. “We couldn’t have done this five or six years ago, but now that we’re at 30-plus and growing, we’re fortunate to do this.” 

While the language barrier has been the biggest challenge so far, it hasn’t precluded the new employees from doing what they’re asked due to the hands-on nature of the work, which is generally easy to explain via non-verbal communication. 

“It’s still been pretty smooth because of their work ethic,” Mike says. “If they stay with us, learn to understand the basic English and develop their skill set, they have an opportunity to grow with us.” 

Good Carbon maintenance worker Sergii Koltslov.

Joblio provided an interpreter during a speedy hiring process. Mike says Joblio’s thorough vetting process pre-interview provided Good Carbon with qualified candidates that were ready to work within days. It was much easier and shorter than its own HR department’s traditional process. 

“When you’re going through online job boards, people upload a resume and it shoots out to 100 different places,” Mike says. “Now it’s just a phone call to Joblio saying, ‘This is what I’m looking for,’ and they know who’s in their network, who has the experience for these roles and who would be a fit culturally.” 

As more roles open at Good Carbon, Mike anticipates dipping back into Joblio’s talent pool for more people who are already trained in building maintenance and have skills in areas such as plumbing, electricity, framing and drywall. 

“They don’t make the process any more difficult than it needs to be with the paperwork and onboarding process,” Mike says. “It’s been pretty seamless. Their services have definitely been worth it.”