{"id":34218,"date":"2020-02-14T03:57:55","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T11:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=34218"},"modified":"2020-02-12T11:19:52","modified_gmt":"2020-02-12T19:19:52","slug":"finding-n-riding-the-wahve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2020\/02\/14\/finding-n-riding-the-wahve\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding \u2019n\u2019 riding the WAHVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharon Emek, founder and owner of Work at Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE). (photo from WAHVE)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sharon Emek\u2019s company, Work at Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE), celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.<\/p>\n

WAHVE matches experienced professionals who are transitioning into retirement with businesses that are looking for the professionals\u2019 specific skills and expertise. One of the draws for what WAHVE calls \u201cpretirees\u201d is that the pretiree can work from home. \u201cBy removing the requirement that workers be in the office, we break down the walls that confine businesses to a smaller talent pool,\u201d notes the website. \u201cWherever the best talent is for the job, we help make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Company founder Emek was raised in a moderate Chassidic home, but her parents refused her request to pursue a higher education. Nonetheless, she went to university, earned a doctorate and became a professor. Being computer and tech savvy, however, she started consulting for companies that were developing efficiency procedures and protocols. In the early 1980s, she went into business for herself.<\/p>\n

When she was consulting for brokers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, she said, \u201cThe insurance companies began noticing how the work I was doing helped them run a better operation, so they asked if I\u2019d like to start my own insurance brokerage firm. They said, \u2018We don\u2019t have any women,\u2019 so I said, \u2018Great. I\u2019ll be happy to.\u2019 I\u2019d never actually sold insurance before, but I know a lot of people, so I wrote a business plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emek\u2019s agency became one of the largest female-owned agencies in the area, before it merged with a larger brokerage firm in 2003.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry began to worry about a potentially huge talent drain to come … everyone was turning grey,\u201d said Emek. \u201cIt was a huge boomer industry. Young people hadn\u2019t come into the industry and everyone was concerned at what we were going to do and how we\u2019d get our work done.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me,\u201d she said, \u201cfor every problem, there\u2019s a solution. The research started to show that the more active you are, the more you engage your brain, and the longer you live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within a few years, smartphones came out and laptops were gaining popularity. A couple of years later, voice systems and video calls became commonplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can [work] … at home and no one would know that you weren\u2019t in the office, so it occurred to me, why don\u2019t people do that? I bet people want to continue to work, but they don\u2019t want to be in an office any longer,\u201d said Emek. \u201cAfter 30 years of driving to work, they are ready to retire from the regular office setting … but they\u2019re not ready to retire from work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a whole survey in the industry of people over 55, asking them about that. All of them said that they love what they do, that they don\u2019t want to stop working \u2013 they just don\u2019t want to work in the office. And, also, that they are worried they don\u2019t have enough money for retirement. So, all that came together in my head and I woke up one day and said, \u2018Duh!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While people were ready to work from home, brokerage firms did not know how to make that a reality, so Emek developed a methodology for qualifying people interested in going this route. Creating a matrix of questions similar to dating sites, but for business purposes, she assessed 50-to-80-year-olds and helped them create a resum\u00e9 to qualify them for remote positions in the insurance industry.<\/p>\n

For the past 10 years, WAHVE has been connecting \u201cvintage\u201d experts with brokerage positions, filling needs on both sides of the spectrum.<\/p>\n

Neither side meets in person, she said, so the potential employer has no idea of the applicant\u2019s ethnicity or physical attributes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur clients fill out a whole job request that includes their work culture, their daily functions, etc.,\u201d said Emek. \u201cWe created this very sophisticated software and the whole point is to transform how everyone views retirement. These people are \u2018un-retiring\u2019 … retiring from the office, not from work. That\u2019s the key.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Emek acknowledges that many other industries could benefit from this type of worker, her focus for now is on the insurance and financial services sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are still old-fashioned, thinking the only way to supervise is to see you in the office, but they are beginning to understand that they can have a flexible work environment. They also realize that you can\u2019t always find the right talent in your backyard,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Although many younger people also would love the opportunity to work from home, Emek recommended that they start by working in an office, to gain experience and expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the problem with millennials,\u201d said Emek. \u201cThey want to work from home, but they don\u2019t have institutional knowledge yet. How are they going to learn it unless they work with people? A 25-year-old has to be trained. They don\u2019t yet have the knowledge to work from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy customers will hire my people because they know they are experts with 25 or 30 years of experience. Within two days, they are 100% productive. My people fill a need immediately. And there\u2019s no turnover, they aren\u2019t looking for a promotion \u2013 they just want steady work for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWAHVE is more than a placement agency,\u201d she said. \u201cIt provides support to clients, insurance and tech support…. In a sense, it provides home office management services, so professionals can do their jobs. I call it the \u2018independent contractor model.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Emek gave the example of a woman who contacted WAHVE several months ago. In an email of thanks, the woman shared, \u201cI moved to be near my daughter and granddaughter. I\u2019ve been in the business 30 years and I have excellent credentials, but, every time I walk into the office for an interview, they\u2019d see my age and that I have a limp. So, for over a year, almost a year-and-a-half, I could not find a job. I applied on WAHVE and, within a month-and-a-half, I now have a job I love. And nobody knows how old I am or that I have a limp.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of this, Emek said, \u201cThat\u2019s why, that\u2019s the purpose of WAHVE.\u201d<\/p>\n

WAHVE is not yet in Canada, but Emek would like to see it branch out here and beyond. \u201cAt this point,\u201d she said, \u201cwe are trying to finish penetrating the big insurance companies. Once we do that, we\u2019ll head to Canada \u2013 in two years, we hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, visit wahve.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rebeca Kuropatwa<\/strong> is a Winnipeg freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharon Emek, founder and owner of Work at Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE). (photo from WAHVE) Sharon Emek\u2019s company, Work at Home Vintage Experts (WAHVE), celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. WAHVE matches experienced professionals who are transitioning into retirement with businesses that are looking for the professionals\u2019 specific skills and expertise. One of the draws […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2219,3851,9673,9672,9674],"class_list":["post-34218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-aging","tag-business","tag-sharon-emek","tag-wahve","tag-workforce"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}