Natoli Engineering’s Gas Assistance Subsidy (G.A.S.) Program remains in our local St. Louis media spotlight this week. We recently met with Caroline Hecker of CBS Channel 4.
“Remember back when (gas) was about $3.00? That was in December or so,” Hecker said, “well thanks to this creative program, $3.00 is all the employees of this company are paying for their commute to work.”
Dale Natoli, President and CEO of Natoli Engineering, explained that while the Program benefits today’s employees, he hopes that it attracts new talent as well. Yes, the Program does come with a cost, but Natoli doesn’t see it that way. In fact, prospective workers should see it as a benefit for working with a company whose innovation goes beyond its products and technology. Natoli says that the costs of recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees are far more expensive than funding the Program, and he sees the G.A.S. as well worth it.
“Finding people to fill skilled manufacturing jobs is hard,” Hecker reported of Natoli, “and says the Gas Assistance Subsidy is a no-brainer.”
In response, Natoli said, “The question is how can you not afford this…you got a great work staff, you want to mitigate their hardship as much as possible. And so, we don’t see it as an expense, we see it as a benefit.”
Channel 4 interviewed some Natoli employees as well. One of whom said that before the Natoli G.A.S. program went into effect, he was spending about $320 per month in commute costs. “So, with the Natoli (Program), it cuts it down by about half,” he said.
“I travel about 60 miles round trip every day,” said another employee, “I drive an F-150. It’s a big engine, 5.4. It swallows quite a bit of gas.”
Each week, employees see about $20 returned to their paychecks. Natoli hopes the Program runs for about a year and said that “it doesn’t cost, it pays.”
