Technological Innovation and Workforce Development - Not Mutually Exclusive

-->

Happy Fall everyone! 

I decided a few weeks ago to write this blog post about technical innovations used in the workforce development system to make our jobs more effective and efficient:  apps, software, clever uses of technology. I was really disappointed by the lack of ideas I found out there for our field and decided to write my wish list instead.

First of all, One-Stops Career Centers (now Job Centers) were designed in the mid- to late-1990’s. The use of the internet was just starting and we had a fully employed economy.  We were still printing out resumes on fancy paper and sending them via mail to potential employers who posted their openings in the newspaper. The labor market and the career development process has transformed, but the Job Centers are lagging behind that transformation. Today, most people are walking around with a computer in their pocket. 

It seems as if youth workforce programs have taken embraced technology more readily, perhaps because their clients and program staff are more tech savvy.

My wish list focuses on identifying efficient, innovative means of service delivery utilizing today's technology for vulnerable populations and system reforms.

Efficiency

Embrace Technology-Enabled Learning:  Colleges are embracing and promoting online, distance and hybrid learning platforms. E-learning helps to provide access to learning for individuals who cannot always be physically present in a traditional classroom setting or a specific training is unavailable in their location. Colleges are quickly embracing this efficient form of learning, but workforce development is not offering soft skills or career development offerings in this arena. Our nation’s best trainers in resume writing, interviewing, and networking could provide e-learning workshops, freeing up valuable staff time to support small groups of job seekers with their unique needs. These services are offered through many Job Centers but are neither capitalized on nor functional.

Leverage Social Media:  We aren’t doing anybody any favors by skipping LinkedIn and insisting that customers put their resume in our proprietary Job Center databases.  94% of companies are using social recruiting as a strategy to engage candidates. Candidates sourced through social contacts are more likely to get hired faster and to stay on the job longer. Employers are not using our databases to source the best candidates. San Diego Metro Regional Career Centers leverage LinkedIn and other Social Media, a required component of their job seeker services.  We need to support ALL of our customers to use industry recognized social networks, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to build their networks and connectivity to the best businesses.  Again, here we see greater emphasis on social media in youth programs.

Case Management by Smart Phone: 70% of low-income people were using smart phones in 2012. It will be rising every year moving forward. Phones are already used efficiently to connect you and your doctor, why not connect you and your job developer? Efficient apps to deliver career tips, important job announcements, or program updates would reduce the time it takes for staff to create email blasts and make individual phone calls.

Systems Reforms

Use Software to Calculate Return on Investment:  Job Centers tend to offer a menu with a good deal of variety. My sense is that we don’t know which services are most impactful, especially for our universal services customers. We must drill down and measure which services offered by Job Centers are most impactful and invest our resources on those strategies.  Looking at our inputs and outcomes will help us determine which services should be on our menus and which to eliminate altogether. Many high-performing, non-WIA funded nonprofits use SalesForce or Efforts to Outcomes for this tracking. We need an elegant and simple tool or system to engage customers post-job placement in order to track wages, job retention, training completion. This tool would serve our system well to demonstrate our impact.

Computerize and Streamline Eligibility for WIA:  30% of WIA-funded program staff time is dedicated to completing forms, entering the same data into a database(s), and then tracking on spread sheets what isn’t captured by the database, and manually producing monthly reports. All of this takes time away from the customer. Our eligibility process must be streamlined, self-service focused, and paper-free. Applying should be as simple as applying for a credit card.

If you have examples or suggestions of innovative uses of technology throughout the workforce system, please share them with us!

Best,

Amanda Gerrie and Kim Coulthurst

Partners, Pathways Consultants