Workforce Innovation Practice
Developing and implementing collaboration driven workforce development models that bring together industry, education, community and public sector stakeholders.
A Framework for Performance
It has been WIN’s experience that workforce development initiatives tend to be unintentionally fragmented and generally lacking the comprehensive view that is necessary to connect people to self-sustaining jobs and careers. Training programs often lack pragmatic systems to recruit; placement programs frequently ignore retention issues; workforce development initiatives in general do not look at their overall targeted labor market in a comprehensive or defining fashion.
The WIN Process-Driven System is a framework to guide employers, educators and workforce development professionals regarding what questions to ask and how to piece together the 'workforce development puzzle.' We contend that to design and implement workforce development programs with lasting results it is imperative to address all of the various enabling elements from recruitment through to retention, build systems and processes that advance and follow people in their progression toward jobs and careers, measure results and – as much as possible -- achieve scale. This ultimately requires broad alliances of vested parties and end users pursuing common goals. These alliances make a unifying vision imperative if they are to succeed. It is this vision that the WIN Process-Driven System offers as a rallying point to entities seeking to engage in workforce development.
WIN Process-Driven System
- Identify
- Target
- Recruit
- Screen
- Test
- Train
- Place
- Retain
- Advance
The WIN Process-Driven System for workforce development is offered as a tool to visualize and construct an intuitive and effective recruitment, training and retention program. Our goal is to prepare and match the employment skills and competencies of the individual to the specific needs of hiring employers; to develop, through various points of entry, a pipeline of qualified candidates equipped and able to successfully navigate the multiple paths to jobs and careers; and to engage a select network of employers focused on hiring, placing, retaining, and advancing individuals along career pathways.
The consistent delivery of superior service through a process-driven system requires the careful design and execution of an efficient model that connects people to training and jobs through interdependent actions. Intuitive systems can be deployed to assure that individuals, agencies and/or communities have the knowledge, tools and the opportunity to build exceptional job-related, value-added skills.
A process-driven system also serves to identify the barriers that are encountered by employers and individuals and to develop interventions to overcome these barriers.
The primary focus of the WIN Process-Driven System for workforce development is to recruit, train, and place individuals with 'in-demand' skills to meet the workforce requirements of employers. The process uses a holistic model that World-Class Industrial Network has deployed with organizations, associations and employers across many industry clusters.
For more information on our Workforce Innovation practice, please contact Emily Adair, our Director of Workforce Innovation.
Connecting Supply to Demand
An effective way of connecting the workforce to training, jobs and career opportunities is to divide outreach and development processes into three key elements – recruitment, training and retention. Each element, in turn, can be sub-divided into specific steps that form an infrastructure for sustainable and recurring success.
Recruitment elements involve identification, i.e., segmenting the labor force in groups defined by social, economic and/or common network characteristics; targeting those groups more likely to be interested in a given job offer or career pathway; and recruitment per se, or the set of activities that communicates the offer, establishes contact, and concludes with an interested person entering a training program and/or accepting a job offer.
Training elements start with the processes of screening and testing to ensure that individuals meet the minimum requirements necessary to learn new skills, participate and be successful in the labor force. This comprehensive process would include the basics, such as, checking references and resumes, screening for drug and criminal background and, testing for math, reading and other job skill related prerequisites. Training itself refers to imparting new knowledge and skills to those selected via screening and testing.
Retention elements involve placing people in a given job within a participating employer, retaining the new workers (through a variety of means that may include apprenticeship, advanced skill training and opportunities for advancement), and advancement. The latter step goes beyond development activities focused on the individual because it encompasses organizational measures designed to create an attractive and mutually rewarding work and learning environment.