Workforce development and human capital is one of the largest and most crucial investments for a successful business and can run the full range from recruitment, compensation and training – to retention, benefits and outplacement. Subsequently, businesses need easy and deliberate access to resources and information provided by the workforce development system.
And because businesses recruit and employ talent across county lines, we need a system that focuses on business needs, not "program guidelines."
During the April 2007 Regional Workforce Alliance strategic planning, businesses were asked what they would like to see as a priority in the design of a market-driven workforce development system. A seamless, single-point-of-contact portal for employers to access workforce services and solutions across the seven-county region of southeastern Wisconsin was identified as a critical element.
Specifically, business leaders had the opportunity to express their hopes, challenges, vested interests and needs:
"…was amazed by the number of different entities that are out there and hard to identify which one I needed. It was hard to maneuver through them. From that I realized that I needed to adopt something that was singly oriented to my industry."
" …Once I identified a pool of employees, it’s hard to get them to me. With a small business, it seems more difficult. They seem more directed toward large businesses and can’t scale down."
" …need alignment with our education system. We’ve hired some young men recently and found out that the welding program went away, despite there being a great need for welders…I want flexibility in funding to get the project accomplished…There needs to be a more rapid response."
" …we need a better program that would set the workforce development initiative as the number one catalyst for workforce needs. No one would go anywhere else…"
Currently, Business Services Units, and representatives, exist locally within each county or workforce development area across the region.
Most of these units are functioning individually at a high level with established business relationships. However, more work could be done to create a more comprehensive and consistent delivery of solutions.
Businesses identified several critical elements necessary for comprehensive, regional business services:
- Consistency in needs assessments, service offerings and delivery, and performance metrics across the region
- Improve alignment and integration with the educational system in developing and delivering just-in-time training programs
- Accelerated development of talent pipeline for specific sector-based needs with a more rapid delivery of skill-matched workers
- Mirror high-level customer service and delivery models to integrate into system
- Create a system for shared communications, data collection and analysis, customer relations and product development
- Develop consistent benchmarks and metrics to measure the successful impact of solutions and resources provided
Throughout the next six months, an advisory committee comprised of employers and stakeholders will work towards advancing the model and timeline for implementing a regional business services unit through each local area. Those vested stakeholders will assist in the design of a market-driven, solutions-focused Regional Business Services Unit, with the intent of developing a more efficient and customer-focused service delivery model.
Creating a design that incorporates the ideas of the intended, and the metrics of the mentor is good business.
Loren Anderson is the executive vice president of the South Region of Aurora Health Care. For more information, visit www.workforceenterprise.org.
