The Future of One-Stop Career Centers

Larry GoodCorporation for a Skilled Workforce2890 Carpenter Road, Suite 1600

Ann Arbor, MI 48108(734) 971-6060

lagood@skilledwork.org

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Context for This Presentation

Observations based on two sources of input:

CSW’s experience in working with hundreds of one-stops during past several years

What we learned in managing national one-stop benchmarking project for 4 Illinois WIBs.

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Some Core RealitiesMost one-stops fall far short of

being stars – for lots of good reasons

WIA = Then a Miracle Happens

Widely varying leadership commitments

Inventing a new way of doing business is really hard, slow work

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Pace of change is relentless

Two years ago, made similar presentation at NGA policy conference. A key point then was that America’s Job Bank helped make traditional job matching obsolete.

Today, Monster.com and others threaten to make AJB obsolete.

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Limits of traditional funding are being

reachedEven most creative are running out

of traditional funding as budgets are reduced

Rarely funded as a core function itself; rather as an add-on to which partners must “donate”

Fee for service experiments still limited

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Confusion reigns on purpose of one-stopsOngoing confusion on several

levels:

Place vs. system

Service package vs. agency collection

No widely agreed upon definition of success of one-stops as total enterprise

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Lack of Solid Measurement Hampers

GrowthFew using center wide and system

wide measures of performance

Failure to track resource room performance was a mistake: measuring outcomes for one out of 10 users

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The Opportunity

Reauthorizations provide opportunity to strengthen one-stop framing

States can play pivotal role in accelerating improvement

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The Challenge

One-Stops don’t have long to convince employers, job seekers and community leaders they have value

Can one-stops operated by consortia of government agencies increase their rate of improvement enough to remain viable?

The rest of the world won’t wait

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Survival isn’t good enough

One-stops really have only two choices:

Become agile, entrepreneurial and highly responsive to markets

Become irrelevant and die

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3 Stages of One-Stop Evolution

Stage 1: Co-locate, improve customer service

Stage 2: Integrate, connect to markets

Stage 3: Reinvent the whole enterprise

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Stage 1: Co-locate

Meet basic expectations Initial mating dance among partnersFocus on improving customer service

Do what we’ve done, but do it more efficiently

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Stage 2: Integrate

Build a unified management structure, common operation and budget

Hire managers for centers dedicated 100% to that role

Build business strategies, sharpen focus on markets

Behave like a business: strategies, targets, agility

Explore new services, new funding sources

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Stage 3: Reinvent

Move from combining existing practices to asking key question: are we doing the right work?

Tough minded market analysis and prioritization

Stop doing things; redesign fundamentals

New mantra: do we have adequate customers and markets to be viable?

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State of Development

Most are at Stage 1

A small band of innovators are at Stage 2

Almost no one is at Stage 3 -- but where all must go

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Opportunities

Shift focus from job matching to advising Become excellent at some services -- what

are you known for? Develop a strong fee-for-service

component -- supports flexibility and ensures centers are in touch with customers

Challenge all old operational assumptions -- throw out rule books designed for old systems and build new models

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Keys for National Policy

Make clear in law one-stop is legitimate function with own funding

Be very clear: one-stop is about service package, NOT about existing agencies, programs

Measure results with all customers, not just intensive service recipients

Don’t micro-manage – set clear, but broad expectations

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Keys for State Policy

Encourage reinvention; reward risk takers Focus on clear, broad policy; avoid

micromanaging Expect, encourage, require high quality Define, with WIBs, one-stop measures Make two key sustained investments:

Integrated MIS for easy staff use Brand building

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Benchmarking Project

Visited 20 one-stops, 12 WIB areas, 7 states

Not case studies; focus on Critical Success FactorsServices to EmployersServices to Job SeekersDesign and Management

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Benchmarking Findings

Local leadership critical to success States can accelerate – or slow down –

innovation Dedicated, neutral center managers are key Neutral sites become stars faster Staffed, quality resource rooms are

centerpieces Centers improve when UI leaves the building

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Benchmarking Findings

Employer services being reinvented Unified teams of account

representatives Targeting which employers to serve

Creating a brand hard, but importantCenter wide measures just now being

created