Investing in Workforce Program Innovation: A Formative Evaluation of Five Workforce Organizations' Experiences During the Human Capital Innovation Fund Initiative

In this report, Investing in Workforce Program Innovation: A Formative Evaluation of Five Workforce Organizations' Experiences during the Human Capital Innovation Fund Initiative, we describe the five organizations' experiences planning, implementing, and adapting new strategies. Investing in Workforce Program Innovation offers insights into the complex work of developing and maintaining relationships that cross institutions. We discuss factors grantees considered when identifying partner organizations, the approaches they used to find common ground and work effectively together, and the ways in which partnerships evolved and deepened over time. We describe how organizations cultivated long-term relationships with employers to not only inform workforce program design and promote job placement, but also to engage employers to reflect upon their hiring and employment practices. Finally, we discuss the ways in which HCIF-supported organizations tailored comprehensive and ongoing supports to the unique needs of their participants to help them succeed in and beyond training programs

Promoting Equity and Inclusion and Connection to Good Fit Jobs for Young Adults: Typology of Workforce Development Practices to Influence Employer Practice Change

Even while general unemployment begins to improve, millions of America's young people, especially young people of color, are out of school and work. Not connecting to work can have lasting effects, including long-term unemployment or long-term employment in low-quality jobs. Strategies to connect young adults to jobs that will set them up for success both now and moving forward are more important than ever. And employers play a critical role.As a national partner to the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Generation Work initiative, the Economic Opportunities Program has been conducting research with community-based practitioners working directly with employers to build more equitable and inclusive employment practices. Workforce partners in Generation Work communities have tried and tested a range of strategies, and we highlight these in a new typology of promising practices.Promoting Equity and Inclusion and Connection to Good Fit Jobs for Young Adults describes three categories of practice for employer engagement:Leveraging political and financial incentives to influence employer practice changeCultivating connections between employers and young adults to influence employer practicesWorking with employers to change practices from the insideWe hope this new publication will be helpful for workforce practitioners looking to engage with employers around supporting equity and inclusion in the workplace and to expand good-fit jobs in their communities

Genesis at Work: Advancing Inclusive Innovation Through Manufacturing Extension

US manufacturing is struggling with both a productivity and job quality challenge. These challenges are interconnected, reinforcing the need for increased coordination of economic and workforce development efforts. This article outlines the evaluation findings of a novel business-facing initiative called the Genesis Movement, to understand its role in reshaping the workforce experience within small- and medium-sized manufacturing businesses in Chicago, Illinois. Spearheaded in 2014 by the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center (IMEC), Genesis starts with the premise that workforce practices are central to business operations, productivity, and competitiveness—and therefore, manufacturing extension services need to promote improvements to job quality in support of long-term business success. This integrated approach represents a form of “inclusive innovation,” expanding the capacities of firms and workers to adapt in a competitive environment where pressures to maintain high quality while reducing costs are ever-present. Firms that participate in Genesis learn to adopt an inclusive organizational culture, using front-line worker engagement, skills training, and job quality improvements to drive performance and process innovation. As such, Genesis offers transferable lessons that could be leveraged by other manufacturing-supporting organizations to benefit their industry clients and the workers they employ