Goal Enhance use of, and shared access to, data to improve workforce service delivery quality, case management, and outcomes across system partners.
Actions
In all conversations about the workforce development system in New Orleans, data, or the lack thereof, is one of the major concerns. Many strong organizations exist in the workforce system but they are not sufficiently interconnected to deliver efficient, highest-quality services, and data is not well used to improve service. The actions below are for the most part interconnected and flow as a sequential set of actions leading toward a stronger, improved and more integrated workforce system.
1. Clarify workforce system data needs/purposes tied to labor market, employer, case management and performance(i.e., what are the goals related to strengthening data). Establish a work group of program staff and data/IT team members from system partners to build a coherent list of the kinds of data that are needed and their purposes. Some examples of potential data use include:
measuring system efficiency and coordination; understanding user experiences; case management;
making referrals; reporting; grant writing, communicating with funders and other stakeholders, and measuring employment and training outcomes.
Data sources as noted may be:
Labor market data, both high-level from public sources like Federal/State LMI and local data from GNO, Inc.
Employer data on their specific workforce needs, including existing and anticipate labor and skill shortages, competencies, job training, and credential expectations and outcomes data on customers placed for employment.
Case management data including the information about job-seeker and worker program participants from the entire range of system partners (WIOA, JOB1, Opportunity Centers, community colleges, and others).
Performance data from each partner program based on what is required by their various funders/program oversight entities, and more importantly what they need and want from better program planning and management.
2. Identify where data currently existsand streamline data gathering processes where possible.
Leverage points include:
GNO, Inc. & LWC – Employer Data and Labor Market Information
EMPLOY – Opportunity Youth Case Management Data
HIRE – Public Workforce System Data
Others
While a clear list of the data that is needed is being generated, the work group will pay attention to the sources, to streamline the data gathering processes.
3. Understand data sharing and management mandatesand limitations across system partners.
4. Make the case for data sharing across system partners at the State level, including the use of data sharing agreements.
5. Convene public and private sector funders to discuss data sharingto improve outcomes and ensure system alignment.
6. Link to national workforce data initiatives,e.g., Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI), to drive enhanced access to and use of data at the state and local levels (e.g., policy directives, enhanced outcomes, and quality).
Actions 3 to 6 fall in a sequence and build upon one another. Funder and program mandates
continue to result in providers having multiple data entry requirements for customer data; programs and individuals not being able to depend on the labor market or other data that is available; and failure at efforts to use data across programs and systems. While privacy is always at the forefront, efforts must be made to share data of various types to improve service.
Some key resulting activities of this process will include:
Development of a City-wide dashboard or scorecard that can be shared across programs. Once the work groups have identified the commonalities, they will develop a set of the "lay person"
performance measures that are clear, simple and easy to communicate to a range of audiences.
The EMPLOY collaborative has begun to form a set of core outcomes measures for Opportunity Youth and an initial list building upon these may include:
Connected to a service provider
90-days retained in employment
Credential attainment
Securing diploma or equivalent
Earning a living wage
Build measures around program quality. The work group will engage in a dialogue among providers to develop a shared understanding of quality outcomes on the various measures.
What is a good job? What is a quality credential? How can data be used for continuous improvement? These efforts will interface with the customer flow and other working groups building a more streamlined, less duplicative and more coherent system overall.
Align outcomes to drive program alignment and collaboration. Currently since different programs have different measures, they often deliver different activities not because the activities are superior but because they result in the outcomes measured. By a working group effort to align outcomes they will also drive the process of aligning activities.
As the measures are being developed, find ways for all partners to be able to generate reports/data on that pool of measures regularly and consistently, across the same timelines, and share that information together. In the future, this information can reside with the WDB or with The Data Center, if partners concur, as a site where programs and initiatives can be reported out to stakeholders and the community through a common, easily understood set of measures.