By: Kayleigh P. Marques
Aug 12th, 2024
When implemented effectively, workforce development initiatives can accelerate community progress and prosperity. In today’s tech-focused world, keeping up with the changing demands of the job market demands innovative, tech-savvy solutions that can adapt and scale.
At Clear Impact, we’re passionate about harnessing technology to elevate workforce initiatives and make them more effective, accessible, and transformative.
This content library is packed with everything we’ve created to help supercharge your workforce development efforts. Inside, you’ll find a treasure trove of resources—free ebooks to fuel your knowledge, webinars to spark fresh ideas, blog posts written with the help of workforce development experts, news articles, case studies, and details about some of our cutting-edge products and services.
Whether you’re a seasoned professional or just getting started, this collection is designed to inspire and equip you to make a lasting impact. Dive in, explore, and let’s shape the future of work together.
1. Free Downloadable eBooks and Reports
1. The Importance of Shared Vision and Data Tracking in the Workforce Development Community
There are a multitude of programs that help unemployed and underemployed workers find jobs and provide the proper training to build skills and knowledge. These programs, many of which are supported by federal and state funding, have their own data systems to track enrollment and services provided. While the use of any tracking system is better than doing nothing, these tracking systems yield “organizational accountability data” that may or may not support the overall workforce development system. This free e-book will help you understand if your tracking system is useful.
2. How to Build a Collective Impact Neighborhood Support System
Clear Impact Senior Consultant Dan Duncan recently wrote a report in Urban Institute about Collective Impact for Promise Neighborhoods’ Postsecondary and Career Success efforts. Promise Neighborhoods is a U.S. Department of Education program that focuses on ensuring high schoolers graduate and attend college or receive a secondary degree/certificate. In the report, Mr. Duncan stresses the importance of keeping Collective Impact efforts up-to-date by using the values of “Collective Impact 3.0” for this program.
2. Free Online Interactive Guides
1. Tips and Tools: Building Tech-Enabled Workforce Development Partnerships
Inspired by Jobs for the Future, this guide provides an overview of some of the issues and opportunities surrounding technology & workforce development partnerships, particularly as they relate to data collection and evaluation.
3. Short Blog Posts
1. Designing a Results-Based Workforce Development Partnership (Part 1 — Understanding the Complexity)
Workforce development is a multifaceted challenge that goes far beyond simply preparing individuals for employment. It encompasses a wide range of activities, from skill development and education alignment to employer engagement and economic development. Each of these aspects is vital to creating a workforce that is not only skilled and adaptable but also capable of meeting the demands of a rapidly evolving economy. This blog will provide an overview of the complexity and cross-sector needs of workforce development partnerships, provide inspiration for seeking new partners and establishing priority areas, and introduce the idea of shared measurement.
2. The Benefits of Technology in Workforce Development
The core or backbone of any positive workforce development program is the strong connections to employers, training organizations, supportive services, and, of course, the job seeker. The connections can be complex, and they require strategic coordination and enhanced collaboration. Typically, this is achieved through multiple case management meetings that refer job seekers to multiple agencies for supportive services, training, and job placement strategies. This is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. The COVID pandemic has increased the need for virtual meetings and communication approaches to ensure social distancing. However, technology has many other advantages within the workforce system to promote connections. This goes beyond communication tools enhancing workforce development practices.
3. The Importance of Accessing Timely Labor Market Data for Career Development
There is an established new normal across each occupation. To stay informed, career exploration and career development are key to future sustained employment. Helping your job seeker clients find occupations that fit their interests, values, and aptitudes is usually the first step in selecting an appealing occupation. However, understanding the demand and sustainability of this career is even more crucial. Workforce development organizations gain this understanding by assessing the most current and relevant labor market data.
4. Creating a Digital Training Framework for Workforce Development
Workforce development organizations have always worked tirelessly to support the communities they serve by matching talent to open careers, recommending training that can re-skill or up-skill job seekers, and providing critical supportive services that help job-seekers navigate the changing labor market. Through data-driven decision-making, strong workforce organizations support and target leading industry sectors that provide community stability through employment and social impact. Effectively implementing this role leads to economic strength in the community. Measuring success means that the workforce organization can propel target industries into the future through the power of an ever-evolving workforce.
5. How to Attract and Retain Funders for Workforce Development Organizations
Workforce systems are reforming to provide initiatives that go beyond providing direct services to individual jobseekers and are striving to transform to effectively support employers and the workforce. The Workforce Development organization’s role is to be the convener and foster collaboration with the many key stakeholders within the community. This will take resources beyond the Federal Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) funds. The emerging role of a workforce development entity will require diverse resources that include state and local grants, corporate and association sponsorships, foundation grants, and philanthropic investments. Each of these funding sources requires strong solutions to buy-in and strong performance data to stay in. This blog will share lessons learned for using data to attract and retain funders.
6. Ask These Questions When Evaluating Software Systems for Workforce Development Partnerships
This blog outlines some questions, inspired by Jobs for the Future’s Field Guide for Workforce Technology Solutions, that your workforce development partnership should consider when evaluating software system vendors. We particularly focus on performance data, impact data, strategy development, and accountability management software systems. We’ve also provided some answers related to Clear Impact Scorecard as a potential performance management solution.
7. Nonprofit Workforce Development Trends and Challenges (Part One)
The beginning of the new decade has seen vast changes in the workforce, from remote opportunities to changing workplace dynamics. An employer could not be blamed for expressing concern regarding the quickly changing landscape of workforce development. Less technologically inclined managers may see the emergence of the digital landscape within the workplace as an ominous looming threat- or at least an area worthy of further research and attention. Although change is often intimidating, it can also be a good thing. By taking certain measures to understand upcoming trends in workforce development, the rest of the 2020s can turn out to be a very positive decade for the operations within your organization.
8. Nonprofit Workforce Development Trends and Challenges (Part Two)
This blog continues the discussion from (Part One) with three more trends that are relevant for any organization to consider for their workforce development goals.
4. Turn the Curve Action Plans
1. New Smart Incentives Initiative Will Address Hiring Incentives for Individuals With Disabilities (a Turn the Curve Action Plan)
The following blog was generously provided by Smart Incentives – an organization that helps communities use economic development incentives to achieve their targeted development goals. It addresses an initiative aimed at addressing hiring discrepancies for individuals with disabilities. It also provides a Turn the Curve Action Plan for “% Black or African American People with Disabilities Employed.”
5. Case Studies
1. Social Sector Hero Spotlight: U.S. Department of Education Promise Neighborhoods Program
Social Sector Hero Spotlights tell stories of exemplary social and public sector organizations that are making measurable differences in their communities. The following spotlight is an excerpt from “Social Sector Hero – How Government and Philanthropy Can Fund for Impact” by Adam Luecking. The Promise Neighborhoods mission is to ensure that “All children and youth growing up in Promise Neighborhoods have access to great schools and strong systems of family and community support that will prepare them to attain an excellent education and successfully transition to college and a career.”
2. Social Sector Hero Spotlight: Mission Promise Neighborhood
In 2012, The Mission Economic Development Agency worked with the San Francisco Unified School District, the Office of Mayor Ed Lee, the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University, United Way of the Bay Area, and various other partners from the Mission District to submit their proposal for a ‘Mission Promise Neighborhood’ to the Department of Education. In December 2012, they were selected to receive a Promise Neighborhoods Implementation grant. Based on community data, MPN found one of the most important GPRA measures to be the “Percentage of children entering school ready to learn,” since studies showed that being ready for kindergarten is a predictor of third-grade, high school, and college proficiency. This measure served as a “North Star” to guide most of their early learning efforts.
6. Free Webinars
1. Advancing Education and Workforce Equity: the Story of the Greater Cleveland Career Consortium (Coming Soon — Register Below)
2. Beyond the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act — Data Tools for Greater Impact (Hosted by Clear Impact and NAWB)
Imagine a workforce system with all partners tracking and trying to improve key metrics. With the right systems and tools, workforce development programs and partners can ensure their efforts are evidence-based, data-driven, and accountable to participants and taxpayers. Have you been able to get all your workforce system partners in one unified data system? Have you been able to get everyone focused on a measurable and common goal for your community? Is making progress on racial equity important to your efforts? Watch as Clear Impact CEO Adam Luecking shares practical tips and tools to address these questions and help you and your partners achieve meaningful, measurable, equitable impact.
3. How to Conduct Effective Virtual Meetings
In this webinar, Clear Impact senior consultant and vice president of professional services, Karen Finn, will teach you:
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- Guidelines for successful virtual meetings
- Common virtual meeting “Fails” and how to prevent them
- Videoconferencing vs. teleconferencing
- Tips and tools to facilitate
- The “Power of the Pause Button”
7. News and PR
1. Clear Impact Joins the National Association of Workforce Boards’ Business & Industry Alliance
JUL. 16, 2021—WASHINGTON, DC—Today the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) announced Clear Impact is joining its prestigious Business & Industry Alliance. NAWB’s Business & Industry Alliance is a group of committed allies that are working directly with NAWB on key workforce programs and on advancing workforce initiatives.
8. Products and Services
1. Clear Impact Suite for Workforce Development
Clear Impact Unlimited Suite is a package deal that provides unlimited access to our Compyle and Scorecard software tools. When used together, these tools create one powerful system for data collection, analysis, improvement, and reporting. Unlimited Suite saves networks time and money, so they can focus more on funding for impact. Clear Impact Suite offers a complete set of data collection and performance reporting tools to support workforce organizations, boards, and partnerships.
2. Disparity Reduction Implementation Package (DRIP)
Our DRIP packages powerfully combine a process that helps you to critically assess how inequities are perpetuated in your community, using the Results-Based Accountability process to create equity action plans, and Clear Impact Suite to ensure shared accountability for outcomes. We first offer a set of tools related to RBA that help a group of stakeholders to collaborate on reducing disparities related to an issue area (or areas). Examples are health, education, workforce development, etc. We then walk you through a process to develop and implement strategies and action plans that reduce disparities for your indicator(s).
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