Narrative: III. a. 2. C.

WIOA reaffirms the role of the customer-focused one-stop delivery system, a cornerstone of the public workforce investment system, and enhances and increases coordination among several key employment, education and training programs. WIOA presents an extraordinary opportunity for the workforce system to accelerate its transformational efforts and demonstrate its ability to improve job and career options for our citizens through an integrated, job-driven public workforce system that links diverse talent to our nation's businesses. It supports the development of strong, vibrant regional economies where businesses thrive and people want to live and work.

Through policy, LWC has refined the state’s response to the U.S. Labor Department mandate that the workforce development system become a seamless, integrated system. Prior to implementation, One-Stop Center operations used a rigid customer flow and team model. This new policy establishes a revision and refocusing effort to drive clients to the “right door” because of the state’s need to respond to a decrease in funding and environmental as well as socio-economic changes.

Goals are as follows:

• Change the lock-step process and team approach in providing job-seeker and employer services to a more flexible process (or roadmap) that allows quick response to changes in the labor market and workforce needs. • Add flexibility to the delivery of training services by simplifying the process for identifying qualified candidates. • Create a process that recognizes the ever-changing funding environment associated with federal mandates and grants, so that it provides necessary flexibility to respond to specific grant and funding mandates of U.S. Department of Labor programs regarding unemployment insurance benefits (UI), workforce participation, veteran’s services and National Emergency Grants. • Support the state’s redesign of its business engagement Process in a way that optimizes agency response to in-demand industry needs in hiring, retaining, training and advancement of workers. • Anticipate the ongoing need for creating contingency plans to support economic growth in targeted industry sectors, and developing improved relationships with local and state economic development entities with the goal of pre-empting shortfalls in a skilled workforce. • Address the need to reintegrate specific UI recipient related functions into the job-seeker process in order to shorten the return-to-work time for individuals receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

The policy also recognized and responded to the need for training dislocated workers in a way that enhances subsequent job retention and links this effort to meeting the emerging needs of employers for specifically skilled workers.

Through the WIOA Combined planning process the partners are continually working to develop a redefined model for the One Stop Centers.. This model will provide the foundation for establishing operations that support the key principles found in t WIOA law and support expanding partnerships and services. The redesign and refinement provides an unprecedented opportunity to modernize Louisiana’s workforce system and achieve key hallmarks of a customer centered workforce system, where the needs of employers and job-seekers drive workforce solutions, where One-Stop Centers and partners provide excellent customer service to job-seekers and employers, where the workforce system pursues continuous improvement through evaluation and data-driven policy and where the workforce system supports strong regional economies.

The foundation for success is efficient and effective coordination of programs, services and governance, based on common assessment process, career service methodology, case management and job development systems. Leadership at all levels must think expansively, moving forward to produce the best customer-focused comprehensive delivery system. For this process to realize its potential, it will be necessary to continue moving beyond some current categorical configurations and institutional interest in order to truly unify training, education and employment programs into a single, customer-friendly system tailored to the community it serves. Although each local board is responsible for its own service delivery, the state has established minimum standards for a demand-driven integrated service delivery process in order to establish consistency across the state.

This revision of the service delivery process was undertaken as a result of social and economic pressures driving the need for a more effective “demand-driven” operation. However, the revision does not restrict local leadership in developing processes, procedures and techniques based on local needs. Rather, it encourages this development and provides a standardized foundation to support individual development.

The original service delivery model was intended to be focused on the customer in the context of being demand-driven. As was written: “To ensure that job-seekers get to ‘the right service the first time,’ OWD’s service redesign model provides a standardized framework for how customers enter the system, how they are assessed for service need, how they access services, including job placement and how offices are designed and staffed to meet the needs of job-seekers and employers.”

Unfortunately, over time, the system has evolved to focus on the process rather than the customer. Further, the balance of customer focus has become far too heavy on the job-seeker and too light on the employer. This “process evolution” combined with a reduction in resources (personnel and financial) is inhibiting state and LWDA leadership ability to quickly and effectively respond to compliance and performance demands and be flexible in operating a true outcome-based demand delivery system.

This revision is based on continuous process improvement (CPI). This moves the partnership away from the “compartmentalization” process of the original design and allows for the following in a real-time context: benchmarking (metric driven change), anticipating and meeting changing customer needs, local control of the process to reduce cycle time and idle resources and incorporate lessons learned through marrying quality assurance (monitoring) directly to training.

The new design removes the requirement for the lock step “team approach” of membership, career development and recruitment and placement. While this concept was effective from a process-focused approach, forcing every customer through these steps whether needed or not, is not customer demand driven and is very inefficient. So, while it is important that all offices will “standardize job-seeker basic career services and enrollment processes,” the way in which these are delivered must be flexible. The inefficiencies of this process steal time from the partnership’s ability to serve its other customer, the employer and often frustrate the job-seeker.

The new process for all job-seekers regardless of their reason for entering our services is a roadmap designed for speed and flexibility. It provides for continuous assessment, career services and follow-up. This supports the original design concept of “efficiently determining customer needs, routing customers to the appropriate service, tracking customer activity through the process and targeting and recording outcomes.” Each step in this process has an associated metric draw for continuous improvement.

Continued Guidelines and Required Actions: All job-seeking customers visiting a physical One-Stop Center location who receive staff-assisted services are included in the common measures performance calculations.

Because all One-Stop Center services, staff, facility and activities are funded in-part by both WP and WIOA, sequence of services and assessments shall determine the timing for co-enrollment of job- seekers who receive staff-assisted service in a One-Stop Center, or affiliate, into both WIOA Title I and the WP program for reporting and performance measures.

Any job-seeker served in any One-Stop (or affiliate) should be counted as a participant in WIOA, regardless of the presence of WIOA-funded staff onsite. Conversely, all WIOA participants should be counted as WP participants, regardless of the presence of WP funded staff at the enrolling service location.

Determining eligibility under dislocated worker, adult and youth status are separate issues from this guidance and are addressed in a separate policy.

Staff shall select and provide services to employers and job-seekers with the intent of developing a high-quality outcome. For this reason, the performance accountability system is based on the quality of services and not the number of services provided.

Service Delivery Process: Assessment, Career Services, and Follow-up for Job-Seekers:

Rather than being divided into three distinct workspaces, local leadership must design space usage to most efficiently and effectively move customers through the process. This may involve some team areas for specific tasks, but should not “silo” staff such that a “lack of work” can exist.

The old term and concept of “intake process” shall be replaced with “assessment process.” While further discussion of assessment in this policy and in its operation will be divided into “initial assessment” and “comprehensive assessment,” assessment is an ongoing process in the context of service delivery.

Assessment may include the use of tools and processes that shall be modified by local leadership to be most effective based on the demographic of their specific location, customer base, staffing levels, program availability and access to supportive services.

One-Stop staff shall provide services without regard for their status as state or LWDB employees. Minimally, job-seeker services must include initial registration, WP and (when applicable) WIOA enrollment, with the appropriate staff-assisted first service.

Career services shall include both basic career and individualized career services as appropriate based on job-seeker and employer need, and the most recently directed criteria associated with compliance and performance under any applicable U.S. Department of Labor grant. These services may include, but are not limited to, assisted job search activities, evaluation of skills, interests, preferences, career counseling training options, matching skills to current job openings, individualized career services, case management and follow-up.

The Three Tracks for a Job-Seeker

In the revised service delivery process, there are three tracks that any job-seeker may take. These are defined as workforce-ready in a demand occupation, workforce ready not in a demand occupation and case management.

It is important to note that one of these tracks will apply to all job-seekers regardless of their reason for entering our staff-assisted service, and that during the course of service assessments and re-evaluation the job-seeker may move from one track to another.

Entry may begin as a self-service electronic registration (in or out of a One-Stop Center), an outreach contact (regardless of reason for outreach), an automatic registration created by an application for UI benefits and the subsequent required service points requiring a visit to a One-Stop Center, a staff-assisted registration and enrollment for a job-seeker who is a “walk in” to a One-Stop Center or an individual who is registered by any means while receiving Rapid Response services.

Job-seekers who are also UI claimants

Required service entry for UI beneficiaries are based on worker profiling through LWC’s statistical profiling model. A UI claimant most lkely to exhaust benefits should be considered not workforce ready.

Louisiana Workforce Commission’s Re-Employment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) program is a grant-funded program designed to specifically assist UI recipients identified as “most likely” to exhaust benefits and assist them to quickly return to the workforce. RESEA services include orientation to the One-Stop Center (OSC)/American Job Center (AJC) services, eligibility assessment, provision of LMI, the development and/or update of an individual re-employment plan, and referral to existing WP and WIOA services.

Selected RESEA participants must report to the OSC/AJC at specified service points as a requirement of continued eligibility to receive UI benefits (following the most current U.S. Department of Labor and state guidance for grant specific requirements).

Any job-seeker who is also a profiled UI recipient entering a one-stop center for service shall initially receive an orientation (e.g. provision of labor market information and career information, information on assessment tools and orientation to services available through the OSC/AJC and partner organization). Orientation is optional but is encouraged for all non-UI recipient job-seekers as well.

As these job seekers transition from RESEA program-specific services, they will be targeted to be assessed, placed in an appropriate track as outlined below and provided services in accordance with that track, including assessment for enrollment in more robust WIOA individualized career services and placement in a more service-intensive track. Individuals not appropriate for enrollment in WIOA will continue to receive staff-assisted or self-directed WP employment services.

Workforce Ready, in a Demand Occupation:

Job-seekers who are not UI recipients may arrive at the One-Stop Center for a variety of other reasons (they may be unemployed by choice, through no fault of their own or seeking a career change, for example). If the initial assessment indicates they have no significant barriers to employment and are workforce ready in a demand occupation, (as defined above), they will be places on the workforce ready in a demand occupation track.

Those job-seekers who are UI recipients and are determined to be least likely to exhaust their UI benefits shall be placed in either of the workforce ready in a demand occupation track or the workforce ready not in a demand occupation track.

When an initial assessment indicates no significant barriers to employment, and that the job-seeker has skills, credentials, certification, education, soft skills, previous experience or a combination of these factors that qualifies them in a demand occupation, they shall be sent to career specialists performing placement services or other career specialists designated by local management for job referral.

Career specialists engaged in placement services shall review the job-seeker’s skills comparing them to specific demand occupation job vacancies, match those skills to job vacancies and make a staff referral. The career specialist who made the referral, or who is case-managing the job- seeker, should plan for a formalized follow-up process, such as a 30-, 60-, 90-day cycle, developed locally with documented reassessment.

Follow-up does not necessarily require a contact call. Alerts and electronic messaging available in HiRE may be utilized.

Workforce Ready, Not in a Demand Occupation:

When the initial assessment indicates a job-seeker is workforce ready (using the criteria above), but not in a demand occupation (including UI recipients determined to be least likely to exhaust their UI benefits), that job-seeker shall be referred to self-service and offered assistance as needed with informational services. As defined in Informational Services, these services will include guiding the job-seeker to labor market information including jobs in demand, wage rates, education requirements, work search tools, skills and interest-matching assessments.

Career specialists should plan for robust and effective follow-up, reassessing as necessary. This is critical because continued failure to achieve employment may indicate the existence of a barrier to employment that was not identified earlier in the assessment process.

Should follow-up for any job-seeker on the workforce ready track show continued unemployment, more individualized career services may be indicated. These job seekers shall be moved to the Case Management Track.

Case Management Track:

Job-seekers who have large gaps in their work history, limited, obsolete or unknown skills, limited education, inadequate credentials, lack soft skills, have significant barriers to employment or a combination of any of these factors as well as any job-seeker determined most likely to exhaust all their UI benefits shall be considered not workforce ready.

Job-seekers who are not workforce ready shall be provided individualized career services, consisting of a minimum of a comprehensive assessment and development of an individualized employment plan (IEP) in the context of case management.

Comprehensive assessment is vital to collecting information on job-seeker barriers to employment, employment goals, knowledge skills and abilities, and proficiency in occupational knowledge. This assessment shall be done as a client-centered approach to evaluating the needs of a participant without regard to services or training program availability. The purpose is not to match the job- seeker to what is available, rather to determine job-seeker needs.

This assessment is best defined operatively as an intensive interviewing process, which includes behavioral observations and may also require the use of structured assessment tools. Other information gathered may include detailed work history, family support available, social services affiliations, offender status and a detailed education history.

Comprehensive assessment must be documented via case note(s), with regard for privacy and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) rules. It is the responsibility of local management to ensure staff is cognizant of HIPAA rules.

The comprehensive assessment is the foundation for development of an IEP, and no IEP shall be created without completing a comprehensive assessment. In many cases the comprehensive assessment will then be an ongoing process that may result in changes to the goals and objectives of the IEP.

The IEP is developed with a job-seeker to identify or create employment goals, appropriate achievement objectives and the right combination of services to assist in achieving goals and objectives. In short — “Where am I now?” “Where do I want to go?” “How will I get there?”

The IEP must include goals and objectives that are SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, realistic and time bound). A case note must accompany the IEP and must justify the plan based on the identified barrier(s) to employment.

Case management requires a regular follow-up and review or revision of the IEP until such time as the job-seeker becomes workforce ready or enters a training program. In either case, follow-up is critical, using a 30-day cycle until the job-seeker attains employment or completes training.

All IEP’s must be recorded in HiRE. The preferred method is by using the HiRE Wizard. In order to comply with this requirement when IEPs are created as hard copy only, those IEPs must be scanned into the HiRE system not later than close of business the following business day.

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Successful implementation of the revised service delivery process depends on development of true partnerships and honest collaboration at all levels and among all stakeholders. This means developing effective partnerships within local communities, including but not limited to business and industry associations, businesses, organized labor, community-based organizations, educational institutions and other partners. Establishment and effective operation of an ongoing and aggressive training program for both state merit and Local Workforce Development Board (LWDB)-funded staff is also critical to success.

Point of Service Leadership:

Local Workforce Development Boards through their leadership and supervisory structure, (e.g. WDB directors, local area coordinators, site managers, except as defined in this policy), shall have full functional supervision over all state merit staff operating as a career specialist in a One-Stop Center.