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.

 Goals are as follows:.

●      Add flexibility to the delivery of training services by simplifying the process for identifying qualified candidates.

●     Operate a process that recognizes the ever-changing funding environment associated with federal mandates and grants.

●      Support a redesign of the state's 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 Combined State Plan partners continue to refine Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) that define the parameters and principles of roles and responsibilities for partners in support of robust comprehensive One Stop Centers. 

The redesign and refinement of service delivery provides an unprecedented opportunity to modernize Louisiana’s workforce system, where the needs of employers and job-seekers drive workforce solutions.  This allows One-Stop Career Centers and partners to provide excellent customer service to job-seekers and employers with continuous improvement through evaluation and data-driven policy.

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.

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.

Over time, the system fluctuated between an unbalanced focus on business to an unbalanced focus on employees.  The current efforts are toward finding the level delivery of quality services to both entities consistently through policy followed state-wide throughout AJCs.  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 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: Job-seeking customers visiting a physical One-Stop Center location who receive staff-assisted services may be included in the common measures performance calculations.

Comprehensive and Affiliate 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.

Staff shall provide services to employers and job-seekers with the intent of developing high-quality outcomes.  Performance accountability 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,” always think of assessment as 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 needs, 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 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 is based on worker profiling.  UI claimants are profiled  “most likely” to exhaust their benefits and be in need of employment services. Determination of service tract is based on individual assessment.

 These job-seekers must report to the One-Stop Center 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 UI recipient entering a One-Stop Center for service shall receive an orientation (e.g. provision of labor market information and career information, information on assessment tools and orientation to services available through the One-Stop Center and partner organizations).

Note: Orientation is optional but is encouraged for all non-UI recipient job-seekers as well.

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 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, they will be placed on the workforce ready 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 business services or other career specialists designated by local management for job referral.

 AJC staff performing business 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. 

Workforce Ready, Not in a Demand Occupation:

When the initial assessment indicates a job-seeker is workforce ready but not in a demand occupation 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.

Staff 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 poor or large gaps in their work history, limited, obsolete or unknown skills, limited education, lack credentials, lack soft skills, have significant barriers to employment or a combination of any of these factors 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.

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.

 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Successful implementation of integrated service delivery depends on the 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.