WINs Career Ladders Guidebook

1 Career LaddersA Guidebook for WorkforceIntermediaries By Heath Prince and Jack Mills, Jobs for the FuturePrepared for Workforce Innovation Networks WINsPart of a series on engaging employers in workforce development Workforce Innovation Networks WINsWINs, a collaboration of Jobs for the Future, the Center for Workforce Preparationof the Chamber of Commerce, and the Center for Workforce Success of theNational Association of Manufacturers, addresses the workforce development needsof businesses and communities. Launched in 1997, WINs works with local employerorganizations across the country that are on the cutting-edge of workforce develop-ment, testing the proposition that they can play a unique intermediary role inachieving a dual goal: Improving the economic prospects of disadvantaged job-seekers and workers; and Meeting the needs of their member firms for employees at the entry-level andabove.

2 The Role of Employers in Workforce Development A basic principle of WINs is that efforts to help individuals succeed must provideeducation and training that meets employer needs for knowledge and high , individuals particularly those with low education and skill levels willnot succeed in gaining family-sustaining employment unless they gain the skills nec-essary to perform in today s complex work environment. Yet the top challenge faced by the people and organizations whose mission is to serveeither constituency job seekers or employers is the challenge of engaging effec-tively with employers. For example, WINs asked a group of workforce developmentprofessionals, What is the primary workforce development challenge facing yourcommunity?

3 Half the respondents answered, Employers are not connected to thesystem. WINs then asked, What is the biggest challenge you face in implementingthe Workforce Investment Act? Over 40 percent of respondents said, Engagingemployers. Jobs for the Future has prepared a series of resources on meeting the challenge ofengaging employers in workforce development. These include: Career Ladders : A Guidebook for Workforce Intermediaries Employer-Led Organizations and Career Ladders From Stakeholders to Partners: Organizing Community Partnerships forWorkforce Development High-Leverage Governance Strategies for Workforce Development Systems Hiring, Retaining, and Advancing Front-Line Workers: A Guide to Successful Human Resources Practices Mentoring Working Together on Worker TrainingDECEMBER 2003 Career Ladders A Guidebook for Workforce IntermediariesPrepared for Workforce Innovation Networks WINs Introduction.

4 4 Using this Guide.. 5 Section I: The Fundamentals of Career Ladders .. 6 What Workforce Intermediaries Bring to Career Ladders .. 6 Who Operates Workforce Intermediaries.. 6 The Types of Career Ladder.. 10 Design Principles: Characteristics for Career Ladder Leadership.. 11 Section II: Stages of Program Development and Implementation.. 14 Stage 1: Capacity Assessment and Planning.. 15 Stage 2: Partnership Building and Program Development.. 18 Stage 3: Program Operation and Expansion.. 22 Section III: Examples of Career Ladders .. 24 Single-Firm Career Ladders .. 24 Industry-Based Career Ladders .. 25 Career Ladders Based in Sectoral Initiatives.. 29 Cross-Industry Career Ladders .. 32 Resources on the CD-ROM.. 34 Table of ContentsEmployers demand for skilled workers pulls low-income individuals up from low-wage jobs through thepathways created by the Career ladder.

5 As a result, careerladders are: For employers, an effective source of employees; and For workers, a vehicle to increase opportunities toadvance to better Ladders group together employers whose skillrequirements for a range of occupations can be met withskills that potential workers acquire in previous jobs andtraining. Career Ladders can even operate within a singlefirm, linking occupations based on similarities in skillrequirements across different job levels. In either case, Career Ladders focus on the jobs that employers have themost trouble filling as they seek to stay competitive: jobswith high turnover, those in which the demand for newworkers is great, and those that are rapidly growing indemand. The Career ladder provides a road map for effi-cient, effective hiring by identifying the skills those jobsrequire, arranging the jobs in steps up which workersadvance, and sourcing workers to employers based on theskills they have learned, at least in part, in their previousjobs.

6 Career Ladders help solve recruitment problems,reduce turnover, and increase productivity. By integrating dead-end occupations into a sequence that leads tohigh-wage occupations, employers at the lower rungs ofcareer Ladders benefit from higher retention rates for par-ticipating workers. Because workers gain the skillsemployers need, employers can capitalize on skillsacquired at lower-skill levels of employment or throughtraining that targets their Ladders are not naturally occurring phenom-ena, however. They require conscious construction andcompetent management. Therefore, a workforce interme-diarysits at the center of many successful Career Ladders ,directing the flow of labor demand and supply amongparticipating firms and workers.

7 These intermediaries,despite varying institutional origins, programmatic prior-ities, and long-term ambitions, share several importantcharacteristics. In particular, they improve local andregional labor markets by pursuing two broad sets offunctions: Organizing and planning:Workforce intermediariesmobilize the stakeholders in the labor market including employers, individual workers, government4 Workforce Innovation NetworksINTRODUCTIONE mployers consistently rank recruiting and retaining skilled workers as two of their top human resourcespriorities. At the same time, low-wage, low-skilled individuals struggle to find avenues out of occupationsthat offer little opportunity for advancement and into those that improve their skills, pay a family-sustain-ing wage, and offer upward mobility.

8 Career Ladders are a solution to this overlapping labor market problem: the need for better ways to recruit,retain, and advance workers. The term Career Ladders refers to a set of occupations that are linked togetherby common or complementary skills; these linkages provide workers with opportunities to advance, and theyexpand the recruitment opportunities for employers. Career Ladders bring order to an often chaotic labormarket with the strategic decision to satisfy both an employer s need for skilled labor and a worker s needto advance. officials, and education, training, and other serviceproviders to benefit employers and low-incomeworkers. Providing or brokering services:Workforce intermediariesensure that low-income job seekers, and the employerswho hire them, have access to job-matching, training,support, and other services.

9 Using this GuideCareer Ladders : A Guidebook for Workforce Intermediariesprovides information on planning, developing, operat-ing, and expanding the role of these invaluable organiza-tions in Career Ladders . The guide is intended for use byprogram developers on the staff of workforce intermedi-aries leading or organizing Career Ladders . The Guidebook is designed for organizations that arenew to Career Ladders as well as for those that have begundeveloping and implementing their own initiatives. Fororganizations just beginning to consider developingcareer Ladders , the guide is a comprehensive introduc-tion, as well as a stage-by-stage approach for programdevelopment and implementation. For organizationsfamiliar with Career Ladders or other workforce develop-ment programs, this guide serves as a resource on in-depth information and guide is divided into three sections, plus a com-pendium of resources for program development andimplementation.

10 Section I, The Fundamentals of Career Ladders ,defines key terms, details the value and characteristics ofcareer Ladders , and outlines the alternatives for leadershipin their development. Section II, Stages of Program Development andImplementation,explains the three stages in the processof developing and implementing Career Ladders : Self-Assessment and Planning, Partnership Building andProgram Development, and Program Operation,Improvement, and III, Examples of Career Ladders ,profiles suc-cessful programs from around the country, with briefcase studies of each on line or on a CD-ROM are Career LadderResources, with additional information on each of thecontent areas covered by the guide. These resources alsohighlight key areas for further research for the threedevelopment and implementation stages.