Now that you have a core team and established your goals, your team is in a good position to launch the program.
The purpose of this section is to provide a list of relevant actions to implement during this critical phase of work. Each of the below items in the list will be ongoing work accomplished in the day-to-day.
In approaching the list, partners may find success using divide-and-conquer. This means that a few partners may have to take the lead on some things while the remaining partners work on other aspects driven by their expertise.
The following process may be helpful in launching your program:
With your core team, create an execution plan that establishes clarity around roles, responsibilities and the contributions of each stakeholder. You will have done the majority of this work in Convening Partners and Identifying Goals.
Cohort Tip
Each of these steps might uncover more questions than answers, and this is okay – it’s a part of the process. These are awareness activities, rather than activities that drive an immediate solution.
Creating a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
Earlier sections discuss the importance of an MOU. Overall, an MOU (or contract, agreement, or another explicit form of commitment) should outline the following:
- The level of commitment for each partner includes the roles, responsibilities, and resources of each stakeholder based on their capacity and connection to the target community.
- Frequency of progress reporting and meetings
- Data sharing structures. This was discussed previously.
- Clear measurable goals (this step is especially critical when managing leadership transitions)
- As discussed here, emphasize the importance of C-Suite awareness/support/buy-in balanced with project leadership engagement (e.g. community college president, community organization executive director, chamber executive).
Cohort Tip
Consider the “institutional team” approach to protect the flow of work in case of champion, leadership or team management transitions at stakeholder organizations. An institutional team approach is when all participants are held equally responsible for the quality and success of the project. They must also be willing to switch roles when the need arises, doing whatever is necessary to ensure the project’s success.
Re-Centering Prompts
Now that you entered the execution phase of work, you will need to understand how to track and document your work using a series of guiding prompts. How you will document your work is specific to your location. This process may feel overwhelming depending on the size of your region or ecosystem. For some communities, you might want to focus on a few areas at a time. Taking the time to record your progress and continually ask your team the re-centering prompts posed below will pay off by keeping your team focused on your shared goals.
Strong re-centering prompts accomplish the following:
- Serve as the core of how the work will be executed
- Help continually address and refine the “how” and “why” of your work
- Visualize your ecosystem and the journey you are taking to execute the work
- Track where you and your stakeholders are in a process of collaboration and how you interact with one another
- Make the work transparent
- Help you think strategically about your goals in the context of the ecosystem
Cohort Tip
Returning to the prompts and answering them at different phases of your work will uncover how your goals and targets have changed over time, and how you might need to adjust or address new challenges or opportunities.
How to Use Re-centering Prompts
For best results, you will want to conduct this check-in process several times over the course of your pilot. Not all questions will be applicable at every stage. For instance, you might use some prompts as a framework to jumpstart data gathering as outlined here. You might also need to rely on other prompts as you convene your partners and identify a goal as we learned here.
Revisiting these prompts during the execution phase, along with continued data gathering, ensures that you have an accurate picture of how your goals are being met. Are there other prompts that you could generate to address your unique project or goal? Feel free to include custom prompts that fit your specific needs and help your team stay on target.
Prompts to Consider
• Confirm or adjust vision and goals by using feedback and concrete data on outcomes and metrics
• Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of your current partnerships
• Agree on a plan to address issues or roadblocks
• Identify or re-identify and discuss current credentials or degrees offered for in-demand jobs
• Identify any credentials needed and not offered and develop a plan to offer them
• Identify or adjust the target population(s) the work will focus on (e.g., single mothers, opportunity youth, those in a specific zip code, New Americans, new high school graduates, justice-involved, etc.)
• Identify barriers to student success in the community, considering the unique barriers that BIPOC populations may face and systemic barriers in policies and procedures
• Secure or renew commitments from employers to interview and/or hire graduates
• Engage or re-engage the business community to give feedback on credentials/degrees
• Check in with employers on how to develop inclusive cultures
Ensuring that all partners are in constant communication and keeping each other up to date as the work moves forward is crucial to the success of your mission. Here are some tips to keep the conversation going:
- Hold regular check-ins with participating organizations (likely organized by the convener).
- Additional working groups can be formed as needed to address specific areas of the work, especially as new opportunities arise or as needs shift in the industry. Working groups may meet more frequently than the larger group and can supplement the ongoing touchpoints between large group meetings.
- The capacity to convene varies across communities, and how often partners meet with each other and with other participants will depend on that capacity.
- Communication with external stakeholders should be considered as well. How is the larger community or region being made aware of progress and outcomes? Consider opportunities to keep everyone in the loop to build new champions.
Cohort Tip
Adaptability will be critical – all partners need to be candid about when the plan is not working and be committed to identifying alternative paths forward to navigate challenges as they arise.
As we learned in the previous section, employer needs can change. It’s important to keep in close contact with employers to hear if graduates have the right skills and are prepared coming out of these programs. Below are a few ideas on how to adapt to your employer’s business needs:
- Help businesses tease out future needs and not just current ones – what does labor market data say about jobs that will be in demand in two to five years? What needs to be done to be proactive about those programs?
- Identify what additional skills students need that may or may not be covered in courses and who in your partnership can fill that gap (soft skills, digital skills, ELL, etc.).
- What facilities, equipment or instructors are students missing to be able to meet those needs? What are some ways to collaborate with industry to access those things?
- Who are potential workforce intermediaries/career and job support organizations in your region that focus on a variety of individuals (youth, justice-involved, etc.)?
- What classes or training programs use equipment? What industries provide equipment at economies of scale?
- Could employers consider leveraging existing employees as instructors in exchange for opportunities to hire students from the program?
- What are some grant opportunities for new facilities or equipment?
In this work, no one organization can be everything to everyone involved. In many cases, other organizations within the community may already be providing the types of services that students need. In many communities, the chamber and community college may be best positioned to identify those existing services and plan for how to incorporate them into the work. Some community colleges may provide certain wrap-around services, but others do not.
In thinking about student barriers and supports, consider the following:
- Engage partners who already offer wraparound services
- Establish an “early warning” system to ensure student barriers are quickly identified and addressed
- Work with community partners to connect students with support
- Identify what community colleges are uniquely qualified to do and where it makes sense to collaborate with others
- How can chambers and colleges collaborate when student barriers overlap with workforce barriers – are there opportunities for joint advocacy efforts to change something about the system? How can each organization’s relationships be used to the best advantage?
When conducting outreach and marketing campaigns, here is a list of options to consider:
- What are the intended audience’s language and technology barriers?
- What social media platforms are your target population most likely to use?
- Who are your communities’ trusted networks? Some examples are faith communities, nonprofit partners, community leaders, etc.
- What community events could you attend to promote the program?
- Share details about employability, such as: employers are ready to hire students and starting wages are $x/hr.
- Consider radio ads in the language of your target community
- Address and mitigate barriers to entry such as required resumes
- Market to potential students but be mindful that parents, family members or employers can also be your audience as well
Cohort Case Study
Aurora used their community partner network to distribute flyers. They found this was extremely effective and helped them reach potential students with needs.
Cohort Tip
Sometimes “analog” or traditional marketing such as flyers are just as effective as slick digital marketing campaigns. Consider publishing flyers in multiple languages.
Employer engagement is key in this process, and engaging employers early helps students connect with employers and secure a job upon the completion of their credential or degree. Chambers can help community colleges connect with employers who have open positions that align with identified credentials and degrees. Engagement opportunities can take the form of:
- Worksite tours and classroom visits
- Job and career fairs
- Internships, externships, apprenticeships, work-based learning
- Direct training by employers
- Upskilling existing employees into higher wage, higher-value roles within the organization are also proven, valuable employees.
Your core team should have already identified data-sharing processes and included them in your MOU. Continue to be on the same page for how to track data and when to start tracking. Establish a mutually accessible tracking and reporting system that all partners will use to ensure data accuracy.
Be aware of lagging data. Federal data, particularly data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor can be 18 months (or greater) old when published. The perishability of this data, especially in sectors such as IT, can lag behind real-time trends in hiring, occupational skills and longer-term outlook.
Tracking student placement in jobs post-graduation remains a challenge for many, if not most, degree-granting institutions across the country.
- Consider using a combination of college data, employer data and state labor data
- Get to know the students participating in this program and follow them on their journey. Encourage them to document and share their progress with you to memorialize their achievement and in doing so, provide crucial data that will be important to the future viability of the program.
- Employer partners may be willing to share hiring information for program completers. While this will vary from location to location, it is always work asking if they will do so.
It’s important for all employers to retain their workforce and create positive workplaces. As a place to get started, SHRM Foundation’s Employing Abilities at Work Program provides helpful resources to strengthen the skills and abilities of Human Resource professionals to build more equitable workplaces.
Resources:
- The Muskegon Community College’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offers several trainings within the college and to local businesses to promote a culture of inclusion.
- Santa Rosa Metro Chamber created comprehensive toolkit for Family Friendly Policies. It covers the areas of Schedule Flexibility, Lactation-Friendly Workplace, High-Quality Child Care, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and Education & Training.
- Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce hosted a virtual six-part education series, “Building Inclusive & Equitable Workplaces,” available at no cost for all businesses and individuals. Their goal is to build even better workplaces where all individuals are welcome, invested in and engaged in work they find rewarding.
- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation hosted an Incorporating Inclusion forum focused on providing an opportunity for businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, and partners to learn how to build inclusive cultures inside and outside their organizations.
- SHRM provides a variety of DEI resources to members and nonmembers, ranging from their Inclusive Workplace Culture Specialty Credential to a 2023 Pay Equity infographic.