A system of regional workforce development boards wants to lead the way on solutions to Indiana’s “immense” labor needs — but fragmentation, funding and other challenges limit its effectiveness, the Indiana Workforce Alliance has found.
The alliance, which represents the state’s 12 workforce boards, commissioned the report from Pathemy Strategies. It was released last week.
At a time “when employers are struggling to find talent, Hoosiers need clear and faster routes to good jobs,” the 25-page report reads. “… Workforce boards offer the connective tissue linking regional economic growth strategies to the people who will power them.”
But they’re “limited by fragmentation in the talent ecosystem, funding cuts, inconsistent quality, and regulatory constructs that crowd out strategy,” it said. It also laid out a plan to help them “evolve from program administrators to strategic conveners and talent system architects.”
Workforce boards are federally authorized groups of community leaders — led by local employers — that guide how national and state workforce dollars are spent in their areas. Indiana has 12, monitored by the state’s Department of Workforce Development.
They oversee about 70 WorkOne job centers, run the recently gutted Jobs for America’s Graduates program, help Hoosiers find jobs or enroll in registered apprenticeships, assist employers in recruiting workers and more.
The report lauded the boards’ “extensive” geographic reach, employer network, adaptability to economic changes and wraparound service provision — such as transportation or child care — to ease barriers to employment. It also applauded Gov. Mike Braun for his attempt to align talent and economic development strategies.
But the system has its weaknesses.
Communication between the boards, state workforce and economic development agencies, and others is often “fractured or ineffective,” according to the report.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, for instance, administers an employment services program for Hoosiers on the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Because workforce boards “are the primary entities charged with helping low-income Hoosiers access job training and employment, the separation of TANF job-readiness efforts creates duplication and limits integration,” the report found.
The critique also applies to the boards themselves, which maintain different databases and platforms that don’t connect to each other.
The report further chided Indiana for not applying for more waivers from federal requirements, which can ease administrative requirements and add flexibility.
But “declining and unpredictable” funding was highlighted as a “growing threat to the stability and scalability” of Indiana’s workforce system.
The federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act provides most of the Hoosier system’s funding, but the amount received has dropped 16% in the last decade — and the share of funding DWD withholds has increased.
Additionally, state funding cuts of $22 million “have all but eliminated” the popular, $26 million Jobs for America’s Graduates program. That’s less than a year after the program finished a massive expansion to become the nation’s largest network.
Thinking bigger
The analysis made several ambitious recommendations to boost workforce development progress in Indiana.
The boards “must see their missions as much bigger” than administering WIOA and their WorkOne centers, it asserted. They should partner more with businesses, chambers of commerce, universities and others — and get talking to lawmakers to prevent cuts in the future, the report added.
“Maintaining active, year-round relationships with public officials and civic leaders means going beyond occasional updates and instead systematizing regular interactions such as district visits, site tours of WorkOne centers, and data briefings that highlight outcomes, workforce needs, and employer perspectives,” it said. “These activities reduce misperceptions about what (workforce boards) do and build long-term champions who can advocate for stronger policies and resources.”
Workforce boards should become the default source of information on training programs, perhaps by creating provider scorecards along key metrics, the report suggested.
The analysis included a call for Indiana’s employers to step up.
It noted many want new or expanded programs, or are frustrated by funding cuts to programs they benefit from, but “are often unwilling to contribute funding or engage in formal advocacy.” Doing so would make the workforce system less reliant on government money, the report said.
The boards should also get more involved in youth apprenticeships, plus educational and economic development planning.
“Rarely are (workforce boards) involved in Indiana’s code-name economic development projects, and that needs to change if workforce and economic development are to be more aligned,” the analysis noted.
Other recommendations included: offering boards greater funding and flexibility, having them administer workforce-related human services programs, strengthening the Indiana Workforce Alliance and integrating data infrastructure.
Workforce boards are “Indiana’s most scalable, demand-responsive workforce infrastructure,” the report asserted. “… But realizing their full potential requires deliberate action from leaders across the full workforce ecosystem.”
