Toolkit for Developing High-Performing Industry Partnerships

Employer and Industry Engagement

Employers often engage in industry partnerships to address talent needs. They begin as a coalition of the willing. Workforce intermediaries work to build trust with employers and industry. As additional employers become involved, and the industry partnership develops, members recognize their roles for investing in workers and creating quality jobs.

Practice: Develop and Maintain Employer Leadership

Employers and industry are actively and consistently engaged and understand the role they play in improving outcomes for workers.

What success looks like

  • Employers attend meetings, invite peers to meetings, are responsive to requests, help determine priorities, and provide employer data to inform partnership priorities.
  • Employers making job design changes and taking action inside of their own organizations to invest in training, policies and practices that support worker retention and career advancement in an equitable manner.

 Tools

Practice: Use Labor Market Data and Industry Intelligence

Data informs the development of equitable goals and activities that address employer and worker needs – including conversations about the quality of jobs and needed competencies, training, and career pathways.

What success looks like

  • Education and training programs are aligned with industry needs and produce equitable outcomes for frontline workers and people of color.
  • More employers understand and empathize with the need to improve the quality of their jobs and support worker advancement.

 Tools

Practice: Activate Employers to Make Jobs Better

Build member awareness of best practices in their sector that strengthen job quality, enhance worker voice, and result in business success.

What success looks like

  • Better outcomes for workers, e.g., credentials earned, job placement, retention, promotions, and wage gains.
  • Better outcomes for businesses, e.g., lower turnover, higher productivity, and improved customer satisfaction.

 Tools

  • Job Design Framework (National Fund) – Use this menu of components to identify different ways to create the right quality job for employers and workers. These components can also be helpful in defining job quality and setting goals for improvement.
  • Job Quality Competency Model (National Fund) – Use this model to better understand what skills and competencies are necessary for collaboratives to embark on job quality work with employers.
  • Good Jobs Good Business (Pacific Community Venture) – Use this toolkit to help small businesses create good jobs and connect to pro-bono business advisors across the country. Industry partnerships can use it to frame conversations with businesses and suggest potential resources.

Practice: Promote Skills-Based Industry Recognized Training and Credentials

Work with employers to articulate competencies, work experience, and educational requirements for jobs. Share industry intelligence with educators and other partners.

What success looks like

  • Workforce supply meets demand in an equitable way.
  • Placements, retention, wages, and career advancement increase for people of color and others facing employment and income disparities.

Tools

Practice: Improve Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention Practices

Create a more diverse workforce and an equitable and inclusive workplace by working with employers to update hiring practices. This can include updating job descriptions, referral sources, hiring criteria, workplace culture, policies, and practices.

What success looks like

  • Diversity of the talent pipeline across different occupations within the industry sector increases.
  • Placements, retention, wages, and career advancement increases for people of color and others facing employment and income disparities.
  • Better outcomes for businesses, e.g., lower turnover, higher productivity, and improved customer satisfaction.

Tools

Practice: Promote Career Advancement

Work with employers to redesign jobs, develop career pathways, and remove barriers to career advancement by changing business practices. Examples include providing workers with more information about skill development, offering financial assistance, and creating more flexible work arrangements.

What success looks like

  • Diversity of the talent pipeline across different occupations within the industry sector increases.
  • Career pathways and resources to support advancement are clearly defined.
  • Better outcomes for workers, e.g., credentials earned, job placement, retention, promotions, and wage gains.

Tools

  • Advancing Frontline Women (FSG) – This report offers 12 evidence-based practices that companies can employ to help break down workplace barriers for women and create a competitive advantage.
  • A Guide to Upskilling America’s Frontline Workers (Deloitte and Aspen Institute) – This guide outlines upskilling practices that employers have effectively applied to develop their frontline workers. Industry partnerships can use this to learn more about which employer practices are already being implemented in their industry.
  • UpSkilling Playbook for Employers (UpSkill America) – This playbook highlights examples of employers investing in upskilling strategies to support worker advancement and business competitiveness.
  • Progression in Employment: Employer Toolkit & Case Study Collection (Institute for Employment Studies) – This toolkit can be used to engage employers in building pathways and opportunities to support career progression for workers, by creating a supportive work environment through job redesign and supportive management.

Spotlight: Employer & Industry Engagement

The Baltimore Workforce Funder’s Collaborative, in partnership with Civic Works, created an industry partnership in the retail sector where employers were aligned around the mission of creating good jobs. Employers worked with a menu of job quality options to help employers identify where they were with respect to job quality and determine their job quality goals. In addition to receiving targeted technical assistance from Civic Works, employers could be featured on Good Business Works, an online platform that recognizes and promotes small businesses that offer a good job. Small businesses involved in the partnership changed recruitment, hiring, and retention practices, resulting in increased productivity, profits, and a more equitable and inclusive workplace.