Promising Practice #3 - Wider Opportunities for Women

Promising Practice #4

Counseling Customers About Income Goals, Career Paths and Work Supports

Overview

The Fresno County Workforce Investment Board (WIB) uses a formal employer-rating system to determine eligibility for on-the-job-training (OJT) contracts. Main elements of the ratings are focused on elements that contribute to self-sufficiency, including quality of wages and benefits, opportunities for skill advancement, wage gain and advancement in career ladders within six months of hire. Only top-ranking (platinum) employers are eligible for OJT contracts. To actively encourage and assist employers in attaining platinum status, the WIB entered into a partnership with the local Small Business Development Center to help employers improve their rating scores.

The WIB also established a number of other policies to ensure that training dollars would be directed to jobs that lead to self-sufficiency. For instance, the WIB allocates funds for supportive services such as transportation assistance if it is needed to help trained employees stay in their jobs.

Additional policies further ensure a focus on self-sufficiency outcomes:

At least 50 percent of all training, including OJT, must be in high-growth sectors.
A wage gain of at least $3 over the prior wage is the minimum requirement.
Provision is made for supportive services for OJT participants if they are necessary for participation in and completion of OJT training.
Transportation assistance is permitted as part of follow-up services if needed to retain employment.

top ^

History

The need for self-sufficiency outcomes is felt in the Fresno community. Pre-enrollment incomes for most adult WIA customers are well below the WIB designated self-sufficiency level of 160 percent of the Lower Living Standard Income Level (LLSIL). The WIB recognized that concerted efforts would be needed to ensure high-quality outcomes from on-the-job training, including substantial wage gains and immediate access to career ladders.

The WIB developed a concept for an employer rating system which evolved from its desire to:

Raise the quality of outcomes in specific and measurable ways
Create clear and objective criteria by which employers could be assessed, and
Give employers multiple incentives to improve.

WIB leaders worked closely with major employers to develop rating criteria and to set an initial threshold for the different rating levels. WIB leaders recognized that phasing in the business rating system would be critical to acceptance by employers. Achievement thresholds were initially set relatively low, with the goal of gradually raising the bar over time. As such, the employer ratings standards are reevaluated and raised on an annual basis, so even top-rated employers must continue to improve their performance to keep a high rating.

top ^

Partners and Funding

Engaging the Small Business Development Center as a partner made it possible to deliver quality technical assistance from a trusted source, and ensured that small businesses would benefit as well.

Challenges

Some employers were initially resistant to the proposed rating system, fearing that critical thresholds may be set at levels difficult or impossible to meet. There was also some concern that the rating system would be used as an exclusionary or punitive device. Those fears were allayed by a combination of factors including the participation of employers in the development of the rating system and the technical assistance they were provided by the Business Center to meet the criteria.

top ^