Promising Practice #6
Assessing Outcomes through Data Collection and Establishing Benchmarking Goals
Overview
The types of performance measures established by enabling legislation can have enormous influence on the kinds of services delivered. In this instance, the ongoing challenge for local and state workforce boards is establishing concrete benchmarks that will clearly demonstrate how well a system is performing, while at the same time capturing the more nuanced aspects of success. In addition, the boards must balance the administrative burden created by the data collection required with the need for detailed information to understand how well the system is working.
Although the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) references the concept of self-sufficiency, it does not fully define the term nor incorporate into its system of performance measures and required data collection. However, several Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) have concluded that collecting and analyzing certain data can help to identify the types of programs/policies that are working to move workers towards self-sufficiency and those that are not.
Establishing benchmarks based on a realistic definition of self-sufficiency can help workforce boards design the type of programs that will move people off of public benefits and allow them to support themselves in the long run while helping Boards assess the ability of training providers and One Stop Centers to prepare jobseekers for jobs that pay self-sustaining wages.
Case Studies:
- Metro South/West Regional Workforce Investment Board, MA
- Seattle/King County Workforce Development Council, WA
- Illinois Workforce Investment Board and Illinois Department of Employment Security, IL
- Maryland State Workforce Investment Board
» Promising Practice #7: Responding to the Demographics of a Community
WIA Law/Regulations
WIA law, regulations and Department of Labor Employment & Training guidance letters detail a range of performance measures in the successful implementation of the federal law [Sec. 136—Performance Accountability System]. The "core indicators" of performance for adult and dislocated worker services center on entry into and retention in unsubsidized employment, wages, and attainment of an education credential or skills. The wage measure focuses on earnings change after six months of employment.
WIA permits states to establish additional performance measures in cooperation with the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration.1 States are also free to collect and analyze data in addition to that required under the law. Drawing on these policies, several WIBs have developed benchmarks to assess the degree to which their policies are moving customers toward Board-defined measures of self-sufficiency.
1 Sec. 136(b)(2)(C). Definitions