FCE Overview

Family Centered Employment Overview

From a Workforce Development Board Perspective

A full systems change with the job seeker at the center of flexible services.

Full Systems Change

A transition to FCE is a full systems change rather than a project.  
  • Don’t underestimate how big the change is, or the positive outcomes it creates. It is a different way of doing business and will change your day-to-day operations
  • The change to FCE doesn’t happen in a single year, it is an ongoing process tied to a commitment to serving families effectively. It will likely take time to build consensus around FCE goals and to get alignment around goals and strategies
  • Understand your end goal, understand how it will impact your outcomes and how you measure your outcomes, and balance that against the effort it will take to implement the change. The effort is worth it, but it is best to begin understanding how much time and effort it will take 
  • WDBs often focus on short-term, light touch services and have their plates full serving walk-ins. FCE’s more impactful outcomes take more time upfront to understand a job seekers’ needs at a deeper level
  • It is important to have the backing of the WDB leadership for the change, including a sponsor on the board at the beginning, with the full board supportive over time
  • There is a need to go beyond "managing" to provide "leadership" for the change, to include activities such as effective communication with the staff, the WDB, and the program partners about the change. It is important for WDB Staff to know that their leaders are committed to implementing FCE practices

Jobseeker at the Center

This is about putting the jobseeker at the center of your services, going beyond being led by programs, to first understanding the needs of the job seeker and then applying, and sometimes creating, programmatic solutions

Maricopa moved from centering their discussions and marketing around individual programs, to presenting that they were there to understand the job seeker’s situation and help them find their correct pathway to a job. The programs were part of the support provided to the job seeker, but were not where the discussion began

El Paso moved from providing “programs” to providing “services"

All job seekers will benefit from this change regardless of their current situation: 
  • opportunity youth
  • incumbent worker
  • TANF recipient, etc. 
Choose a target audience and get started; however, understand the key needs and barriers of that audience, where they currently go for support, and how that fits with your possible solutions
  • Family-centered coaching tools will help identify the job seeker’s current situation and the types of services they are ready for and could benefit from. The information gathered through the coaching process, driven by input from the job seeker and family situation, should provide the WDB team the information needed to identify the services to support the family
  • Recognize up front that those with the greatest barriers could take more time and support before they are successful in a job. However, Maricopa found that a jobseeker’s eagerness to succeed could overcome even the largest of barriers, such as homelessness. Job seekers that don’t have significant work experience and those without a high school diploma are other examples of those that could take more time and support. In addition, Maricopa found that the job seekers with the largest barriers sometimes didn’t exit from WDB services even after six months of employment; that after that time, their success required continued support and services because of their significant needs 
  • There are also many examples were the intake process identified that a few services, such as child care and short-term skills training, enabled a job seeker to quickly obtain a higher-level job and exit WDB services successfully. For instance, El Paso found that raising the hourly rate for eligibility for WIOA and child care services allowed them to support job seekers that were ready to make the jump from an entry-level job to a higher-level job going unfilled at a local employer
  • It is important to identify the barriers that most often cause job seeker failure and address those systemically. For instance, El Paso and Maricopa found a wait list at child care was a common barrier, causing delays in the ability to start a job or training. Both found that reducing wait lists positively impacted job seeker outcomes
  • It is important to understand cultural and family dynamics and adjust services based on those. When a strong relationship with a community doesn’t exist, working with a trusted partner that understands the community can help the WDB connect and relate with that community. For instance, El Paso most effectively reached the Hispanic community through Head Start because they already had the trust of some of the members of the Hispanic community

Implementations
Successful FCE implementations require solutions and employees that are more flexible than normal WDB programs

  • Different job seekers require different discussions and different solutions put together in unique ways. El Paso likened this to creating a bone structure that meets policy, with the remainder of the body being put together in a different way for each job seeker
  • It is important to understand which portions of workforce processes must be rigid and which portions seem rigid because that is the way they have been done. It is also important to enable WDB staff to conduct business in new ways when change is needed, even when you aren’t sure exactly what the outcomes will be. Maricopa found that monitoring new solutions must be active. You can’t wait for a change to flow all the way through the system before analyzing it, checking it along the way allowing for quicker adjustments

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