Inside the Black Box - Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

While acknowledging funding as a primary challenge, the organizations in our study all had strategic
plans for future growth. These plans differed, with some opting to serve more participants and broaden
their scope, and others choosing to narrow their focus and serve existing participants more thoroughly.
External relationships, community, and policy
Employer partners treated as customers and engaged in a variety of ways with the organization
Strong employer relationships permeate the successful organizations in this study, where employers are
treated as customers who receive dedicated efforts to ensure their workforce needs are met. Employers
engage with training providers in a number of ways—involvement in training components, serving on the
board, engaging in volunteer efforts with the organization, and even taking business service trainings
from the organization. Organizations must meet employers’ and industries’ changing demands while
ensuring enough partnerships exist to place all graduates in employment. Each organization has dedicated
staff who are responsible for finding and cultivating these relationships.
Given the importance of building and maintaining relationships with employers, and identifying and
being responsive to employer needs, about half of the programs in the study formally or systematically
track their employer engagement. One program in particular uses a business-focused contact management
software to track all employer engagements. Most programs use data on employer engagement for selfassessment
to identify what is working well, or not so well, regarding the number and quality of
placements. One organization, for its industry-focused program, tracks interview-to-hire ratios with
employers, with an effort to keep this ratio as low as possible. Data on employer engagement can be
shared with employers to maintain existing employer relationships and recruit new ones, and demonstrate
how well they are meeting the employer’s needs. One program provides customized reports to employers
to describe their successful placement and retention outcomes and overall engagement with each
employer, demonstrating the quality of their relationship. A few programs in the study also track
employer engagement with programmatic activities, such as employers’ volunteer efforts with the
program, by maintaining spreadsheets that record such engagements.
Most programs in the study noted they also use employer-specific data and labor market data on industry
and employer needs to better assess the current and projected demand for specific skills with job
placements. Some organizations have also used this information to help align their current and future
training programs with the needs of employers.
Workforce providers collaborate with each other
The organizations in this study consider themselves to have a dual client base, serving their participants as
well as their employer partners and local businesses. Training providers often exhibit collaborative
tendencies to work together to fulfill the needs of participants and employers.
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