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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................... ES-1

BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT WITH WIBS.................................................. ES-1

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS ................................................................ ES-4

BUSINESS SERVICES....................................................................... ES-6

CONCLUSION .............................................................................ES-10

I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................I-1

BACKGROUND ................................................................................I-1

VARIETIES OF BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT..................................................I-4

CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPING BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT ..............................I-6

METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION................................................I-7

PLAN FOR THE REPORT .....................................................................I-9

II. BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT WITH THE WORKFORCE 

INVESTMENT BOARD ....................................................................II-1

ESTABLISHING THE BUSINESS PRESENCE ON THE WORKFORCE 

INVESTMENT BOARD .......................................................................II-2

DEFINING THE BUSINESS ROLE ON THE WORKFORCE INVESTMENT 

BOARD...................................................................................... II-10

CONCLUSION .............................................................................. II-18

III. BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS............................................................III-1

PARTNERSHIPS WITH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE .....................................III-2

PARTNERSHIPS WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT .....................................III-4

SECTORAL PARTNERSHIPS AND/OR CUSTOMIZED TRAINING 

PARTNERSHIPS..............................................................................III-9

CONCLUSION ............................................................................. III-16

IV. BUSINESS SERVICES ...................................................................IV-1

DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS SERVICES ................................................IV-1

APPROACH TO SERVING BUSINESSES....................................................IV-4

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS SERVICES...................................................IV-9

HOW BUSINESS SERVICES ARE PROVIDED............................................ IV-22

IMPACT OF BUSINESSES SERVICES..................................................... IV-39
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CONCLUSION ............................................................................. IV-41

V.CONCLUSION................................................................................V-1

KEY PRACTICES FOR SUCCESSFULLY INVOLVING BUSINESSES.......................V-1

SUGGESTED CHANGES TO SUPPORT BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT .......................V-7

APPENDIX A. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE INNOVATIVE BUSINESS 

SITES AND COMPARISON SITES......................................................A-1

APPENDIX B. DESIGN OF THE EVALUATION OF THE 

IMPLEMENTATION OF WIA............................................................B-1
ES-1 Social Policy Research Associates

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

In the summer of 1999, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded Social 

Policy Research Associates (SPR) a contract for the national Evaluation of the 

Implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), a study comprised of three 

phases. The first two phases of this study were concerned primarily with understanding 

broad issues regarding WIA implementation, such as understanding the transition from 

the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to WIA, partnership building, and service 

design and delivery. This last phase of the study focuses on two topics of interest to 

DOL: (1) engaging businesses in strategic planning and services, and (2) services to 

special populations, within the One-Stop context. This report examines the first of 

these topics. 

To investigate the issues and challenges related to business involvement, between 

December 2003 and February 2004, field staff visited nine Local Areas that have 

adopted innovative approaches to business services and business involvement. Each of 

these site visits entailed a comprehensive set of interviews with Local Area officials, 

partners and businesses. The sites were selected through a national nomination and 

screening process to ensure a broad mix of urban and rural locations throughout the 

country with a variety of innovative practices. An abbreviated data collection on 

business issues was also conducted at nine other comparison sites that we visited for the 

companion study on services provided to special populations by One-Stop centers. 

Based on the data collected during these site visits, this report examines business 

involvement with Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs), business-related partnerships 

and services provided to businesses. 

BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT WITH WIBS

The Workforce Investment Board is a key conduit for businesses to provide 

policy direction to WIA Title I programs and to help construct broad workforce 

development policy that embraces K-12 and postsecondary education, key industries, 

business organizations, and economic development. By contrast, WIB business 

members play a much more modest role in providing input to the design and delivery of 

business services. 
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Establishing the Business Presence on the Board 

In establishing a business presence on local Workforce Investment Boards, the 

nine innovative business Local Areas had to first make the transition from the previous 

structure under JTPA. Fortunately, respondents from at least four of the nine sites—

Arapahoe/Douglas, Dallas County, Northwest Georgia, Pacific Mountain—felt that the 

transition to a Workforce Investment Board, in both structure and function, from the 

Private Industry Council was not very difficult. The fact that the Private Industry 

Council had a business majority and was already approving the One-Stop operator and 

other major contracts made the change almost transparent for these sites. 

In addition to transitioning from JTPA to WIA, Local Areas also had to develop a 

process for recruiting and appointing businesses to their WIBs. Although the law 

specifies that business members be appointed by chief elected officials from 

nominations by business and trade organizations, we found that these requirements 

were more nominal than actual. In most sites, effective control of the selection process 

is largely in the hands of the executive director, sometimes individually or in 

conjunction with Board members 

Local Areas differed in the types of firms—both in size and industrial 

composition—from which they recruited Board members. Typically, WIBs had 

representation from specific industry sectors that were either important to the local 

economy or represented sectors that presented specific labor market problems that the 

Local Area was interested in addressing. Most Local Areas have also been successful 

in recruiting high level members who are owners of small businesses, senior executives 

of large companies, or key local managers of branch plants or facilities. Because of 

the importance and difficulty of recruiting members who will be active Board 

participants, several largely rural Local Areas opposed any additional federal 

prescriptions for Board membership via WIA reauthorization. 

Nearly all respondents—both staff and business WIB members—uniformly 

expressed the view that business owners or managers who join the WIB are motivated 

by a community spirit, but many also acknowledged that many business WIB members 

also join to take advantage of networking opportunities. Board member respondents 

also believe that the WIB in these innovative business Local Areas is effective and a 

place where they can accomplish their goals, which may be one reason why these sites 
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showed a stronger ability to retain their business WIB members than the comparison 

sites. 

A major concern among all Local Areas is that WIB members—especially 

business members—have very limited time to attend meetings. Thus, it is a significant 

challenge to maintain business influence over policy, oversight, and strategic direction 

while not requiring time commitments that would deter members from joining or 

staying on the Board. Overall, the innovative and comparison sites both resolve this 

challenge by limiting time commitments while emphasizing central locations for 

meetings, establishing good agendas, and providing good food to promote attendance at 

meetings and help retain business members. 

Another way many sites compensate for business members’ limited time is by 

using voluntary committees to conduct most of the work. However, this use of 

committees may result in diminished business influence on WIB activities if business 

members do not serve on committees. However, at least four innovative business sites 

overcome this problem by making special provisions for business membership on these 

committees, with one area requiring that business members dominate its executive 

committee. 

Defining the Business Role on the Workforce Investment 

Board 

Nearly all WIB business members in the innovative business sites expressed 

relatively little interest in the mechanics of WIA programs, including business services 

programs. There is relatively greater interest in the key areas of performance 

management and procurement. Business members in some of the sites also play an 

important advisory role to key Local Area staff who initiated and designed business 

services. Surprisingly, it appears that few Workforce Investment Board members—who 

nevertheless endorse the value of the business services in general—use the Local Area’s 

business services for their own hiring and other workforce development needs. 

Most of our respondents, including WIB members, confirmed that business 

members are deeply interested in workforce planning, and this is an area of extensive 

activity at all the innovative business sites. Although strategic planning processes 

varied considerably among the innovative sites, most included other community 

members, including additional business representatives. The most common topics of 
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strategic planning efforts are skill shortages, followed by K-12 and postsecondary 

education, and long-range demographic issues. 

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

Many local Boards have taken steps to enhance their linkages with business 

organizations in an effort to improve their responsiveness to business concerns. All 

nine innovative business sites included in our study have developed partnerships with 

either Chambers of Commerce, economic development organizations or both. In 

addition, some of them have developed sectoral initiatives to enhance their ability to 

connect job seekers with high growth industries. Among comparison sites, partnerships 

with Chambers and economic development organizations are also common but 

generally much less developed, while sectoral partnerships are rare. 

Partnerships with Chambers of Commerce 

Among the nine innovative business sites, the most common WIB partnership 

with business organizations is with regional or local Chambers of Commerce. All but 

one site reported that they have active partnerships with at least one Chamber in the 

area and many sites reported collaborating with several Chambers in their region. 

These partnerships serve a number of important purposes for Local Areas, including 

enhancing the legitimacy of the workforce development system, providing opportunities 

to network and conduct outreach to business customers, and reducing turf issues. 

Partnerships with Chambers range in their levels of intensity from mutual board 

membership to the joint development, funding and operation of workforce development 

programs. Among sites with more advanced partnerships, partners flexibly take the 

lead on different issues. However, such collaboration is not easy to achieve. For the 

two innovative business sites that do not have strong partnerships with their local 

Chambers of Commerce, respondents cite a lack of staff on both sides as the primary 

reason why they have not been able to work collaboratively on projects that call for a 

deeper level of involvement. 

Partnerships with Economic Development 

Partnerships with economic development agencies have become key strategies for 

many business-oriented Local Areas. A majority of innovative business sites have 

substantial partnerships with economic development organizations, although the 

strength of these partnerships varies greatly. In general, Local Areas can benefit from 

partnerships with economic development agencies in numerous ways. For example, 
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economic development partners can help Local Areas assess business trends and stay 

abreast of emerging and high-growth industries to prepare job seekers for careers that 

have growth potential. Economic development agencies can also assist Local Areas in 

attracting, retaining and expanding businesses. 

At their most basic level, partnerships between workforce development and 

economic development agencies bundle services provided by the two entities into a 

combined toolkit for businesses who are considering relocating to the area. Some Local 

Areas and economic development agencies also jointly fund studies to assess the 

availability and level of preparedness of the local or regional workforce. In some cases 

effective collaboration with economic development partners is not so much a sign of 

deep partnership linkages, but the result of an alignment of goals and interests in Local 

Areas that see economic development and business expansion as inextricably linked to 

workforce development efforts. 

Not all innovative business sites have had success in developing strong 

partnerships with their economic development counterparts. Among the innovative 

business sites, there are a few reported incidents where inter-agency competition and 

turf issues have emerged between economic development and workforce development 

agencies. 

Sectoral Partnerships and/or Customized Training 

In recent years, sectoral initiatives have emerged as a promising strategy to allow 

communities—despite diminished public funding—to impact economic and workforce 

development by focusing some of their resources on targeted sectors or industry 

clusters with certain desirable characteristics. For Local Areas, sectoral initiatives are 

attractive because they allow workforce development to be an influential actor in 

emerging and high-growth industries. Sectoral initiatives include a range of strategies 

such as business attraction, worker retraining, and conducting labor market research, 

among others. Five of the nine innovative business sites have developed or participated 

in sectoral initiatives, and one site is currently considering whether it should do so. In 

many of these sites, the sectoral initiatives are still relatively new and are under 

development. 

Most of the sectoral initiatives are designed to improve workforce preparation for 

a specific industry sector and to stay abreast of industry trends and workforce 

development needs of high-growth industries. In some cases the WIB or its staff are 
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the initiators, while in others the WIB joined existing efforts to help support workforce 

development needs. In addition to meeting internal industry needs, sectoral initiatives—

especially in sectors that affect all other industries—can also have a significant impact 

on the overall health of the business climate. For example, in Arapahoe-Douglas, WIB 

members and other leaders were growing increasingly concerned about the impact of 

the nursing shortage on other local businesses. 

BUSINESS SERVICES

With the passage of the Workforce Investment Act in 1998, the shift to a greater 

emphasis on providing services to businesses received a boost. Indeed, the nine 

innovative business Local Areas visited for this study have devoted considerable time 

and resources to the development of successful business services programs. 

Development of Business Services 

A number of factors pushed these nine Local Areas to develop their business 

services programs, including a sense that the established ways of providing services 

were not working, the passage of WIA, changes at the State level, and the 

implementation of welfare reform. 

Once Local Areas had made the decision to develop business services programs, 

and had garnered support from States and local Boards to do so, they typically faced a 

number of challenges to making those programs successful. One of the biggest 

challenges was the need to build credibility with businesses. Business services staff 

also had to show that they were responsive and innovative—completely unlike the 

stereotype most businesses have of bureaucratic government workers. Finally, Local 

Areas had to try to coordinate the delivery of business services between One-Stop 

partners, particularly WIA-funded providers and the Employment Service. 

Approach to Serving Businesses 

The innovative business Local Areas typically utilize a number of key principles 

to overcome the challenges to providing successful business services programs. These 

principles include shifting the primary focus of the workforce system from job seekers 

to employers, focusing on building strong relationships with businesses, providing 

services in a customized and individualized way, and viewing service delivery as a 

process that occurs in phases. 
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In addition to utilizing these key principles, most of the innovative business Local 

Areas also target certain groups of businesses for services. The most common group of 

employers targeted were small businesses. Several Local Areas also targeted or were 

planning to target high growth industries and nearly half also targeted businesses 

offering better-paying jobs or good career ladders for workers. In some of these Local 

Areas, non-target businesses can access the full set of services, while in others, nontargeted businesses are only able to utilize business services that are available on a self 

service basis. 

Description of Business Services 

Nearly all Local Areas we visited for the study—both innovative business and 

comparison sites—offer the same core set of business services that typically include 

labor exchange services, rapid response/downsizing assistance, job fairs, job seeker 

assessment, labor market information, space for interviewing and information on tax 

credits. Although both groups of Local Areas generally offer the same types of 

services, innovative business Local Areas focus on improving and customizing these 

basic services to more closely match individual business needs. 

Because of the central role of labor exchange services in business services, most 

innovative business sites have attempted to improve their labor exchange services. 

They realize that unless they can perform these services well, businesses will not return 

for additional services. To do this, Local Areas have either worked with their State’s 

Employment Service to improve the State-wide matching process and system, or they 

have purchased or created their own separate systems. 

In addition to the standard business services, a few sites—mostly innovative 

business Local Areas—provide other less common services such as customized skill 

assessments, background or credential checks, follow-up and retention services, on-site 

job analysis and specialized human resource services. Many of these services are 

available only on a fee-for-service basis. 

Most innovative Local Areas also provide businesses with access to training 

services. Although nearly all sites provide some on-the-job-training, it is used 

frequently in only two sites. Customized training, particularly for incumbent workers, 

is also available from most sites, but is seldom provided. When Local Areas do fund 

or provide incumbent worker training, most said they use Governor’s set-aside funds or 
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other State funding rather than local WIA formula funds because they fear incumbent 

workers will cause them to miss the WIA earnings change goals. 

How Business Services are Provided 

Providing effective business services involves a number of related activities that 

must be carried out successfully. These activities include coordinating service delivery 

among One-Stop partners, setting up organizational structures to staff and deliver 

services, selecting and training staff, determining how businesses will access services, 

and funding, marketing, tracking and evaluating services. 

 Because more than a single One-Stop partner typically provides business 

services, coordination between different programs is critical to their success. In many 

Local Areas, although business services are provided out of One-Stop centers, business 

services staff from different One-Stop partners are not integrated and coordination is 

often described as a challenge. However, some of the innovative business sites have 

surmounted this challenge more successfully than others. Consequently, coordination 

between the main providers of business services—WIA and the Employment Service—

varies greatly from one Local Area or One-Stop center to another. Services are more 

likely to be better integrated where staff are co-located and Employment Service 

funding or staffing is controlled by Local Areas. 

To implement their WIA-funded business services programs, Local Areas use 

several different organizational models. One model involves having all business 

services provided by WIA contractors or One-Stop operators. Another Local Area uses 

an alternative model by selecting different specialized business services contractors for 

each county, choosing only entities with a deep history of working with businesses, 

such as local Chambers of Commerce and economic development agencies. By 

contrast, several Local Areas use a dual structure with both a centralized business 

services unit operated directly by the WIA administrative entity out of its administrative 

offices and independent business services units located at each One-Stop center operated 

by individual One-Stop operators or WIA contractors. 

Most innovative business Local Areas have dedicated business services staff who 

provide services only to businesses. Several of these sites focus on hiring staff who 

already have private-sector experience, preferably in the human resources field. 

Northwest Wisconsin, by contrast, has made a conscious decision to provide business 

services with existing staff, and relies heavily on technology to assist business staff. 
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Most contact with businesses is over the phone. In addition, business services 

staff also commonly interact with business customers via e-mail or through in-person 

meetings, typically at the customer’s place of business. Relatively few business 

services are available on-line, and many of these are services provided through State 

web pages. 

Typically business services are provided at One-Stop Centers. Only one of the 18 

Local Areas we visited—and none of the innovative business sites—has a stand alone 

business center. Indeed, only two other sites have even designated business spaces in 

their One-Stop centers. A number of Local Areas attributed their decision not to have a 

stand-alone business center to the importance of maintaining integrated job seeker and 

business services programs. Indeed, the close proximity of the two programs 

sometimes causes an important spillover effect from business services to job seeker 

services. A number of staff also said that they do not think it is worth investing 

significant funds in building a business center when businesses typically access services 

over the phone. 

Most funding for business services—primarily used to pay for staff—comes from 

either WIA or Wagner-Peyser sources, which most respondents found insufficient to 

meet the demand for business services. Because of the integration of programs and 

funding, most Local Areas combined their business and job seeker services budgets. 

Despite the fact that fee-for-service business services could provide increased resources 

for business services, only five of 18 local areas (three innovative business and two 

comparison sites) reported charging fees other than the cost-sharing for on-the-job or 

customized training mandated by law. And even among these five Local Areas, none 

reported generating more than a few thousand dollars in revenue. 

Because of the relatively small number of businesses that have heard of public 

workforce development services, a majority of innovative business Local Areas 

emphasize marketing. While nearly every Local Area noted that word-of-mouth is the 

most effective form of marketing, other common and effective marketing methods 

involve phone calls, meetings, networking or presentations. Because such direct 

people-to-people marketing approaches are extremely staff-intensive, most sites also 

market business services through the media. An important part of all of these 

marketing programs is the creation of marketing materials, which typically include 
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Social Policy Research Associates ES-10

brochures, packets, and flyers. One critical issue raised by some of the innovative 

business sites is the importance of branding to a successful marketing campaign. 

Tracking and evaluating business services are important ways innovative business 

sites ensure high-quality, well-coordinated services. Consequently, most Local Areas 

have a system for tracking business contacts and services to prevent duplication of 

efforts. In addition, all nine innovative business sites evaluate the quality of their 

services and how well they are meeting business needs. The most common evaluation 

method is to ask for immediate feedback from business customers, although more 

formal assessments such as surveys are also used. These assessments are conducted in 

addition to the mandatory WIA business customer satisfaction survey, because 

respondents assert that the WIA survey does not provide them with the information they 

need to make program improvements. 

Impact of businesses Services 

Business-services programs in the nine innovative Local Areas have had a strong 

impact on local businesses, job-seeker programs and on local WIA performance. For 

example, several business customers reported that One-Stop business services have 

substantially reduced both employee turnover and the amount of time their staff spend 

on hiring. In addition, Local Area staff also said that business-services programs 

sometimes have a strong effect on job-seeker services by persuading job-seeker staff to 

use increased care in matching job seekers with jobs and focus more on soft skills and 

work readiness skills. Finally, even though their success in meeting the WIA 

performance measures cannot be directly tied to business services, most of the 

innovative business sites asserted that there is a direct connection between business 

services and improved performance on the WIA measures. They attributed this impact 

to the close relationships they have developed with businesses. 

CONCLUSION

Until recently, the publicly funded workforce development system has had only 

limited involvement with businesses. Workforce development programs operated under 

the auspices of JTPA or the Wagner-Peyser Act focused the majority of their efforts on 

helping unemployed and underemployed workers to undergo training and find 

employment. As a result of this heavy job seeker emphasis, businesses tended not to be 

very involved with the publicly funded workforce development system. 
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Spurred on by a desire to be more effective in meeting the employment-related 

needs of both job seekers and businesses, typically beginning with the passage of WIA, 

the innovative business Local Areas we visited for this study began to try to correct the 

imbalance between businesses and job seekers in the publicly funded workforce 

development system. Consequently, businesses have become an important focus in all 

nine innovative business sites, with the majority making business their primary 

customer. 

These sites do this by trying to involve businesses in all aspects of their 

operations; on WIBs, in partnerships and through use of business services. To ensure 

that that this involvement is successful, the innovative business sites typically rely on a 

number of key practices, each of which is described below. 

The nine innovative business sites pay particular attention to the following 

effective practices to recruit and retain active and able business members on their 

WIBs: 

• Provide a strong role for key staff in the WIB member recruitment 

and selection process. This increases the overall effectiveness of the 

WIB by reducing the effect of electoral politics and allowing the board 

to develop a coherent vision and mission. 

• Utilize multiple selection criteria for new business WIB members. 

Strong, effective WIBs appear to rely on a combination of the several 

statutory and non-statutory criteria in selecting business members who 

are able to effectively participate in WIB activities. These included 

recruiting members who: hold high positions in their organizations; are 

from all counties in the Local Area; and have a strong interest in 

workforce development and a desire to contribute to the economic 

health of the community. 

• Ensure effective use of business WIB member time. Typically 

innovative sites do this by holding short, but effective breakfast 

meetings with tight agendas. More detailed work is confined to 

committees or performed by staff. 

• Choose a few priority WIA Title I issues for business WIB members 

to tackle. Staff in the innovative business sites sharply refine Board 

agendas to focus on a few key WIA issues that are of greatest interest to 

business members and can be handled in a short period of time. 

• Engage in strategic planning regarding broad workforce 

development issues. The most engaged business WIB members have 
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very strong interest in strategic workforce planning, especially those 

elements that have potential impact on the entire community, such as 

workforce preparation in K-12 education. 

Business-related partnerships are another critical means of involving businesses in 

the publicly funded workforce development system. Some of the key elements in 

forging successful business partnerships are: 

• Use mutual appointments to boards of partner organizations as a 

starting point. Such mutual appointments are often used by innovative 

sites to improve trust, reduce turf issues, and help define a common 

vision among potential partners. 

• Exert strong and visionary leadership. Strong visionary leadership by 

the WIB director and WIB staff has often been instrumental in showing 

business partners that the workforce development system has become 

more business-oriented. 

• Conduct joint strategic planning activities. Successful partnerships 

among the innovative business sites often conduct joint strategic 

planning sessions, sometimes based on jointly funded labor market and 

economic development research. 

• Participate in the development of sectoral initiatives where the needs 

of economic development and workforce development intersect. 

Sectoral initiatives are attractive because they allow workforce 

development to be an influential actor in emerging and high-growth 

industries and allow sites to address pressing economic and workforce 

development problems.

• Know your partners’ needs and find your niche to help meet them. 

Understanding the needs of their partners has helped the innovative sites 

determine the best role for them to play for the mutual benefit of all 

partners. 

Persuading businesses to make use of business services is also critical to the 

success of the workforce development system. Consequently, the nine innovative 

business sites rely on a mix of the following practices to provide high-quality business 

services: 

• Focus on building and maintaining credibility among businesses. 

Typically, sites do this by first providing businesses with successful 

“gateway” services that demonstrate their ability to deliver on what they 

promise. They also uphold very high quality standards and constantly 

evaluate their services. 
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• Use dedicated account representatives to provide business services. 

By using single point-of-contact account representatives who work only 

with businesses, effective business services programs allow staff to 

develop in-depth knowledge of their customers and increase 

accountability. 

• Focus on developing strong, long-lasting relationships with 

businesses. Most innovative sites try to ensure that interactions with 

businesses are not one-time events, but rather mature into long-lasting 

relationships, with businesses viewing Local Area services as a partner 

in meeting recruitment and hiring needs. 

• Develop an understanding of individual business needs and provide 

services to meet those specific needs. Business customers do not want 

“off-the-shelf” services; they are only interested in services that meet 

their specific challenges. To provide such customized services, business 

staff must first develop a clear understanding of the needs of each 

individual business customer. 

• Target key groups of businesses for services. Because resources for 

providing business services are limited, most innovative sites target key 

groups of businesses for more intensive services. These target groups 

often include small businesses, businesses that offer high wages and 

good career ladders and businesses in high-growth industries. 

• Make sure labor exchange services are effective. Labor exchange 

services are the most common services provided to businesses. Unless 

these services are performed successfully, businesses will not return for 

additional services. Consequently, most sites have focused on making 

sure their job matching systems more effective. 

• Ensure good coordination between different entities providing 

business services. Because multiple entities within Local Areas often 

provide business services, coordination between all service providers is 

critical to maintaining program quality. For this reason, the most 

effective sites ensure that each program or unit has clear roles and 

duties in providing services and are in regular communication with each 

other. 

• Make sure that business services and job seeker programs are 

integrated. Most successful Local Areas ensure that job seeker and 

business services programs work in close coordination with each other 

to ensure that job seekers are meeting the needs of businesses. For this 

reason, nearly all business services are provided out of One-Stop centers 

rather than stand-alone business centers. 
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• Ensure that staff have a “whatever it takes” attitude. Responsive, 

creative staff who are willing to go the extra mile for employers are 

critical to effective business services. To ensure that staff have these 

characteristics, the innovative sites either hire staff with private sector 

experience or purchase technology to assist staff. 

In addition to these key practices used by the innovative sites to promote business 

involvement with the WIB, partnerships and services, there are two additional strategies 

they use to ensure that business involvement is successful overall: 

• Make business the Local Area’s primary customer. By making 

business the primary customer, the innovative sites ensure that business 

involvement in all aspects of their operations is the Local Area’s number 

one priority and thus more likely to succeed.

• Rely on strong, charismatic staff leadership. Strong, charismatic 

Local Area staff—often the executive director—in a number of the 

innovative sites play a critical role in ensuring the success of more 

intensive business involvement in Local Area activities. 

Suggested Changes to Support Business Involvement 

To assist the innovative business sites in continuing to be successful and to help 

the rest of the workforce system make the transition to a business focus, Local Area 

respondents suggested the following changes to WIA and related workforce 

development programs: 

• Adjust the WIA performance measures. Nearly all innovative 

business sites argued for changes to be made in the WIA performance 

measures. 

− Create measures directly tied to the provision of business 

services. Most Local Areas commented that if business services 

are to be a major priority of the workforce development system, 

there is a need for performance measures directly related to 

those services. Moreover, nearly all Local Areas said that the 

business customer satisfaction measure is an ineffective measure. 

− Adjust the WIA adult earnings change measure to allow for 

more incumbent worker training. Nearly every innovative 

business site said they would like to fund and provide more 

incumbent worker training. However, they said they were 

unwilling to use significant amounts of WIA funding to provide 

incumbent worker training because this might cause them to miss 

their earnings change performance goal. 
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• Provide additional funding for business services. A number of Local 

Areas asserted that they do not receive sufficient funding to meet the 

demand for business services. Some of these Local Areas wanted to see 

overall increases in their WIA formula dollars, while others wanted to 

see the creation of a stream of funding specifically earmarked for 

business services. One Local Area also suggested the creation of a 

competitive pool of seed money to support the development of 

innovative business services or business involvement practices. 

• Provide assistance with marketing and developing services. Several 

Local Areas also argued for more assistance from the Department of 

Labor related to marketing One-Stop business services. They also 

asserted that more guidance and technical assistance on successful 

strategies and methods would be important in aiding other Local Areas 

to develop successful business involvement. 
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Social Policy Research Associates I-1

I. INTRODUCTION 

In the summer of 1999, the U.S. Department of Labor 

(DOL) awarded Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) a 

contract for the national Evaluation of the Implementation of the 

Workforce Investment Act (WIA), a study comprised of three 

phases. The first two phases of this study were concerned 

primarily with understanding broad issues regarding WIA 

implementation, such as understanding the transition from the Job 

Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to WIA, partnership building, 

and service design and delivery. To carry out these first two 

phases of the study, SPR and its subcontractor, TATC Consulting 

conducted site visits to 14 States and 23 local workforce 

investment areas (Local Areas). SPR also tracked data on States’ 

and Local Areas’ progress towards implementing the required 

WIA elements, and analyzed client level data to understand the 

extent to which client characteristics and services changed during 

WIA implementation. A total of 18 reports and papers were 

produced from the first two phases of study (See Appendix B for 

a complete list of the reports and papers prepared under this 

project). 

This last phase of the study focuses on two topics of interest 

to DOL: (1) engaging business in strategic planning and services, 

and (2) services to special populations, within the One-Stop 

context. This report focuses on the first of these topics. There 

are also three other reports dealing with services to special 

populations, including homeless individuals, migrant and seasonal 

farmworkers, and individuals with limited-English proficiency. 

BACKGROUND 

The publicly-funded workforce development system has 

always had some interaction with businesses. For example, the 

Wagner-Peyser Act, first passed in 1933, authorized “appropriate 

recruitment services and special technical services for employers” 

During the 1990s, a new

paradigm began to 

emerge that brought the 

workforce system much 

closer to businesses. 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-2

in the labor exchange, and had Employer Advisory Committees 

in many locations. JTPA, the precursor to WIA, gave businesses 

a role in developing training programs and required a business 

majority on local workforce development policy-making boards, 

the Private Industry Councils. Nevertheless, the involvement of 

businesses with these programs was largely an afterthought 

designed to support the goal of helping job seekers find good 

jobs. 

However, during the 1990s, a new paradigm began to 

emerge that brought the workforce system much closer to 

businesses. There were several important factors in this 

movement. First, during the 1990s there was a widespread 

recognition that all public programs needed to be conducted in a 

more businesslike manner, with greater emphasis on results and 

efficiency. This resulted in a greater emphasis on accountability 

based on objective performance among government agencies. 

Second, important changes were brewing in the evolution of 

the workforce development system itself. The most notable trend 

was the movement to create One-Stop centers to deliver more 

coordinated workforce services. If it made sense for programs to 

collaborate internally, the logic for better relationships with 

employers whose hiring provides the basis for successful jobseeker outcomes was at least as compelling. 

Finally, major changes in the labor markets and public 

policy created practical opportunities for strengthening the 

relationship between business and the public workforce 

development system. Most important, steadily tightening labor 

markets from the mid-1990s made the publicly-funded system an 

attractive partner for an increasing number of employers who 

were having difficulty finding workers with the requisite skills. 

Another factor was the implementation of welfare reform 

legislation. The new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families 

(TANF) program, which was sometimes located in One-Stop 

centers, emphasized immediate employment for welfare 

Steadily tightening labor 

markets from the mid1990s made the 

publicly-funded system 

an attractive partner for 

an increasing number of 

employers who were 

having difficulty finding 

workers with the 

requisite skills. 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-3

recipients, thus placing a great premium on developing good 

relations with employers willing to hire these generally less 

skilled workers. TANF and companion Welfare-to-Work grants 

also provided specific funds to develop business services 

programs. 

The passage of WIA in 1998 both reflected the increasing 

importance of business relationships with the workforce system 

and accelerated the trend. The Act maintained JTPA’s business 

majority on local workforce development policy boards, renamed 

Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs), thus upholding the 

recognition that business had an essential role to play in guiding 

and overseeing the operation of the workforce development 

system. 

More importantly, the legislation also included several 

provisions explicitly requiring States and Local Areas to provide 

services to businesses. These sections included: 

• Section 117(d)(8) calling for Local WIBs to 

provide services to “ensure the effective 

provision, through the system, of connecting, 

brokering, and coaching activities, through 

intermediaries such as the One-Stop operator in 

the local area or through other organizations, to 

assist employers in meeting hiring needs.” 

• Section 134(e)(1)(B) giving local WIBs the ability 

to provide “customized employment-related 

services to employers on a fee-for-service basis.” 

• Section 134(a)(3)(A)(iv)(I) authorizing the use of 

state-reserve funds for “innovative incumbent 

worker training programs, which may include the 

establishment and implementation of an employer 

loan program to assist in skills upgrading.” 

WIA also devolved more decision-making about service 

design to States and Local Areas, allowing them greater latitude 

to customize services. This helped create an innovative local 

climate, which was more conducive to the kind of 

experimentation required for more extensive involvement with 

The passage of WIA in 

1998 both reflected the 

increasing importance of

business relationships 

with the workforce 

system and accelerated 

the trend. 

WIA also devolved more 

decision-making about 

service design to States 

and Local Areas, 

allowing them greater 

latitude to customize 

services. This helped 

create an innovative 

local climate, which was

more conducive to the 

kind of experimentation 

required for more 

extensive involvement 

with businesses.
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-4

businesses and successful business services programs. The 

explicit authorization under WIA to charge fees for business 

services also provided Local Areas with the opportunity to earn 

additional revenue to support the development and provision of 

these innovative activities. 

Taking advantage of the historical trends and legislativelyauthorized opportunities described above, a number of Local 

Areas throughout the country began to involve businesses much 

more extensively in the publicly funded workforce development 

system. According to Local Area staff, one of the main reasons 

for this shift stemmed from a concern that the old ways of 

providing workforce development services would be insufficient 

in an era of rising performance expectations and limited funding 

allocations. Because of the critical role businesses play in 

providing employment for job seekers—the primary means by 

which WIA assesses the performance of Local Areas—these local 

managers thought that focusing on businesses in governance and 

service delivery would make it easier to place job seekers in highwage jobs and therefore achieve better performance. Under the 

most optimistic vision, extensive business involvement in WIA 

governance and workforce development partnerships and 

effective business services would generate a “virtuous cycle” of 

better performance and new jobs. 

VARIETIES OF BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT 

Local Area involvement with businesses generally occurs in 

one of three ways: through business involvement with the local 

WIB; via partnerships with local Chambers of Commerce, 

economic development or sectoral initiatives; and through 

business use of services. One of the most visible ways in which 

businesses are involved with Local Areas is through membership 

on local WIBs. By serving on a WIB, employers participate in 

the delivery of policy guidance and oversight to the local 

workforce investment system. Business members’ high levels of 

managerial experience and intimate knowledge of local labor 

One of the most visible 

ways in which 

businesses are involved 

with Local Areas is 

through membership on 

local WIBs. 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-5

markets provide important assistance to the Local Area in 

carrying out local workforce development planning. A detailed 

description of how Local Areas successfully involve businesses 

on WIBs and the impact of that involvement is provided in 

Chapter II. 

Sector-based partnerships and partnerships with local 

Chambers of Commerce and economic development agencies are 

another means of involving businesses in the workforce 

development system. For example, businesses often play a key 

role in partnerships formed to mobilize WIA and other resources 

to deal with major workforce issues in specific sectors of the 

local economy such as health care. In a number of Local Areas, 

employers in this sector partner with workforce development 

agencies, community colleges and other training providers to 

address the acute labor shortages that exist in many communities. 

Additionally, many Local Areas collaborate with economic 

development agencies and Chambers of Commerce to reach out 

to local businesses and assist with economic development efforts. 

We examine these types of partnerships in Chapter III. 

Providing businesses with services is a third means of 

involving businesses in local workforce development systems. 

Although these services take different forms, most focus on 

finding better ways to help employers meet their hiring needs. 

For example, nearly all Local Areas assist businesses with 

recruiting qualified workers and matching them to available 

positions. These basic recruiting and matching services often 

serve as a “gateway” to additional workforce development 

services. In the most innovative Local Areas, these services are 

highly customized to meet the individual needs of specific 

employers. A few Local Areas also provide other specialized 

types of services such as retention assistance, human resources 

gap analysis and creation of human resource policy manuals, 

many of which are fee-based. While in some Local Areas, these 

business services are provided by staff who also work with job 

Businesses often play a 

key role in partnerships 

formed to mobilize WIA 

and other resources to 

deal with major 

workforce issues in 

specific sectors of the 

local economy such as 

health care. 

Basic recruiting and 

matching services often 

serve as a “gateway” to 

additional workforce 

development services. 

In the most innovative 

Local Areas, these 

services are highly 

customized to meet the 

individual needs of 

specific employers. 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-6

seekers, others have specialized business services programs in 

which dedicated staff serve employers. More detailed 

information about business services is provided in Chapter IV. 

CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPING BUSINESS 

INVOLVEMENT

An emphasis on business involvement is not without its 

challenges. One challenge relates to the involvement of 

businesses on local WIBs. Because business WIB members serve 

as volunteers and are typically very busy running their own 

companies, some Local Areas have difficulty getting businesses 

to participate. In addition, time constraints often do not allow 

business WIB members to develop a detailed understanding of 

Local Area operations. However, a number of Local Areas have 

developed innovative ways to ensure successful and substantive 

business participation on Local WIBs. These challenges and 

innovations are discussed in Chapter II. 

Developing business oriented partnerships has not been 

without challenges either. Most Local Areas cover several 

Chambers of Commerce and economic development entities and 

staff indicate that they cannot always develop substantive 

partnerships with all of them. Such challenges and ways in which 

the study sites have addressed them are discussed in Chapter III. 

The development of business services programs also 

typically involves a number of challenges. One challenge is 

building and maintaining a reputation among businesses for 

providing quality, value-added services. Another challenge is 

coordinating the business services provided by separate One-Stop 

partners, particularly WIA providers and the Employment 

Service. If services provided by these programs are not 

coordinated, businesses may receive duplicate calls and services 

and poor quality services provided by one program will affect the 

reputation of the others. The need to develop and provide high 

quality services with limited staff and funding is another major 

Because business WIB 

members serve as 

volunteers and are 

typically very busy 

running their own 

companies, some Local 

Areas have difficulty 

getting businesses to 

participate. 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-7

challenge faced by Local Areas. Each of these business services 

challenges is examined in Chapter IV. 

METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION 

To investigate the issues and challenges related to extensive 

business involvement, between December 2003 and February 

2004 SPR and TATC staff visited nine Local Areas that had 

adopted innovative approaches to business services and business 

involvement. Each of these site visits entailed a comprehensive 

set of interviews with Local Area administrative officials, OneStop managers, front-line staff involved in providing business 

services, business WIB members, One-Stop partners who provide 

business services, local Chamber of Commerce and economic 

development agency officials, and employers who used business 

services. In preparation for these day-and-a-half visits, SPR 

prepared a research protocol that enabled site visitors to gather 

consistent information across all the sites. After each site visit, 

the site visitor prepared a comprehensive summary of findings 

from the site. These internal site visit reports then served as the 

basis for the cross-site analysis of specific issues that underlie this 

report. 

The innovative business sites visited for this report were 

selected through a national nomination and screening process. 

We sought nominations from DOL National and Regional Office 

staff, DOL’s Business Relations Group, major national business 

organizations (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association 

of Manufacturers), and public-interest groups that focus on 

workforce development (National Association of Workforce 

Boards, National Association of Counties, National League of 

Cities, National Governor’s Association, U.S. Conference of 

Mayors). We received a total of 35 unduplicated nominations. 

SPR staff next developed a screening protocol to verify that the 

nominated Local Areas actually had innovative practices. Using 

the protocol, staff then attempted to conduct a telephone 

screening with the executive directors of the local WIA 

One challenge is 

building and 

maintaining a reputation 

among businesses for 

providing quality, valueadded services. 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-8

administrative entity in each of the nominated sites. Screening 

information was successfully collected from 19 sites. To ensure 

they were broadly representative, the final nine Local Areas were 

selected based on the following factors: 

• Geographic diversity 

− At least one—but no more than two—Local 

Areas should be selected in each DOL 

region. The only exception was Region II, 

where no nominations were received. 

− No more than one Local Area should be 

selected in each state. 

• Local Area type. The final sample should provide 

a mix of urban, suburban and rural Local Areas. 

• Types of business services. The sample should 

present a full range of possible business services 

or service strategies. 

Exhibit I-1 displays the nine innovative business Local Areas that 

were selected and visited for this report. 

Exhibit I-1 

Innovative-Business Practice Sites 

Local Areas Visited Name Used in the Report 

Arapahoe-Douglas Works 

Colorado 

Arapahoe-Douglas

Capital Area Michigan Works Capital Area Michigan Works

Dallas, Texas WorkSource Dallas

Eastern Kentucky Concentrated 

Employment Program 

Eastern Kentucky

Northwest Georgia Coosa 

Valley Regional Development 

Center 

Northwest Georgia 

Northwest Wisconsin 

Concentrated Employment 

Program 

Northwest Wisconsin

Pacific Mountain Workforce 

Consortium—Grays Harbor 

WorkSource 

Pacific Mountain—Gray’s 

Harbor

San Diego Workforce 

Partnership 

San Diego

Southwest Connecticut, The 

WorkPlace Inc. 

Southwest Connecticut 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-9

In addition to the innovative business sites, the report 

benefits from an abbreviated data collection process on business 

issues at nine other sites. These sites were visited during the 

same time period for the companion reports on innovative 

services provided by One-Stop centers to job seekers who are 

homeless, limited English proficient, or migrant and seasonal 

farm workers. Since none of these Local Areas were nominated 

for having innovative or notable business practices, they provide 

a comparative perspective about how more typical Local Areas 

work with businesses. Hence, we term them “comparison sites” 

or “comparison Local Areas.” For each of these comparison 

Local Areas, the site visitor spent approximately one-half day 

using a reduced business protocol to interview local WIB staff 

and staff who provide services to businesses. Exhibit I-2 displays 

the comparison sites and Exhibit I-3 shows a map of both 

innovative business and comparison sites. 

Exhibit I-2 

Comparison Sites 

Local Areas Visited Name Used in the Report 

Pima County, Arizona Pima County 

Santa Cruz County, Arizona Santa Cruz County 

Portland, Oregon Worksystems, 

Inc. 

Worksystems-Portland 

Chicago, Illinois Chicago 

North Central Wisconsin North Central Wisconsin 

Lower Rio Grande, Texas Lower Rio Grande 

Adams County, Colorado Adams County 

Coastal Counties, Maine Coastal Counties 

Bay Consortium, Virginia Bay Consortium 

Brief background descriptions of the innovative and 

comparison sites are located in Appendix A. 

PLAN FOR THE REPORT

The chapters that follow examine the issues related to 

business involvement with workforce development based on our 

visits to these 18 Local Areas. Chapter II discusses the role of 
I. Introduction 

Social Policy Research Associates I-10

business role on the local Workforce Investment Board, 

beginning with how Local Areas facilitate successful business 

participation. The chapter then describes the impact of this 

participation. The report then moves on in Chapter III to discuss 

Local Area partnerships with business organizations like 

Chambers of Commerce and economic development agencies. 

This section also includes an analysis of how several Local Areas 

forged partnerships with employers, educators, and others to 

resolve major workforce challenges in key sectors of the local 

economy, such as health care. Chapter IV examines the types of 

services that the local areas provide to businesses. It also 

describes how and where services are provided, with descriptions 

of organizational structures, staffing, funding, marketing, and 

evaluation. The report concludes with a chapter summarizing the 

key findings of each section of the report and presenting a 

number of suggestions made by Local Area respondents for how 

DOL can support business involvement with workforce 

development around the country. 
Innovative Business Sites

 1. Arapahoe-Douglas 2. Capital Area Michigan 3. Dallas 4. Eastern Kentucky 5. Northwest Georgia 6. Northwest Wisconsin 7. Pacific Mountain - Gray's Harbor 8. San Diego 9. Southwest Connecticut

Comparison Sites 10. Pima County 11. Santa Cruz County 12. Worksystems - Portland 13. Chicago 14. North Central Wisconsin 15. Lower Rio Grande 16. Adams County 17. Coastal Counties 18. Bay Consortium

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

18

Map of Innovative Business and Comparison Sites

Exhibit I-3

I-11 Social Policy 
This page intentionally left blank. 

Insert blank page here when making double-sided copies. 
Social Policy Research Associates II-1

II. BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT WITH THE WORKFORCE 

INVESTMENT BOARD 

The WIA statute, like its JTPA predecessor, provides for a 

governing Board with a majority of business members to provide 

strategic direction and policy oversight to the federally funded 

workforce development system. However, WIA expands the role 

of the governance board by charging Workforce Investment 

Boards (WIBs) with negotiating performance levels, coordinating 

with economic development, creating linkages with employers, 

and brokering services to meet employer hiring needs. 

Additionally, since WIA and the One-Stop system authorize 

services to employers, business members of the WIB have 

become an essential conduit for understanding business needs and 

translating those needs into practical services. 

In our nine innovative business sites, the WIB and its 

business members reflected the statutory intent of WIA and 

played a role in oversight and the emerging emphasis on business 

as the workforce development system’s primary customer. They 

also played a role in longer-range workforce planning that 

embraced a larger set of issues affecting the local labor market 

and the overall economic health of the local community. Thus, in 

this chapter we examine the structure of the WIB and the role that 

it—and particularly its business members—plays in the publiclyfunded workforce development system. The chapter is divided 

into two major sections. The first section examines how the WIB 

is constituted, and strategies for appointing, recruiting, and 

retaining business members. The second section examines the 

role that business members play in the oversight of WIA Title I 

and their involvement in strategic planning efforts related to 

workforce issues that transcend Title I, such as K-12 education. 

The chapter concludes with a summary of key findings. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-2

ESTABLISHING THE BUSINESS PRESENCE ON THE 

WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD

In establishing a business presence on local Workforce 

Investment Boards, the nine innovative business Local Areas first 

had to make the transition from the previous structure under 

JTPA and then appoint new members. 

Transition from JTPA to WIA 

Respondents from at least four of the nine sites—

Arapahoe/Douglas, Dallas, Northwest Georgia, Pacific 

Mountain—felt that the transition to a WIB, in both structure and 

function, was not very difficult. The fact that the Private 

Industry Council had a business majority and was already 

approving the One-Stop operator and other major contracts made 

the change almost transparent for these sites. From a 

membership standpoint, several of these Local Areas reported 

that the WIB retained many of the same members, especially 

those with a longstanding interest in workforce development. 

Arapahoe/Douglas perhaps has the greatest continuity of all the 

business sites in our sample. At the time of the site visit, several 

of its business members had already served on the JTPA 

governing board and the WIB for almost 20 years. These 

members are especially comfortable in working with the Local 

Area’s executive director, who has headed the workforce 

development program for over 20 years. 

Even if WIB membership was not as stable as in 

Arapahoe/Douglas, the transition to WIA in the other sites was 

not especially jarring. In three other areas the transition was 

smooth because the same service delivery system remained in 

place. Only two of the sites—Northwest Wisconsin and San 

Diego—indicated that the shift away from program operations 

caused a significant change in the Board role. In Northwest 

Wisconsin, the Board had some difficulty in shifting from a 

detailed oversight role on JTPA operations to a more strategic 

emphasis under WIA. San Diego’s Board also noted a 

discontinuity in oversight roles because the Local Area began to 

The fact that the Private 

Industry Council had a 

business majority and 

was already approving 

the One-Stop operator 

and other major 

contracts made the 

change almost 

transparent for these 

sites. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-3

contract out One-Stop and Title I operations. Since this shift was 

accompanied by substantial turnover of Board members, there 

was no opposition to these changes. 

Appointing, Recruiting, and Retaining 

Business Members 

Although the law specifies that business members be 

appointed by chief elected officials from nominations by business 

and trade organizations, we found that these requirements were 

more nominal than actual. Only three sites follow the statutory 

pattern closely. In those sites, the Chamber of Commerce 

independently recommends members to the chief elected official 

with less involvement from the executive director. 

Elsewhere, effective control of the selection process is 

largely in the hands of the executive director, sometimes 

individually or in conjunction with Board members. In three 

Local Areas, staff or current Board members look for suitable 

candidates. They then make recommendations to the executive 

director, who interviews and otherwise reviews the candidates. 

The final step in the process is to send the nominations to the 

chief elected officials. In two areas, the current Board members 

or the Board chair work with the executive director in the 

recruiting. In the two Concentrated Employment Programs in the 

sample, Northwest Wisconsin and Eastern Kentucky, the 

executive director works closely with the Program’s governing 

Board to appoint the Workforce Investment Board members. In 

all these cases, the chief elected officials typically ratify the 

choices with little or no intervention.1 

Among our comparison sites, the picture differed 

considerably. In those sites, the executive director appears to 

play a much smaller role in selecting business members. In four 

of the nine sites, Board members themselves played the dominant 

 

1 In the two Concentrated Employment Programs, chief elected officials 

in the constituent counties appoint the governing board members. 

Effective control of the 

selection process is 

largely in the hands of 

the executive director. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-4

role in selection. Chambers played a dominant role in at least 

two sites, while the executive director had a leading role in only 

one site. 

Business Member Background 

WIA explicitly requires WIB business members to come 

from firms that will provide current employment opportunities. 

However Local Areas differed in the types of firms—both in size 

and industrial composition—from which they recruited Board 

members. Several areas wanted to include larger firms that are 

typically recruiting at least some new employees to address 

turnover, even if they do not expand. These firms tend to be 

influential in setting wage and benefit patterns in their markets. 

Dallas, San Diego, Capital Area Michigan were fairly successful 

in getting the largest businesses in their area represented on the 

Board. Some of the rural areas, which have fewer large 

businesses altogether, were obviously less concerned with 

recruiting members from very large firms. However, even these 

areas, as in Northwest Wisconsin, had some interest in getting the 

bigger businesses in their area to participate, although they met 

with limited success. 

The Boards also had representation from specific industry 

sectors that were either important to the local economy or 

represented sectors that suffered from specific labor market 

problems that the Local Area was interested in addressing. For 

example, Dallas, San Diego, and Arapahoe/Douglas all were 

pursuing a health care initiative (see Chapter III), and each was 

careful to get WIB members from key health care sector 

employers. 

The statute also requires that business members be at a high 

level in their firms, as owners, chief executives or operating 

officers, or others with policy-making authority. The Local 

Areas were attentive to this requirement, and most have been 

successful in recruiting owners of small businesses, senior 

executives of large companies, or key local managers of branch 

Most WIBs have been 

successful in recruiting 

owners of small 

businesses, senior 

executives of large 

companies, or key local 

managers of branch 

plants or facilities. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-5

plants or facilities. Several Local Areas noted that their business 

members were often human resource executives, who naturally 

had a strong professional interest in workforce development 

issues. These human resource members were considered to be 

quite effective, even if they were not necessarily at the highest 

levels in their firm. 

The innovative business sites also have other important 

criteria for WIB membership besides those in the statute. For 

example, all of the Local Areas seek broad geographic 

representation on their Boards, regardless of whether their area is 

large or particularly diverse economically. However, multicounty, largely rural Local Areas are especially keen on ensuring 

that all counties have their own local business representation. 

Capital Area Michigan Works was also interested in getting 

members who would provide public relations exposure and 

marketing opportunities. 

Several Local Areas opposed any additional federal 

prescriptions for Board membership in WIA reauthorization. 

These largely rural areas felt that requiring larger businesses to 

be members would be difficult to achieve and might come at the 

expense of Board members who were truly interested in serving. 

In multi-county consortia, such requirements would likely reduce 

geographic balance, which is essential to maintaining the 

confidence of outlying counties. 

Motivation to Participate on the 

Workforce Investment Board 

Nearly all respondents—both staff and Board members—

uniformly expressed the view that business owners or managers 

who join the WIB are motivated by a community spirit. They all 

want to improve the efficiency of the labor market or to help 

workers or businesses for the benefit of the entire community. 

They do not usually make a direct connection between their WIB 

service and a benefit to their firm. However, in some cases this 

altruistic motive is intimately bound up with general or sectoral 

Nearly all respondents—

both staff and Board 

members—uniformly 

expressed the view that 

business owners or 

managers who join the 

Workforce Investment 

Board are motivated by 

a community spirit. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-6

business prosperity. For example, a WIB member from 

Northwest Wisconsin justified her participation on the Board on 

the grounds that her business “can’t prosper unless the overall 

economy is doing well.” 

Board-member respondents also believe that the WIB in 

these innovative sites is effective and a place where they can 

accomplish their goals. Eastern Kentucky’s Board is especially 

notable in that regard because it includes important state and 

national political leaders (the majority leader in the state House of 

Representatives and a state Senator) and a statewide 

administrative leader (the Employment Service commissioner). 

The presence of such high-level political and administrative 

leaders undoubtedly facilitates the accomplishment of business 

member goals. 

More direct benefits may motivate some Board members. 

For example, some members become active on the Board because 

they recognize that some labor market issues affecting their 

industry—health care is the most common example— cannot be 

solved at the firm level (too small a unit) or through trade 

associations (competitive pressure). At least five sites established 

specific sectoral initiatives in health care and in other key 

industries (see Chapter III for a full discussion of these 

initiatives), and executives from those industries agreed to serve 

on the Board because they perceived a direct benefit to their 

organizations and the health of their industry by doing so. 

Motives often shade into narrower concerns. Most of the 

sites acknowledged that many WIB members join to take 

advantage of networking opportunities with other business owners 

to improve their own business or professional prospects. Even, 

networking on the WIB, however, had more altruistic 

implications. For example several business sites indicated that 

the Board provided an opportunity for people interested in civic 

affairs and workforce development and education to meet with 

other, like-minded community leaders. For example, business 

Many Workforce 

Investment Board 

members join to take 

advantage of networking 

opportunities with other 

business owners to 

improve their own 

business or professional 

prospects. 

 A Workforce Investment 

Board member from 

Northwest Wisconsin 

justified her 

participation on the WIB

on the grounds that her 

business “can’t prosper 

unless the overall 

economy is doing well.” 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-7

leaders who served on the WIB in Arapahoe/Douglas and 

Southwest Connecticut served on other Boards of non-profit 

agencies, and thus they created a veritable web of ties among 

community groups that furthered overall civic goals. Northwest 

Georgia also had a dense network of connections, although 

business members were less prominent than non-profit members. 

It also seems likely that in Eastern Kentucky, the presence of high 

level political and administrative leaders, as noted above, has 

increased the advantages of networking among Board members. 

Retention of Workforce Investment 

Board Members 

Longevity on a WIB provides a measure of consistency and 

enables the Board to function more effectively as members build 

up expertise in the technically demanding workforce development 

field. This is especially important for business members. If they 

are succeeded by a member from another firm, Local Area staff 

have to train the new business member from scratch. In contrast, 

when a member representing a One-Stop partner leaves, the 

successor may be familiar with One-Stop operations and may 

have even have ongoing contact with the WIA program. Further, 

good retention reduces the cost of training new Board members. 

The innovative business sites showed a stronger ability to 

retain their business Board members than the comparison sites. 

Respondents in four of the nine sites characterized the retention 

of WIB members as good, while only two of the nine comparison 

sites could make a similar claim.2 Some Local Areas, such as 

Arapahoe/Douglas, where some members have served for almost 

20 years, attributed their good retention to civic interests. By 

contrast, others like Capital Area Michigan Works, felt that the 

business-like atmosphere of WIB meetings was a welcome change 

 

2 There are two caveats in the data collected. First, we did not define 

what constituted good retention. Thus, respondents’ characterizations of good 

retention may vary. Second, we did not collect information about retention 

from all sites. 

Longevity on a WIB 

provides a measure of 

consistency and enables 

the Board to function 

more effectively since 

members build up 

expertise. 

Workforce Investment 

Board members— 

especially business 

members—have very 

limited time to attend 

meetings 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-8

for business people who had little patience with the often dilatory 

atmosphere of public advisory bodies. 

All the Local Areas are concerned that WIB members—

especially business members—have very limited time to attend 

meetings. Thus, it is a significant challenge to maintain business 

influence over policy, oversight, and strategic direction while not 

requiring time commitments that would deter high level members 

from joining or staying on the Board. Overall, both the 

innovative and comparison sites resolve this challenge by limiting 

time commitments. Thus, Boards do not meet very frequently, 

nor do they meet for long periods. For example, four of the 

WIBs meet monthly (although two reduce frequency when 

attendance may be poor, such as the end of the calendar year or 

during the summer-vacation period), two meet bi-monthly while 

two others meet quarterly.3 Meetings are also relatively short. 

For instance, sites with monthly and bi-monthly meetings 

experimented with frequency and timing and found that short, 

breakfast meetings of an hour or less are best, allowing business 

and other members to conduct WIB business and still get in a full 

day of their regular work. Of the sites that reported information 

on both meeting duration and frequency, no WIB required more 

than 12 hours of time from any of its members during a year at 

regular Board meetings. 

Establishing a central location for the meetings, setting 

good agendas, and providing good food were also used to 

promote attendance at meetings to help retain business members. 

However, respondents asserted that the most important factor in 

good participation is strong interest and commitment by 

individual members. Ultimately, as a respondent in San Diego 

pointed out, retention and good attendance tend to improve over 

time because the members with less interest in workforce 

 

3 Among the special population sites, four meet quarterly. 

Of the sites that reported

information on both 

meeting duration and 

frequency, no Workforce 

Investment Board 

required more than 12 

hours of time from any 

of its members during a 

year at regular Board 

meetings. 

Retention and good 

attendance tend to 

improve over time 

because the members 

with less interest in 

workforce development 

tend to leave the Board 

more quickly. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-9

development tend to leave the Board more quickly than their 

colleagues. 

Workforce Investment Board Structure 

and Internal Operations 

WIA provides for a business majority on the WIB to ensure 

that policy and oversight are informed by those who are going to 

hire program participants. This business majority requirement 

tends to create the problem of large board size, with the attendant 

difficulty of having effective discussions and making good 

decisions, because a business member must be added for every 

non-business member on the board. The average Board size in 

the innovative-business sites is 38; it is also 38 in the comparison 

sites. 

Most sites compensate for the twin challenges of limited 

Board member time and large Boards by using committees to 

conduct much of their work. However, the use of committees 

may seriously diminish business influence on board activities that 

take place in these committees. To maintain business influence, 

at least four of the innovative business sites make special 

provision for business members to be present on these 

committees, although only one Local Area, Southwest 

Connecticut, requires that business members dominate its 

executive committee, which can act for the entire Board. 

However, all sites that have committees on issues directly 

affecting businesses, such as a business service committees, make 

special provision for ensuring that business members have at least 

a substantial presence on such committees. The comparison sites 

appear to have made some form of special provisions for 

maintaining a meaningful business presence on its committees as 

well, but at a slightly lower rate. 

Maintaining business influence on Local Area policy is an 

issue that extends beyond the WIB in some cases. In three of the 

sites—Eastern Kentucky, San Diego, and Northwest Wisconsin—

the WIB is not the only governing or policy board within the 

At least four of the 

innovative business sites 

make special provision 

that business members 

are present on these 

committees. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-10

administrative entity for the Local Area. In each of these sites, 

the administrative entity is a, non-profit with its own board of 

directors and the entity’s WIB and directors share governance. In 

the Eastern Kentucky and Northwest Wisconsin Concentrated 

Employment Programs, the governing board (as noted above) 

also selects the Workforce Investment Board members. Although 

their responsibilities overlap, the WIBs and boards of directors 

have differing areas of concentration. Some boards of directors 

provide policy direction for other non-Federal workforce 

development programs. 

San Diego, which uses a private, non-profit as the 

administrative entity, has two additional Boards with considerable 

power. One is a Board of Directors for the administrative entity 

that also controls the entire budget. By contrast, the WIB is 

responsible only for the three WIA funding-stream allocations 

($26 million of the administrative entity’s $43 million budget). 

This Board of Directors is composed almost entirely of business 

members, most of whom are also on the WIB, and several 

officers from the administrative entity. San Diego also has a 

policy committee with an equal number of elected officials from 

the two local government jurisdictions—the City and County of 

San Diego—that comprise the Local Area. This committee also 

has two other members, the Local Area’s executive director and a 

representative from United Way. In contrast, the Dallas 

administrative entity is also a private non-profit with 

responsibility for other funds (WIA funds comprise only $12.5 

million of the administrative entity’s $70 million budget), but its 

WIB is the policy-making body for all funding. 

DEFINING THE BUSINESS ROLE ON THE 

WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD

There are three general ways in which businesses provide 

oversight to the publicly-funded workforce development system: 

1) they provide policy direction to the WIA Title I program; 2) 

they help to construct a broader workforce development policy 

San Diego, which uses a 

private, non-profit as 

the administrative entity,

has two additional 

Boards with 

considerable power. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-11

that embraces K-12 and postsecondary education, key industries, 

business organizations, and economic development activities; and 

3) they participate in the design and delivery of business services. 

The WIB is a key channel for the first two roles. By contrast, for 

the third role, which concerns services to individual businesses, 

the Boards in our innovative sites have played a more modest 

role. Rather, because the innovative business sites are especially 

keen on customizing services to fit particular industries, staff tend 

to get business input directly from consumers of these services, 

rather than from representatives of the business community in 

general. Although each of these roles is discussed in this section, 

business input into service delivery is discussed more fully in 

Chapters III and IV. 

Business Influence on Title I Operations 

WIA establishes a business majority on the WIB (as with its 

predecessor, the Private Industry Council), in part to instill 

business principles in the operation of a public program. 

However, the need for active business involvement in specific 

oversight and policy-making for Title I appears less important 

than Congress intended because of the very success, as noted in 

Chapter I, with which a business mentality has penetrated deeply 

into the management of many Local Areas. The innovative 

business sites were certainly no exception. Thus, almost no WIB 

business members in the business sites expressed much interest in 

the mechanics of WIA policy or oversight on operations, even 

though this remains an explicit responsibility of the Board.4 In 

 

4 Only the Eastern Kentucky’s Board took an explicit role in ongoing 

operational issues that extended beyond the design of business services. The 

board’s strategic planning process led directly to greater use of on-the-jobtraining and a new policy of automatic eligibility for job seekers referred by 

employers. We also found evidence in several other sites that WIBs were 

involved in specific policy issues. However, these issues, and potential 

solutions, tend to reflect the mechanics of program operation. Hence, they are 

typically raised by the staff and brought to the Workforce Investment Board 

for ratification. For example in Dallas County, the Workforce Investment 

Board spent considerable time developing a policy to restrict training in truck 

driving and information technology occupations because customer demand for 

Nearly all WIB business 

members in the business 

sites expressed relatively 

little interest in the 

mechanics of WIA policy

or operations. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-12

fact, a number of Board member respondents who had also 

served on the predecessor Private Industry Council indicated that 

it was a great relief not to have to spend so much time on the 

details of program operations. Business WIB members in several 

Local Areas expressed the view that they could take such a 

hands-off approach because they considered the executive director 

and staff to be very competent. The uniformly high performance 

of these areas on the required WIA measures suggests that their 

confidence was well placed.5 Further, most Board members felt 

that they could not understand the technical issues involved in 

WIA policies, given the small amount of time they had to devote 

to WIB duties.6 

Despite the lower level of interest in program operations, 

business members of the Board take relatively greater interest in 

the key areas of performance management and procurement. 

Although WIB members have been reluctant to learn the details 

of the 17 required measures, they recognize from their business 

experience that good metrics are an essential ingredient of any 

effective program. Thus, performance reports by staff are almost 

obligatory at full Board and committee meetings. External 

factors also play a role in the higher level of interest in 

performance. For example, performance policy had a somewhat 

higher profile in Dallas at the time of the site visit because the 

state workforce agency had imposed increases in local 

performance levels for PY 2003 above the levels required to meet 

the state’s required Federal targets. With the stakes raised, the 

Board chair in Dallas helped design a performance report format 

that enabled other Board members to get a good understanding of 

 

training was being increasingly driven by the marketing efforts of the schools 

rather than the demand from employers for trained workers. 

5 See Chapter IV for a discussion of the linkage between good business 

services and the required outcome measures. 

6 See the discussion of the amount of time spent by board members in 

board meetings in the section on retention, above in this chapter. 

Board members in 

several Local Areas 

expressed the view that 

they could take such a 

hands-off approach 

because they considered 

the executive director 

and staff to be very 

competent. 

Business members of the 

Board take relatively 

greater interest in the 

key areas of 

performance 

management and 

procurement. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-13

the 17 measures without having to learn the details of how the 

measures are constructed. 

In the four areas that contract out One-Stop operations or 

WIA Title I services, the other area of elevated interest is 

procurement. In San Diego, where the One-Stop procurement 

cycle coincide with the site visit, WIB members spent a great deal 

of time preparing request-for-proposals, including selection 

criteria. Additionally, the procurement process called for the 

One-Stop operator to meet specific wage targets at placement. 

The decision to include this provision and target wage levels also 

occupied a considerable amount of WIB members’ time. In one 

other Local Area, respondents noted that a representative of the 

local economic development corporation sits on a review 

committee when the Board issues a request for proposal.7

Workforce Investment Board Role in 

Creating Business Services 

Although the WIB does not play a substantial ongoing role 

in the design of business services in any of the innovative sites, 

business members in some of the sites do play an important 

advisory role to the key staff who initiated and designed these 

services. In one case, WIB members provided an impetus for 

adoption of a new job matching system because they reported 

employer dissatisfaction with the existing job-matching and jobdevelopment systems. The staff then used this information as they 

reviewed their systems and decided to purchase new proprietary 

software. In Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor, the executive 

director specifically said that the Local Area could not have made 

the transition to a business emphasis without leadership from the 

business members of the Board. The Northwest Georgia director 

 

7 The full extent of the WIB role in procurement in the other sites—

both the other contracting sites and the five that operate their One-Stops 

through a consortium—is unclear because few respondents discussed this issue. 

In the four areas that 

contract out One-Stop 

operations or WIA Title 

I services, the other 

area of elevated interest 

is procurement. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-14

also conceded the central role to business members.8 In all of the 

other sites, the Board played a smaller, but still critical, role as a 

sounding Board for different service strategies or reviewed and 

validated the staff’s design. Business WIB members played 

generally similar roles in other key business service decisions 

such as creation of a specific business service unit and other key 

business-service decisions. 

Surprisingly, limited evidence suggests that few WIB 

members—who nevertheless endorse the value of the business 

services in general—use the Local Area’s business services for 

their own hiring and other workforce development needs. In 

Capital Area Michigan Works, the executive director believes 

that a substantial percentage of the WIB members use these 

services, but it is likely that in other areas use is very limited. 

The business WIB member respondents who addressed this issue 

suggested that their businesses either were not currently hiring or 

were able to meet their hiring needs from other sources. 

Business Role in Strategic Planning 

Most of our respondents, including WIB members, 

confirmed that business members are deeply interested in 

workforce planning, and this was an area of extensive activity at 

all the innovative business sites that took up a large proportion of 

the members’ time. There was relatively less interest in the 

preparation of the mandatory five-year plan, which was seen only 

as an exercise. Business WIB members, who were concerned 

about the overall economic health of the community, hoped that 

through this type of strategic planning, they could have a positive 

effect on a broader part of the labor market than the limited funds 

available under WIA Title I could sustain. These strategic 

planning exercises also provided an opportunity to focus on a host 

 

8 That these are both primarily rural sites appears to be coincidental. 

We did not identify any characteristics of business participation on the 

Workforce Investment Board suggesting that the sites differed on an urbanrural basis. 

In Pacific Mountain—

Grays Harbor, the 

executive director 

specifically said that the 

Local Area could not 

have made the transition 

to a business emphasis 

without leadership from 

the business members of 

the Board. 

Few WIB members—

who nevertheless 

endorse the value of the 

business services in 

general—use the Local 

Area’s business services 

for their own hiring and 

other workforce 

development needs. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-15

of skill shortages and demographic trends that were already 

plaguing their firms or were likely to do so in the future. And 

contrary to popular wisdom that the focus on short-term 

profitability tends to narrow business people’s vision to shortterm types of solutions, the business Board members in our 

innovative sites had a remarkably long-term view of identifying 

problems and implementing solutions. The comparison sites were 

also very interested in such strategic planning and had similar 

concerns about skill shortages and problems in K-12 education. 

Strategic Planning Process. The strategic planning 

processes utilized by the innovative business sites varied on 

several dimensions. For example, six of the innovative business 

sites conduct strategic planning in one major session, or one 

series of sessions, and then update their plan as appropriate. Of 

these, at least four focus on a special meeting or retreat. In the 

other three sites, strategic planning is conducted on a more 

episodic basis as specific issues emerge within local labor 

markets, and updates occur as necessary. Eastern Kentucky is an 

example of the first type of planning process where the Board 

took on a comprehensive, five-month-long planning process, and 

then updated the plan at a second summit. 

 Even though most of the Boards are broadly representative 

of businesses throughout the Local Area, most of the strategic 

planning processes included other community members. For 

example, Eastern Kentucky had over 130 business and 

community leaders participating in two community-summit 

meetings. Southwest Connecticut presents findings and seeks 

comments on its 

annual plan in a series 

of public meetings, 

focus groups, and 

specialized meetings 

with key industry 

sectors. Dallas 

Business members are 

deeply interested in 

workforce planning, and 

this was an area of 

extensive activity at all 

the innovative business 

sites. 

Several of the sites use 

external funding to conduct 

their planning. 

Comprehensive Planning Process in San Diego

San Diego uses a very extensive strategic planning process. 

It updates its plan annually in several stages. The Local Area first 

hosts an open, full-day public meeting at a large hotel, for which 

the staff prepare labor market information. Public comment is 

recorded and then is used by Board members at a planning retreat 

where the annual update is finalized. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-16

partners with the major Chambers of Commerce and local school 

districts to hold an annual, day-long workforce summit. On the 

other hand, several sites keep their planning process within the 

more intimate setting of a Board retreat where debate can occur 

more freely and in more detail. 

With extensive public outreach and meetings to solicit input 

and an environmental scan or community audit to ensure that they 

have a systematic framework with which to analyze labor market 

and other information, costs tend to increase. Consequently, 

several of the sites use external funding to conduct their planning. 

Grants from Governor’s reserve WIA funds, foundations, and 

partner organizations such as economic development agencies or 

Chambers of Commerce helped to support these extensive 

activities. 

Strategic Planning Topics 

Nearly all business respondents in this study, despite 

current slack labor market conditions, pointed to some form of 

shortage in the labor market as a deep concern for their business 

or for the community as a whole. They pointed to chronic 

shortages of particular occupational skills or shortages of workers 

with good soft skills. WIBs relied on their business members, 

whose experience with hiring was considered crucial to an 

understanding of the problem, to flesh out these issues. WIBs 

also concluded that these problems were sufficiently acute and 

widespread that they could not be solved simply by improving 

WIA or Employment Service programs. They also pointed to 

problems with the K-12 educational system because many young 

workers lack basic skills and awareness of good career 

opportunities in the local economy. 

Four of the sites conducted comprehensive planning 

exercises that examined occupational- and soft-skill shortages, 

and recommended changes in current WIA operations to address 

these problems. For example, Eastern Kentucky’s strategic 

planning process had very dramatic implications for current WIA 

Nearly all our business 

Board members and other 

business respondents in this 

study, despite current slack 

labor market conditions, 

pointed to some form of 

shortage in the labor market 

as a deep concern for their 

business or for the 

community as a whole. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-17

operations since the planning process employers’ need for a more 

in-depth pre-hire screening. The Local Area subsequently 

purchased a proprietary job matching system that produces a 

much more detailed assessment that matches employer needs with 

job seeker capabilities (see Chapter IV). Northwest Wisconsin’s 

three broad goals, discussed above, also resulted in operational 

changes. 

The next most common topic for strategic planning was 

education. Business members in most of the sites explicitly stated 

that the only effective means of preparing the future workforce 

for the labor market is through the schools. In fact, this was one 

of their principal reasons for joining the Board. Consequently, 

many of their Boards concentrated on K-12 education during their 

strategic planning 

process. For 

example, in San 

Diego, several 

business WIB 

members and the 

Chamber of 

Commerce thought 

that the greatest 

benefit from the 

extensive labor market 

information research 

that the Local Area 

conducted would be to 

K-12 students who 

still have time to 

address deficiencies, 

in their preparation for entry into the workforce. Capital Area 

Michigan Works WIB members are also interested in school-towork and teacher preparation. These members believe that their 

greatest contribution to workforce improvement in the area would 

be to reduce drop-out rates, increase workforce skills, and 

Business members in 

most of the sites 

explicitly stated that the 

only effective means of 

preparing the entire 

future workforce for the 

labor market is through 

the schools. 

Comprehensive Planning Issues in Northwest Wisconsin 

Northwest Wisconsin’s strategic planning process included 

the most comprehensive set of the topics. The Local Area faced 

several long-range economic development problems, including outmigration of younger, better educated people and the effect of 

severe foreign competition on the local paper industry 

The strategic planning process resulted in the development of 

three major goals for the Local Area: 

• Incumbent worker training, high wage training & 

career ladders. 

• Business development, retention, and support 

focused on convening industry cluster initiatives, 

helping businesses to increase profitability and 

capacity, and linking workforce development with 

business development resources. 

• Building the workforce development system to 

enhance related to building service delivery system. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-18

alleviate language barriers through better K-12 education. In 

Dallas, the semiconductor industry WIB member from Texas 

Instruments, who was also a leader on the semiconductor sectoral 

initiative, worked to focus the initiative entirely on of school-age 

youths’ awareness of the industry and teacher preparation for 

math and science instruction. 

Finally, several of the innovative sites particularly focus 

their planning efforts on how the workforce and education 

systems can cope with a variety of longer-range demographic or 

migratory issues that will affect future labor markets. Northwest 

Wisconsin, for example, was concerned about the out-migration 

of young people to urban centers. Hence, its planning process 

included steps to focus on providing training for high-wage jobs 

and helping businesses to create career ladders that would be 

attractive to young people. Capital Area Michigan Work’s WIB 

is concerned about the long-term shortage of workers in the 

region due to an aging workforce. Its strategic plan suggests 

improving K-12 education and providing more English-as-secondlanguage training to better prepare immigrants and others with 

limited English proficiency to obtain higher-skill jobs in the 

workforce. San Diego Board members are concerned about the 

decline of the domestic in-migration that had largely fueled its 

labor force growth since the beginning of World War II. This 

steady flow of migrants and the attractiveness of its climate had 

allowed employers to discount wages in key service industries 

like tourism. With net migration now flowing outward, however, 

wage levels would need to increase to sustain a qualified labor 

force in these industries. Thus, the strategic planning process 

helped the Board decide to institute a target wage for all 

registered WIA participants to contribute to solving this long-term 

labor market problem. 

CONCLUSION

The Boards in the innovative business sites provide a good 

channel for input from the business community on workforce 

Finally, several of the 

innovative sites focus 

their planning efforts 

especially on how the 

workforce and education 

systems can cope with a 

variety of longer-range 

demographic or 

migratory issues that 

will affect labor 

markets. 

Business members 

believe that their 

greatest contribution to 

workforce improvement 

in the area would be to 

reduce drop-out rates, 

increase workforce 

skills, and alleviate 

language barriers 

through better K-12 

education. 
II. Business Involvement with the Workforce Investment Board 

Social Policy Research Associates II-19

issues to Local Area staff and the One-Stop system. These 

Boards also have high-level business members who are selected 

with attention to geographic and industry balance. And, since the 

predominant motive for joining the board for most business 

members is a broad commitment to a better-functioning labor 

market for the local economy as a whole, these WIBs are well 

positioned to carry out their duties in a way that will gain broad 

acceptance from elected officials and the wider community. 

A major challenge, however, is to carve out sufficient time, 

given busy schedules and short meetings, to allow WIB business 

members to make significant contributions to program oversight. 

One way that business members of the Local Boards resolve this 

challenge is to limit their role to those elements that matter most 

to them. Thus, they spend relatively little time on oversight of 

the Title I program, including the establishment of business 

services programs. 

Instead, business members tend to focus on participating in 

strategic planning efforts that enable them to address their broad 

concerns with the overall economic and social health of their 

communities. These strategic planning processes are generally 

comprehensive and focus on a variety of issues and solutions 

related to the labor market. They consider not only what Title I 

can do, but propose activities that involve K-12 and 

postsecondary education, community-based organizations, 

individual firms, and business associations. Broadly-based 

planning efforts and partnerships are fully consistent with the 

Congressional intent to have the Board and staff mobilize other 

resources in the community to develop a broad-based local 

workforce investment system. Partnerships, formed with the 

individual firms and business associations are examined in some 

detail in the next chapter. 

Business members 

participate in strategic 

planning events that 

enable them to address 

their broad concerns 

with the overall 

economic and social 

health of their 

communities. 
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III-1 Social Policy Research Associates 

III. BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS 

Beyond the requirement to seek nominations for WIB 

members, WIA does not mandate partnerships with business 

organizations, such as Chambers of Commerce, industry 

associations, or economic development organizations. 

Nevertheless, many local Boards have taken steps to enhance 

their linkages with such business organizations in an effort to 

improve their responsiveness to business concerns.1 All nine 

innovative business sites included in our study have developed 

partnerships2 with either Chambers of Commerce, economic 

development organizations, or both. In addition, some of them 

have developed partnerships with local industry associations or 

have developed sectoral initiatives to enhance their ability to 

connect job seekers with high growth industries. Among 

comparison sites, partnerships with Chambers and economic 

development organizations were also common but generally much 

less developed. Sectoral partnerships were rare. 

In this chapter we examine the types of business 

partnerships that were most commonly found and describe their 

purposes, functions and some of the challenges in developing 

such partnerships. We conclude with an analysis of their effect 

on Local Areas and their partners. 

 

1 A survey of top Chambers of Commerce by the Center for Workforce 

Preparation found as early as November 2001 that 40% of Chambers surveyed 

were involved in governing their respective local workforce development 

systems. (Spotlight on Workforce Development: Center for Workforce 

Preparation, November 2001) 

2 For the purpose of this chapter we are defining partnership broadly to 

include collaboration between the Local Area and business and economic 

development entities ranging in levels of intensity from mutual board 

membership to the joint development, funding and operation of workforce 

development programs. 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-2

PARTNERSHIPS WITH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE

Among the nine innovative business sites, the most common 

WIB partnership with business organizations is with regional or 

local Chambers of Commerce. All but one site reported that they 

have active partnerships with at least one Chamber in the area 

and many sites reported collaborating with several Chambers in 

their region. In a number of sites, broader policy-level 

partnerships are developed at the WIB level and more 

operational-level partnerships are found at the One-Stop center 

level. For example in Capital Area Michigan, the WIB has a 

strategic relationship with the regional Chamber but One-Stop 

centers in adjoining counties also have developed operational 

partnerships with their respective local Chambers. 

This approach has also helped the Local Area with a 

fundamental challenge in forming strong partnerships with 

Chambers—the fact that many Local Areas include multiple 

Chambers of Commerce, including some of very different size. 

For example, in San Diego, in addition to the strategic 

partnership between the WIB and the regional Chamber—the 

second largest in California—One-Stop centers have also 

developed operational partnerships with many of the 42 smaller 

and more specialized Chambers of Commerce in the county. 

These operational partnerships tend to focus more on the joint 

provision of services where, for example, the local One-Stop 

assists the Chamber in recruiting job seekers for an expanding or 

relocating business or in conducting outreach to offer its services 

to small businesses. 

Partnerships with Chambers of Commerce serve the 

following important purposes for WIBs and Local Areas: 

• Enhance the credibility of the workforce 

development system. Historically, the publicly 

funded workforce development system has not 

been seen as business-friendly and in fact most 

businesses have never used its services or are 

even aware of its existence. Partnerships with 

Many sites reported 

collaborating with 

several Chambers in 

their region. 
III. Business Partnerships 

III-3 Social Policy Research Associates 

Chambers of Commerce and other traditional 

business organizations have lent WIBs and their 

service delivery system credibility that does not 

require lengthy branding. 

• Provide networking and outreach opportunities 

to business customers. Chambers are an 

effective vehicle to reach smaller businesses, 

which make up a large majority of Chamber 

memberships. WIB and One-Stop respondents 

indicated that they rely on established outreach 

efforts of Chambers including newsletters, 

mailings, mixers and joint presentations to 

businesses to reach business customers. 

• Reduce turf issues. In some cases, partnerships, 

such as mutual board memberships, have been a 

factor in reducing competition and conflict 

between Chambers and local WIBs and other 

partners that had stymied collaboration in the past. 

Mutual board memberships are often a first step in 

developing partnerships between Chambers and their Local 

Areas. In three of the innovative business sites, the executive 

director of the Chamber sits on the WIB. In two others, OneStop staff members are involved with the Chamber or sit on 

Chamber boards. 

Among sites with more advanced partnerships, partners 

take the lead on different issues. For example, in Dallas, the 

Chamber provides office space to local WIB staff who lead the 

regional semiconductor and health-care initiatives.3 The regional 

Chamber in turn leads economic development and business 

attraction efforts—such as Dallas’ recent unsuccessful bid for 

Boeing to relocate its headquarters from Puget Sound to the 

Dallas/ Fort Worth area.4 The same Chamber also leads regional 

economic and workforce development efforts through its Regional 

 

3 This initiative is described in more detail in the section on sectoral 

initiatives later in this chapter. 

4 Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago instead. 

Former competitors are 

now able to “present a 

united front” to the 

business community.

Among sites with more 

advanced partnerships, 

partners take the lead on

different issues. 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-4

Workforce Leadership Committee with membership from all the 

local Chambers and the local WIB. This committee was the 

forum where the concept of focusing on key industry clusters was 

born. 

Pacific Mountain—Gray's Harbor offers another example of 

a mature and flexible approach toward leadership between 

complementary partners. In an effort to increase its business 

focus and make its services more demand driven, the local WIB, 

together with the leadership of the local Chamber, decided to 

fund an Employer Assistance Program(see Chapter IV), which 

provides a narrow range of business services to all employers. 

To take maximum advantage of the credibility of the Chamber in 

the eyes of businesses, the WIB decided to sub-contract the 

program to the Chamber but house project staff employed by the 

Chamber at the local One-Stop center. The arrangement attempts 

to build on the strategic advantages of each partner and by all 

accounts appears to succeed. “We can’t control taxes or 

regulations but we can do something about the cost of hires, the 

cost of recruitment and the cost of staff turnover,” noted the 

director of the local Chamber of Commerce 

Such collaboration is not easy to achieve. For the two 

innovative business sites that do not have strong partnerships with 

their local Chambers of Commerce, respondents cite a lack of 

staff on both sides as the primary reason why they have not been 

able to work collaboratively on projects that call for a deeper 

level of involvement. 

PARTNERSHIPS WITH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Partnerships with economic development agencies have 

become key strategies for many business-oriented Local Areas for 

two reasons. First, economic development agencies can help 

these Local Areas identify and access emerging and high growth 

labor markets for their job seeker customers. Second, based on 

that understanding of market needs, Local Area programs are 

then able to help economic development agencies supply better 

“We can’t control taxes 

or regulations but we 

can do something about 

the cost of hires, the 

cost of recruitment and 

the cost of staff 

turnover,” noted the 

director of the local 

Chamber of Commerce. 

Economic development 

agencies can help these 

Local Areas identify and 

access emerging and 

high growth labor 

markets for their job 

seeker customers 
III. Business Partnerships 

III-5 Social Policy Research Associates 

prepared job seekers to meet the needs of expanding or relocating 

businesses. 

A majority of innovative business sites have substantial 

partnerships with economic development organizations, although 

the strength of these partnerships varies greatly. Two examples 

of very strong partnerships can be seen in the highly 

interdependent relationship that exists between Capital Area 

Michigan Works and its economic development partners, and the 

very entrepreneurial approach in Northwest Wisconsin where the 

WIB defined workforce development services as “the intersection 

of employment and training programs, education and economic 

development.” By contrast, two innovative sites have 

partnerships with economic development entities that are limited 

to WIB board members sitting on local boards of economic 

development organizations, and one site has no formal 

relationship at all. 

In general, Local Areas can benefit in several ways from 

partnerships with economic development agencies: 

• Assess business trends and workforce needs.

Economic development agencies research, 

analyze, and forecast business trends and estimate 

resulting workforce needs that can help Local 

Areas with their strategic and operational planning 

at the local and regional level.

• Access emerging and high-growth industries. 

By staying in close contact with economic 

development agencies, WIBs and One-Stop 

business services staff can stay abreast of 

emerging and high-growth industries and prepare 

job seekers for careers that have growth potential.

• Assist in attracting, retaining and expanding 

businesses. Through partnerships with economic 

development agencies Local Areas help attract, 

retain, and expand local businesses by offering 

labor exchange and occupational skills training 

and other business services. 

The WIB defined 

workforce development 

services as “the 

intersection of 

employment and training

programs, education 

and economic 

development.” 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-6

• Assess availability of workforce and prepare 

workers. Local Areas in collaboration with 

economic development agencies can evaluate the 

availability and level of preparedness of the local 

workforce and developing training programs and 

recruitment drives to meet specific industry needs. 

In some innovative sites, partnerships with economic 

development agencies predate the Workforce Investment Act, 

although most have been formed since the implementation of 

WIA. In the case of the Capital Area Michigan, the Local Area’s 

partnership with local economic development agencies has been 

in existence for more than a decade. The president of one of the 

local economic development agencies has been on the WIB and 

the JTPA policy board for a combined 10 years with her 

predecessor serving as a member before that. 

At their most basic level, partnerships between workforce 

development and economic development agencies bundle services 

of the two entities into a combined toolkit for businesses who are 

considering relocating to the area. That is the case in one Local 

Area where workforce development resources are a standard part 

of the economic development toolkit, but deeper partnerships 

with economic development entities have not developed. This 

Local Area may also be a typical example of what happens when 

an economic development official is appointed to the WIB. Once 

she learned that the local workforce development system offered 

highly rated, free services for employers, she became interested 

in having the workforce development system become more visible 

so that she does not have to spend time educating prospective 

employers and their consultants about the benefits of the system. 

Ironically, it is now the Local Area that is trying to prevent 

aggressive marketing of One-Stop services by economic 

development agencies out of fear that the system could not sustain 

the ensuing demand with existing staff. 

More advanced partnerships are typically based on a 

stronger collaboration between economic development on the one 

Local Areas help 

attract, retain, and 

expand local businesses 

by offering labor 

exchange and 

occupational skills 

training and other 

business services. 
III. Business Partnerships 

III-7 Social Policy Research Associates 

hand, and workforce development efforts, on the other. For 

example, in Northwest Wisconsin, WIB members clearly 

indicated that economic development and business expansion are 

among the most important components of the Local Area’s 

workforce development strategy. As a result, economic 

development has become a central piece of the Local Area’s 

strategic plan, with WIB members acting as strong advocates for 

the Local Area’s economic development needs. This focus on 

economic development has caused the Local Area to move 

beyond its traditional job matching and training role and begin to 

assist businesses in improving profitability and capacity through 

improved marketing, financial management, and human resources 

management. To advance these goals, the Local Area—in 

collaboration with the regional economic development agency, 

the Employment Service, and other private sector partners—puts 

on a major economic development conference once a year and 

occasional workshops throughout the year. 

Advanced partnerships often focus on business retention as 

much as on business attraction. Capital Area Michigan Works is 

an example of the increasing importance of business retention as 

a key economic development strategy. Operational linkages 

between One-Stop center and economic development agency staff 

include joint retention visits to businesses. These retention visits 

are central to the City of Lansing’s economic development efforts 

because they allow economic development staff to be “on the 

front end when businesses are having problems,” as one 

respondent put it. The economic development agency and the 

local One-Stop center have also developed an incentive package 

that addresses business incentives and workforce related needs. 

The Local Area’s primary role in the partnership is to ensure that 

the region has a sufficient pool of skilled workers at a time when 

its strategic planning study predicted significant future shortages 

which could lead companies in high-growth industries to move 

elsewhere. 

WIB members act as 

strong advocates for the 

Local Area’s economic 

development needs. 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-8

In Northwest Wisconsin and San Diego, just as in 

Michigan, rather than focusing on attracting new businesses, the 

Local Area’s economic development strategies focus on retaining 

existing businesses and helping them expand, even if this takes 

the Local Area far afield of traditional workforce development 

work. As one business WIB member in Northwest Wisconsin 

said, “IBM is not coming up here, so we need to help businesses 

who are already here.” For example, when a local timber 

company informed officials that they were planning to leave the 

area because of the lack of suitable rail service, Local Area staff 

contacted the Department of Transportation to have weight 

restrictions lifted on local highways so the company could ship its 

products via truck rather than by train. 

The primary motivating factor for economic development 

agencies to enter into partnerships with Local Areas appears to be 

their ability to provide an employment ready labor supply. 

Although theoretically such workforce services should be 

available elsewhere also, the quality of those services as well as 

the quality of the partnership can provide a competitive advantage 

in attracting or retaining a business. This is evident in a number 

of the study sites where economic development agencies are eager 

to include workforce development services in their bundle of 

services for prospective businesses. 

Another motivating factor to enter such partnerships is to be 

able to jointly fund studies where research interests overlap with 

those of the workforce development system. In Pacific 

Mountain—Gray's Harbor, the Economic Development Council 

and the WIB jointly funded several studies, including the 

Workforce Availability Study of Grays Harbor County,5 and are 

using this document to market the area to prospective businesses 

as part of their business attraction strategy. Close collaboration 

 

5 Workforce Availability Study for Grays Harbor County, Grays Harbor 

Economic Development Council, Aberdeen, WA. March 1, 2000. 

As one business WIB 

member in Northwest 

Wisconsin said, “IBM is 

not coming up here, so 

we need to help 

businesses who are 

already here.” 

Economic development 

and workforce 

development agencies 

jointly fund studies on 

workforce preparedness.
III. Business Partnerships 

III-9 Social Policy Research Associates 

in developing these studies was cited by both sides as helpful for 

their respective business engagement strategies. In addition to its 

use as a marketing tool, the study helped the WIB to learn more 

about the size and quality of the region’s unemployed and 

underemployed labor pool which it used for its own strategic 

planning purposes.6 

Not all innovative business sites have had success in 

developing strong partnerships with their economic development 

counterparts. “We have a ways to go in integrating economic 

development and workforce development,” said one staff person 

at a site where economic development is fragmented into at least 

nine entities that are each pursuing their own agendas. At 

another site, an early pilot partnership between the Local Area 

and the economic development agency to deliver business 

services failed because of inadequate governance provisions and a 

reported lack of commitment on the part of the participating 

economic development agency. 

SECTORAL PARTNERSHIPS AND/OR CUSTOMIZED 

TRAINING PARTNERSHIPS

In recent years, sectoral initiatives have emerged as a 

promising strategy to allow communities—despite diminished 

public funding—to impact economic and workforce development 

by focusing some of their resources on targeted sectors or 

industry clusters with certain desirable characteristics. Among 

these characteristics are a high growth potential, opportunities for 

career ladders within a cluster, and sustainable wages for entrylevel workers. For Local Areas, sectoral initiatives are attractive 

 

6 As an example of the type of information that is useful for economic 

development purposes, the study found that there is a pool of about 3,500 

unemployed workers and over 6,100 underemployed workers in the area that a 

new employer might be able to attract. That is nearly a third of the estimated 

local workforce. In addition, almost a third of underemployed workers have 

some college and one fifth have a college degree. 

Not all innovative 

business sites have had 

success in developing 

strong partnerships with 

their economic 

development 

counterparts. 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-10

because they allow workforce development to be an influential 

actor in emerging and high-growth industries. 

Five of the nine innovative business sites have developed or 

at least participated in the development of sectoral initiatives and 

two sites are currently considering whether they should do so. 

Among the comparison sites, only one had any strong sectoral 

initiatives in operation and two others had begun focusing some 

of their business services on certain industries. 

Most of the sectoral initiatives are designed to improve 

workforce preparation for a specific industry sector and to stay 

abreast of industry trends and workforce development needs of 

high-growth industries. Often they are created to address a 

specific crisis that is affecting a particular sector. For example, 

the critical shortage in nurses and other medical personnel is the 

driving force behind the numerous health care initiatives. 

Shortages of skilled workers are also the focus of the metal 

manufacturing partnership in Southwest Connecticut and the 

semiconductor initiative in Texas, which were both initiated to 

prevent a lack of an available skilled labor supply from inducing 

the industry to relocate to another site in the U.S. or abroad. 

In addition to addressing staffing shortages, sectoral 

initiatives can provide a mechanism to retrain skilled workers 

from declining industries and thereby address two pressing 

community issues simultaneously. For example, in ArapahoeDouglas, the sectoral initiative focused on retraining workers laid 

off from the information and telecommunications industry for 

health care occupations. 

The participation of Local Areas in sectoral partnerships is 

almost always driven by the WIB director or WIB staff rather 

than by WIB members or others. In addition, in most cases the 

Local Area is the primary or at least among the primary initiators 

of the partnerships. 

Sectoral initiatives are 

attractive because they 

allow workforce 

development to be an 

influential actor in 

emerging and highgrowth industries. 

Sectoral initiatives often 

respond to specific 

crises that are affecting 

a particular sector. 
III. Business Partnerships 

III-11 Social Policy Research Associates 

As the following examples show, of the three types of 

partnerships described in this chapter, sectoral initiatives have the 

most substantial direct involvement of business. High level 

industry representatives sit on governing or advisory boards and 

are actively engaged in shaping the initiative’s design and 

operation. At least in part, this is due to the fact that sectoral 

initiatives are specifically designed to meet targeted industry 

needs or address industry crises. Local Areas have learned that 

this is a sure way to get the attention of industry leaders. 

Description of Specific Sectoral Initiatives 

In 2003 the San Diego WIB, in collaboration with the 

community college district, formed industry-specific partnerships 

under its Workforce Alliance Project. The WIB is staffing these 

partnerships, inviting participants, facilitating meetings, and 

leading labor market research activities. These partnerships are 

designed to improve the dialogue between industry and education 

and to focus on educating and training San Diegans to fill highdemand, high-wage occupations in the biotechnology, health care, 

hospitality and telecommunications sectors. The clusters are cosponsored by leading industry organizations in their fields and 

include representatives of business and of training providers. 

San Diego’s hospitality cluster, for example, in partnership 

with the Convention and Visitors Bureau,7 is focused on 

conducting research on occupational career ladders in the 

hospitality industry, and using the results to develop a marketing 

campaign to encourage individuals to seek careers in the industry. 

In a next phase, the industry would like the workforce 

development system to establish training and certification 

programs for managerial employees and to establish travel and 

tourism academies in high schools. 

 

7 The membership consists primarily of hotels, restaurants, airlines, and 

attractions, and includes some vendors and secondary service providers. It 

conducts research on behalf of the industry and provides that directly to 

members. Its advocacy may benefit non-members. 

Sectoral initiatives have 

the most substantial 

direct involvement of 

business. 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-12

The health care and medical services cluster in San Diego is 

working with the regional health care association to develop a 

request for proposals to develop a five-year staffing needs 

assessment and resource directory and a plan to develop career 

ladders for the most common career paths in the cluster. 

In Southwest 

Connecticut, the 

local WIB, in 

partnership with 

local metal 

manufacturers, the 

economic 

development agency 

and the community 

college helped start 

the Manufacturers’ 

Education and 

Training Alliance 

(METAL) in an 

effort to help retain 

the metal 

manufacturing 

industry in the Bridgeport area. This partnership goes well 

beyond recruiting and preparing job candidates for specific jobs. 

It also trains incumbent workers in specific manufacturing 

processes and serves as an exchange for quality initiatives of 

participating businesses. 

In Dallas, sectoral initiatives are led by the Regional 

Workforce Leadership Committee and are financed from nonWIA funds. Current clusters cover the semiconductor and health 

care industries and there are plans to add clusters in logistics and 

tourism. 

The example of the Dallas semiconductor industry cluster 

provides a compelling insight into the benefits of sectoral 

Manufacturers’ Education and Training Alliance (METAL) in 

Southwest Connecticut 

METAL’s primary goals are to improve productivity and 

competitiveness of participating companies by combining and 

coordinating marketing activities and by jointly conducting 

occupational skills and management training courses for incumbent 

and new workers. METAL offers a comprehensive workforce 

development training program tailored to the needs of its member 

companies. It has trained more than 500 new and incumbent 

workers since its inception in 2001. In addition to occupational 

skills training, METAL offers training in the areas of basic literacy 

skills, English as a Second Language (ESL), manufacturing 

technology, management and supervisory skills and lean 

manufacturing methods. METAL partners with Housatonic 

Community College and other education providers to conduct the 

training. In addition, over 30 short, productivity improvement 

training events have been held at member companies on such topics 

as process control, reduction of lead times, and more efficient use 

of materials. 

By leveraging key 

partner resources and 

industry expertise, the 

impact of the 

semiconductor industry 

cluster is far greater 

than it could be through 

the use of WIA resource.
III. Business Partnerships 

III-13 Social Policy Research Associates 

initiatives. The semiconductor industry cluster is a businessdriven working group that is staffed by a “cluster manager” who 

is a WIB staff person, is housed at the Regional Chamber of 

Commerce and is collaborating with school and college districts. 

The initiative’s goal is to address one of the key growth 

constraints of the 

regional 

semiconductor 

industry—the ability 

to recruit educated 

and skilled 

workers—by 

addressing shortfalls 

in the K-12 system. 

By leveraging key 

partner resources 

and industry 

expertise, the impact 

is far greater than it 

could be through the 

use of WIA 

resources alone. 

The impetus 

for the Health Care 

Initiative in Dallas 

was similar. The 

initiative, which was 

started in July 2003, 

is focused on 

helping the industry 

take a long-term 

view of its 

workforce development challenges. As elsewhere in the country, 

the industry was facing a massive recruitment challenge and a 

staggering shortage in qualified nursing staff. While some health 

Dallas Semiconductor Initiative

The regional semiconductor industry is dominated by Texas 

Instruments and its spin-offs and has large recruitment needs for a 

wide range of entry to mid-level employees. Although the industry 

has a long history of collaboration on various issues this has not 

been the case in the area of workforce development. In the past 

companies would routinely raid one another’s employees to meet 

recruitment needs. Once this practice would no longer support 

recruitment needs some of the leading semiconductor firms decided 

to cooperate to solve the underlying recruitment problems and 

formed the Semiconductor Industry Council in August of 2002. 

The key recruitment challenges for the semiconductor 

industry are twofold. Students coming out of high-school are not 

sufficiently prepared in the area of math and science for careers in 

the industry. In addition many of them do not realize that the 

semiconductor industry pays very well and has large numbers of 

job openings. As a result the industry has had to recruit from out 

of the area which has raised recruiting costs. 

To confront these issues the semiconductor initiative decided 

to focus its efforts on the public education system and to work on 

increasing teacher and student knowledge of the industry and 

helping teachers better prepare students for the math and science 

required for careers in the semiconductor industry. To do this the 

initiative developed materials for teachers to make their science and 

math instruction more attractive; lesson plans that fit into the State 

curriculum; summer internships for teachers who rotate through 

five semiconductor companies; forums for teachers and guidance 

counselors to learn about semiconductor industry careers; and 

advanced summer institutes for high school teachers to learn about 

the skill sets required for technical and engineering jobs in the 

semiconductor industry. 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-14

care providers had already taken steps to boost their internal 

capability to conduct job training programs, there was little 

coordination or long-term planning among the institutions to 

address future workforce needs. 

The Local Area was in a good position to serve as a catalyst 

to bring together key officials from the major hospitals and 

educational institutions for several reasons. First, all of the 

initiative’s key partners, including the regional hospital council, a 

professional nurse training advocacy organization and the 

Chamber of Commerce, were familiar with one another through 

long service on the WIB, industry advisory committees for 

community college programs, and other governance bodies. 

Second, the Local Area had high credibility because it was 

neither a competitor nor a direct beneficiary of the initiative and 

was recognized by industry and education as a leader on 

workforce issues. 

The priorities for the Dallas Health Care Initiative include 

assessing needs and interests of current nursing students; 

providing training for dislocated workers, adults, and incumbent 

workers using a mix of funding sources; and collaborating with 

existing efforts to develop regional strategies to address the 

nursing shortage. Since all nurse training slots are currently 

filled, long-range goals also include increasing local training 

capacity and attracting nurses from other areas. A future goal of 

the initiative may involve lobbying the state legislature for more 

training funds. 

Arapahoe-Douglas’ health care initiative was also created as 

WIB members and other leaders became increasingly concerned 

about the impact of a shortage of nurses on other local 

businesses. To come up with strategies to deal with this 

shortage, WIB staff brought together key leaders of industry and 

education. They came up with two primary goals: meet the 

demand for workers in health care, and provide a potential career 

in a growing industry for dislocated workers. 

The Local Area had high

credibility because it 

was neither a competitor

nor a direct beneficiary 

of the initiative. 

Arapahoe-Douglas’ 

health care initiative 

was also created as WIB 

members and other 

leaders became 

increasingly concerned 

about the impact of a 

shortage of nurses on 

other local businesses. 
III. Business Partnerships 

III-15 Social Policy Research Associates 

In addition to San Diego, Dallas and Arapahoe-Douglas, 

Eastern Kentucky’s WIB has also entered into partnerships with 

the health care industry. Several other innovative business sites 

have also expressed interest in promoting training for health care 

occupations, but have not yet formalized their relationships. 

Among the 

comparison sites, 

Portland, Oregon 

has the most 

developed sectoral 

initiative and uses a 

very different 

approach to engage 

selected sectors. 

The Local Area 

established a 

website8 that 

provides career and 

industry specific 

information as well 

as descriptions of 

career ladders where 

they have been 

identified. In 

addition, the Local 

Area’s business 

services unit 

recently convened 

industry 

representatives from 

the metal 

 

8 http://www.connect2jobs.org/

Arapahoe Douglas Health Care Initiative

One of the initiative’s primary activities is to address the 

nursing shortage by matching recently dislocated workers from the 

information and telecommunications industry with openings in the 

health care field. The initiative has also spawned a number of other 

innovative ideas, including an incentive system for incumbent 

workers to help retain them and to provide for career advancement 

opportunities, an in-service training program for supervisors and 

managers to improve their ability to retain health care workers, and 

an online refresher course for Registered Nurses. 

To integrate the initiative into ongoing One Stop operations, 

the Local Area decided to create a Health Care Center within an 

existing One Stop center. This ensures that existing resources and 

dedicated grant funds are well coordinated. For example, the Local 

Area uses WIA formula funds to supplement an industry funded 

registered nursing program offered by the local community college. 

This additional funding is used to provide students with specialized 

elder care training and access to Individual Training Account 

vouchers in related fields. 

The Local Area is also interested in introducing health care 

occupations to youth. To do this, One Stop center staff brief high 

school guidance counselors once a year on biotechnology career 

opportunities. Trainers use a career manual that includes a 

description of typical health care career ladders. The expectation is 

that the WIA youth program will cover the training costs for the 

first two rungs of the ladder—Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) 

and Licensed Vocational Nurse (LVN) or Licensed Practical Nurse 

(LPN)—while employers will foot the bill for training as a 

Registered Nurse (RN). 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-16

manufacturing industry for a meeting that included both a 

presentation on labor market trends and a focus group. Business 

services staff also used this meeting to make a marketing 

presentation about the role they can play in analyzing industry 

information and creating action plans and innovative approaches to 

addressing skill shortages. The Local Area is also planning to use 

this approach with businesses in the health care and information 

technology sectors. 

CONCLUSION

All innovative business sites included in our study are 

participating in partnerships with Chambers of Commerce, 

economic development agencies, or businesses and industry 

associations as part of sectoral initiatives. Most of these 

partnerships are initiated and led by WIB directors or staff, 

though, in some, they act as participants and contributors. Some 

of these partnerships and initiatives have years of history and 

have themselves become separate organizations with their own 

staff, while others have only just begun their work. Though such 

partnerships were present among comparison sites, they were less 

common and much less developed. 

Business organizations have a number of reasons to 

collaborate with the workforce development system. For one 

thing, as One-Stop centers with strong business orientations have 

become better at addressing the real needs of the business 

community, this has made them more attractive partners than 

traditional workforce agencies that historically have not had a 

good reputation in the business community. In addition, at 

several sites, WIB staff has been able to act as “honest brokers” 

in convening partners around sectoral initiatives. As part of this 

role, WIBs have been instrumental in helping businesses solve 

critical staffing and retention issues. 

The most common types of partnerships for Local Areas 

are with local and regional Chambers of Commerce. They range 

from more traditional models of mutual appointments to 

Most business-related 

partnerships are 

initiated and led by WIB 

directors or staff. 

At several sites Local 

Areas have been able to 

act as “honest brokers” 

in convening partners 

around sectoral 

initiatives. 
III. Business Partnerships 

III-17 Social Policy Research Associates 

governing boards and ad hoc collaborations on occasional 

projects, to more committed relationships where office space and 

staff are shared or business services are jointly delivered. 

Partnerships with Chambers of Commerce are especially effective 

for the workforce development system in reaching smaller to 

mid-sized businesses. Chambers in turn report that the 

partnerships have helped them serve as a conduit for workforce 

development services for their members. 

Partnerships with economic development agencies appear to 

have gained in significance in many of the innovative business 

sites. The intensity of partnerships between the workforce 

development system and economic development organizations 

also cover a wide range, with some Local Areas lacking any 

formal relationship, to full collaboration at others. Some of the 

more advanced partnerships conduct economic development and 

business retention visits jointly and bundle their business services 

so that new and incumbent businesses targeted by economic 

development efforts are always aware of services available from 

workforce development agencies. 

Perhaps the most diversity in business-related partnerships 

can be found among the different sectoral partnerships examined 

as part of this study. Some address specific crises such as the 

critical shortage of nurses in the health care sector or localized 

shortages of skilled workers in the metal manufacturing and the 

semiconductor industry that might induce an industry to relocate 

elsewhere. Others are more broadly designed to prepare workers 

for positions in high growth sectors. 

By their very nature, sectoral initiatives are specialized and 

tailored to the particular needs of a given sector or region. The 

common ground among all these partnerships is that they share a 

focus on growth industries and demand occupations and that their 

workforce development strategies are designed to address 

recruitment, training, and career advancement issues. WIBs with 

successful sectoral initiatives see themselves as influential actors 

Perhaps the most 

diversity in businessrelated partnerships can 

be found among the 

different sectoral 

partnerships initiatives. 

For communities, strong 

partnerships have meant 

that business and 

workforce development 

organizations are more 

quickly able to address 

industry and workforce 

needs. 
III. Business Partnerships 

Social Policy Research Associates III-18

who are able to use their leverage to help shape regional 

workforce policy decisions in areas that have significant impact 

on the health of the local business climate and on the success of 

their job seeker and business customers. 

The impact of all of these partnerships has been 

multifaceted. For communities, strong partnerships have meant 

that business and workforce development organizations are more 

quickly able to address industry and workforce needs. This has 

allowed some communities to retain industries that were at risk of 

relocating elsewhere. It has also helped soften the effect of acute 

staffing shortages in the health care industry. 

For Chambers and economic development and industry 

organizations, these partnerships have opened up new channels 

for their members to have their views expressed and their 

workforce needs addressed. 

For Local Areas, the partnerships have increased 

networking opportunities and provided them with access to a wide 

range of new business customers. In addition—and perhaps most 

importantly—active engagement with these business partnerships 

has enhanced the credibility of WIBs and One-Stop centers in the 

eyes of the business community. Overall this has enhanced the 

stature of the innovative business sites and has made them more 

influential actors in emerging and high-growth industries. 

Active engagement with 

these business 

partnerships has 

enhanced the credibility 

of WIBs and One-Stop 

centers in the eyes of the 

business community. 
Social Policy Research Associates IV-1

IV. BUSINESS SERVICES 

Although public workforce development systems have long 

provided services to businesses, until fairly recently these 

services have been considered less important than services to job 

seekers. Indeed services to businesses have been provided 

primarily to develop job placements for job seekers. Even in 

Federal workforce development legislation, most services to 

businesses have been couched as services to job seekers, justified 

only by recognizing that businesses are the other half of the 

employment equation. 

However, during recent years, businesses have become 

more of a central focus of the workforce development system. 

With the passage of the Workforce Investment Act in 1998, the 

shift to a greater emphasis on providing services to businesses 

received a boost. Indeed, the nine innovative business Local 

Areas we visited for this study have devoted considerable time 

and resources to the development of successful business services 

programs. This chapter will explore the details regarding the 

business-services programs developed and operated in these Local 

Areas. The chapter will begin by describing the process and 

challenges of developing business services, followed by a section 

on how Local Areas approach and target business services. The 

next section will describe the different types of business services 

provided, followed by a section describing how business services 

are provided. The chapter will conclude with a section on the 

impact of business services and a summary of the challenges and 

key strategies for providing services. 

DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS SERVICES 

As described in the introduction, until recently, workforce 

development services to business were somewhat of an 

afterthought. However, beginning in the late 1990s, for a variety 

of reasons, the nine innovative business Local Areas we visited 

The nine innovative 

business Local Areas we 

visited for this study 

have devoted 

considerable time and 

resources to the 

development of 

successful business 

services programs. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-2 

for this study began the process of developing more extensive 

business services. 

Impetus for Development of Business 

Services 

A number of factors pushed these nine Local Areas to 

develop their business-services programs. One of the main 

reasons stemmed from a sense that the old way of providing 

workforce development services was not working even as 

performance accountability became more and more important. 

As a result, Local Area staff felt pushed to experiment with new 

approaches. Because of the critical role businesses play in 

providing employment for job seekers—the primary means by 

which WIA assesses their performance Local Area managers 

thought that focusing on businesses would make it easier to place 

job seekers in high-wage jobs and therefore achieve better 

performance. In addition, Local Area staff began to recognize 

the importance of providing services to businesses to help them 

be economically successful so that they would be able to offer 

those jobs in the first place. 

Another reason for the development of more extensive 

business services was the passage of the Workforce Investment 

Act. Even though WIA is not expressly clear about business 

services, it has a much stronger emphasis on working with 

businesses than previous legislation. Thus it provided strong 

support for the efforts of Local Area staff to push their agenda to 

develop more extensive business services and shift the focus of 

services to addressing business needs. 

Changes at the State level also sometimes served as the 

impetus for changes. For example, in Colorado, the State 

Employment Service convened a task force in the 1990s to 

improve services to businesses, on which staff from ArapahoeDouglas participated. The task force recommended improving 

the screening process of job candidates and having dedicated 

Because of the critical 

role businesses play in 

providing employment 

for job seekers the 

primary means by which 

WIA assesses their 

performance Local Area 

managers thought that 

focusing on businesses 

would help them achieve 

better performance. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-3 

business services staff. Arapahoe-Douglas then applied for and 

received a grant from the State to establish a pilot project to 

implement these recommendations and develop better ways of 

serving employers. 

The implementation of welfare reform legislation was 

another factor in the development of exemplary business services 

in some States and Local Areas. The new Temporary Assistance 

for Needy Families (TANF) program’s emphasis on finding jobs 

for welfare-leavers fit in very closely with WIA’s greater 

emphasis on businesses and provided additional funding to cover 

the cost of developing new business services. 

Challenges in Developing Business Services 

Once Local Areas had made the decision to develop 

business services programs, and had garnered support from States 

and Local Boards to do so, they typically faced a number of 

challenges to making those programs successful. One of the 

biggest challenges was the need to build credibility with 

businesses. While few businesses have ever heard of the publicly 

funded workforce development system, those that have often had 

negative experiences with it. In particular, many businesses have 

low opinions of the job candidate referrals they have received 

from State Employment Service job matching systems. 

In addition to building credibility, business services staff 

had to show that they were responsive and innovative—

completely unlike the stereotype most businesses have of 

bureaucratic government workers. Local Area managers said that 

they struggled with helping both new and incumbent staff to make 

the transition from having what one manager called a “poverty 

program” mentality, to adopting a business-focused emphasis. 

They also faced difficulty in figuring out how to instill in staff a 

“don’t say no” attitude that celebrated innovation, creativity and 

responsiveness. 

One of the biggest 

challenges was the need 

to build credibility with 

businesses. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-4 

Finally, Local Areas had to try to coordinate the delivery of 

business services between One-Stop partners, particularly WIAfunded providers and the Employment Service. Unless this 

service delivery was coordinated, business customers were likely 

to be bombarded by calls from multiple One-Stop partners. In 

addition, poor quality services provided by one partner would 

diminish the reputation of the whole system. Coordination with 

the Employment Service was particularly challenging because it 

often had to occur at both the local and State levels. 

APPROACH TO SERVING BUSINESSES

A critical element in the development of business services 

involves the adoption of an approach to serving businesses. For 

the nine innovative business sites, their approach typically 

included both a set of key principles for serving businesses and a 

plan for targeting certain groups of businesses. 

Key Principles for Serving Businesses 

The innovative business Local Areas typically utilize a 

number of key principles to overcome the challenges of providing 

successful business services programs mentioned above. These 

principles include shifting the primary focus of the workforce 

system from job seekers to employers, focusing on building 

strong relationships with businesses, providing services in a 

customized and individualized way, and viewing service delivery 

as a process that occurs in phases. 

Of these, the most important principle involves shifting the 

focus of their service delivery system to employers. Indeed, at 

several sites, staff said that business was the only real customer 

of the workforce development system, while job seekers were 

merely a “commodity.” Most Local Areas justify this business 

emphasis by explaining that, without employers, there would be 

no jobs for job seekers, no matter what assistance Local Areas 

provide. This orientation also seems to signal that these Local 

Areas have moved away from seeing business services as only a 

At several sites, staff 

said that business was 

the only real customer of

the workforce 

development system, 

while job seekers were 

merely a “commodity.” 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-5 

means to developing more placements for job seekers, but rather 

view them as a key component in the operation of an efficient 

labor market and a healthy local economy. 

Another key principle mentioned by many business services 

programs is an emphasis on building relationships with 

businesses. This focus on relationships is one reason why most 

programs emphasize in-person interaction between business 

services staff rather than self-services or on-line services. For 

example, business services staff often prefer to start off their 

relationship with a business through an in-person meeting at the 

business site. 

A crucial component of this relationship building involves 

the development of a clear understanding of their business 

customers. For many programs, building this knowledge base 

begins even before the first meeting with a new business, as staff 

“do their homework” to find out basic information about the 

company and the industry through Internet research. Building on 

this, the first meeting with a new business contact typically 

focuses on understanding the business’s current challenges and 

needs rather than explaining the Local Area’s business services. 

Thus, rather than going over all of the services their programs 

could offer, business staff describe only those that address needs 

or challenges brought up by the business customer. One case 

manager in Northwest Wisconsin explained the rationale for this 

approach by noting that businesses do not want to hear a laundry 

list of services, but only those relevant to their specific needs. 

To help staff deepen this understanding of business needs 

early on, some Local Areas try to ensure that the first services 

typically provided to business customers give staff opportunities 

to learn detailed information about employer hiring preferences 

and skill needs. For example, one of the reasons Capital Area 

Michigan started using the WorkKeys job profiling and matching 

system was so that staff would have the opportunity to learn inA crucial component of 

relationship building 

involves the development

of a clear understanding 

of business customers. 

Businesses do not want 

to hear a laundry list of 

services but only those 

relevant to their specific 

needs. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-6 

depth information about the skills and characteristics of specific 

positions. This detailed information was then used to ensure that 

subsequent services closely match business needs. 

To guarantee that this in-depth knowledge of a particular 

business will not dissipate during a hand-off to other staff, many 

of the innovative business Local Areas provide businesses with a 

single point of contact, using a system of “account 

representatives.” Using account representatives also makes it 

easier for businesses to understand how to interact with the 

workforce development system, strengthens accountability, and 

diminishes the possibility of businesses being given the 

runaround. In addition, once business staff demonstrate their 

ability to make good on promised services within a reasonable 

timeframe, account representatives help business customers to 

develop trust in the workforce program, because trust tended to 

be embodied in a particular staff person, rather than in the system 

as a whole. For example, when asked about the quality of 

business services in a Local Area, several businesses mentioned 

specific business services representatives they worked with rather 

than the program as a whole. 

Providing customized or individualized business services is 

a third key principle to providing business services used by most 

of the nine innovative-business Local Areas. As staff from 

Arapahoe-Douglas put it, this means having an attitude of “giving 

them [businesses] what they want.” It also means allowing 

businesses to be in control, letting them decide to receive as few 

or as many services as they wanted. Staff focus on listening to 

business needs and challenges and then coming up with solutions 

to directly address those needs, even if they are very different 

from the Local Area’s standard business services. For example, 

when an employer in Eastern Kentucky told a business services 

staff person that he had an incumbent worker who needed to learn 

certain computer skills very quickly, the staff person arranged for 

the worker to come to the One-Stop after hours the next day to 

Providing customized or 

individualized business 

services means having 

an attitude of “giving 

them [businesses] what 

they want.”
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-7 

use the One-Stop’s tutorial program and receive one-on-one 

tutoring. 

This customized approach also means that the same general 

service provided to different businesses can differ radically, based 

on the specific characteristics and needs of individual customers. 

For example, in Arapahoe-Douglas, business services staff 

provided recruitment assistance to two local hospitals. For one of 

them, which was very small and had few human resources staff, 

business services staff not only recruited applicants, but also 

carefully screened them. By contrast, for the other hospital, 

which had a large human resources department, business services 

staff simply arranged for a job fair to attract candidates and let 

the hospital do all of the screening. 

A fourth key principle utilized by innovative-business Local 

Areas is to see service delivery as a phased process. Typically 

staff begin by providing a basic service that often leads to other 

services. Usually these “gateway” services are related to 

recruitment or referrals of qualified job seekers. For example, 

Local Areas that have developed improved job matching systems 

often try to convince businesses to use these services first. These 

gateway services allow staff to both get to know businesses better 

and demonstrate that they can deliver on what they promise. 

Once the gateway service has been successfully provided, 

businesses typically return to ask for additional assistance or are 

receptive to suggestions for additional services. 

Targeting of Businesses 

In addition to utilizing the key principles outlined above, 

most of the innovative business Local Areas also target certain 

groups of businesses for services. In some of these Local Areas, 

non-target businesses can access the full set of services, while in 

others, non-targeted businesses are only able to utilize business 

services that are available on a self-service basis. 

This customized 

approach also means 

that the same general 

service provided to 

different businesses can 

differ radically, based 

on the specific 

characteristics and 

needs of individual 

customers. 

Typically staff begin by 

providing a basic 

“gateway” service that 

often leads to other 

services. These gateway 

services allow staff to 

both get to know 

businesses better and 

demonstrate that they 

can deliver on what they 

promise. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-8 

Among the innovative business Local Areas, the most 

common group of employers targeted were small businesses. 

Local Areas said they targeted small businesses because those 

typically lack human resource staff and expertise and thus are 

most in need of assistance. Local Area staff also emphasized that 

small businesses make up the majority of local businesses and 

employ large numbers of local workers. However, most found 

this target group to be very challenging because small businesses 

are very difficult to contact since they have so few staff. As a 

result, some sites compromised by targeting medium-sized rather 

than the smallest businesses. For example, Dallas business 

services staff indicated that they targeted businesses with 50-250 

employees with few human resource staff. 

Nearly half of the innovative business Local Areas also 

targeted businesses offering better-paying jobs or good career 

ladders for workers. For example, in San Diego, the Metro OneStop business services staff person said he does not work with 

businesses that only offer minimum wage jobs, since placing job 

seekers in these positions will not result in a self-sufficiency wage 

or help the Local Area reach its WIA earnings performance 

goals. Instead, the Local Area only handles job orders from 

employers who pay at least nine dollars an hour. Similarly, staff 

in Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor said that they target 

businesses that offer “family wages,” while Eastern Kentucky, 

tries to target industries and businesses that offer a clear career 

path for workers. For its new incumbent worker training and job 

profiling program, Capital Area Michigan also targets industries 

and companies that offer higher wages, good benefits and more 

opportunities for promotion. 

In addition to targeting businesses that provided job seekers 

with higher wages and more career opportunities, several Local 

Areas also targeted or were planning to target high growth 

industries for business services. For example, Eastern Kentucky 

used labor market information to target high growth industries, 

Among the innovative 

business Local Areas, 

the most common group 

of employers targeted 

were small businesses. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-9 

and Coastal Counties, Maine was also planning to do so. Dallas 

further targeted growing mid-sized businesses. 

 One type of targeting mentioned only in San Diego was to 

prioritize services to current customers over new customers, 

especially those who use services the most. 

Finally, one Local Area, Northwest Wisconsin, did not 

target any particular businesses for services. Business services 

staff, instead, said that technology would allow them to provide 

services to all local businesses that needed them. 

DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS SERVICES 

Nearly all Local Areas we visited for the study—both 

innovative business and comparison sites—offer the same core set 

of business services that typically include labor exchange 

services, rapid response/downsizing assistance, job fairs, job 

seeker assessment, labor market information, space for 

interviewing and information on tax credits. Although both 

groups of Local Areas generally offer the same types of services, 

innovative business Local Areas focus on improving and 

customizing them to more closely match individual business 

needs. In addition, a few innovative business sites also offer 

other less common business services such as customized skill 

assessments, background and credential checks, intensive followup and coaching, job analyses and specialized human resource 

services. This section examines each of these different types of 

business services, beginning with labor exchange services. 

Labor Exchange Services 

One of the most common sets of services provided to all 

businesses are labor exchange services. These services—assisting 

businesses with finding job candidates who have the skills and 

characteristics to do a job well—always comprise the heart of 

business services. Typically they are packaged together and 

include recruiting, assessing and screening candidates. 

Innovative business 

Local Areas focus on 

improving and 

customizing basic 

services to more closely 

match individual 

business needs. 

Labor exchange 

services—assisting 

businesses with finding 

job candidates who have 

the skills and 

characteristics to do a 

job well—always 

comprise the heart of 

business services. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-10 

The first labor exchange services provided usually involve 

assisting businesses with posting a job description on statewide 

job matching systems. However, during the process of assisting 

employers with this posting, business services staff often notice 

problems with job descriptions. For example, job descriptions 

are often vague, offer salaries that are too low for the local labor 

market, or include illegal language. Consequently, staff end up 

assisting businesses with improving their job descriptions as well. 

For example, staff in Arapahoe-Douglas often used O-Net to help 

clarify the skills required for specific jobs. In Northwest 

Wisconsin, business services staff often developed entire job 

descriptions for small employers using a software program, 

charging $50 per description. 

Once the job description is posted, the next set of labor 

exchange services typically involves finding a job seeker that fits 

that description. To do that, Local Areas need to assess job 

seekers’ hard and soft skills and match them to suitable job 

descriptions. Often Local Areas use basic skills assessments such 

as the TABE and a review of resumes to do this. Job seekers are 

then approached to ensure they are still available and interested in 

the position. Although businesses sometimes request that Local 

Areas manually screen job seekers’ resumes based on defined 

skills, education, or experience, usually screening and matching 

occur through State-wide Employment Service job matching 

programs that match key words in job descriptions with key 

words in job seeker resumes. 

Unfortunately, both businesses and business services staff at 

nearly all innovative business Local Areas complained that these 

State-wide job matching systems did not work well for a number 

of reasons. To begin with, their matching software was limited 

and antiquated. In addition, staff said that job descriptions posted 

on these systems were often vague and did not accurately reflect 

the underlying job duties. Furthermore, the skills of job seekers 

were often inadequately assessed, in that the skills included on 

State-wide job matching 

systems often do not 

work well. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-11 

resumes were self-ascribed rather than based on objective 

assessment. Even if the results of objective assessments were 

included with job seeker profiles, those scores were typically not 

part of the matching process. Another problem with these 

systems was that they allowed job seekers to self-refer to 

employers, which often meant that job seekers had none of the 

required skills. Finally, systems sometimes referred job seekers 

to employers without checking whether job seekers were still 

interested in the position. 

Because of the central role of labor exchange services in 

business services, most innovative business sites have attempted 

to improve their labor exchange services. They realize that 

unless they can perform these services well, businesses will not 

return for additional services. To do this, Local Areas have 

either worked with their State’s Employment Service to improve 

the State-wide matching process and system, or they have 

purchased or created their own separate systems. Local Areas 

that have opted to work with their State’s Employment Service 

have either focused on improving the matching process itself or 

on strengthening post-matching screening. For example, the 

business services manager in Dallas has worked with the Texas 

Employment Service to improve the system’s matching process so 

that the 4,000 key words the system currently handles will be 

better suited to actual employer needs. In addition, the business 

services unit is working on developing information on 

occupational skill sets and job seeker characteristics that can be 

added to the system’s database and is trying to get the 

Employment Service to reduce or eliminate unsuppressed job 

orders which allow job seekers to self-refer. 

In other sites, local staff focus on providing additional 

screening as the best way to improve their State’s Employment 

Service matching system. For example, in Arapahoe-Douglas, 

results from the State’s automated matching process are first 

screened by Employment Service staff and then by the Local 

Most innovative business

sites have attempted to 

improve their labor 

exchange services either 

by working with their 

State’s Employment 

Service to improve the 

state-wide matching 

process or by 

purchasing or creating 

their own separate 

systems. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-12 

Area business services account representative before they are 

passed on to businesses. 

By contrast, 

several of the 

innovative business 

Local Areas 

determined that 

small improvements 

to their State’s 

Employment Service 

system would not be 

enough to improve 

performance and 

instead chose to 

develop or purchase 

their own separate 

job matching 

systems. These 

matching systems 

were designed to 

dramatically 

improve the 

matching process 

through careful 

analysis of both job 

requirements and job 

seeker 

characteristics. 

Pacific Mountain—

Grays Harbor, for example, decided to develop its own system, 

called the Employer Assistance Program WebMatch, from 

scratch. This system operates like a standard job matching 

system with descriptions of available jobs and information on 

local job seekers entered into the system and matched. However, 

Several Local Areas 

determined that small 

improvements to their 

State’s Employment 

Service system would 

not be enough to 

improve performance 

and instead chose to 

develop or purchase 

their own separate job 

matching systems. 

Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor’s Employer Assistance 

Program 

Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor’s Employer Assistance 

Program consists of a simple and straightforward three-step 

process. First, business services staff identify and recruit local 

businesses with current or future job openings. These businesses 

are then registered and entered in the program’s WebMatch 

database. During an initial meeting, a business services account 

representative meets with an interested business to assist in 

developing a job description that identifies the specific skills 

required for the position. The account representative also provides 

information on specific training, tax credits, and support services 

available to support workers hired through the program. 

Meanwhile, One-Stop case managers from the various One-Stop 

partners handle the recruitment of job seekers from the WIA adult 

and dislocated worker programs as well as the local TANF, 

Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service programs. 

These case managers complete a registration form for each 

interested job seeker and forward it to a business staff person who 

establishes the individual’s job readiness and registers the job 

seeker in the WebMatch database. 

Once a business is ready to hire, business services staff use 

the WebMatch database to match the employer's skill criteria with 

job seekers' skill levels. These matches are then referred to the 

employer who chooses whether or not to interview. If a job seeker 

is hired, the account representative calls the employer within 24 

hours of hire to check in and complete any on-the-job training or 

tax incentive paperwork. The account representative then continues 

to work with the employer to provide support for retention, and 

identify possible areas of concern or support services needed by the 

 l
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-13 

the system is different from standard matching programs in that it 

bases its matching process on more factors and so is believed to 

be more accurate. In addition, business services staff confirm job 

seeker availability before making a referral. 

 Instead of developing their own systems from scratch, 

several other Local Areas decided to purchase or adapt already 

existing matching systems created by national testing firms. 

These systems typically involve the most rigorous assessments of 

both jobs and job seekers and thus are purported to result in the 

most accurate matches. 

One example of this is 

the JobFit system 

developed by Profiles 

International and 

adapted and first used 

by Northwest 

Wisconsin and now 

Eastern Kentucky. 

Northwest Wisconsin 

staff said that they 

chose the Profiles 

International system 

over others because it 

emphasized matching 

soft skills in addition to 

hard skills and took 

less time to use. 

JobFit allows staff to 

develop a very detailed 

description of the skills 

and characteristics 

needed for a specific job. Job seekers are also assessed in a 

similarly rigorous manner and then matched with jobs. These 

matches are then passed on to employers. Other Local Areas, 

JobFit

JobFit’s matching process involves conducting two 

assessments and entering them into the system: a profile or 

“pattern” for the available job and a profile for available job 

seekers. To create a job pattern, the job’s supervisor fills out a 

questionnaire regarding duties and responsibilities and identifies 

two or three excellent workers currently in the position to serve as 

“subject matter experts.” Each of these workers then takes the 

JobFit assessment and their scores are averaged to create an ideal 

score for the position. This entire process takes about four and a 

half hours. Once a draft job pattern is developed, it is sent via the 

Internet to Profiles International staff who make sure the pattern is 

valid and then post it on the Internet-based system, enabling 

employers to search for matching job seekers. 

The other half of the process involves the creation of job 

seeker profiles. To do this, job seekers take the Internet-based 

JobFit assessment of their hard and soft skills and enter information 

on their work experience, education and other qualifications. These

job seeker profiles are matched against job patterns. The system 

then generates a list of matched job seekers and scores that indicate 

how closely they match the job patterns. The system also creates 

interview questions based on any gaps between job seekers 

assessments and job patterns as well as coaching reports on how to 

best mentor these employees. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-14 

such as Capital Area Michigan, are using WorkKeys in much the 

same manner. 

 One issue with these proprietary systems is that they are 

expensive to use. For example, employers using JobFit in 

Northwest Wisconsin pay $1500 per job description to Profiles 

International, the company that owns the system. So far, the 

other Local Areas are using grants to cover costs, but in the 

future they are likely to charge similar fees. 

Other Standard Services 

In addition to labor exchange services, Local Areas also 

offer a number of other standard services that typically include 

job fairs, rapid response, labor market information, distributing 

and collecting applications, workshops for employers, and 

information on tax credits, labor law, and how to start a business. 

Again, while these services are usually provided at both 

innovative business and comparison sites, basic services provided 

by the innovative business Local Areas tend to be highly 

customized to meet the specific needs of individual businesses. 

Job Fairs. Complementing the individual labor exchange 

services provided above, all Local Areas we visited organize job 

fairs. Typically these fairs occur once or twice a year at OneStop centers, businesses or other locations. These fairs are often 

large-scale events that attract numerous job seekers with widely 

varying skills and interests and a similarly diverse group of 

businesses, some of which have no open positions. Often, these 

job fairs are more effective as marketing events for the Local 

Area than as ways to find job seekers employment or meet the 

hiring needs of employers. Indeed, to maximize marketing of its 

job fairs, Capital Area Michigan share gate fees with local TV 

stations and newspapers who then have an incentive to market the 

fairs far more than the Local Area can afford to do by purchasing 

advertising. 

Although many of the 

innovative business 

Local Areas did offer 

standard job fairs, they 

also typically customized

or targeted them to 

better meet the needs of 

both employers and job 

seekers. 

Job match systems 

created by national 

testing firms involve the 

most rigorous 

assessments of both jobs 

and job seekers and thus 

are purported to result 

in the most accurate 

matches. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-15 

Although many of the innovative business Local Areas do 

offer these standard job fairs, they also typically customize or 

target them to better meet the needs of both employers and job 

seekers. For example, in Dallas, business services staff invite 

only businesses with actual job vacancies. In Arapahoe-Douglas, 

meanwhile, business services staff organize job fairs for 

individual employers who need to hire large numbers of job 

seekers at one time. For example, last fall they held a job fair for 

a local supermarket that attracted 1,000 job seekers. San Diego 

also organizes individual job fairs for employers, but invites only 

pre-screened job seekers with relevant skills. For example, the 

Local Area recently organized a job fair for Southwest Airlines, 

which was expanding its presence at the local airport. Capital 

Area Michigan, through its “Employer of the Day” program, 

allows a single employer to host an individual job fair in its OneStop center on a daily basis. 

Rapid Response/Outplacement Assistance. All Local 

Areas offer Rapid Response services to employers facing layoffs 

or closure. Typically, State or local office Employment Service 

staff take the lead in providing Rapid Response services, although 

WIA staff are also involved. These Rapid Response services 

usually involve an initial meeting between Rapid Response and 

Local Area staff—including business services staff—with the 

affected business. Two of the sites specifically mentioned that 

they focus their Rapid Response efforts on trying to minimize 

layoffs or on immediately connecting downsized workers with 

other employers. For example, in San Diego, when the local 

hospitality industry was heavily affected by the post-9-11 

downturn in tourism, local area staff helped hospitality workers 

keep their jobs, albeit with reduced hours, by helping to connect 

them with other, temporary part-time jobs. 

Labor Market Information. Another standard business 

service is providing employers with labor market information. 

This kind of information is usually available from State staff, 

San Diego, which has its

own labor market 

information staff has 

made the analysis and 

understanding of labor 

market information a 

centerpiece of its 

business services 

program. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-16 

some of whom are located at One-Stop centers, and from State 

Employment Service websites. 

Although some employers do ask for information on local 

salaries and local unemployment rates, labor market information 

requests are fairly uncommon. Local respondents explained that 

labor market information is seldom used because it often inexact 

and out-of-date. In addition, many employers and even business 

services staff do not seem to know how to use the information. 

Only one innovative business Local Area reports using 

labor market information 

extensively. San Diego, 

which has its own labor 

market information staff 

in its business services 

unit, has made the 

analysis and 

understanding of labor 

market information a 

centerpiece of its 

business services 

program. To do this, the 

Local Area provides 

training to One-Stop staff 

on how to understand and 

use labor market 

information with 

employers and publishes 

a monthly newsletter on 

labor market trends. 

Employer Workshops. Most Local Areas we visited 

provide employer trainings or workshops. These are typically 

one to two hour sessions targeted at human resource managers or 

small business owners, covering topics such as hiring, leadership, 

San Diego’s Labor Market Information Program 

Due to its emphasis on labor market information in planning 

and service delivery, San Diego has its own research unit that 

prepares labor market information reports. Situated as part of the 

Local Area’s centralized business services group, the research unit 

has four staff who prepare reports on labor market information and 

trends for both sectoral efforts (see Chapter III) and to assist frontline business services staff in working with employers. 

San Diego has worked very hard to make labor market 

information user-friendly, accessible and relevant. For example, 

when preparing reports, research staff typically check in with frontline staff to make sure that their research is consistent with day-today experience. In addition, once a report is prepared, research 

staff train front-line staff (business strategists and all One-Stop 

staff) in how to use and interpret it for business customers. The 

research unit also publishes a monthly newsletter on labor market 

data targeted at One-Stop staff and has made data more accessible 

on the Internet, with greatly improved search capability. For 

example, the labor market information on the Local Area’s web site 

was recently reorganized so that targeted information would be 

readily available to each type of user. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-17 

customer service, employee retention, supervision and teamwork. 

Typically, employer workshops are primarily viewed as a 

marketing tool to get businesses into One-Stop centers. In two of 

the sites, these workshops are conducted by professional business 

consultants who do not charge the One-Stops for conducting them 

in hopes of developing consulting contracts with businesses. In 

several sites, these workshops are co-sponsored by a local 

Chamber of Commerce or a One-Stop partner such as Vocational 

Rehabilitation. Northwest Wisconsin also organizes monthly 

groups for human resource professionals at its One-Stop centers 

that provide opportunities for networking and discussions about 

human resources issues. 

Many One-Stop centers charge fees for these workshops. 

For example, in San Diego, the local area organizes “Leadership 

Seminar” breakfasts for small businesses, charging $20 a session. 

They decided to charge a modest fee for these seminars because 

they felt businesses would not value them otherwise. 

Information Requests. Providing information to businesses 

regarding tax credit programs, labor law or Unemployment 

Insurance is also very common in all the sites we visited. These 

information requests are typically referred to State offices that 

specialize in handling these issues, although occasionally local 

Employment Service staff are able to answer them. 

Most Local Areas also provide employers with information 

on the Federal Bonding Program, which allows employers to 

purchase fidelity bonds to indemnify themselves for loss of 

money or property sustained through the dishonest acts of their 

employees. Others, particularly those with strong partnerships 

with Vocational Rehabilitation programs, provide employers with 

information on the reasonable accommodation requirements of the 

Americans with Disabilities Act. 

Interviewing Facilities. Most sites allow employers to use 

One-Stop facilities for interviewing, occasionally even scheduling 

Typically, employer 

workshops are primarily 

viewed as a marketing 

tool to get businesses 

into One-Stop centers. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-18 

the interviews. Often, One-Stops also allow businesses to use 

these conference rooms for other purposes such as meetings and 

training workshops. In Lower Rio Grande, Texas, employers can 

use a room in the business center for up to 45 days. Usually, 

spaces used by employers are regular One-Stop conference 

rooms. While the San Diego Metro One-Stop center charges for 

this service, no other Local Areas or One-Stop centers we visited 

do so. Typically, employers who use One-Stop centers for 

interviewing lack space to do it in their own offices or are 

opening a new facility. 

Collecting or Distributing Job Applications. Another 

common standard service provided by business services programs 

is giving out or collecting job applications. Employers typically 

request this service to prevent job-seekers from disrupting their 

own staff by asking for and returning applications. Sometimes, 

employers also reserve rooms in One-Stop centers to have 

employees fill out applications. 

Less Common Business Services 

In addition to these standard business services, a few sites—

mostly innovative business Local Areas—provide other less 

common services such as customized skill assessments, 

background or credential checks, follow-up and retention 

services, on-site job analysis and specialized human resource 

services. Many of these services are available only on a fee for 

service basis. 

Customized Skill Assessments. Although most Local 

Areas offer numerous occupational and basic skills assessments 

for job seekers, few provide customized skill assessments of job 

seekers for businesses. If these are provided, they were usually 

assessments of office and computer skills, typically using licensed 

software. For more extensive assessments, One-Stop staff 

typically connect employers with local community colleges who 

can provide those services. 

A few sites—mostly 

innovative business 

Local Areas—provide 

other less common 

services such as 

customized skill 

assessments, 

background or 

credential checks, 

follow-up and retention 

services, on-site job 

analysis and specialized 

human resource 

services. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-19 

In Eastern Kentucky, the Local Area has developed an 

additional means of ensuring that job seeker skills are adequately 

assessed and pre-screened. They use what they call Employer 

Specific Orientation Screening. This basically consists of a weeklong workshop on work-readiness skills and basic skills testing 

customized to meet employer needs. Businesses planning to hire 

specific job seekers can select from 20 possible topics for Local 

Area staff to cover with those job seekers. 

Background Checks and Credential or Immigration 

Status Verification. Another less common service is conducting 

reference checks and verifying credentials. Only three innovative 

business and one comparison site mentioned providing these 

services. 

Two of the comparison sites that serve large numbers of 

migrant farmworkers noted that they offer “I-9” immigration 

services that provide employers with evidence of applicant’s legal 

right to work in the United States. These services are very 

important for local farmers who do not want to risk a fine from 

the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services for hiring 

workers who lack this paperwork. 

Follow-up and Retention Services. A few innovative 

business Local Areas offer retention services to employers. For 

example, in Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor, a critical part of 

the Employer Assistance Program involves providing single point 

of contact retention assistance to employers. When any issues 

surface, the business services account representative 

communicates with the job seeker’s case manager regarding those 

issues and the case manager works with the job seeker to solve 

them. 

Local respondents noted that follow-up and retention 

services are particularly important for working effectively with 

employers who hire job seekers with significant barriers. Indeed, 

they said that businesses are resistant to hiring these job seekers 

Local respondents noted 

that follow-up and 

retention services are 

particularly important 

for working effectively 

with employers who hire 

job seekers with 

significant barriers. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-20 

unless they know they will have support from One-Stop staff in 

working out retention issues. For example, staff in North Central 

Wisconsin who work with limited-English proficient job seekers 

said that employers are willing to hire their job seekers only 

because they know One-Stop staff are available to assist with any 

language or culture-related conflicts. 

On-Site Job Analysis. One unique service provided by 

Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor is on-site job analysis. These 

analyses are used by employers to train new workers on the 

duties required by a position. The process of developing an 

analysis starts with a 10-15 minute interview by business services 

staff with the position’s supervisor about the job’s educational 

and skill requirements and main duties. Next, the business 

services staff person observes an employee currently doing the 

job for an entire shift. Finally, the business staff person prepares 

an analysis of the skills and duties of the job for the employer. 

The on-site job analysis process was developed by a human 

resources consulting firm whose chief operating officer was on 

the WIB. Staff from the consulting firm trained business services 

staff on how to do the analysis. Currently this service is being 

provided free of charge as the Local Area has a grant to cover the 

cost. However, when the grant runs out, the Local Area may no 

longer be able to provide the service. 

Specialized Human Resources Services. One innovative 

business site offers a series of specialized human resource 

services specifically targeted to small businesses with limited or 

no human resource staff or experience. Each of these services is 

provided by business services staff with the help of licensed 

software. The Local Area charges a fairly nominal fee for each 

service to cover the costs of materials and use of the technology. 

These services include developing organizational charts, ($50-

$100), employee policy handbooks ($100-$500), and employee 

performance review systems (sliding scale based on number of 

One innovative business 

site offers a series of 

specialized human 

resource services 

specifically targeted to 

small businesses with 

limited or no human 

resource staff or 

experience. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-21 

employees). The Local Area also offers a gap analysis to help 

businesses assess their human resource challenges and develop 

customized solutions. Because conducting a gap analysis is very 

labor-intensive, the Local Area charges businesses based on an 

estimate of the number of hours needed. The Local Area has so 

far conducted few gap analyses due to both their complexity and 

the fact that few business services staff are trained to conduct 

them, but it is looking at ways to make them easier to carry out. 

Training Services 

Although nearly all sites provide some on-the-job-training, 

it is used frequently in only two sites, Eastern Kentucky and 

Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor. However, even in Pacific 

Mountain—Grays Harbor, some employers discussed their unease 

with using on-the-job-training as they felt it seems like a kind of 

“bribe” for businesses to take “defective” workers. In Northwest 

Wisconsin, business services staff said that it was still very 

important to have on-the-job-training as an option in a rural area 

where many businesses do not have the resources to train 

workers. 

Although most Local Areas offer customized training, few 

provide very much of it. Typically, the WIA administrative 

agency for the Local Area serves as a broker between businesses 

and training providers, such as community colleges, who actually 

develop and provide training programs. WIA adult and 

dislocated worker formula funds are also sometimes used to help 

pay for customized training. 

Most local areas also said they provide very little incumbent 

worker training, despite strong employer demand. Indeed, one 

Local Area said that incumbent worker training should be the 

heart of employer services because it provides businesses with 

something they really value—services for their current 

workforce—and helps to substantially deepen their relationship 

with the public workforce development system. However, even 

Typically, the WIA 

administrative agency 

for the Local Area 

serves as a broker 

between businesses and 

training providers, such 

as community colleges, 

who actually develop 

and provide training 

programs. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-22 

if Local Areas are able to fund or provide incumbent worker 

training, most said they use governor’s set-aside funds or other 

State funding rather than local WIA formula funds. They noted 

that the twin restrictions of only being able to provide training 

services to employed workers who need them “to retain 

employment that allows for self-sufficiency1” and needing to have 

those workers meet the WIA earnings change performance 

measure makes it very difficult and unwise for them to use WIA 

formula funds on a large scale for incumbent workers. Indeed, 

nearly all Local Areas we visited voiced concern about the 

earnings change measure and thought it should be adjusted to 

reflect the reality that incumbent workers cannot be expected to 

experience earnings gains as large as unemployed workers. They 

are also supportive of the WIA reauthorization proposal that will 

allow Local Areas to spend 10% of their formula funds 

specifically on incumbent worker training. 

Packaged Business Services 

While most of the Local Areas we visited offer individual 

business services, Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor’s packages all 

of their recruitment and matching services into a single process 

they call the Employer Assistance Program (see box above). 

Two other sites, Capital Area Michigan and Northwest Wisconsin 

are also considering packaging all of their recruitment and hiring 

services. Capital Area Michigan is also considering charging a 

single fee for those services similar to that charged by private 

staffing firms, although the Local Area’s executive director is 

concerned that for-profit staffing firms will be unhappy with such 

direct competition. 

HOW BUSINESS SERVICES ARE PROVIDED

Providing effective business services involves a number of 

related activities that must be carried out successfully. These 

 

1 WIA section 134(1)(3)(A)(ii). 

One Local Area said 

that incumbent worker 

training should be the 

heart of employer 

services because it 

provides businesses with 

something they really 

value—services for their 

current workforce—and 

helps to substantially 

deepen their relationship

with the public 

workforce development 

system. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-23 

activities include coordinating service delivery among One-Stop 

partners, setting up organizational structures to staff and deliver 

services, selecting and training staff, determining how businesses 

will access services, and funding, marketing, tracking and 

evaluating services. Each of these activities is examined in detail 

in the following section. 

Coordination Among Partners Providing 

Business Services 

Because more than a single One-Stop partner typically 

provides business services, coordination between different 

programs is critical to the success of business services. Without 

good coordination, programs risk alienating employers by having 

staff from multiple programs contact them to provide the same 

services. In addition, poor quality services provided by one 

partner are likely to damage the reputation of all One-Stop 

partners because employers do not understand the difference 

between programs. 

In many Local Areas, although business services are 

provided out of One-Stop centers, business services staff from 

different One-Stop partners are not integrated and coordination is 

often described as a challenge. Consequently, coordination 

between the main providers of business services—WIA and the 

Employment Service—varies greatly from one Local Area or 

One-Stop center to another. However, some of the innovative 

business sites have surmounted this challenge more successfully 

than others. For example, one innovative business site enjoys 

excellent collaboration between local WIA and Employment 

Service managers who have even agreed to co-fund some 

business services positions. By contrast, line staff in several 

One-Stops in the same Local Area do not work well together, and 

WIA staff criticize their better-paid Employment Service 

colleagues for their lack of responsiveness and bureaucratic 

manner. 

Because more than a 

single One-Stop partner 

typically provides 

business services, 

coordination between 

different programs is 

critical to the success of 

business services. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-24 

Services are more likely to be better integrated where staff 

are co-located and Employment Service funding or staffing is 

controlled by Local Areas, such as in Arapahoe-Douglas, Capital 

Area Michigan or Dallas. In all three of these innovative sites, 

business services are provided in a very integrated manner, with 

staff from WIA and the Employment Service co-located together 

and each having clear-cut roles. For example, in Capital Area 

Michigan, nearly all business services are provided with WagnerPeyser funds. By contrast, Employment Service staff in Dallas 

only work with job seekers while WIA staff work with 

businesses. 

However, even in those Local Areas, services provided by 

the Employment Service State wide or in other regions sometimes 

cause problems for local business services programs. A common 

conflict is over problems related to the Employment Service’s 

statewide job matching system. For example, in ArapahoeDouglas, even though Employment Service staff work under the 

direction of the One-Stop manager and there is good collaboration 

with the regional Employment Service manager, a few poor 

referrals from Employment Service offices in other regions 

negatively affected the Local Area’s business customer 

satisfaction outcomes. As a result, the Local Area realized it 

needed to work with the Employment Service on a statewide basis 

to improve the State’s electronic job matching system. 

As described earlier, problems with Employment Service 

job matching systems have spurred several innovative Local 

Areas to use proprietary job matching systems or create their 

own. In one of these Local Areas, where there was already 

conflict between WIA and the Employment Service staff, this use 

of an alternative job matching system has created additional 

conflict between the two programs. However, other Local Areas 

asserted that prioritizing use of an alternative job matching 

system has not created any conflict. 

Services are more likely 

to be better integrated 

where staff are colocated and Employment 

Service funding or 

staffing is controlled by 

Local Areas, such as in 

Arapahoe-Douglas, 

Capital Area Michigan 

or Dallas. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-25 

Statewide Employment Service policies that are at odds 

with local business services efforts are another source of conflict 

between Employment Service and WIA staff. For example, in 

one of the innovative business sites, although local Employment 

Service staff fully collaborate with One-Stop staff to focus on 

businesses that offer higher wages to help meet the Local Area’s 

earnings goals, on a Statewide basis, the Employment Service 

continues to be willing to accept all job orders, even those that 

pay only minimum wage. This difference sometimes continues to 

create discord between WIA staff and the Employment Service. 

Occasionally other partners are also involved in providing 

business services. For example, in Northwest Wisconsin, the 

success of the Local Area’s business services program has 

attracted the interest of the local Vocational Rehabilitation 

program manager who has agreed to co-fund a business services 

staff person with the WIA program. This co-funded staff person 

has helped the local Vocational Rehabilitation program move 

toward developing a closer connection with businesses and away 

from “bribing” employers for taking job seekers perceived as 

unqualified. In addition, community or technical college partners 

typically work with WIA programs to provide customized 

training programs for employers. Often, as described above, the 

WIA administrative entity helps to facilitate training agreements 

between businesses and colleges or provides a portion of the 

funding required to offer a training program. 

Organizational Structures for Providing 

Business Services 

To implement their WIA-funded business services 

programs, Local Areas use several different organizational 

models. One model involves having basically all business 

services provided by WIA contractors or One-Stop operators. 

For example, some sites, such as Southwest Connecticut and 

Arapahoe-Douglas include business services together with other 

contracted WIA or One-Stop operator duties. 

Some sites, such as 

Southwest Connecticut 

and Arapahoe-Douglas 

include business services

together with other 

contracted WIA or OneStop operator duties. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-26 

Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor uses an alternative model 

by selecting different specialized business services contractors for 

each county, choosing only entities with a deep history of 

working with businesses—local Chambers of Commerce and 

economic development agencies. The Local Area selects these 

types of contractors because of the instant credibility with 

businesses the contractors give their program. They also feel that 

this approach ensures that contractors will focus on business as 

the primary customer. 

In Northwest Wisconsin, which is a Concentrated 

Employment Program, all WIA-funded business services are 

provided directly by the WIA administrative entity. 

Several Local Areas including San Diego, Chicago and 

Portland Worksystems use a dual structure model with both a 

centralized business services unit operated directly by the WIA 

administrative entity out of its administrative offices and 

independent business services units located at each One-Stop 

center operated by individual One-Stop operators or WIA 

contractors. Under this model, centralized business services units 

tend to focus on working with large businesses that operate 

throughout the Local Area. These centralized units are also often 

involved in developing new business contacts or using labor 

market information to work with specific industries or industry 

clusters. 

 Eastern Kentucky has a slightly different version of this 

model, with only a single Business Services Manager employed 

directly by the WIA administrative entity and working out of the 

Local Area’s administrative offices and business service staff 

employed by contractors at One-Stop centers. The Business 

Services Manager does not directly provide services, but conducts 

extensive outreach for the Local Area’s JobFit program and then 

passes those contacts on to One-Stop business services staff. 

Several Local Areas use 

a dual structure model 

with both a centralized 

business services unit 

operated directly by the 

WIA administrative 

entity and independent 

business services units 

located at each OneStop center. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-27 

In a number of innovative business sites, WIB staff, 

particularly executive directors, also sometimes work directly 

with high-level businesses, developing relationships and 

facilitating the delivery of services,2 particularly customized 

training. This high-level interaction with businesses is much 

more likely in Local Areas with strong, charismatic staff 

leadership. 

Having staff from both the WIA administrative entity and 

One-Stop centers work with business customers makes for a more 

complicated service delivery structure and may lead to 

coordination problems between the different units. In addition, 

this structure may diminish the ability of staff to develop deep 

relationships with businesses as staff hand off business contacts to 

a different unit. However, none of the Local Areas we visited 

reported having any coordination problems related to this issue, 

although one noted that it is still fine-tuning the coordination 

process. 

One final model is utilized by Capital Area Michigan, 

which has direct control over Wagner-Peyser funds. For the 

Local Area’s comprehensive One-Stop center, the Wagner-Peyser 

contractor has the responsibility to provide nearly all business 

services while WIA contractors seldom work with businesses. 

For the two smaller One-Stop centers, the Local Area contracts 

with a single provider to provide both WIA and Employment 

Service activities. Typically these contractors primarily use 

Wagner-Peyser funds to provide business services. 

Staffing of Business Services 

In addition to using the account representative system 

described above, most innovative business Local Areas have 

dedicated business services staff who provide services only to 

 

2 Although these staff never directly provide services themselves. 

Most innovative business

Local Areas have 

dedicated business 

services staff who 

provide services only to 

businesses. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-28 

businesses. This practice ensures that staff do not have trouble 

juggling their responsibilities for serving job seekers and 

businesses and is important because, often when staff have to 

serve both groups of customers, businesses lose out. For 

example, in one large One-Stop center without dedicated business 

services staff, a business staff person described how this conflict 

typically means she neglects doing outreach to businesses in favor 

of working with job seekers who come in to the One-Stop center. 

In addition, because she is overwhelmed with serving job seekers, 

she also finds it impossible to be the single point-of-contact for 

businesses, which sometimes results in employers being contacted 

by more than one staff person. 

Selection and Training of Business 

Services Staff 

As noted above, respondents from several innovative 

business Local Areas said that business services staff have to be 

responsive and have a “whatever it takes” attitude. Because these 

qualities are hard to instill through training, several of the 

innovative business sites focus less on providing staff with 

extensive training, and more on hiring staff who already have 

private-sector experience, preferably in the human resources 

field. 

Northwest Wisconsin, by contrast, has made a conscious 

decision to provide business services with existing staff, many of 

whom have previously spent many years providing job seeker 

services. To do this successfully, the Local Area invested 

significantly in software and technology so that staff could rely on 

it while they were gaining experience in working with businesses. 

This need to rely on technology is one of the reasons Northwest 

Wisconsin opted to use the JobFit system, which currently serves 

as the foundation for the Local Area’s business services. In 

addition, the Local Area purchased software to assist staff with 

providing most other types of business services. Staff were also 

provided with group and one-on-one training on how to use the 

Business Local Areas 

said that business 

services staff have to be 

responsive and have a 

“whatever it takes” 

attitude. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-29 

technology. According to Local Area staff, the “surrogate 

professionalism” provided by the software was critical to 

supporting business services front-line staff in their rapid 

transition from serving job seekers to serving businesses because 

staff could feel confident in the technology even while they were 

still somewhat unsure of their own skills. The Local Area is also 

in the process of developing a web-based self-paced curriculum 

on human resources issues and skills to help staff strengthen and 

maintain their skills. 

This Local Area, and many others, also encourage business 

services staff to participate in local Chamber of Commerce and 

industry association activities to become better connected with the 

business world. Staff in some Local Areas also take part in 

workshops on sales and marketing techniques and customer 

service. 

Access to Business Services 

Most contact with businesses is over the phone. In 

addition, business services staff also commonly interact with 

business customers via e-mail or through in-person meetings, 

typically at the customer’s place of business. Relatively few 

business services are available on-line, and many of these are 

services provided through State web pages. For example, the 

most common business service Local Areas made available on the 

Internet is access to the State Employment Service’s electronic 

job matching system. Labor market information and information 

on tax credits are also commonly available on-line from State web 

pages. Business services staff from several Local Areas 

explained the lack of on-line services as due to the importance of 

building relationships with businesses. Generally, business 

services staff want more opportunities to interact personally with 

businesses. In addition, staff said that businesses typically want 

customized services and one-on-one assistance, which is difficult 

to provide on-line. 

Most contact with 

businesses is over the 

phone. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-30 

Location of Business Services 

Typically business services are provided out of One-Stop 

Centers. Only one of the 18 Local Areas we visited—and none of 

the innovative business sites—has a stand-alone business center. 

Indeed, only two other sites have even designated business spaces 

in their One-Stop centers. Lower Rio Grande created its business 

center because staff wanted to develop a professional space where 

businesses would feel comfortable and could receive individual 

attention. Since opening the facility in 2002, the Local Area has 

seen a large increase in both business use of services and 

customer satisfaction, both of which can be attributed at least 

partly to the center. 

By contrast, most other Local Areas feel that it is very 

important for job-seeker and business services programs to be 

integrated. For example, Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor 

actually moved its business services program back into the Grays 

Harbor One-Stop center to improve coordination between job 

seeker and business services. Other Local Area staff also said 

that they do not want to physically separate business and job 

seeker services because they feel that would diminish 

communication between staff which they felt is very important to 

program quality. 

Indeed, the close proximity of the two programs sometimes 

causes an important spillover effect from business services to job 

seeker services. For example, some Local Area staff reported 

that job-seeker staff have become more careful in assessing job 

seeker soft skills once they realized the importance of these skills 

to businesses. In addition, Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor now 

provides more work readiness workshops than any other OneStop center in the State because of business customer feedback 

via business services staff. 

Another reason why almost no Local Areas have a standalone business center is that staff do not think it is worth 

Only one of the 18 Local

Areas we visited—and 

none of the innovative 

business sites has a 

stand alone business 

center. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-31 

investing significant funds in such an endeavor when businesses 

typically access services over the phone. Although every Local 

Area we visited said that employers sometimes come in to OneStop centers, the most common way businesses access services, 

as noted above, is over the phone, via e-mail or through visits 

from business staff. In addition, many innovative business Local 

Areas have invested significant resources into creating 

professional, business-oriented One-Stop centers, which, 

respondents assert, businesses are very comfortable using. 

Furthermore, they felt that having businesses present in One-Stop 

centers is important because it creates a more professional, 

business-oriented environment for job seekers. 

Funding of Business Services 

Most funding for business services—primarily used to pay 

for staff—comes from either WIA or Wagner-Peyser sources. 

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding is also 

sometimes used. Because this funding is not separated from job 

seeker services, few Local Areas could determine exactly how 

much of their funding is spent on business services. Only Pacific 

Mountain—Grays Harbor, which contracts out for business 

services with WIA administrative funds, could provide a clear 

budget for business services.3 

Nearly all innovative business Local Areas complained that 

they lack sufficient funding to meet the demand for business 

services. For example, Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor, despite 

its innovative Business Assistance program, is facing the loss of 

one of two business services staff, unless the Local Area can find 

additional funding. Indeed, several sites said that they try not to 

do too much marketing because they are afraid their current staff 

cannot serve many more businesses effectively. 

 

3 In PY 2003, Pacific Mountain spent $343,000 on its Employer 

Assistance Program out of a WIA total allocation of $5.3 million. 

Most funding for 

business services—

primarily used to pay for

staff—comes from either 

WIA or Wagner-Peyser 

sources. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-32 

Several sites also talked about the need for a stream of WIA 

funding to be set aside specifically for business services so that 

programs do not have to take funding away from job seeker 

services. Two Local Areas emphasized that since most business 

services programs are new, there is also a need for a pool of 

flexible seed money to allow local staff to develop innovative new 

programs. For example, Northwest Wisconsin reported that it 

spent nearly one million dollars on developing the JobFit system 

with Profiles International and on purchasing other business 

services software. San Diego estimates that it spends about $1.6 

million of its $48 million dollar budget annually on labor market 

information research, dissemination of that research, and its 

industry cluster initiatives. 

Despite the fact that fee-for-service business services are 

specifically mentioned in the WIA legislation, only five of 18 

Local Areas (three innovative business and two comparison Local 

Areas) reported charging fees other than the cost-sharing for onthe-job or customized training mandated by law. Two other 

innovative business Local Areas said they are considering 

charging fees for business services, primarily as a way to 

generate revenue to provide those services. The fees charged 

tend to be fairly nominal and are charged only for specific 

services. For example, the Metro One-Stop center in San Diego 

charges businesses $300 per day for use of its training room. It 

also earns 20 percent of the consulting fee charged by consultants 

when it brokers a consulting engagement. Northwest Wisconsin 

charged $50 for development of a job description, $30 for 

employer seminars, $50-$100 for the development of 

organizational charts, $100-$500 for development of 

organizational policy handbooks, and $1,500 to prepare a JobFit 

job pattern. 

Of the five Local Areas currently charging fees, none said 

they are generating more than a few thousand dollars in revenue, 

although two of them said they plan to substantially increase that 

Only five of 18 Local 

Areas reported charging 

fees other than the costsharing for on-the-job or

customized training 

mandated by law. 

Of the five Local Areas 

currently charging fees, 

none said they are 

generating more than a 

few thousand dollars in 

revenue. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-33 

amount over the next few years as way to stabilize their overall 

workforce development funding. Indeed, one Local Area 

executive director asserted that revenue generated from fees could 

eventually make business services programs self-sustaining. 

However, business services staff in the same Local Area argued 

that it was important to keep fees low to ensure that all 

businesses, particularly small firms who most need assistance, 

can afford services, since the Local Area’s goal is to strengthen 

local businesses, not just generate revenue from them. Another 

Local Area executive director also said he was wary of charging 

fees that were too high, not because businesses were not willing 

to pay them, but because for-profit staffing firms were likely to 

see this as direct competition. 

Typically, business services programs gave several reasons 

for why they do not charge fees for business services. The first 

reason is that they are still trying to build credibility with 

business customers and are afraid that businesses would be even 

less likely to use their services if they had to pay for them. In 

addition, fee-based services have to be deeper and more 

substantial than their free business services, and they have yet to 

perfect these services. Some Local Area staff also feel very 

strongly that businesses should not be asked to pay for services 

that they have already paid for with their taxes. 

Marketing of Business Services 

Because of the relatively small number of businesses that 

have heard of public workforce development services, a majority 

of innovative business Local Areas emphasize marketing. In fact, 

four of the nine sites have full-time marketing or communications 

directors, and several Local Area executive directors reported 

spending a significant amount of time and budget on marketing. 

For example, the executive director of Capital Area Michigan 

said that he spends about 25 percent of his time and about 

$350,000 a year on marketing. These Local Areas see increasing 

Because of the relatively 

small number of 

businesses that have 

heard of public 

workforce development 

services, a majority of 

innovative business 

Local Areas emphasize 

marketing. 

Nearly every Local Area 

noted that word-ofmouth is the most 

effective form of 

marketing. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-34 

name recognition as crucial to the success of business services 

programs. 

Nearly every Local Area noted that word-of-mouth is the 

most effective form of marketing. Typically, this type of 

marketing occurs when a business that is satisfied with the 

services it has received tells another business about its positive 

experience. To increase opportunities for word-of-mouth 

marketing, a number of Local Areas ask satisfied business 

customers to talk about their experiences in front of various 

groups of businesses or at networking functions. They also use 

testimonials from such customers on their marketing materials 

and in DVDs. 

In addition to word-of-mouth, some of the most common 

and effective marketing methods involve direct people-to-people 

contact through phone calls, meetings, networking or 

presentations. One common direct approach is to conduct 

outreach to new businesses, usually through cold calls, visits, or 

a combination of the two.4 For example, Northwest Wisconsin 

staff purchase commercial directories of all businesses in their 

counties and try to call and set up appointments with as many 

businesses as possible. Coastal Counties, Maine also has a 

program to visit new businesses called the “Business Visitation 

Program.” This program involves staff visiting as many 

businesses as possible in a certain area and conducting a survey 

of their needs. In Lower Rio Grande, Texas, business services 

staff have a practice of calling all businesses who have established 

new Unemployment Insurance tax accounts to market business 

services. 

 

4 Innovative business sites reported contacting anywhere from 110 to 

900 businesses a month, with individual staff interacting with 20 to 100 

businesses a week. While many of these businesses represented repeat 

customers, a substantial number were new contacts. 

Some of the other most 

common and effective 

marketing methods 

involve direct people-topeople contact through 

phone calls, meetings, 

networking or 

presentations. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-35 

Another common direct approach is to market business 

services through making presentations to business and economic 

development groups such as local Chambers of Commerce, 

industry groups, or economic development agencies. In fact, as 

mentioned above, one of the most useful aspects of Local Areas’ 

partnerships with Chambers of Commerce is the access to 

businesses—particularly small businesses—that these partnerships 

provide. Many Local Area staff said they try to attend most local 

business association functions to conduct informal marketing, but 

also make regular formal presentations, sponsor booths at trade 

fairs and conferences, and attempt to have information about 

services included in Chamber newsletters or other publications. 

Business services staff also make presentations to economic 

development agencies that pass the information on to their 

business clients. 

Holding workshops aimed at employers is another very 

common direct marketing technique. Although these workshops 

are also considered a type of business service, a majority of Local 

Areas use employer workshops as an explicit marketing technique 

designed to bring businesses into One-Stop centers where they 

can learn about available services and meet business services 

staff. Some Local Areas, such as Northwest Wisconsin, also cosponsor regular business conferences and use them as 

opportunities to market their services. 

Because direct people-to-people marketing approaches are 

extremely staff-intensive, most of the innovative business sites 

also market business services through the media. These Local 

Areas typically use a mix of commercial radio, print, TV and 

billboard advertisements as well as public service announcements. 

Most of these sites also try to cultivate close relations with the 

local media, sending out regular press releases and invitations to 

Local Area events, such as customer awards dinners and OneStop center activities. For example, Eastern Kentucky held a 

One-Stop Awareness Day, which featured live radio coverage at a 

A majority of Local 

Areas use employer 

workshops as an explicit 

marketing technique 

designed to bring 

businesses into One-Stop

centers where they can 

learn about available 

services and meet 

business services staff. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-36 

One-Stop center. In Capital Area Michigan, the Local Area 

executive director specifically recruited the heads of the local 

newspaper and two TV stations for his WIB to strengthen the 

Local Area’s connection to the media. He also writes a regular 

column for the local business journal and does regular TV 

commentaries on workforce issues. 

An important part of all of these marketing programs is the 

creation of marketing materials. These materials typically 

include brochures, packets, and flyers. In addition, several Local 

Areas have created CD ROMs, videos, and DVDs. Every Local 

Area we visited also has a website that contains at least some 

basic information on available business services. Several also 

regularly distribute marketing toys such as pens, pencils and 

calculators emblazoned with their names and logos. Some Local 

Areas also distribute a regular newsletter to all business 

customers while others mass mailed newsletters or brochures to 

all businesses in the region. While most marketing materials 

contain a listing of all available business services, these services 

are typically organized around major business needs such as 

recruitment, hiring and training. 

One critical issue raised by some of the innovative business 

sites is the importance of branding to a successful marketing 

campaign. For example, one of the first actions of Capital Area 

Michigan’s executive director was to create a “brand” for the 

Local Area. He did this by shortening the Local Area’s name to 

Capital Area, adding the brand name for Michigan’s One-Stop 

system (Michigan Works), and creating a new logo. Then he 

made sure that everything and everyone associated with the Local 

Area, including all co-located partners, used this brand. He 

noted that this branding process has helped the Local Area to 

have very high name recognition among local businesses, and he 

argued that the U.S. Department of Labor should assist States and 

Local Areas to create a national brand for all One-Stop centers 

around the country to improve national name recognition. 

One critical issue raised 

by some of the 

innovative business sites 

is the importance of 

branding to a successful 

marketing campaign. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-37 

These practices notwithstanding, Local Areas face a 

number of challenges in developing successful marketing 

campaigns. One marketing challenge stems from the high cost of 

many of these marketing techniques, which diverts resources 

away from direct service delivery. Another challenge is related 

to the difficulty in explaining the services and activities of the 

workforce development system within the confines of an 

expensive media marketing campaign. And finally, several sites 

noted that it was crucial for them to market only what they knew 

they could do well and not over-promise. They said that if 

business services programs fail to deliver on what they promise, 

they will damage their reputations and seriously diminish the 

word-of-mouth marketing that is the key to a successful 

marketing program. 

Tracking and Evaluating Business Services 

Tracking and evaluating business services are important 

ways innovative business sites ensure high-quality, wellcoordinated services. First, most Local Areas have a system for 

tracking business contacts and services to prevent duplication of 

efforts. Typically, however, these databases are not shared with 

partners, with the result that businesses are sometimes contacted 

by multiple partners. To deal with this problem, several sites 

reported that they are planning to use either a State wide 

management information system to share business contacts among 

partners or develop their own system. 

In addition to tracking services and contacts, all nine 

innovative business sites evaluate the quality of their services and 

how well they are meeting business needs. The most common 

method is to continually ask for informal and immediate feedback 

from business customers, which business services staff said is 

particularly useful in adjusting and improving business services. 

They also regularly communicate with local Chamber of 

Commerce and economic development partners about business 

needs. 

Several sites noted that 

it was crucial for them 

to market only what they 

knew they could do well 

and not over-promise. 

Tracking and evaluating 

business services are 

important ways 

innovative business sites 

ensure high-quality, 

well-coordinated 

services. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-38 

On top of this informal feedback, most innovative business 

Local Areas also conduct more formal assessments of their 

business services programs. Typically these assessments involve 

short customer satisfaction surveys of all business customers 

following receipt of services. For example, Northwest Wisconsin 

mails a survey to businesses immediately following the first 

meeting with business services staff and San Diego conducts an 

annual phone survey of all business services customers. In 

addition to surveys, a few Local Areas also assess their programs 

through mystery shopper programs and quarterly interviews with 

all business services customers. Southwest Connecticut carries 

out an annual community audit that includes focus groups with 

businesses. 

These surveys and assessments are all conducted in addition 

to the mandatory WIA business customer satisfaction survey. 

Local Area staff said that they carry out their own efforts because 

the WIA survey does not provide them with the information they 

need to make program improvements. In addition, staff said that 

the WIA survey is so general that businesses often do not know 

which services they are supposed to be assessing. In fact, 

although a number of respondents support having WIA 

performance measures directly related to business services, 

almost no respondents are concerned about the proposed 

elimination of the business customer satisfaction measure. One 

Local Area staff person went as far as to call the WIA measure 

“a waste of money,” because it provides so little useful 

information. Furthermore, because of the importance of the 

information collected through their own customer satisfaction 

programs, all innovative business Local Areas are planning to 

continue with their own efforts no matter what occurs with WIA 

reauthorization. 

One Local Area staff 

person went as far as to 

call the WIA employer 

customer satisfaction 

measure “a waste of 

money,” because it 

provides so little useful 

information. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-39 

IMPACT OF BUSINESSES SERVICES

Business services programs in the nine innovative Local 

Areas we visited have had a strong impact on local businesses, 

job seeker programs and on local WIA performance. 

Impact on Businesses 

 Some business customers reported that One-Stop business 

services have substantially reduced both employee turnover and 

the amount of time their staff spend on hiring. For example, in 

Eastern Kentucky, one business reported a 35 percent decrease in 

the time its staff spent on hiring after it started making use of the 

Local Area’s electronic job matching program. Small business 

respondents, particularly those that lack their own human 

resource departments, also said they found many of the services 

very useful. 

Effect of Business Services on Job Seeker 

Programs 

In general Local Area staff do not see a conflict between 

providing services to businesses and serving job seekers. There 

were several reasons for this. First, several programs noted that 

by working more closely with businesses, workforce programs 

develop more and better job placements, thus easing the burden 

on job developers and job-seeker retention staff. Second, 

respondents also said that if their programs do a good job with 

preparing job seekers for employment and assessing their skills, 

they can effectively meet employer skill needs, despite job seeker 

barriers. Conversely, referring job seekers who are not job ready 

or lack appropriate skills is viewed as detrimental to both 

employers and job seekers alike because it sets the job seeker up 

for failure and costs businesses money through increased 

turnover. Instead, Local staff said that the more barriers job 

seekers face, the better prepared job seekers need to be and the 

closer the relationship staff need to have with employers. 

Referring job seekers 

who are not job ready 

or lack appropriate 

skills is viewed as 

detrimental to both 

employers and job 

seekers alike because it 

sets the job seeker up 

for failure and costs 

businesses money 

through increased 

turnover. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-40 

As a consequence, business services programs sometimes 

have a strong effect on job seeker services. For example, some 

Local Area staff reported that interaction with business services 

staff and employers has resulted in job seeker staff using 

increased care in making sure that job seekers referred to a 

business are a good match. In addition, case managers in other 

Local Areas have begun focusing more on job seeker soft skills 

after realizing the importance of these skills to businesses. 

Furthermore, Pacific Mountain—Grays Harbor as a result of 

business customer feedback, has increased the number of work 

readiness workshops. 

Effect of Business Services on WIA 

Performance 

All nine exemplary business services sites are high 

performers according to the 17 mandated WIA performance 

measures. For example, in Program Year 2002, six of the nine 

Local Areas met all of their WIA performance goals, with two of 

those areas (Northwest Georgia and Eastern Kentucky) exceeding 

all measures. The remaining three Local Areas, ArapahoeDouglas, Southwest Connecticut and San Diego, missed only a 

single measure, either the adult earnings change or the dislocated 

worker wage replacement measure. 

Even though their success in meeting the WIA performance 

measures cannot be directly tied to their business services 

programs, most of the innovative business Local Areas asserted 

that there is a direct connection between business services and 

improved performance on the WIA measures. They attributed 

this impact to the close relationships they have developed with 

businesses. For example, the executive director of Capital Area 

Michigan said that businesses are now more willing to employ job 

seekers from his Local Area’s WIA programs. Additionally, in 

Local Areas that targeted businesses offering higher wages, job 

seekers in those Local Areas are more likely to meet local 

earnings standards. Another factor cited by local staff is that 

Most of the innovative 

business Local Areas 

asserted that there is a 

direct connection 

between business 

services and improved 

performance on the WIA 

measures. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-41 

business services programs give them the ability to better 

understand business needs and skill requirements and thus more 

accurately place job seekers in positions where they are able to 

retain employment. 

Only one Local Area, Northwest Wisconsin, has tried to 

quantify how much their business services program, and 

particularly their automated matching system, has helped their 

performance. According to statistics generated by local staff, the 

Local Area experienced a 45 percent increase in placements in 

one year even though they registered six percent fewer 

customers. They also cut their cost per placement from a little of 

900 dollars to just over 400 dollars. 

CONCLUSION

Developing and providing business services involves a 

number of significant challenges, including a lack of sufficient 

funding, a disconnect between WIA performance and business 

services, the need to build and maintain credibility with 

businesses, difficulties in coordinating business services between 

One-Stop partners, and a perceived lack of federal guidance on 

how to provide services. 

Summary of Challenges 

One of the challenges that was repeatedly mentioned by 

Local Areas is the lack of sufficient funding for business services. 

To keep up with demand for services, Local Areas said that they 

need more funding for on-going business services, particularly to 

cover the cost of staff.5 In addition, several Local Areas also 

noted that there is a need for seed funding to cover the sometimes 

extensive costs of developing new and innovative services. 

Several sites reported that the lack of additional funding for 

 

5 Two innovative business sites wanted funding specifically set aside for 

business services. 

One of the challenges 

that was repeatedly 

mentioned by Local 

Areas is the lack of 

sufficient funding for 

business services. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-42 

business services makes them wary of doing much additional 

marketing because they are afraid customer demand will 

overwhelm their staff. If this heavy demand causes decreased 

responsiveness and quality, this will damage the Local Area’s 

hard-earned good reputation among businesses. And although 

increasing fee-for-service activities is seen by some sites a way to 

boost funding, only one Local Area staff person really thought 

that fee-for-service revenue could ever cover the entire cost of 

providing business services. 

The lack of sufficient funding is exacerbated by the 

disconnect noted by most sites between the WIA performance 

measures and business services. Because only the business 

customer satisfaction measure is directly tied to the provision of 

business services, some Local Areas feel they cannot take any 

other WIA formula funding away from job-seeker services. 

Another commonly mentioned challenge is the need for 

Local Areas to build and maintain credibility and positive name 

recognition among businesses. Most Local Area staff and 

business respondents talked about the poor reputation of the 

publicly funded workforce development system and how business 

services programs work hard to overcome that reputation. This 

means that business services staff have to regularly prove their 

responsiveness, creativity and ability to provide value-added 

services. 

The difficulties in forming a close and effective 

collaboration between WIA staff and programs and other OneStop partners, particularly the Employment Service, is another 

challenge mentioned by several Local Areas. Because businesses 

do not know or care about the difference between Employment 

Service and WIA staff, the actions of one program have an effect 

on the reputations of both programs. 

The lack of sufficient 

funding is exacerbated 

by the disconnect noted 

by most sites between 

the WIA performance 

measures and business 

services. 

One strategy is to shift 

the Local Area’s 

orientation to focusing 

on businesses, rather 

than job seekers as their 

primary customer. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-43 

Summary of Key Strategies 

As discussed throughout the chapter, to overcome these 

challenges the innovative business Local Areas utilize a number 

of key strategies that help them to provide successful business 

services. One of these strategies is to shift the Local Area’s 

orientation to focusing on businesses, rather than job seekers’ as 

their primary customer. This shift ensures that business services 

are their first priority, rather than an afterthought as is typical in 

many Local Areas. 

Another strategy is to provide businesses with a single point 

of contact for accessing business services. This use of an account 

representative model makes it easier for businesses to understand 

how to interact with the system and also allows business services 

staff to develop close relationships with the businesses they serve. 

The account representative system also makes it easier for 

the Local Areas to provide customized or individualized services 

to businesses. Thus, rather than trying to make business needs fit 

with a standard list of available services, these Local Areas try to 

foster innovative and creative environments where staff provide 

businesses with what they want and need. They also emphasize 

continuous communication and feedback from businesses to make 

sure that services are meeting employer expectations. 

Another key strategy is to take a phased approach to 

providing services. By first providing “gateway” services such 

as recruitment, business services staff focus on developing an 

understanding of business customers and building credibility. 

Once they provide a gateway service successfully, businesses 

typically return for more services on their own. 

Because of the heavy reliance on staff to provide quality 

services, Local Areas also try to select and train business services 

staff carefully, often choosing those with previous private sector 

experience. If they opt to use existing staff, Local Areas rely on 

software tools to provide business staff support. 

One final characteristic 

of many of these Local 

Areas is the existence of 

strong and charismatic 

leadership from one or 

more key staff, usually 

the executive director. 

These Local Areas try to 

foster innovative and 

creative environments 

where staff provide 

businesses with what 

they want and need. 
IV. Business Services 

Social Policy Research Associates IV-44 

One final characteristic of many of these Local Areas is the 

existence of strong and charismatic leadership from one or more 

key staff, usually the executive director. This leadership seems 

essential in creating an environment that motivates staff to work 

hard to provide high quality services and be willing to experiment 

with new ways of providing services. 
V-1 Social Policy Research Associates

V. CONCLUSION 

Until recently, the publicly funded workforce development 

system has had limited involvement with businesses. Although 

workforce development programs operating under the auspices of 

JTPA and the Wagner-Peyser Act had been increasing the role 

for business, these programs focused the majority of their efforts 

on helping unemployed and underemployed workers to undergo 

training and find employment. Indeed, nearly all of the language 

regarding services included in these statutes describes activities 

for job seekers. 

Because of this limited business involvement, the workforce 

development system was heavily skewed toward job seekers 

rather than businesses. Indeed, relatively few businesses even 

knew much about the system. Moreover, some of those who did 

receive services from the system or served on policy boards were 

dissatisfied with their involvement. 

One result of this imbalance was that the system had far 

more demand for job seekers looking for employment than 

businesses with jobs looking for workers. This made the process 

of finding suitable placements for job seekers difficult. In 

addition, even for those employers who used the system, staff 

typically collected only the minimum of information required to 

post a job description on the Employment Service’s job matching 

system or to develop a plausible match with participants coming 

out of training. Consequently, the computers or staff could not 

match job seekers with jobs very accurately, so often these 

placements did not last. 

KEY PRACTICES FOR SUCCESSFULLY INVOLVING 

BUSINESSES

Spurred by a desire to be more effective in meeting the 

employment-related needs of both job seekers and businesses, a 

phenomenon that in some places began even before WIA was 

Until recently, the 

publicly funded 

workforce development 

system has had only 

limited involvement with 

businesses. 

Because of this limited 

business involvement, 

the workforce 

development system was 

heavily skewed toward 

job seekers rather than 

businesses. 
V. Conclusion 

Social Policy Research Associates V-2

enacted, the innovative business Local Areas visited for this study 

began to try and correct the imbalance between businesses and 

job seekers in the publicly funded workforce development 

system. Consequently, businesses have become an important 

focus in all nine innovative business sites, with the majority 

making business their primary customer. These sites try to 

involve businesses in all aspects of their operations—on WIBs, in 

partnerships and through use of business services. To ensure that 

that this involvement is successful, the innovative business sites 

typically rely on a number of key practices, each of which is 

described below. 

Effective Business Involvement with WIBs 

Developing an enhanced role for business often starts out 

with assuring their successful involvement on the WIB. This 

Board involvement often provides a foundation for future 

involvement of individual business firms as partners and 

customers. Thus, our nine innovative business sites pay 

particular attention to the following effective practices to recruit 

and retain active and able business members on their WIBs: 

• Provide a strong role for key staff in the WIB 

member recruitment and selection process. 

This increases the overall effectiveness of the 

WIB by reducing the effect of electoral politics 

and allowing the board to develop a coherent 

vision and mission. 

• Utilize multiple selection criteria for new 

business WIB members. Strong, effective WIBs 

appear to rely on a combination of the following 

statutory and non-statutory criteria in selecting 

business members who are able to effectively 

participate in WIB activities:

− High-level representation (owners, senior 

executives or managers).

− Broad geographic representation.

− Strong interest in workforce 

development—either as human resource 

The innovative business 

Local Areas visited for 

this study began to try 

and correct the 

imbalance between 

businesses and job 

seekers in the publicly 

funded workforce 

development system. 
V. Conclusion 

V-3 Social Policy Research Associates

professionals or as business owners and 

managers. 

− Strong desire to contribute to the economic 

health of the local community. 

• Ensure effective use of business WIB member 

time. Typically innovative sites do this by 

holding short, but effective breakfast meetings 

with tight agendas. More detailed work is 

confined to committees or performed by staff. 

• Choose a few priority WIA Title I issues for 

business WIB members to tackle. Staff in the 

innovative business sites sharply refine Board 

agendas to focus on a few key WIA issues that are 

of greatest interest to business members and can 

be handled in a short period of time. 

• Engage in strategic planning regarding broad 

workforce development issues. The most 

engaged business WIB members have very strong 

interest in strategic workforce planning, especially 

those elements that have potential impact on the 

entire community, such as workforce preparation 

in K-12 education. 

Effective Involvement of Businesses in 

Partnerships 

Business-related partnerships are another critical means of 

involving businesses in the publicly funded workforce 

development system. Some of the key elements in forging 

successful business partnerships are: 

• Use mutual appointments to boards of partner 

organizations as a starting point. Such mutual 

appointments are often used by innovative sites to 

improve trust, reduce turf issues, and help define 

a common vision among potential partners. 

• Exert strong and visionary leadership. Strong 

visionary leadership by the WIB director and WIB 

staff has often been instrumental in showing 

business partners that the workforce development 

system has become more business-oriented. 

Typically innovative 

sites ensure effective use 

of business WIB member 

time by holding short, 

but effective breakfast 

meetings with tight 

agendas. More detailed 

work is confined to 

committees or performed

by staff. 
V. Conclusion 

Social Policy Research Associates V-4

• Conduct joint strategic planning activities. 

Successful partnerships among the innovative 

business sites often conduct joint strategic 

planning sessions, sometimes based on jointly 

funded labor market and economic development 

research. 

• Participate in the development of sectoral 

initiatives where the needs of economic 

development and workforce development 

intersect. Sectoral initiatives are attractive 

because they allow workforce development to be 

an influential actor in emerging and high-growth 

industries. They also allow sites to address 

pressing economic and workforce development 

problems as in the case of staffing shortages in the 

health care industry. 

• Know your partners’ needs and find your niche 

to help meet them. Understanding the needs of 

their partners has helped the innovative sites 

determine the best role to play for the mutual 

benefit of all partners. 

Developing Effective Business Services 

Persuading businesses to make use of business services is 

also critical to the success of the workforce development system. 

Consequently, the nine innovative business sites rely on a mix of 

the following practices to provide high-quality business services: 

• Focus on building and maintaining credibility 

among businesses. Typically, sites do this by 

first providing businesses with successful 

“gateway” services that demonstrate their ability 

to deliver on what they promise. They also 

uphold very high quality standards and constantly 

evaluate their services. 

• Use dedicated account representatives to 

provide business services. By using single pointof-contact account representatives who work only 

with businesses, effective business services 

programs allow staff to develop in-depth 

knowledge of their customers and increase 

accountability. 

Typically, sites develop 

credibility by first 

providing businesses 

with successful 

“gateway” services that 

demonstrate their ability 

to deliver on what they 

promise. 

Sectoral initiatives are 

attractive because they 

allow workforce 

development to be an 

influential actor in 

emerging and highgrowth industries. 
V. Conclusion 

V-5 Social Policy Research Associates

• Focus on developing strong, long-lasting 

relationships with businesses. Most innovative 

sites try to ensure that interactions with businesses 

are not one-time events, but rather mature into 

long-lasting relationships, with businesses viewing 

Local Area services as a partner in meeting 

recruitment and hiring needs. 

• Develop an understanding of individual 

business needs and provide services to meet 

those specific needs. Business customers do not 

want “off-the-shelf” services; they are only 

interested in services that meet their specific 

challenges. To provide such customized services, 

business staff must first develop a clear 

understanding of the needs of each individual 

business customer. 

• Target key groups of businesses for services. 

Because resources for providing business services 

are limited, most innovative sites target key 

groups of businesses for more intensive services. 

These target groups often include small 

businesses, businesses that offer high wages and 

good career ladders, and businesses in highgrowth industries. 

• Make sure labor exchange services are 

effective. Labor exchange services—matching job 

seekers with jobs—are the most common services 

provided to businesses. Unless these services are 

performed successfully, businesses will not return 

for additional services. Consequently, most sites 

have focused on making sure their job matching 

systems more effective. 

• Ensure good coordination between different 

entities providing business services. Because 

multiple entities within Local Areas often provide 

business services—WIA contractors, staff from 

the WIA administrative entity, Employment 

Service staff—coordination between all of these 

service providers is critical to maintaining 

program quality. For this reason, the most 

effective sites ensure that each program or unit 

Business customers do 

not want “off-the-shelf” 

services; they are only 

interested in services 

that meet their specific 

challenges. 
V. Conclusion 

Social Policy Research Associates V-6

has clear roles and duties in providing services 

and are in regular communication with each other. 

• Make sure that business services and job seeker 

programs are integrated. Most successful Local 

Areas ensure that job seeker and business services 

programs work in close coordination with each 

other to ensure that job seekers are meeting the 

needs of businesses. For this reason, nearly all 

business services are provided out of One-Stop 

centers rather than stand-alone business centers. 

• Ensure that staff have a “whatever it takes” 

attitude. Responsive, creative staff who are 

willing to go the extra mile for employers are 

critical to effective business services. To ensure 

that staff have these characteristics, the innovative 

sites either hire staff with private sector 

experience or purchase software tools to assist 

staff. 

Effective Overall Business Involvement 

In addition to these key practices used by the innovative 

sites to promote business involvement with the WIB, partnerships 

and services, there are two additional strategies they use to ensure 

that business involvement is successful overall: 

• Make business the Local Area’s primary 

customer. By making business the primary 

customer, the innovative sites ensure that business 

involvement in all aspects of their operations is 

the Local Area’s number one priority and thus 

more likely to succeed.

• Rely on strong, charismatic staff leadership. 

Strong, charismatic Local Area staff—often the 

executive director—in a number of the innovative 

sites play a critical role in ensuring the success of 

more intensive business involvement in Local 

Area activities. These staff are important because 

they motivate both staff and Board members to 

make the extra effort to ensure the success of new 

and innovative activities such as business 

involvement. 

By making business the 

primary customer, the 

innovative sites ensure 

that business 

involvement in all 

aspects of their 

operations is the Local 

Area’s number one 

priority. 
V. Conclusion 

V-7 Social Policy Research Associates

SUGGESTED CHANGES TO SUPPORT BUSINESS 

INVOLVEMENT

To assist the innovative business sites in continuing to be 

successful and to help the rest of the system make the transition 

to a business focus, Local Area respondents suggested a number 

of legislative changes and weighed in on the WIA reauthorization 

process. 

Adjust the WIA performance measures. Nearly all 

innovative business sites argued for changes to be made in the 

WIA performance measures: 

• Create measures directly tied to the provision 

of business services. Most commented that if 

business services were to be a major priority of 

the workforce development system, there was a 

need for performance measures directly related to 

those services. 

• Adjust the WIA adult earnings change measure 

to allow for more incumbent-worker training. 

Nearly every innovative business site said they 

would like to fund and provide more incumbentworker training. However, Local Areas asserted 

that they were unwilling to use significant 

amounts of WIA funding to provide incumbentworker training because incumbent workers 

typically do not experience large, short-term 

earnings increases following training. 

Provide additional funding for business services. A 

number of Local Areas asserted that they do not receive sufficient 

funding to provide sufficient staffing to meet the demand for 

business services. As described in Chapter IV, providing high 

quality business services is very staff intensive. To provide 

successful business services, staff need to spend significant 

amounts of time with business customers, understanding their 

needs and developing customized services. However, resources 

to fund business services staff are limited. 

Nearly all innovative 

business sites argued for 

changes to be made in 

the WIA performance 

measures. 
V. Conclusion 

Social Policy Research Associates V-8

 Local Areas had different suggestions for how they would 

like this additional funding to be provided. While some Local 

Areas wanted to see overall increases in their WIA formula 

dollars, others wanted to see the creation of a stream of funding 

specifically earmarked for business services. One Local Area 

also suggested the creation of a competitive pool of seed money 

to support the development of innovative business services or 

business involvement practices. 

Provide assistance with marketing and developing 

services. Finally, several Local Areas commented that marketing 

and developing business services are major challenges. They 

argued for more assistance from the Department of Labor related 

to marketing One-Stop business services. Specifically, they asked 

for help in creating a national “brand” for One-Stop services that 

would be recognizable around the country. They asserted that 

this type of national marketing campaign would assist Local 

Areas in developing more name recognition and greater 

credibility with businesses. 

Other Local Areas asked for more guidance and assistance 

in developing specific business services programs. Because the 

WIA legislation and regulations provide no direction on what 

business services should look like and how they should be 

delivered, some Local Areas struggled with developing a vision 

for an effective program. They asserted that more guidance and 

technical assistance on successful strategies and methods would 

be important in aiding other Local Areas to develop successful 

business services programs. 

Local Areas asked for 

help in creating a 

national “brand” for 

One-Stop services that 

would be recognizable 

around the country. 

Some Local Areas 

wanted to see the 

creation of a stream of 

funding specifically 

earmarked for business 

services while others 

wanted a pool of seed 

money for innovative 

practices. 
APPENDIX A 
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A-1 Social P

APPENDIX A 

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE INNOVATIVE BUSINESS SITES AND COMPARISON 

INNOVATIVE BUSINESS SITES

Arapahoe-Douglas Works Colorado 

Denver

Aurora

Arapahoe-Douglas Works is a two-coun

Investment Area (Local Area) on the east sidmetropolitan area. It has a population of 660percent Black and 20 percent Hispanic and a Arapahoe County is the Local Area’s adminioperates the One-Stop system. The Local ArOne-Stop centers with business services avail

Capital Area Michigan Works 

Lansing

EastLansing

Lansing

Capital Area Michigan Works is a Loca

counties and two cities (including Lansing, thcentral Michigan. Government is the largest education (Michigan State University) and Ge

Area’s administrative entity is a quasi-governthe constituent cities and counties to provide 

services. There are three full-service One-St

provides business services. 
Appendix A 

Social Policy Research Associates A-2Dallas, Texas WorkSource 

Austin

Dallas

Dallas, Texas WorkSource is a Local A

of Dallas and Dallas County. It has a popula

about 20 percent Black and 30 percent Hispanincludes about 1,200,000. The administrativis a private, non-profit that contracts out the service One-Stop centers, all of which have b

Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program 

Frankfort

Hazard

Eastern Kentucky is a Concentrated Em

serving the 23 easternmost counties in Kentucabout 500,000 that is nearly entirely White. 

from a very high poverty rate because of longindustry. The main industries are now goverhealth care. The Local Area’s administrative Employment Program, which is a non-profit has the authority to appoint local WIB membEmployment Program contracts out operation program. The One-Stop system consists of f

three satellites, and 66 other access points. Bavailable at each full-service One-Stop center
A-3 Social P

Northwest Georgia Coosa Valley Regional Development Center 

Rome

Dalton

Atlanta

Northwest Georgia is a predominantly 

Area in the northwest corner of the State. Thpopulation of 700,000. The Hispanic populapercent of the total, has grown very rapidly o

primarily because of growing employment in 

carpet manufacturing. Textiles and apparel mimportant industries, but both are declining. the Coosa Valley Regional Development Cen

provides numerous services to its constituent Valley Regional Development Center also opprogram in three full-service One-Stop centerbusiness services. 

Northwest Wisconsin Concentrated Employment Program 

Madison Superior

Northwest Wisconsin is a Concentrated 

serving 10 counties in the northwest corner opopulation of 180,000, many of whom are ovThe major employers are pulp and paper millLocal Area’s administrative entity is the Con

Program, which is a non-profit whose governauthority to appoint local WIB members. ThEmployment Program also operates the WIA One-Stop system consists of eight full-service services are available at all centers. 
Appendix A 

Social Policy Research Associates A-4Pacific Mountain Workforce Consortium—Grays Harbor WorkSource 

Olympia

Olympia

Grays

Harbor

Pacific Mountain is a five-county Local 

the State capital of Olympia. It has a populatwhom live in Thurston County where Olymppopulation is predominantly White. In additi

the other major employer is the timber indust

rate is 5.2 percent, although the rate is much Thurston County is the administrative entity aI program. The Local Area as a whole has thcenters. Although previously business servic

Grays Harbor, business services are currently counties. 

San Diego Workforce Partnership 

Sacramento

San Diego

The San Diego Workforce Partnership 

of the City of San Diego and San Diego Coun

Area in this study with a population of 3,000includes 1,400,000, including five percent Bland 11 percent Asian. Government and touri

industries. The administrative entity is a privcontracts out operation of the Title I program 

Stop centers, all of which have business serv
A-5 Social P

Southwest Connecticut, The Workplace, Inc. 

Bridgeport

Stamford

Derby

Hartford

Southwest Connecticut is a Local Area 

towns in the southwest corner of the State. I880,000. The Local Area is split between vethe New York City metropolitan area and othmetropolitan area like Bridgeport with declinadministrative entity is a private non-profit thoperation of the Title I program and three ful

Business services are available at all three cen
Appendix A 

Social Policy Research Associates A-6COMPARISON SITES

PIMA County, ARIZONA 

Phoenix Tucson

Located in the southern half of Arizona

population of approximately 890,000, over hTucson. Tucson is predominantly White (75Hispanic population. The city has experiencepercent population growth since the 1990 censectors include tourism, telecommunications, addition to agriculture. The unemployment rarea has two full-service One-Stop centers. 

Santa Cruz County, Arizona 

Nogales

Phoenix

The Santa Cruz County Local Area is l

border. The main city of Nogales has 21,000 predominantly Hispanic. The Local Area ha

Portland, Oregon Worksystems, Inc. 

Salem

Portland

This Local Area is comprised of three c

Portland. The city of Portland has 540,000 p

whom are White. The primary industries are 

transportation, wholesale and retail trade, and 

unemployment rate in Portland is around seveadministrative entity is a quasi-governmental operation of WIA Title I programs and seven centers. 
A-7 Social P

Chicago, Illinois 

Springfield

Chicago

The Chicago Local Area has a populati

significant populations of Black and Hispanic Chinese, Russian, and Polish communities. Tgovernment, education, and health care. The 

Area’s administrative entity, and funds 50-60 

organizations in various neighborhoods to deAdditionally, the Chicago local area has five 

centers geographically distributed throughout 

North Central Wisconsin 

Madison

Wausau

North Central Wisconsin is a rural, nin

largest city, Wausau, has a population of 40,predominantly White, but there are a significSoutheast Asian refugees and Hispanics. 
Appendix A 

Social Policy Research Associates A-8Lower Rio Grande, Texas 

Austin

McAllen

The Lower Rio Grande Valley Local A

counties in the southernmost tip of Texas alonNearly 90 percent of the population is Hispanpopulation below the poverty line. The large600,000 people. The January 2004 unemployEdinburg-Mission metropolitan area (located 

14.6 percent. While services and retail const

region’s urban area economy, in the surroundagriculture is predominant. There are eight fcenters, including a dedicated business servic

Adams County, Colorado 

Denver

Brighton

The Adams County Local Area is north

adjacent to the Arapahoe/Douglas Local Area 

It has a population of 400,000, nearly 30 perThe county harbors a mix of industries, inclumanufacturing, and educational institutions. large Denver International Airport (located in County), which has stimulated considerable e
A-9 Social P

Coastal Counties, Maine 

Augusta

Portland

The Coastal Counties Local Area is com

including the state’s largest city, Portland. Thas a population of 230,000, 90 percent of windustries in the Local Area include shipping seven One-Stop centers. 

Bay Consortium, Virginia 

Onley

Richmond

The Bay Consortium Local Area is a co

and one city on both sides of the Chesapeake 

two-county area on the Eastern Shore, with a Whites and African-Americans predominate, 

but growing year-round Hispanic group. The agriculture. There is a single One-Stop centecounties. 
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APPENDIX B 
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B-1 Social Policy Research Associates 

APPENDIX B 

DESIGN OF THE EVALUATION OF THE 

IMPLEMENTATION OF WIA 

Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) was awarded a five-year contract in late 

June 1999 by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to conduct the Evaluation of the 

Implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998. Data collection 

activities that have been associated with the evaluation are described below, along with 

a list of previously prepared reports. 

DATA COLLECTION ACTIVITIES

Two complementary data collection activities have been used during this 

evaluation: multi-day site visits to a range of States and local workforce investment 

areas (Local Areas) to examine WIA implementation issues, and the quantitative 

analysis of data from a variety of sources. 

Qualitative Research through Site Visits 

• An early round of multi-day site visits, conducted in late 1999 to mid 

2000, to six early implementation States and nine Local Areas within 

them. Site visits entailed interviews with State-level and local-level 

WIA administrators, workforce board representatives, representatives of 

key workforce partner agencies (e.g., Wagner-Peyser programs, 

Vocational Rehabilitation, Adult Education), One-Stop center managers 

and service delivery staff, among others, and explored a broad range of 

topics including: the transition from JTPA, governance and 

administration, partnership building, service design and delivery, and 

management information systems (MIS) and other program supports. 

• A subsequent round of site visits, conducted in the fall of 2001, to eight 

randomly-selected States and 14 Local Areas. These site visits entailed 

similar activities as the early round and covered similar topics relating 

to WIA implementation and operation. 

• A final round of site visits to 18 Local Areas in 14 States. In contrast to 

prior rounds, these site visits concentrated on two much narrower 

topics: how to engage businesses in WIA planning and provide effective 

business services, and how One-Stop systems could meet the needs of 

special populations, including farmworkers, limited-English speakers, 

and the homeless. These site visits were conducted in late 2003 and 

early 2004. 

Quantitative Analyses 

• Analysis of data from a national tracking system of WIA implementation 

progress. To support this task, a checklist was developed, in 

conjunction with DOL, with benchmarks towards WIA implementation. 
Appendix B 

Social Policy Research Associates B-2

DOL Regional Office staff, as part of their normal duties in overseeing 

States’ implementation efforts, updated the checklist for each State at 

approximately two-month intervals from March 2000 to March 2001. 

We analyzed these data to provide periodic snapshots of WIA 

implementation progress nationwide. 

• Analysis of WIASRD and SPIR data. We used data from the clientlevel reporting systems of WIA (the WIASRD) and JTPA (the SPIR) to 

describe how client characteristics in the WIA adult, dislocated worker, 

and youth programs changed in comparison to the characteristics of 

those that had been served in JTPA, and to examine how services that 

participants receive have changed. 

REPORTS

Based on the above data analysis, we produced the reports and papers described 

below. 

• Reports associated with the “early implementation” site visits: 

− State Implementation Profiles for Six Early Implementing States 

Under WIA, issued in September 2000 

− A Report on Early State and Local Progress Towards WIA 

Implementation, issued in draft form in December 2000 and 

finalized in early 2001 

• A series of “Briefing Papers” associated with the second-wave of site 

visits, prepared for the most part in the spring of 2002, on these topics: 

− Services for Adults and Dislocated Workers 

− Youth Services 

− Building the One-Stop Infrastructure 

− MIS and Oversight 

− Performance Accountability and Capacity Building 

− Partnership Building Under WIA

− WIA Governance 

− Implementation Challenges in WIA Adult and Dislocated Worker Programs 

− School-to-Work and its Linkages with WIA (prepared with funds 

contributed by the National STW Office) 

• Reports associated with the final wave of specially focused site visits, 

prepared in the spring of 2004: 
Appendix B 

B-3 Social Policy Research Associates

− Business as Partner and Customer under WIA: A Study of 

Innovative Practices 

− The One-Stop System’s Capacity to Serve the Homeless: A Case 

Study 

− The One-Stop System’s Capacity to Serve Migrant and Seasonal 

Farmworkers: A Case Study 

− The One-Stop System’s Capacity to Serve Limited-English 

Speakers: A Case Study 

• Reports associated with the national tracking system of WIA 

implementation progress: 

− Workforce System Information and Evaluation (WSIE) Reports, 

Volumes I-VI, March 2000 through November 2000 

− A Report on the WIA Implementation Readiness Guide, March 

2001 

• A briefing paper prepared based on WIA and SPIR data, prepared in the 

spring of 2002: 

− A Comparison of WIA and JTPA Clients and Services 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to extend our appreciation to SPR field staff and analysts, for their 

efforts throughout this study, as well as staff from TATC Consulting, who served as 

SPR’s subcontractor. We appreciate as well the contributions and support of DOL 

staff, especially our project officers, Eileen Pederson and Tom NaSell, as well as the 

DOL Regional Office staff who collected data for the national tracking system. 

Finally, we thank the administrators and staff from the 21 States and nearly 40 Local 

Areas who were very gracious in accommodating our site visits, including those in: 

State Local Areas 

Arizona a) City of Phoenix 

b) Balance of Maricopa County 

c) Santa Cruz County 

d) Yuma County 

California a) San Diego 

Colorado a) Adams County 

b) Arapahoe-Douglas 

Connecticut a) Southwest Connecticut 

Florida a) Dade and Monroe 

b) Polk County 

Georgia a) NE Georgia 

b) SW Georgia 

c) NW Georgia 
Appendix B 

Social Policy Research Associates B-4

Illinois a) Chicago Mayor’s Office 

b) DuPage County 

Kentucky a) Cumberlands 

b) Eastern Kentucky CEP 

Maine a) Coastal Counties 

Michigan a) Capitol Area Michigan Works 

Minnesota a) Rural MN CEP 

Montana a) Balance of Montana 

New York a) Erie County (Buffalo) 

b) Suffolk County 

Oregon a) The Medford Area Job Council 

b) Portland Worksystems 

Pennsylvania a) Northern Tier 

b) Three Rivers 

Texas a) Dallas Worksource 

b) East Texas 

c) Lower Rio Grande 

Utah Single LWIA State 

Vermont Single LWIA State 

Virginia a) Area 1-Southwest VA (Russell) 

b) Area 13-Bay Consortium 

c) Area 16-Hampton Roads (Norfolk) 

Washington a) Pacific Mountain 

Wisconsin a) North Central 

b) Northwest Wisconsin CEP