A Low-Cost Intervention to Target Services to Participants of a Local Welfare-to-Work Program

It demonstrates:

• how an improvement in the selective referral of participants to services can improve outcomes;
• how randomized control trial experiments can be embedded in existing programs; and
• how administrative data can be used to minimize the cost and disruption of the evaluation of the intervention.

This resource documents the results of a low-cost intervention, specifically the process for the selective referral of participants based on specific characteristics and employment backgrounds, in a local welfare-to-work program, using a randomized control trial approach. This low-cost intervention resulted in improved employment outcomes for participants with a benefit-cost ratio greater than three to one.

The report describes the factors necessary for other entities to replicate this approach:

1. workforce system practitioners and boards must be willing to experiment with new ideas and approaches;
2. local boards need support from state agencies that will encourage such a culture and provide the resources necessary to carry out such interventions;
3. interventions need to be designed to be embedded seamlessly in the daily operations of workforce entities;
4. sponsors of low-cost interventions should be prepared to compensate local boards for their participation; and
5. local boards and state agencies need access to talented researchers who can help design and then evaluate such interventions.

The study showed that this pilot project, using a randomized control trial (RCT) approach, improved participants' employment outcomes with a benefit-cost ratio of greater than three to one. The pilot initiative referred welfare-to-work participants to one of three service providers based on a statistical algorithm that used administrative data to determine which provider offered services that were shown to be most effective for customers possessing specific characteristics and employment backgrounds. Prior to the pilot, participants were randomly assigned to providers. To sustain such efforts into the future, the researchers make the following recommendations: 1) A culture of innovation, experimentation, and research must be embedded in the programs and the organizations responsible for administering those programs. WIOA codifies some aspects of a culture of innovation and assessment by requiring each state to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs on a regular basis using a rigorous methodology. It also mandates the use of a statistical methodology by states to adjust their performance targets. 2) To nurture a culture throughout the system, there must be strong leadership at all three levels of the partnership--federal, state and local--as well as a willingness to demonstrate flexibility. 3) The Department of Labor could consider granting waivers to state and local boards fo exempt them from meeting performance standards for short periods to time so they can pursue innovative approaches. 4) States could demonstrate a willingness to support the pursuit of RCTs through making available the necessary data (e..g, UI wage records, and other administrative records) and by creating an environment that encourages experimentation. 5) States and local boards could reach out to researchers from other research organizations and universities to partner on the design and evaluation of such low-cost interventions.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2017
• Author(s): Randall W. Eberts (W.E. Upjohn Institute)
• Funding Source: W.E. Upjohn Institute
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Placido Gomez
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies