The Final Report on Workforce Development Board (WDB) of South Central Wisconsin’s Skills Wisconsin

Skills Wisconsin consisted of three related components: 1) implementation of Salesforce – a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) application; 2) provision of training on a demand-driven approach to workforce development; 3) enhancement of industry partnerships and development of new training curricula. Through these three components, Skills Wisconsin was intended to improve the workforce system’s ability to be more responsive to employer needs; leading to improved outcomes for jobseekers. The motivation for the project was Consortium members’ view that efficient coordination among workforce system stakeholders has been difficult, due to challenges both technical (e.g., lack of a centralized information system) and process-related (e.g., lack of a coherent system and set of processes for working with a particular employer). The grant application further noted two wider challenges faced by the state’s workforce system: (1) differences in workforce policy and goals among economic regions, which have been exacerbated by difficulties maintaining working relationships with many partners; and (2) a sense of competition among partners for business customers.

The evaluation consisted of three components: a process study; an impact evaluation; and, an outcomes analysis. The qualitative process study focuses on how the implementation of Salesforce affected workforce development stakeholders—including WDBs, state agency workforce program partners, ED agencies, training partners, and employers. The quantitative impact evaluation focuses on the effects of Salesforce implementation on jobseekers. The outcomes analysis documents quantitative outcomes related to Skills Wisconsin implementation.

(This report is 151 pages long including appendices.)

The process study found that the project was largely implemented as planned. Major grant activities included the successful launch and continued support of Salesforce, training delivered to workforce system staff on how to implement the Salesforce approach, and in-person conferences to enable sharing and discussion. Generally, collaboration among workforce system stakeholders improved and increased after the implementation of Skills Wisconsin. However, despite these improvements, the workforce system continued to encounter some challenges related to collaboration across stakeholders. Nonetheless, Skills Wisconsin was able to exceed all but one of its performance targets (e.g. number of businesses served, number of employer profiles, number of jobseekers trained and served, number of times Salesforce was accessed) while operating as a relatively low cost-program in terms of cost per outcome.

The impact study results suggest that Salesforce implementation in pilot areas led to an increase in the likelihood of employment but had no effect on job retention or earnings after controlling for observable differences among jobseeker cohorts. In the outcomes analysis, the evaluators found that employer opinions of the workforce system did not change in a meaningful way, though employers with more direct contact with the program had slightly more positive feelings about the workforce system.

The outcomes study found that there was little change in employer opinions about the ability of the workforce system across the three waves of the employer survey. However, results from the third wave suggest that employers with more direct contact with Skills Wisconsin had slightly more positive feelings about the workforce system. Skills Wisconsin exceeded all the quantitative performance measures associated with the grant, with many of the targets met by the midpoint of the grant period. Overall, the grant expended $69 per business served and $481 per jobseeker served. Focusing on Salesforce-related expenditures, Skills Wisconsin spent $21 per business served and $144 per jobseeker served.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2016
• Author(s): Davis, Scott
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies