Lessons Learned Delivering Remote Services to Job Seekers with Low Incomes During the Pandemic

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations that serve job seekers with low incomes were forced to adapt to new forms of service delivery. Many organizations delivered services remotely, some for the first time.

Through interviews with leaders and frontline staff, this brief examines how three organizations that had been implementing work readiness and education and training services changed how they implemented those services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This brief describes the adaptations the organizations made and highlights lessons learned. The interventions implemented by these organizations were identified as interventions that work—meaning, they had received a “supported” evidence rating by the Clearinghouse —before they were delivered remotely. Lessons learned from these service adaptations can help other organizations offering similar employment services remotely.

The research questions were:

1. How have employment-focused organizations changed their service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?
2. What common challenges made it difficult for participants to engage in remote services?
3. How did organizations adapt their service delivery to address those challenges?

(This article is five pages long.)

Participants faced common challenges to engaging in remote services, such as conflicts with caregiving responsibilities, access to adequate technological resources, and computer skills. However, the three organizations the researchers interviewed found creative ways of addressing these challenges.

These creative adaptations included:

1. Using multiple modalities to present session content like prerecording sessions; offering synchronous videoconference sessions; providing in-person training; or creating publicly available content.
2. Modifying intervention policies such as lenient late policies; flexible due dates; shorter session times; or synchronous sessions.
3. Providing technology assistance to participants such as laptops, hot spot loaner programs, and technology support.
4. Increasing the frequency of interactions and communications with participants through individual meetings, required check-ins, and messaging via text.
5. Updating organizational infrastructure and providing additional support to staff to adapt to innovative technology.

The organizations included in this brief were planning to continue to use materials and content they adapted and created during the pandemic. They are also considering how ongoing use of remote service delivery might make it easier for more job seekers with low incomes to access employment services.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2021
• Author(s): Ruggiero, R.; Eddins, K.; Christensen, B.
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies