Central Indiana, United States —
In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Regional Workforce Partnership (RWP) in Central Indiana, United States, developed the Rapid Re-employment Response (RRR).
The programme provided a platform to connect job seekers with available jobs or training opportunities in the local community.
The objective of the Rapid Re-employment Response (RRR) is to connect people who lost their jobs as a consequence of the pandemic with available jobs in the community. By hosting both job seekers and employers on its online network, the ambition was to speed up job matching and decrease the unemployment shock due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The RRR online network was launched by EmployIndy and Ascend Indiana (employment service providers in Central Indiana), building on an existing online platform known as the Ascend Network, which connects students graduating from universities with employers.
The updated platform allows job seekers to create accounts based on their interests and capabilities. Subsequently, the RRR team supports them to find job opportunities posted by local employers. To ensure that the jobs in the database are of good quality, the RRR team vets and guides employers on how to make their job descriptions more appealing, accessible, and inclusive. The focus on skills instead of diplomas enables employers to be more inclusive in their hiring processes. In addition, the RRR team has regular contact with employers to keep track of demand. To serve the needs of job seekers effectively, the RRR has personalised one-to-one job support. The online platform, which uses a skills-based matching algorithm, helps job seekers to identify their competencies and find the best-fit job and upskilling opportunities.
The online platform is a coordinated effort by the Regional Workforce Partnership (RWP), which was formed in 2016 to create a robust economic environment for businesses, individuals and the community. The partnership includes a range of stakeholders, including state agencies, municipalities, employers and non-profit and community-based organisations. Not least in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the partnership turned its collaborative efforts toward a unified plan to assist residents of Indianapolis in getting back to work as quickly as possible.
The Rapid Re-employment Response, launched in 2020 and had more than 400 employers sign on to the network in the first week. The RRR is also notable for its commitment to delivering quality jobs to a diverse range of job seekers with various qualifications and career backgrounds considering COVID-19’s effects on the workforce. Currently, 60% of the full-time jobs on the Network require entry-level skills, with most remaining jobs requiring mid-level skills and experience. This mix is anticipated to change to ensure more relevant opportunities as job seekers with a wider variety of skills and backgrounds access the Network.
To account for the pandemic’s disproportionate unemployment rate for individuals from under-represented backgrounds, the programme utilised demographic data to track and monitor the equitable delivery of RRR services. If they find that workers of colour are underrepresented, the program will implement more strategic outreach to ensure that the users benefiting from their resources better reflect the racial demographics of Central Indiana’s unemployed population.
The RRR is an interesting example of how to connect job seekers from a variety of educational backgrounds and experience in real-time to open jobs and partners such as community-based organisations, while also providing subsidized in-demand training. Nevertheless, the partners have experienced a number of challenges that other places can learn from. One of the most challenging aspects of setting up the Rapid Re-employment Response was obtaining access to local unemployment insurance (UI) data. Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development (DWD) was a participating partner in the RWP, the DWD became their ally in identifying a path to utilise the UI data to effectively reach and serve impacted individuals. The DWD worked with Ascend to create a data-sharing agreement that called for them to take extensive physical and digital security measures to protect the data.
In addition to this challenge, a lack of access to broadband, devices, and digital literacy skills can present a barrier for some job seekers. The Ascend Network is mobile-friendly for job seekers without computers but is not yet optimized for mobile use. As a further challenge, many displaced workers are afraid to go back to work while the COVID-19 pandemic is still a health threat. While the majority of the jobs available on the platform are not remote, the Network supports searches for remote jobs—a characteristic that is highlighted in the job description.
OECD (2022), "Future-proofing adult learning systems in cities and regions: A policy manual for local governments", OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Papers, No. 2022/03, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/11fa26cc-en.
