The Workforce Benchmarking Network Cohort is a peer learning community that allows organizations to dive deep into program data to advance equity, improve outcomes, elevate job seeker voice, & articulate impact to funders.
The Workforce Benchmarking Network Cohort provides coaching, peer learning forums and technical assistance over the course of 20 months. Community-based cohorts of providers strengthen their internal data culture and program results through a focus on racial equity, continuous improvement tools and self-assessments, sharing of promising strategies, and individualized technical assistance.
In 2023 we launched two separate WBN Cohorts in Detroit, MI and Dallas, TX. Learn more by watching a recording of our recent info session here, or access the slides from the presentation here.
Through the WBN Cohorts, we hope to arm community-based organizations with the skills & tools to advance equity in outcomes, measure & articulate impact, and support their participants to achieve economic mobility.
- Build capacity around the use of data, including disaggregated data, for performance improvement
- Resolve performance challenges
- Leverage peer expertise
- Strengthen data culture
- Advance equity in program outcomes
WBN Cohort Structure
Organizations participate in a series of in-person and virtual activities over 20 months, with activities ranging from one to 3 hours. Organizations explore how to use qualitative and quantitative data to understand their impact beyond required program measures, gaps and opportunities within their services, and make immediate and long-term strategic changes to their programs.
The WBN Improvement Strategy is rooted in four key areas:
- Small Group Workshops: Facilitated by CSW staff, national leaders, and best-in-class content experts, including Intro to Racial Equity & Inclusion, and Intro to Data
- One-on-One Coaching: Leverage new tools to identify challenges, incubate and deploy proven solutions
- Peer Learning Forums: Unearth, uplift and pilot new and best practices alongside peer organizations
- Customized Reports: Continuous improvement tools to nurture inquiry, evaluate performance, and build capacity
Participation in the cohort also includes the completion of a Workforce Benchmarking Network survey, to allow for comparison nationally and among peer organizations to understand outcomes & impact. Forum & coaching topics are designed to meet the needs of participating organizations, but may include:
- Meaningful integration of qualitative data and voice/feedback from jobseekers
- Disaggregation by race and other key demographic to address issues of equity
- Employer engagement and job quality, through use of data
- Career readiness and job retention
- Intersection between race, gender and outcomes
- Use of data to articulate impact, make a case for policy or program change, and support long-term strategy
Benefits of Participating
Build Capacity Through in-person and virtual workshops & exposure to new tools
Resolve Performance Challenges Organization-specific technical assistance & continuous improvement tools
Leverage Peer Expertise Effective strategy & implementation exploration with national peers
Strengthen Data Culture Customize peer comparison data & develop valuable data for fundraising
After participating in our WBN cohorts, previous members experienced the following improvements:
- 33% improvement in using new tools to test hunches/hypothesis
- 29% increase in establishing stronger customer feedback processes
- 14% gain in staff celebrating performance improvement
Our Philadelphia WBN cohort had 20% female representation in powercorps before participating in WBN, which increased to 36% after participation.
Our Minneapolis/St. Paul WBN cohort saw an 88% year over year increase in participants placed by Jewish family services following WBN participation
Participate in the Workforce Benchmarking Network Cohorts:
Who is eligible to participate?
Participating organizations can include both large, comprehensive workforce providers and smaller providers providing traditional and non-traditional workforce services. Organizations must have leadership commitment to support the participation of management and frontline staff in the cohort, and a desire to make needed internal changes. It is important that all organizations see value in using data and a desire to increase their own capacity for using it to improve participant outcomes.
What’s needed for successful participation:
- Time for Data reflection – Between workshops and coaching sessions
- Engaged leadership – Commitment to full-time participation
- Multi-level teams – 3-5 staff across management, operations, frontline
What is the cost to participate?
There is no cost for organizations to participate due to the generous support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Detroit) and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and Communities Foundation of Texas (Dallas). However, due to the resources invested into this work, we ask all organizations to submit a letter of commitment to participate, signed by a senior leader.
Support improvements in worker skills, lifelong learning, and job quality: