Recommended Actions

After building a job quality strategy using the interventions in this playbook, work with your leadership to establish goals that link your revenue strategy directly to your job quality strategy.

San Diego County (CA): The San Diego Workforce Partnership’s FY2022 budget projections totaled $37,700,000 in revenue, including $21,000,000 from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Title I funds, $11,500,000 from grants and contracts (TANF, community development and block grants, and American Rescue Plan federal funds), $1,500,000 in recurring revenues from a renewable learning fund, and $3,500,000 from SNAP employment and training. As the partnership increased its focus on job quality, it successfully diversified its financial streams using many of the strategies outlined below (i.e., moved from 97% funding through Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I in  FY2012 to only 56% funding through WIOA in 2022).

The recommended actions that follow are the major funding sources available to support your revenue strategy goals.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Title I adult, dislocated worker and youth grant programs provide relatively stable core funding to local and regional government workforce agencies that pay for administration, direct service staff, business service staff, physical infrastructure (e.g., American Job Centers) and other costs. These three federal formula grant programs provided more than $3.1 billion to state and local workforce development boards in FY2022, including $928 million for youth services, $865 million for adult services, and $1.38 billion for dislocated workers.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is a good source for funding core infrastructure and programs. Still, it may not be enough to advance a long-term field-leading job quality strategy.

To raise additional funds, you can use your job quality strategy to apply for grants and contracts like the examples below:

Federal

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF): The US Department of Health and Human Services allocates these funds to county and state human services agencies. These funds are well suited to advance job quality efforts related to subsidizing the high road and signaling value with budgets, as well as coaching job seekers to advocate for job quality in their own career journey.

• Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) allocates these funds to states, cities and counties and is relatively flexible. These funds advance employee ownership, provide down payments and other homeownership incentives, support childcare solutions for workers and help businesses provide more stable schedules, in addition to several other interventions highlighted in this playbook.

• American Rescue Plan (ARP) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF): The U.S Treasury Department is allocating these one-time funds ($350,000,000,000) to cities, counties and states to make critical and historic investments in people, infrastructure, businesses and workers. These funds are relatively flexible and many SLFRF plans are focused on investing in job quality and equity over the next four to five years.

• Competitive federal workforce grants: With an established job quality plan in hand, your agency will be more competitive in grant opportunities to implement or expand job quality interventions listed in this playbook.

State

• California Employment Training Panel (ETP): The ETP taxes private companies 0.1% of the total company payroll to fund internal training programs for incumbent workers. This program leads to wage increases and upward economic mobility for workers who would be largely ineligible for TANF, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act or other federal employment programs.

Philanthropy

• Many private foundations are focused on the intersection between job quality and equity in the US economy. Agencies with a clear job quality strategy and definition, key goals and performance indicators and clearly defined funding gaps (e.g., in either size or flexibility) are well positioned to raise private philanthropic revenue to advance their strategy.

The federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) program administered by the US Department of Human Services (HHS) reimburses eligible third-party providers up to 50% for eligible SNAP E&T expenses. These reimbursements are discretionary; workforce and economic development agencies can use these funds to serve more SNAP recipients and generate flexible discretionary revenue to invest in any of the interventions described in this playbook. Here’s how to evaluate this opportunity for your agency:

• Review your state’s SNAP E&T plan to learn how the program is administered in your jurisdiction

• Identify a program funded by non-federal funds (or community development block grants) that primarily serves SNAP eligible participants

• Meet with your jurisdiction’s SNAP E&T administrator to develop a plan to become a SNAP E&T third party provider

The National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) is working with the US Department of Agriculture to expand the number of workforce boards involved in SNAP E&T. Together they’ve developed a community of practice and resources for interested workforce agencies. The San Diego Workforce Partnership and the Portland local workforce board Worksystems Inc., for example, generate hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in discretionary revenue to be reinvested in their job quality strategies through this program.

If your agency has at least $500,000 annually in eligible non-federal expenses for providing employment and training services to SNAP eligible participants, SNAP E&T is worth exploring.

A renewable learning fund can finance upskilling opportunities for workers who aren't eligible for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act services or the other funding streams listed above. More information on establishing a renewable learning fund can be found here. 

With most existing renewable learning funds, the participant signs the contract outlining the funding they will receive for their learning program and the repayment requirements. This is a clear opportunity for employers to assume their employee’s monthly repayment payment as a retention tool. 

As an example, Social Finance’s Career Impact Bond (CIB) for diesel technicians (an industry facing workforce shortages similar to those faced by government) repays the employee's training monthly as long as they remain with the organization. For workforce agencies, this provides a meaningful fee-for-service opportunity that aligns payments to outcomes, allows agencies to serve more people and provides an additional revenue stream to finance long-term job quality investments in their community.