Innovative Strategies that Focus on Results

Increased Job Placements
In the past five years the workforce system has more than doubled the number of Workforce1 Career Centers in New York City to seven, increasing the City’s capacity to serve jobseekers in all five boroughs. Since the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) merged with the Department of Employment in 2003, the agency has dramatically increased the number of New Yorkers placed in jobs through the Workforce1 Career Centers from 127 per quarter to more than 4,000 per quarter  today. Workforce1 Career Centers placed New Yorkers in 17,239 jobs in 2008.  In 2009, our Workforce System surpassed a milestone of placing 75,000 jobseekers since April 2004.

Expanded Business Hiring
The NYC Business Solutions unit at the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) has revolutionized how New York City provides business services to large employers by developing a customized recruitment and screening process to coordinate the seven Workforce1 Career Centers in order to better serve employers with large scale hiring needs.  Last year, NYC Business Solutions used this customized approach to assist 27 large, Citywide businesses hire 3,540 employees in six target industries - retail, financial services, healthcare, transportation / warehousing, food services and accommodation and business services.  Key employer accounts include Whole Foods Market, Duane Reade and Time Warner Cable.

Enhanced Skills Training
NYC Business Solutions provides matching grants to small businesses to help them hire and train new employees and existing employees. To date, the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) has awarded more than $9.1 million in NYC Business Solutions Training Funds to help 45 local companies become more competitive and upgrade the skill sets of more than 4,500 New Yorkers. These investments have been matched by more than $8.9 million in employer contributions.  SBS was able to expand the training grant program in 2007, through an investment in the program by the NYC Center for Economic Opportunity.   The program was expanded to include work readiness training such as adult literacy and numeracy (reading and math), English as a Second Language, and workplace behavior skills.

Improved Accountability
The Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and its workforce partners have implemented a holistic management approach, applying strong discipline and providing substantial technical assistance to contracted service providers. The workforce system's strong performance has been the result of clear objectives, effective strategies, meaningful performance metrics, and accountability.  In early 2008, SBS and the NYC Workforce Investment Board launched the NYC Training Guide (www.nyc.gov/trainingguide). Supported by an investment from the City’s Center for Economic Opportunity, the NYC Training Guide is a research tool that matches jobseekers with appropriate training programs to promote skills development and career advancement. The NYC Training Guide provides detailed information about training courses and providers, enabling individuals to fully consider their training options and decide how a course meets their needs.

As another example of promoting best practices and improving accountability, the City now evaluates third-party training providers and posts the results of the Training Grant Provider Report Card online so jobseekers and businesses can choose providers with the best results.

Managing for Results
SBS launched Worksource1 in 2006, an award-winning web-based system that is designed to support the business operations in the NYC Workforce1 Career Centers. Worksource1 allows for the sharing of customer information across all Workforce1 Career Center locations, enabling Center staff to better understand customer needs and provide better service. The application includes case management and assessment tools, along with management reporting capabilities.

Most importantly, the system has streamlined workflow in the Centers, reducing the time it takes to perform data entry on information such as case notes, services consumed, job placements, and retention activities. The management reports provide a window into real-time system performance, which informs programmatic decision making. These innovations have enabled Center staff to spend more time providing higher quality services to our customers.