WIOA State Plan Common Elements

Indiana has initiated several projects with regard to its operating systems that will support implementation of the strategies described above.

The primary activity underway is to ensure a client-centric supply system exists to engage individuals, connect them to all available services and resources, and facilitate their re-employment in Hoosier jobs. A project to target procuring modern technology for implementing a common Case Management and Job Matching system across the State has been initiated. DWD and VR have built separate case management systems to meet their unique needs, but the agencies are working together to determine how the systems, once fully built, can interface. While DWD is in the intermediate stages of working with the vendor, VR is several years into the process. VR’s system is under a larger umbrella of the Case Management for Social Services within Indiana’s Family Social Services Administration (FSSA). The purpose of the overarching FSSA system is to oversee and provide appropriate and timely services to all FSSA consumers being served in various programs. Additionally, the consolidated system shall enhance system integration, data integrity, and remove legacy systems. The VR portion of the project started February of 2014 and is work is ongoing. The VR portion requires improved efficiency to enhance the existing mobile and paperless work environment of VR field staff. Furthermore, VR will closely work with DWD to ensure appropriate system integration and data-sharing occurs to align resources, improve reporting processes and outcomes, and enhance the consumer’s experience. The ultimate goal is to have the Core programs working seamlessly together.

Another critical goal of the State is to provide job seekers the specific skills they need to land a fulfilling Hoosier job, thus providing Indiana employers with the workforce that allows them to succeed and grow. To facilitate this, the agency is embarking on a project (called the Demand Driven Workforce System or DDWS rebranded to IndianaCareerReady.com or ICR) to build a data system to identify those skills job seekers need in order to fill current job openings as well as jobs that will become available 3, 5 and 10 years into the future. By knowing what employers need in terms of specific skills in their future employees, educational institutions can design curricula to ensure students obtain those skills thus helping close the “skills gap.” Additionally, job seekers can select education and training paths that will give them the specific skills they need to land those future jobs.

DWD has created IndianaCareerReady.com (ICR), as web-based application that offers connectivity to Indiana CareerConnect.com, IndianaCareerExplorer.com and Hoosiers By the Numbers website. Through the ICR website Hoosier jobseekers, employers, students/parents, education/training providers, and workforce partners can access career and interest assessment tools, search for education and training opportunities, and find current job openings.

DWD has created a ranking system to determine Indiana INDemand jobs. The demand indicator is based upon a methodology that ranks all Indiana jobs based on future growth and wages. Rankings are updated quarterly using demand and wage data.

While traditional time-lagged data can be used to identify current and future job demand and the skills associated to those jobs, the data often provides generally broad education and skill requirements and can be slow to highlight new and emerging job categories. In select cases, that is sufficient. But in others, it is not. In these cases, ICR will supplement this traditional approach to identifying skills and demand using:

• real-time data obtained from analyzing current job postings, posted resumes, and other relevant unstructured and structured data sources;
• advanced data analysis tools and techniques;
• data gleaned from direct employer engagement (i.e. in the form of employer surveys, meetings with employers, economic development initiatives, etc.); and
• data developed by external (industry-specific) modelling tools that include forward looking data.

Another project is the State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS), which has been active for over a year. This project is called the Indiana Network of Knowledge (INK). INK will bring together data from across many State agencies in a single data repository. This data along with new technologies to store and analyze will provide insight into the state pipeline of future employees (the Supply). Using this data along with employer demand data from the ICR will allow the State to identify potential future skill gaps. Educational and training institutions can use the data to provide the programs that teach those skills and abilities so that when students graduate they have a fulfilling Hoosier job awaiting them. INK will also help the State measure the effectiveness of its programs by being able to track participant progress after they leave the program. INK will allow analysis of program participants to determine if they are entering/completing additional education or entering/remaining in employment.

In January of 2017, Governor Holcomb, through executive order, created the Management Performance Hub (MPH). MPH is charged with overseeing the SLDS. Under MPH, INK was rebranded as the Education and Workforce Development data hub.

The State continues to support and enhance the Hoosiers by the Numbers website as the source for all workforce data. This site is Indiana’s Labor Market Information website which includes many virtual tools with information for community leaders and individuals. The Indiana Business Research Center also assists in the hosting, developing, and secreting the Workforce Information Database (WID) as mandated by the Workforce Information Grant. This site offers data tools and downloads for all of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment and Wage statistics programs. This includes information on the incumbent workforce, unemployment trends, labor force estimates, and projections for future occupations in demand. The site is designed for career counselors, job seekers, economic developers and the general public. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development continued to populate the Workforce Information Database with state and local data that covers at least the most recent ten year period. The Workforce Information Database serves as the primary source for Indiana’s website (Hoosiers by the Numbers) and is supplemented by the Stats Indiana database, maintained by our university partner, IBRC. The data covers counties, metropolitan statistical areas, economic growth regions and balance of state areas in addition to statewide estimates and aggregates.

Hoosiers by the Numbers had more than 81,000 active sessions and nearly 55,000 unique users between January and December of 2017.. Nearly 13,000 of these sessions occurred on mobile phones (and almost half of those were on iPhones). Another 3,366 sessions occurred on tablets (primarily iPads), while 65,097 were on workstations and during the prime working hours of 8am and 6pm each day. Page views ran to a high of 367,006 during the period, with 5 pages viewed on average during and average visit of 5 minutes - a significant measure of "stickiness" for the site. The core of Hoosiers by the Numbers is strong navigation geared to people looking for their county or region or a specific piece of data on a workforce related topic. The site is powered by more than 10 billion records in the joint databases of the IBRC and DWD and is meant to serve as a leading informational site for business developers, researchers and the public alike.

A key driver behind many of the State IT initiatives is to ensure common data standards are developed to allow for more effective data analysis within specific regions as well as across the state. This data analysis will allow the State to constantly measure and improve, then measure and improve again. Data gathered will be used to shape future policy decisions.