CONTEXT: Workforce system study prompts new problem-solving commission 

In January 2021 Illinois passed the Education and Workforce Equity Bill to strengthen the state’s ability to provide high-quality cradle-to-career services. The resulting feasibility study highlighted several challenges and areas of improvement for the public workforce system specifically: 

• Unprecedented unemployment disproportionately impacts communities of color, resulting in unequal access to economic opportunity 

• Multiple entry points for job seekers and workers results in the experience of a fragmented system 

• Agency ‘siloing’ results in duplication of administrative and program efforts 

• Over-reliance on (diminished) federal funding combined with limited state investment prevents necessary technology upgrades, such as common intake and performance dashboards 

• Data sharing across agencies is cumbersome 

To address these challenges and opportunity areas, Governor J.B. Pritzker established the statewide Commission on Workforce Equity and Access. 

GOALS: An effective, user-informed workforce system 

The Commission’s charge was to create a vision for an equitable, accessible, and effective future state workforce system grounded in an understanding of user and stakeholder experience, including how racial, social, and geographic inequities inform experience and outcomes across Illinois’ federally- and state-funded workforce programs.  ​ 

In alignment with this vision the Commission was also tasked with recommending: 

• key design enhancements and improvements to the state workforce system,​ 

• potential streamlining of state agencies, and ​ 

• the governance structure and state leadership needed for execution.​ 

APPROACH: Human-centered and intentional facilitation design 

Afton served as the convener and facilitator of the Governor’s Commission on Workforce Equity and Access. The Commission was comprised of thirty-five members representing employers, workforce development providers, agency leaders, and advocacy organizations, and was co-chaired by Illinois State Senator, Kimberly Lightford, and Deputy Governor, Andy Manar. In addition to monthly meetings with the full group, Afton ran two work groups in collaboration with our partner, MDRC: one focused on understanding the job seeker experience in the public workforce system, and the other focused on identifying funding, infrastructure, and governance recommendations to improve the job seeker experience. 

We wanted commissioners to authentically understand how people live their lives and to wrestle with how Illinois’ workforce development system could be improved to minimize and eradicate systemic inequities. To do this, we rooted the process in equity by: 

• Using a human-centered design process to anchor our inquiry. 

• Designing personas to explore the specific and real-life impacts of systemic inequity and injustice. 

• Remaining accountable to the job seeker by including their direct experiences and voices. 

• Grounding commission meetings in a vision of what an equitable workforce development system could be. 

• Ensuring the meeting cadence and information-sharing process included all interested community members. 

• Voluntarily inviting public comments and questions at every meeting. 

• Maintaining a public website with summary materials and meeting notes. 

• Acknowledging that effective support for the job seeker also requires effective support for those working with the job seeker. 

We collaborated with MDRC to develop “personas” of typical Illinois residents and completed individualized journey maps to illuminate common pain points and challenges. To supplement our understanding of job seeker experiences, we also conducted focus groups with job seekers who had “exited” a workforce program, job seekers who had never interacted with the system, frontline staff from each of the four WIOA Title programs, and employers and employer advocates. From there the group identified a new vision statement for the public workforce system, conceptualized design enhancements to move the state closer to this vision, and determined the enabling conditions needed for implementation. Our process ensured that all recommendations directly reflected the input of Illinois workers, system staff, and community advocates.