Public-Sector Modernization

The Heldrich Center has embarked upon several initiatives to improve and modernize the U.S. public workforce development system, including the following projects.

The Heldrich Center conducted an in-depth examination of the innovative approaches to modernizing the Unemployment Insurance system in New Jersey during the pandemic. This review enhanced the public and policymakers’ understanding of how these systems nationwide can be improved to serve the needs of unemployed workers while also doing so in an efficient manner. First, the Center held an initial series of immersive intensive investigations into Unemployment Insurance processes and policies. In June 2023, the Heldrich Center held a virtual forum to highlight this work and the modernization efforts under way in New Jersey. It was attended by 200 senior policymakers representing 35 state governments as well as advocates of those who are unemployed. Finally, the study resulted in a research report in September 2023 that can help other states and advocates to understand this novel approach to providing people with benefits when they need them.

The Center has produced four comprehensive reports to identify gaps in employment and training research and to recommend research processes and priorities that will inform policymakers, practitioners, and job seekers. The goal of these reports was to describe the employment and training research being conducted by a range of sponsors and identify potential research and evaluation efforts that could assist federal, state, and local policymakers and practitioners to design and implement effective employment and training programs for job seekers and employers. These reports were developed to guide federal agencies, state and local workforce agencies, nonprofit organizations, and foundations as they make critical research and evaluation investments.

In 2020, the Newark Opportunity Youth Network (NOYN) established the Newark Youth Workforce Collaborative to align programming and resources with other youth-serving organizations in Newark, New Jersey. While the city of Newark has made great strides in training youth, its youth workforce system is fragmented and operated in silos, especially for in-school youth. To address this situation, NOYN contracted the Heldrich Center to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the youth workforce development system in New Jersey. The study resulted in a report that examined the development of New Jersey’s youth workforce system since the implementation of the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, including available funding for youth workforce development and the programs currently serving youth in New Jersey. The report also reviewed the systemic and financial realities that have impeded a more collaborative approach to helping opportunity youth. Finally, the report offered recommendations from local and national experts to improve youth workforce development in New Jersey.

The Heldrich Center launched the Suddenly Virtual series in March 2020 at the start of the global pandemic when public workforce staff were suddenly forced into virtual operations. Suddenly Virtual explored how the public workforce system responded to the pandemic and the need to offer virtual services through remote teams. The series offered technological tools, tips, and strategies that could be employed by the public workforce system to reach virtual customers more efficiently and effectively. Through multi-state surveys, roundtable discussions, and other direct contact with the field, researchers produced issue briefs, blog posts, and toolkits to quickly share what was happening in the field and identify challenges, opportunities, and recommendations for immediate action. Later, the Heldrich Center, launched Strategically Virtual, which built off the lessons learned from Suddenly Virtual to explore how to guide the public workforce system on being more strategically virtual, particularly how that could be operationalized at the state and local levels. Strategically Virtual envisioned how the public workforce system could engage community resources and partners to address job seekers’ needs.

Do you need our expertise in public-sector modernization?

Reach out to hcwd@ejb.rutgers.edu to see how the Heldrich Center can help.