Florida s Business Engagement Plan. VISION Florida will develop a globally competitive workforce.

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1 Florida s Business Engagement Plan VISION Florida will develop a globally competitive workforce. MISSION Florida will develop the state s business climate by designing and implementing strategies that help Floridians enter, remain and advance in the workforce, becoming more highly skilled and successful, benefiting Florida business and the entire state. Background/Statement of Need - One Voice Strategy Led by Workforce Florida Inc., the statewide workforce policy and investment board, Florida s workforce system is uniquely positioned to help lead the way in responding to current and future marketplace talent needs by investing in shared goals across workforce, education, economic development and industry. Fundamental to workforce system-led strategies is an understanding that investment at both the state and local levels remain demand-driven, delivering workers with relevant skills to meet businesses needs. The One Voice Strategy for the system underscores the critical importance of communicating to business a coordinated and connected system with aligned resources to support employers existing and emerging needs. This strategy is consistent with the state s fiveyear strategic plan for workforce development. The strategy also aligns with Governor Rick Scott s priority for ensuring mission-focused, effective and efficient use of workforce funding at every level. Upfront business partnerships are essential to training Florida s workforce to meet the current and future needs of diverse business sectors, particularly in those industry clusters that hold most promise for high-wage jobs and diversifying Florida s economy. The workforce system has made progress in partnering with business and industry but our current employer penetration/usage metrics indicates tremendous opportunity exists to

2 develop a systematic, mutually beneficial approach to developing business partnerships. Both business and workforce have a vested interest in partnering but the onus is on the workforce system to effectively communicate and market the value of the partnership. Ease of access to Florida s workforce services via the Employ Florida Marketplace is just a start. GOALS: Proposed strategies to improve this partnership with business include: First, Florida has a need to set system-wide goals for strengthening our business workforce. Largely, we want to ensure that our services are helping businesses achieve job creation, job retention and job advancement within their workplaces. Underscoring the importance of those goals will be the identification of key performance indicators (KPIs) of our current business service offerings. These indicators will tell us whether or not our workforce system s current business services are helping the businesses achieve the goals identified; allowing us to make adjustments to our services along the way. Together, the perspectives of state and regional representatives through this initiative will ensure that the identified goals and KPIs are aligned. Second, we want to assess our infrastructure and acquire system capabilities to help us track, measure and report on these performance measures. Procuring a Customer Relationship Management system, such as Salesforce.com, could help us create such a tool, and could aid us in producing a performance dashboard for local and state practitioners service delivery to ultimately reward the efforts that lead to achieving the goals outlined in our business engagement strategy.

3 Finally, this initiative would help us reinforce the delivery of one voice system. We are, after all, one system structured to support the needs of our entire population. Florida is a large, geographically diverse state, which often makes it difficult to collaborate and give voice to all areas of the state workforce system. Accomplishment of these goals will assure Florida: Develops the most accurate, credible, just-in-time market-relevant supply/demand workforce analytics needed to enable Florida s workforce system make effective and prudent decisions about programs and resources, especially for the state s target industry clusters and infrastructure industries that help bridge the skills gap. Enhances traditional labor market statistics by incorporating other sources of data to create more robust systems that are reflective of the changing economy, and enable the workforce system to move beyond just the provision of data, toward more interpretation and analysis. Builds on existing local industry-specific workforce/business consortiums and establishes new ones in partnership with economic development organizations. TEAM SELECTION The Florida Expanding Business Engagement Team includes, business owners, Workforce Florida Board members, Regional Workforce Board Directors, and Economic Development. The team includes representation of both rural and urban areas of Florida, users of Salesforce.com at the regional level, an information technology expert to advise on infrastructure and system needs, and outreach personnel to guide the project throughout Florida and other states that may wish to utilize this system. Below are the members of the Florida team:

4 Al Stimac, Workforce Florida Board Member, Business Owner Roger Hood, Executive Director, Local Regional Workforce Board Gerry Genovese, Vice President of Business Services, Workforce Alliance, Inc. Gene Wheeler, Director of Talent Acquisition, Workforce Alliance, Inc. Carol Carlson, Director of Business Services, Workforce Alliance, Inc. Gina Reynolds, Executive Director, Florida Rural Economic Development Initiative Kelly Smallridge, President & CEC, Palm Beach Business Development Board John Wanamaker, John Wanamaker, Broker, Coldwell Banker Rick Fraser, President, Center for Business Excellence Mike Lynch, Department of Economic Opportunity From Workforce Florida Andra Cornelius, Senior Vice President, Business & Economic Development Debbie McMullian, Program Director Jayne Burgess, Program Director Dehryl McCall, Program Manager Nathan Roberts, MIS Manager, Goals for the Fall Institute: Workforce Florida s goal for the Fall Institute will be to examine best practices and identify how to implement saleforce.com or other related marketing/management tools in Florida. In 2011, Workforce Florida uncovered critical gaps related to our system s marketing and brand, as well as our business services in meeting the future talent and competitiveness needs of key industries. WFI conducted several customer satisfaction surveys to gather insights directly from employers in key industry clusters: aerospace/aviation, clean tech and healthcare. Each industry report pointed to a need to address many of the same challenges: businesses were not familiar with Workforce Florida or the regional workforce board services, businesses saw little value in the services offered for finding and developing talent, and many businesses were not willing to return to the workforce system for support.

5 The gaps exist within our own service delivery. There is a lack of knowledge our state and regional practitioners have of the full spectrum of tools and services we can offer our business customers and a dire need among practitioners to meet more frequently and establish more meetings for idea sharing, training and best practices. Pre-Institute Planning Discussion to better meet the needs of Florida businesses is ongoing. In April, 2012, Workforce Florida conducted a Florida s Business Services Liaisons Summit to share best practices, and to introduce a Business Service Model. The event was well attended and provided a forum for best practice discussion. On August 1, 2012, Florida held the first teleconference call for Expanding Business Engagement. The call introduced the members and provided an overview of the project including expectation of each member, travel requirements, strategic planning, etc. Additional calls will be held prior to the first Institute in October. Follow-Up Activities Follow-up at the Institute will include developing a timeline chart to begin implementation of this grant. This timeline will include key dates for activities, i.e. face to face meetings, teleconferences, product information sharing, etc. Responsibilities for the project will be distributed as well as a plan for mentorships to all of Florida and other states that may be interested. Preliminary Year Two Mentoring Ideas Showcase successful workforce/business partnerships at local, regional and statewide workforce and economic development business events.

6 Make technical assistance available through teleconference calls, webinars etc. as identified and needed. Sharing best practice documents and strategies at the request of mentee states.