KPIs: Who’s Tracking What

Pam Sornson, JD on September 18, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

September 19, 2023

There’s a big push these days to improve the integration of governmental, industrial, and educational resources for the purpose of building a more robust, more resilient economy. The initiative makes sense considering the invaluable assets each of those sectors contributes to national, regional, and local economies.

However, the internal workings of each sector are decidedly different from the other two, and they don’t routinely communicate with the others about challenges arising within their spheres of influence. Those non-communication practices are now posing challenges to the establishment of a genuinely collaborative economic and workforce development (EWD) strategy. That strategy will require intentional discussions to uncover common goals that unite group efforts and build systems to achieve those goals, leveraging resources from all three divisions.

One way to structure those discussions is to couch them in KPI development terms. Defining the “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs) for use as guides by individual enterprises will help project participants move together to accomplish a greater, more comprehensive level of success for all.

 

KPIs Spotlight Gaps …

A KPI is a quantifiable demonstration of progress toward a specific end result. Many companies achieve success by using KPIs to define their goals, activities, inputs, and outcomes. Mapping out a clear set of KPIs is often the primary and most important tool for leveraging corporate assets to achieve enterprise success.

Within the EWD project,  participants in each sector will have to understand and work with the existing KPIs from the other sectors. The initiative will only succeed if all three sectors can mutually agree on and work collaboratively toward relevant KPIs. Considering the significant differences between their respective KPI systems, those agreements may be challenging to achieve.

Existing Government KPIs:

Governments track thousands of data points in their quest to be accountable, responsible, and effective. In the EWD sphere, a priority oversight function tracks the allocation and spending of public dollars for public education systems. School district administrators use KPIs to ensure each school appropriately uses its allocated funding. Data points here include administrative expenditures per student, first to third-year retention rates, student/teacher ratios, and course completion data, to name just a few. Government funding (primarily at the state level) accounts for most public education financing, including that for community colleges.

Existing Industry KPIs

Regardless of their subject matter, industries typically have well-defined KPIs within each subsector and another layer of more encompassing KPIs, knitting those subsectors together into a cohesive division. KPI systems can track hundreds of industrial activities within a single enterprise, and each individual data point reflects a critical element in the success of the overarching arena. For example, participants in the manufacturing sector often measure productivity quantifiers, such as machinery downtime, capacity utilization, and inventory turnover. Other KPIs measure workforce data, including scheduling, staff turnover, benefits management, and training costs.

Most notably, a quick review of KPI strategies in both government and industry sectors reveals very little overlap among them – what one sector is measuring is not measured by the other. The gaps between them are where the EWD initiatives can emerge. Participants in both sectors can collaborate to develop their common EWD goals and build collaborative – cross-sector – systems to achieve them.

 

… And Offer Pathways to Solutions

Developing a unified set of KPIs that encompass cross-sector EWD activities lays the foundation for the work to come. Within these discussions, sector participants can clarify where their priorities lie, how they can contribute to the global project without losing traction on their internal master plan, and the intended outcomes they will all strive toward. Accordingly, the first conversations should encompass these five KPI development principles:

    1. Clarify the purpose of the joint project, in this case, how to share sector assets and activities to further mutual EWD goals. The project’s ‘purpose’ will also define its intended outcome; a successful strategy is more likely when all participants agree on and commit to pursuing this set of mutually agreed upon results.
    2. Connect internal, sector-based activities to the project’s outcome(s). In some cases, existing activities and systems are already in place; in other cases, current programs may need revisions or sunsetting in favor of actions more in keeping with the larger initiative.
    3. Ensure that efforts to achieve each common goal are also relevant to the decision-makers in each sector. Experts at KPI development suggest that each indicator should be ‘SMART’: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reliable, and Timely. Sector leaders can rely on the KPIs within their specific pillar to guide them to success. EWD project leaders can rely on those results to build the more complex systems of the larger scheme.
    4. Embed existing mandates and benchmarks into the KPI constellation. All three pillars – government, industry, and education – are governed by regulations, rules, and policies. Those requirements must be met, so embedding them within the scope of the KPI strategy will ensure success toward both mandates – those of the industry and those of the EWD project.
    5. Engage stakeholders early and often. No project can succeed if it fails to meet the needs of those it is designed to assist. In this instance, the ‘stakeholders’ are, essentially, every member of every community: students (of all ages), workers, businesses, industries, government agencies, and anyone else who benefits from a strong economy.

 

A review of KPIs across industries reveals how organizations are now measuring their success. That review also shows how narrowly focused the indicators are on the efforts of the specific entity. If society is seeking a reinvigorated economy by integrating its governmental, educational, and industrial assets, then it needs to develop a single set of KPIs that defines what that economy will look like and how it will be built. Those collaborative conversations among government overseers, educational leaders, and industrialists are just beginning.

KPIs: Clarifying Government, Higher Ed, and Industry Metrics

Pam Sornson, JD on September 18, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

September 19, 2023

You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are. That’s the theory behind the use of ‘Key Performance Indicators,’ or KPIs, a measuring practice that tracks the connections between goals, activities, and outcomes. While each of the three economic and workforce development ‘pillars’ – government, industry, and education – tracks its own set of sector-specific KPIs, they don’t, as a unit, track how the other two impact their ultimate success. Maybe it’s time to develop those KPIs – the ones that tie governmental investments in industry and education to work and labor force demands and the consequential expansion of economic success.

 

KPIs – Roadmaps to Success

Typically, the standards used as KPIs relate precisely to enterprise specifications, as those have evolved over time through actions mandated by internal corporate leadership, emerging industrial trends, and external regulations. Businesses use them to track and control inventory, sales, and production costs; communities use them to identify and build the resources needed to support residents and systems, and regulators use them to track industrial trends and compliance activities. Virtually every organization develops and implements its own set of internal KPIs to ensure it maintains its focus on its core mission and goal values.

The practice of establishing and maintaining a core set of KPIs may also be applicable within the economic and workforce development sector. For perhaps the first time, industrial, governmental, and educational entities are committing to work together to build a more robust economy that better supports them all. From a 30,000-foot perspective, the endeavor makes sense:

The government typically has the financial resources for developing economic assets and systems but not the expertise or personnel.

Industry typically has the expertise, technologies, and physical facilities needed to build economic assets but requires a strong and well-trained workforce to provide the labor.

Educators typically impact both raw and evolved workforce talent but don’t have the employment/deployment capabilities to leverage their value.

Together, each of these three ‘economic development pillars’ – and countless other smaller and ancillary ‘workforce development’-related arenas – comprise the foundation of the shared global, regional, and local economies that sustain societies and their constituents. Yet, regardless of the critical roles each of the three plays in the activities of the other two, as a group, they do not track how the actions and outputs of the other pillars impact the efforts they make within their own sector. Their internal practices aren’t designed to work in tandem with the others toward a mutually accepted objective that will improve their shared economy.

Instead, each entity, enterprise, and pillar develops and pursues its internal KPIs with little or no awareness of the comparable activities of its economic colleagues. And without intentional and directed connections among and between them about who’s doing what and why, there is almost no way for them – as a collaborative team – to create a revised economy that responds to the current economic chaos while maximizing both existing and emerging workforce and economic resources. Developing a comprehensive connection strategy among them might ease the effort of each in finding future economic success in the form of a sustainable, fair, and generous economy that supports all of its constituents.

What the triad of pillars might need is a single set of KPIs that tie the efforts of each to the successes of the others. Each pillar can embed the new metric-tracking processes into its own internal strategy to better meld its individual accomplishments with the overarching societal goals that all three strive toward.

 

 

Educational KPIs – As An Example

The routine collection of information related to ‘college student success’ began in the mid-20th Century and grew increasingly important as a way to measure the value of public investments in higher education. Today, colleges have an established set of metrics – KPIs – that they use to track their progress as teachers, community members, and institutions. The effort taken to implement programs responsive to those KPIs pays off when the data demonstrates the school’s compliance with internal and external mandates.

However, in most cases, those metrics do not relate to how well their graduates are faring in the work world. Other than finding a job in their chosen field post-graduation, the ‘student success’ metrics reported by colleges reflect success as a student in a school and not as a future employee or societal economic asset.

From the college perspective, ‘student success’ metrics track how well their student body as a whole fares throughout the educational journey. Schools report high marks for ‘student success’ by collecting data related to these criteria:

They have a high graduation rate – the number of students who graduate within a specific time frame;

They have a high ‘course success’ rate – the number of students who complete a course;

Their students demonstrate a high ‘persistence’ rate – the number of students who ‘persist’ in attendance from semester to semester;

Their students also demonstrate a high level of ‘student engagement’ in both course and extracurricular activities;

There is a low level of ‘disproportionate impact’ of challenges on specific student groups or populations, and

There is a high passing rate for licensures by graduating students.

None of these collect data on the graduate’s post-education activities, whether they found work, whether the training they received was valued in their chosen field, or whether they are able to sustain a comfortable lifestyle based on their educational attainment.

Further, there is also no mechanism within the other two pillars that automatically connects educational inputs to industrial or economic outcomes. Without that intentional evaluative tool, it will be exceedingly difficult to measure whether the collaborations now evolving within the economic and workforce development sectors are – or will be – successful.

Economic challenges emerging from the recent pandemic suggest that such a new ‘combined outcomes’ measurement strategy might be beneficial, especially if the nexus of government/industry/education is going to achieve the level of economic growth it seeks. Full economic recovery might be attained earlier if collaborations among the three pillars can establish, implement, and report on their individual progress toward mutually agreed upon common goals.

Workforce Factors Affect Economic Development Strategies

Pam Sornson, JD on August 15, 2023

It’s not just the chaos caused by the pandemic, social concerns, and climate upheavals driving California’s urgent need to reinvent and reinvigorate its workforce. Economic experts seeking solutions to the challenge must also consider the rate of migration out of the state, a slowdown of immigration into the state, and California’s already aging population, as well as trends in the nature of the workforce in general. Rebuilding the economic foundations that have been lost while building fresh infrastructure for future industrial and economic growth will require collaboration among all of the state’s varied sectors if California is going to achieve in the future what it’s accomplished in the past.

Birth, Death, and Migration …

For decades, California’s booming population has fueled its equally booming economy. The end of World War Two triggered a ‘baby boom’ as returning GIs began building their futures and their families. In 1946, California’s population stood at just over 9.5 million. By 1960, that number had almost doubled to over 15 million. Now, in 2023, the state’s population has exploded to ~39 million, with both boomer babies and a thriving influx of immigrants powering state-wide economic growth for almost 80 years.

That constant population growth is slowing, however, and the state now has more job openings than it has available workers. As of June 2023, there were more than one million unfilled job positions in California, the highest number of occupational vacancies in the country. Several factors contribute to the low number of potential workforce participants:

Californians are leaving. While the population has been declining in the state for at least two decades, just since 2010, ~7.7 million people moved away. Only 5.8 million moved into the state during that period, leaving a net population loss of ~1.9 million. The pandemic, social concerns, and environmental issues caused another exodus of 407,000 between July 2021 and July 2022, a record net outflow.

Birth rates are down. Since 1992, the rate of births per 1,000 people has been steadily dropping and has now reached its lowest level in 100 years. Thirty years ago (1992), the state added 613,00 new babies to its yearly census. In 2021, that number had dropped to just 420,000.

Fertility rates are down, too. California calculates that each woman needs a birth rate of 2.15 children over her lifetime to maintain its current population levels. Today, that birth rate has dropped to just 1.52, dropping the state’s birth rate rank from 17th to 43rd among all the states.

Death rates are up. The number of aging Californians is rising as the ‘Boomers’ reach retirement age and beyond. In fact, the state’s over-60 crowd is the fastest-growing subset of the overall population, and by 2030, experts project that seniors – almost 11 million of them – will make up a full 1/4 of the state’s entire population. And, of course, they’re dying at a faster rate than younger populations, too. California’s ‘crude death‘ death rate per 100,000 jumped from 6.5 in 2013 to 8.1 in 2022, pacing an annual rate of 2.7%.

The consequence of these population metrics – birth rates, death rates, and the population exodus – is that the number of available workers has declined and will continue to do so. That challenge will continue to plague the state’s economy, too, as government figures predict that its total population will remain stable (stagnant) at around 40 million through at least 2060.

 

… And a New Perspective on Why and How Workers ‘Work’

The shortage of workers in the labor force has also rearranged the dynamic between employer and employee. The pandemic was especially impactful on this reality. Many workers quit their jobs because of COVID concerns, and when others stepped into their roles, they asked for higher compensation to reflect their new significance to the company. In other instances, people whose jobs were deemed ‘essential’ now recognized their true value to the organization and began asking for enhanced compensation to reflect that status. Dubbed the ‘Great Reshuffling,’ the phenomenon continues to roil the labor force as workers seek better – and better paying – occupations rather than leave the workforce altogether.

 

Contractions and Consequences

The lack of a fully functioning workforce is felt throughout the state, as individual businesses and entire industries restrict growth to accommodate the absence of employees willing to take on that effort. Several sectors, in particular, have been hard hit, and their losses extend into the communities they serve.

Transportation – The pandemic’s impact on the global supply chain industry was palpable to virtually everyone. Disruptions that began during that period, however, are still in effect, both in California and the rest of the country. Labor shortages impede the transportation sector as companies struggle to find truck drivers, couriers, skilled technicians, and warehouse personnel. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, this downward employment trend has reduced the nation’s logistics workforce by 3,000 to 4,000 in just the last year.

Healthcare – A recent (2022) survey by AMN Health revealed that 85% of the healthcare facilities they questioned reported labor shortages primarily in their rosters of allied healthcare professionals – sonographers, dental hygienists, and radiology technicians, to name just three. Adding to that stress is the reality that approximately 46% of those same facilities were losing staff due to burnout and overwork. When experienced professionals are replaced – by necessity – with less experienced or temporary replacements, then the quality of care provided also often suffers.

Retail trade and the hospitality industries are also still smarting from labor losses. In the retail sector, brick-and-mortar store operators have lost the most financial ground, both in profits (because more people are shopping online) and in staffing (fewer people are willing to work those hours at that pay rate.) In hospitality, 87% of survey respondents acknowledged that they are still having difficulty finding the workers they need. Hotels are stuck with excessive vacancies because they can’t find the necessary housekeeping staff to keep them open. Perhaps most alarming: 96% of respondents in the restaurant sector reported labor shortages across their enterprise, from servers and cooks to supply chain deliveries.

 

The participants and attendees at the 5th Annual Future of Work Conference, hosted by the Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD) at Pasadena City College (PCC), will address these concerns and more during the October 26th event. The day’s goal is to highlight both the challenges and opportunities that California is facing as it works to rebuild its flagging economy. Join us to add your perspective.

State Priorities Guide Student Success Innovations

Pam Sornson, JD on August 15, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

August 18, 2023

The 5th Annual Future of Work Conference hosted by the Economic and Workforce Division (EWD) of Pasadena City College (PCC) is happening on campus in the Creveling Lounge on October 26th (8 AM – 2 PM; register here). Panelists will be discussing (among other topics) the need for California’s community colleges to develop programs and courses that respond to local, regional, and statewide workforce demands, as well as align with state and national economic priorities.

Revising any entrenched system to match emerging needs is an immense challenge for any organization. The task at hand becomes especially complex, however, when considering that California’s community college system comprises 116 schools serving almost two million learners every year. Conference speakers, hosts, and attendees will all gain insights and clarity about how the advanced education system might re-invent itself to ensure that every invested entity – students, schools, industries, and communities – can achieve its goals by working together to forge a stronger workforce development network.

 

 

Unique State = Unique Challenges

As a state, California enjoys a unique position within the country and the world. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2022 was $3.6 trillion, which makes up over 14% of the total national economy. When compared to other countries (not American states), California boasts the 4th largest economy in the world, behind the U.S., China, Japan, and Germany. That economic power drives industry of all kinds, both established and emerging, and sustains a satisfactory standard of living for most of its residents.

However, the world is currently struggling to find its new, ‘post-COVID’ economic normal, with many industries shrinking and others blossoming. California’s industrial sectors are lurching along that path, too. In response to today’s truly unprecedented reality caused by the pandemic, climate change, social unrest, and other factors, the state and its industries are working to develop new avenues to achieve economic growth and recover from economic losses. Both public and private entities are setting new goals and priorities to clear away obsolete practices and policies to make room for innovation and expansion. Financial and industry analysts are offering their take on the situation; the conference will look at how community colleges will contribute to the process of developing and achieving system-wide solutions.

 

Addressing Immediate ‘Priorities’ …

The state government establishes its priorities in part on previous initiatives and in part on consumer inputs. A September 2022 survey by the Public Policy Institute of California revealed that remediating economic concerns is the highest priority for most respondents, who highlighted the significance of improving job availability and curbing rising inflation. (Of those respondents, 38% reported suffering economic hardships caused by rising prices. Half of the lower-income adults surveyed raised the same concerns, as did higher percentages of Latinx and African Americans. Central Valley residents reported the highest number of and most severe challenges, while the San Francisco Bay area reported the fewest.)

Consequently, the state government has had to pivot away from earlier priority strategies to address its constituents’ immediate concerns. One of those pivots is to redirect public funding toward training workers for businesses and industrial sectors that show a promise for economic growth. The state’s eight-member Employment Training Panel (ETP) establishes those funding priorities based on demand by employers and changes in the state’s labor markets and the overall economy.

The ETP FY23/24 ‘Priority Industry’ funding strategy allows for a higher fixed fee reimbursement for businesses in specific industries that are clamoring for more well-trained workers; employers who underwrite the expense of training their workers will receive a higher rate of reimbursement for that purpose than they would have received in previous years. The practice encourages companies to invest in training processes without having to experience financial hardships by doing so. They get a more robust workforce, and California gets more workers on the job.

The agency’s FY23/24 newly identified ‘priority industries’ include:

Accommodation and Food Services

Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services

Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting

Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation

Construction

Finance and Insurance

Health Care and Social Assistance

Information

Manufacturing

Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction

Other Services (except Public Administration)

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Transportation and Warehousing

Utilities

Wholesale Trade

By identifying these industry sectors as ‘priority,’ the state is asserting its belief that they will be responsible for a significant portion of California’s future economic growth. The choices will guide funding support and industry collaboration toward those initiatives.

 

 … While Remaining Focused on Long-term Goals

In addition to providing immediate relief for today’s economic woes, California has also held fast to its investments in longer-term initiatives, many of which will also facilitate some relief from current economic stresses.

Decades of reduced spending have left much of the state’s infrastructure in disarray. Roads, bridges, schools, and other fundamental community assets have eroded in quality and durability. Funding directed at making those repairs will also generate new jobs and ease inflation concerns.

Regional environmental conditions have crippled hundreds of communities. Drought in the Central Valley and wildfires in counties across the state have caused billions of dollars in damage. The state is investing resources to recover from those losses while rebuilding impacted communities and industries.

Climate conditions, in general, are also getting attention from the state government. Renewable energy initiatives, in particular, encourage the development of new businesses to facilitate state mandates on controlling greenhouse gases and reducing the state’s reliance on fossil fuels.

 

This short synopsis lists only a few of the local, regional, and national priorities that guide decision-making for California’s community colleges. The October 26th discussion will focus on them closely as those experts collaborate to craft new educational pathways to facilitate their attainment.

Graduate Outcomes Require Revised Systems

Pam Sornson, JD on August 13, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

September 5, 2023

For decades, California’s higher education system has focused on three primary goals:

    1. Preparing students academically to achieve their educational goals,
    2. Facilitating a smooth path from a two-year to a four-year school for learners who choose that path, and
    3. Enhancing the college life experience for all its scholars.

Recent developments, however, suggest that adding a fourth perspective to this list of initiatives may be in order:

    1. Facilitating a smooth transition from school to work by training students in the skills and abilities they’ll need to succeed in the occupation of their choice.

Essentially, the fourth initiative suggests including ‘career readiness’ as a new and independent factor in the higher education ‘student success’ metric.

The chaos created by the pandemic, ongoing economic instability, and disrupted social systems have created a ‘perfect storm’ of crises that require immediate attention to save the country from further financial disaster. However, they also present a unique opportunity to build a new economic infrastructure on what is left of stable foundations that will drive growth now and in the future.

 

In the Spotlight: Gaps in and Misalignment of the Education/Industry/Economy Landscape

Pasadena City College is hosting its 5th Annual Future of Work Conference next month (8 AM to 2 PM, October 26 on campus in the Creveling Lounge – register here), and the focus of this year’s discussion is how to better align community college activities to ensure graduates find – and succeed at – the job they want in the field of their choice. It promises to be a spirited and well-informed dialogue.

Just one of the several topics that will be discussed is the surprisingly high number of recent college graduates reporting that they are not working within their field of study. When parsed out across educational classes (Associate, Bachelor, Masters, and Doctorate degrees and Trade School certifications or diplomas):

Less than 60% of Doctorate and Masters grads are employed full-time in the industry in which they majored, a reality shared by 50% of Bachelor’s holders, 43% of Associate degree awardees, and 33% of Trade School completers.

Those with part-time employment in their field report even less success: 28% of Associate grads, 22% of Bachelor’s, 20% of Master’s students, 11% of Trade School grads, and 6% of Doctoral recipients.

Finding a full-time job has been difficult anyway: across the higher educational slate of academic achievements, full-time work in even an unrelated field averages only 13%.

 

The reasons given by many college graduates as to why they are unable to find work in their chosen occupation are equally interesting:

Their educational path – the programs they chose and pursued – didn’t provide them with the training that they actually needed.

There were no programs available that covered the particular type of work available, so there was no way to learn its requisite skills.

The jobs they want now don’t yet have training programs in place.

The statistics appear to indicate a significant disconnect between college achievement and career attainment – graduates are not leaving their school years fully prepared for their chosen occupation. Today’s challenge, then, is to identify where that disconnect is happening and implement reforms to eliminate it.

 

It Takes a Village …

… to train a workforce. Generating a practical and functional ‘career readiness’ strategy will require input from more than just school personnel. A thorough understanding of current and future workforce expectations comes from interacting with all players within the workforce development environment:

There may be an insufficient number of jobs in specific fields of study. Job volumes evolve as the demand for those skills ebbs and flows; some occupations may simply be becoming obsolete.

Academically attained skill sets might not match those needed in the field of study. Industry standards are changing rapidly, and new requirements may not yet be reflected in the course curricula.

It may not be the subject matter education that’s insufficient, either. Some reports indicate that graduates didn’t know how to find work in their chosen field, even if it was available.

 

These concerns suggest several responses that schools could take that would work in favor of future higher education students. Overhauling internal systems to match industry and occupation requirements will provide better support for and reflect their attention to their learner’s ‘career readiness’ goal.

Investments in resources that clarify occupational demand and availability would facilitate tailoring program offerings to those that show the most promise for high employment numbers.

Use the ‘occupation demand’ data to craft more flexibility into their existing programs and build new ones that accommodate those progressions.

Use industry experts to inform and design these programs that both train to current skill sets and provide work-based learning opportunities.

Embed on-the-job training in degree, diploma, and certificate requirements, then build out the systems that connect learners to these resources.

Rework their internal student success metrics to reflect occupationally relevant data, not just attendance, grading, and credit attainment statistics.

Ultimately, responses to today’s fraught economic and social situations may require adopting a new focus for California’s higher education system. In a 2019 report, the Public Policy Institute of California listed “eight key areas” that reflect the State’s ‘most pressing higher education challenges.’ Of the eight, the top six initiatives focus on improving the college experience, while the last two on the list address workforce needs and career education. While the first six are laudable and certainly imperative within the sphere of college and university practices, they might be considered not just goals in and of themselves. Instead, the six initiatives might also be seen as interim objectives to be met on the way to achieving the ultimate goal as identified in the last two: responding to California’s workforce needs by strengthening career education.

 

Today’s ‘student success’ metrics track the data that reflects how learners are faring on their educational journey. However, it’s no longer good enough for a college to simply improve its diversity, completion rate, and accessibility if its broader graduate population isn’t also successful in attaining its occupational and career aspirations. Student success metrics should also report on the effectiveness of how well that educational journey facilitates the launch of a successful worker who contributes positively to their greater community.

Why Institutional Leadership is Critical to Student Success

Pam Sornson, JD on August 13, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

September 5, 2023

As if today’s higher education leaders don’t have enough on their plates. They’re already experiencing intense pressure from the community to improve campus diversity, shore up support for at-risk students, and rewrite the academic agenda to meet emerging post-pandemic labor force demands. However, achieving any level of success with strategies aimed at these initiatives may not be enough if, at the same time, those learners are not going to or can’t find the social, occupational, and economic benefits they expect to attain from completing their program.

Possible responses to these concerns will be part of the discussion we will have on October 26th during the 5th Annual Future of Work Conference hosted by the Economic and Workforce Development division (EWD) of Pasadena City College (PCC), from 8 AM to 2 PM, on campus at the Crevelling Lounge. Of the three primary topics to be covered, one focuses specifically on the unique position that community colleges and their leaders hold in generating ‘student success’ in the workforce development sector.

These schools wield enormous power – they consume billions of public dollars to produce a never-ending supply of ‘well-trained’ workers and workforce contributors. They also face enormous challenges – as society evolves to embrace a more divergent and technologically advanced industrial complex, they must pivot their existing resources to address the concerns arising from those uber-immediate realities. And when the connections between the school and its local and regional industrial colleagues are few and far between, it’s even harder for those leaders to know how to move forward into that unknown workforce development environment.

The conference attendees will explore possible best practices and strategies to ensure that community colleges and their regional EWD collaborators align national and state priorities and ‘student success’ metrics to improve or enhance student and institutional success and economic growth.

 

Why Strong College Leadership Matters Now (More Than Ever)

In pursuit of conventional mandates, a ‘successful’ college is one that generates positive data related to well-defined ‘student success’ metrics. Those metrics reflect how well the student body – individually and as a whole – is attending classes, persisting through programs, and graduating within reasonable time frames. Those successes are achieved because the school leadership team members – the President, Superintendent, Board of Trustees, Etc. – have aligned campus activities and aspirations with legal and educational requirements related to those standards. As a group, the stewards of the college or university have worked as a team to develop and implement the systems that both provide appropriate teaching resources and sufficient student support to guarantee a high level of graduates.

Today’s concerns, however, require the higher education system to go beyond those earlier mandates that focused solely on the learner’s academic achievements. The traditional goal of getting a cohort group to graduation is gradually being pushed aside in favor of launching a well-trained class that finds appropriate and gainful employment within their field of study and then contributes positively to the economic foundation of their society. Social, industrial, and political drivers are now compelling school leadership teams to assume responsibility for achieving this goal, too. Just as they did to achieve previously established directives, as a group, the team must now work together to assess what changes are needed and where, who and how to execute them, and, ultimately, the new slate of indicators that will track and measure the then-evolved standards of ‘student success.’

 

Aspen Institute Weighs In

The think-tank Aspen Institute (Aspen) asserts the need for strong college leadership as an imperative for this new mandate, too. In its 2021 report, ‘The Role of Presidents, Trustees, and College Leaders in Student Success,’ which explores the leadership backgrounds of the winners of its “Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence,” the agency discusses the critical impact that successful higher ed leadership has on student success. Notably, an assessment of the ‘C-Suite’ of past Prize winners reveals that they all had ‘exceptional presidents’ who successfully steered their institutions through multiple evolutions and reforms.

Aspen notes that each school’s President (and supportive Board of Trustees) used their innate strategic ability and commitment to student success to overcome some of the sizable obstacles learners face that prevent them from attaining their best achievements. Collectively, the inputs and efforts of these leaders clarify several reasons why a strong leader in the presidential role is critical to the student’s success.

1. Redirecting Cultural Expectations

Meaningful change requires adjustments in multiple school divisions, not just in the ‘student success’ or ‘student support services’ departments. One concern facing all members of the upper leadership team is the cultural norm that facilitates significant autonomy for department chiefs and faculty. While laudable for allowing individuals to direct resources as they best see fit for their immediate constituents, that segregation of authority can also interfere with school-wide communications and protocols.

Administrative decisions flowing from ‘division self-governance’ are just one way individual divisions can cause problems if theirs don’t align closely with broader institutional initiatives. Professional development requirements, for example, can be very technical to the subject matter but not necessarily conducive to student success. Developing a common, school-wide strategy for advanced accreditation that also supports enhanced student success metrics benefits both the school and the learner.

2. Financial Allocations Must Change, Too

Especially in these days of reduced enrollments, colleges must be extra careful with how they allocate their funding options. Previously, ‘student success’ was not necessarily considered when making monetary decisions, except, perhaps, within those specific departments. These days, however, if the intention is to have more employed graduates, then every school dollar should be tied to at least one step of the way toward that goal.

3. Aggregated Data Speaks Loudly

The college system itself can learn from its industry colleagues: success comes from maintaining focus and effort on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Data generate those KPIs. Divided departments don’t always share information, and even when they do, the data gathered may not have relevance outside that division’s doors. Consequently, leadership may not have access to the data it needs to make genuinely significant decisions that further the career possibilities for students. A strong ‘C-Suite’ can mandate the type of data required to ensure all divisions are working toward the student success mandate.

 

The President/Superintendent’s job is already over-wrought with challenges; emerging mandates to enhance the ‘college-to-career pathway’ only add to that burden. However, as the Aspen Institute notes, several schools have already mastered the task and developed a template that should transfer to virtually any school that intends to follow their lead. The leaders attending the Future of Work Conference will surely have their own input on these issues.

 

California’s Workforce and Labor Development Infrastructure

Pam Sornson, JD on July 30, 2023

If it takes a village to raise a single child, then it must take many villages to bring up a workforce. Fortunately, California and its regions have spent billions of dollars over decades building the individual and congregate villages needed to fuel workforce demands for the coming years. A constellation of state agencies provides the guidance, resources, and talent that connect educational and industrial efforts to the overarching California economic development strategy.

 

 

The California Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA)

In 2022, the State’s GDP topped $3.5 trillion, which amounts to more than 14% of the country’s economy. Managing the needs of the vast and diverse workforce that generated those assets is, in itself, an industry. The LWDA oversees the resources and parameters that feed and support that workforce, including individual workers, the businesses that hire them, and the industries they build. It does so through the efforts of its seven major departments, as well as numerous boards and panels that advise the State’s economic participants. In general, the agency’s work covers four major arenas, each representing a sector that contributes significant and specialized resources to the state:

Agricultural Labor Relations

Industrial Labor Relations, which includes

the Labor Commissioner’s Office

the safety and health initiatives of Cal/OSHA

The division of Worker’s Compensation, and

The division of Apprenticeship Standards.

Employment in general, including

development

training

unemployment and

public employment.

Workforce Development.

While each division adds incomparable value to the State’s overall economic landscape, perhaps the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) is the most notable for the discussion around connecting college students to future career opportunities. This branch works directly with employers to help design and implement the apprenticeship programs that will lead to well-paying jobs for learners of all backgrounds. It works in conjunction with several similarly-minded organizations to facilitate apprenticeship development and connections across many populations, including the California Community Colleges (CCC), the California Workforce Development Board, the federal Office of Apprenticeship (DOL/OA) (which is situated in the U.S. Department of Labor), the National Association of State and Territorial Apprenticeship Directors, and the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs.

 

 

California Department of Industrial Relations (Ca DIR)

As an element of the LWDA, the Ca DIR works with the agency’s boards, commissions, and divisions to address emerging issues and challenges in the State’s complex WFD arenas. Maintaining its focus on its core principles and values, this enterprise of committed public employees strives to achieve the group’s four strategic goals:

Protecting every worker’s safety, health, and rights while on the job. This endeavor entails teaching workers about labor laws and requirements, enforcing laws that protect employees, ensuring that all worksites are safe and healthy for their workforce, and tracking and enforcing prevailing wage requirements.

Giving employers the information and support they need to manage a compliant and healthy labor force, regardless of their particular industry. When businesses elect to ignore or avoid regulation compliances, the agents from the CDIR will move in to enforce those rules and protect workers from exploitation.

Improving access to and efficiencies within agency service sectors so that workers, businesses, and industries that need resources can readily find and utilize them.

Recruiting and onboarding industry, economic, and business experts to ensure the work of the agency is optimized, and its constituents receive the best support possible in all circumstances.

Overarching all these elements is the organization’s commitment to diversity and cultural competence so that no California resident is denied access to all available economic and social mobility resources.

 

 

The California Labor Federation (CLF)

This union organization promotes and defends the interests of working people who come from all walks of life and occupations.

Aiming to improve workplace standards in all industries, the group uses a wide range of strategies to keep workers’ best interests at the top of every employment and workforce initiative. Their three significant arenas include:

Legislative effort – their advocacy for safer worksites and better benefits has netted California’s working community significant improvements in its benefits opportunities, including a higher minimum wage, reforms to health care systems, and reduced drug costs for vulnerable populations.

Their political effort is equally impressive. California’s 1200 affiliated unions wield tremendous clout throughout the election cycle, commandeering the effort of over 20,000 union volunteers to ‘get out the vote.’ As a group, union members vote at a 10% higher rate than non-union members.

The work of this group equally impacts economic action. Union members don’t just earn money; they also spend it, so their voice can play a prominent role in policy and practice determinations. In tandem with their political impact, this ‘union of unions’ supports partnerships across industries, businesses, and governments to ensure that all invested economic participants have a strong voice and equal weight in designing state-wide economic and employment resources.

 

 

The LA Federation of Labor (LA Fed)

With over 10,000,000 residents and almost one-quarter of a million businesses, the country’s largest county is an economic force in and of itself. Not surprisingly, it also enjoys a robust union-membership community, with over 300,000 affiliated labor and union organizations that collectively represent more than 800,000 workers. Like its state-wide sibling (CLF, above), this enterprising collaboration of advocates, business builders, and social justice seekers uses its five departments to coordinate community efforts and maximize its impact.

Its operations department ensures that all activities receive the support they need, whether that means wiring a community sound system or filling local streets with well-educated and very vocal proponents for change.

Its organizing department educates and supports smaller groups of workers as they grapple with the challenges they face in their localities and regions. The LA Fed ensures that all participants understand their goals and strategies to maximize the strength of their messaging.

The agency’s political sector is equally active in the County’s legislative hallways, wherever those lie. The goal here is to ensure the election of union-sensitive local council members, regional representatives, and county leaders to ensure that the rights achieved through union organization remain protected and safe.

LA County policy decisions also get attention from the LA Fed, which works to erode the impact and control over County decision-making by ‘corporate elites’ whose interests do not include the average working population.

The LA Fed is also aware of the significance of technology in today’s messaging and communications arenas. The group works to ensure workers get the information they need to protect themselves on the job and to share their concerns with the people with the power to help them.

In conjunction with thousands of business and industry leaders, educators, and philanthropic partners, California’s state-based workforce development ‘village’ has the capacity to design, develop, and implement the education and training that today’s workers need for tomorrow’s careers. By doing so, the State maximizes its existing investments in its economic foundation while building a stronger economy for its future.

 

Rethinking the Definition and Development of ‘Labor’

Pam Sornson, JD on July 30, 2023

The way the world ‘works’ is decidedly different now than it was just four years ago. In some cases, jobs that used to sustain comfortable lifestyles no longer exist. In other cases, newly recognized labor demands have yet to find the workforce needed to fill those openings. The challenge now presented is to clarify the definitions of those new forms of ‘work’ and then find the laborers with the skills and abilities to perform those functions. And when that labor force does not yet exist, the ‘work’ becomes the task of developing the systems and strategies that will train it, employ it, and then build it. And that work requires a community effort.

The Economic and Workforce Development (EWD) division of Pasadena City College (PCC) is proud to host its fifth annual Future of Work Conference (FOW) on October 26, 2023, in the Creveling Lounge on campus. This year, our education, industry, and governance experts will weigh in on how, as a community, we can build our future workforce by better leveraging our existing resources: state and federal funds and initiatives, forward-leaning business activities, and the network of excellence contained within California’s community college system.

 

Many Voices. One Goal:  Revolutionizing Student Workforce Pathways

It’s a unique circumstance when virtually all players within a single sector – in this case, ‘workforce development’ (WFD) – are facing the same conundrum. The ‘tricky question‘ here that faces each separate WFD entity is this: “how do we maximize the values of our intrinsic assets in conjunction with those of other organizations to establish a single system that works for and benefits us all? And also benefits our community?”

Fortunately, many California-based agencies are already evaluating the situation from their own unique perspectives. The State of California has developed numerous organizational offices to manage and guide the activities within specific industrial, social, and governmental spheres, each of which focuses on a particular WFD element. The FOW will bring several of the leaders of these agencies together to share what they know – and don’t know – about today’s WFD concerns.

 

Asking the Hard Questions

Fundamentally, the concerns to be addressed are those that arise in every challenge:

WHAT needs to be done?

WHY is it critical?

WHERE is it required?

WHEN does it start?

WHO is going to do it?

The issues presented to the two FOW panels are focused primarily on the efforts of California’s Community Colleges (CCC) and how they might reimagine themselves to provide solutions to these issues. The ‘colleges’ (116 state-wide, 19 in LA County) are ‘an entity’ in and of themselves. Collectively, they serve almost two million students each year. As a unit, they represent the State’s talent pool for virtually every kind of work. Consequently, as the ‘seed’ location of today’s and tomorrow’s workforce, what the schools do together and individually can and will have a significant impact on the economic future of every region.

The conference asks its panelists to offer their insights into three overarching questions, each of which needs answers to all five of the above-referenced concerns:

      1. How can we better align the goals and systems of California’s workforce development programs, California community college career technical education, and trade unions to meet current and future WFD needs?
      2. What do we do now to adapt our best-in-class student success innovations in the California community college academic system to meet student and employer needs?
      3. How can community colleges and their regional collaborators best align national and state priorities with industry sector priorities to stimulate the growth of well-paying jobs that keep America globally competitive?

Addressing these objectives is a big ‘ask’ that will require all participants to have:

a thorough understanding of the foundational WFD tenets that guide everyone;

an awareness of where opportunities for WFD growth exist, and

a comprehension of the barriers that can or will impede progress if left in place.

Accordingly, PCC EWD has invited top talent in several agencies to bring their expertise to the table.

 

Agency Leaders Collaborating for Change

As of this edition of the Pulse, conference participants will be representing these notable organizations:

From the schools:

Pasadena City College

The California Community College Chancellors’ Office (CCCCO)

From the government:

elected officials and representatives from

the California Labor Federation (AFL-CIO)

the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency

the State of California Apprenticeship and Workforce Innovation Unit at the CA Department of Industrial Relations and

LA Federation of Labor

From the public sector:

The James Irvine Foundation

Apple

Invitations to potential panelists are still outstanding, so the full scope of the participant roster remains in development.

Not least significant to the day will be a presentation to the Conference’s inaugural ‘California Changemaker,’ an individual whose career, WFD inputs, and industrial, governmental, or social successes have provided leadership and guidance on important WFD issues and therefore deserves recognition for that effort. Not surprisingly, the candidate list for this prestigious award is long, and finalizing the selection will take some time.

 

Revolutions in economics and social dynamics are altering both our present industrial and economic complex, as well as the plans and strategies we thought we had in place for the future. Our society can’t continue to operate on outdated game plans that can’t serve the emerging needs of today’s technology-based infrastructure. And no single entity has all the answers, resources, or opportunities to move everyone forward. As the adage says, ‘it takes a village …. ,’ and the PCC EWD Future of Work Conference is inviting all ‘village’ members to join in strategizing where we want to go and how we intend to get there.

 

Influences on Labor in the Post Pandemic Era – America and the World

Pam Sornson, JD on July 17, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

July 18, 2023

Many entities have offered predictions about the future of economic development, including the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC). That agency recently released its 2023 Economic Forecast, detailing the opportunities and challenges emerging from the COVID-19 fog and its rippling repercussions. As one of many reports and analyses, it provides insights and opinions regarding present and future economic circumstances that are relevant at all levels of every community, both locally and globally.

 

Economic Headwinds Hinder Progress

The pandemic. Inflation. Global and social conflict. Climate change. Each of these concerns has impacted or is significantly impacting society, as are the consequent human responses made because of them. Looking back over the past three years, these pressures have made long-lasting or permanent impressions on the country’s economic and workforce sectors.

 

 

 

In Large Corporations

The four phenomena listed above have created challenging repercussions for the country’s larger firms and organizations. In many instances, these enterprises base their revenues on the price and availability of the commodities they use to produce their proprietary products. In virtually all of those cases, the impediments imposed over the past three years have generated supply chain woes that eroded both their earning capacity and their market share:

The variety and availability of transport options within the global supply chain network shrank considerably during the pandemic as purveyors closed their doors to prevent spreading the disease. Those that remained open were swamped, and both carriers and ports were stressed beyond their limits, causing delivery delays and service disruptions.

Environmental upheavals also contributed to the supply chain difficulties. Drought, floods, tornados, and violent storms all interfered with the production, manufacturing, transport, and delivery of billions of dollars worth of materials and goods. And those elements continue to create havoc; by the end of April 2023, just in the United States, there were seven weather-related events that each caused damages of more than one billion dollars.

Conflicts between nations around the world also negatively impact America’s economic fortunes, whether it is actively involved in them or not. The battle between Russia and Ukraine, general tension in East Asia, and the ongoing struggle of ‘Brexit’ all pose barriers between the U.S. and its international trading partners. China’s growing political influence makes the global situation darker, as well.

Because so many of these big businesses are also significant players in America’s economy, the economic injuries they suffer are felt throughout the entire country.

 

In Small Businesses

As a subset of the corporate community, the country’s ‘small business’ sector has experienced an uneven recovery post-pandemic when compared to the larger commercial venture segment. Several factors combine to add pressure on these smaller companies (typically defined by lower annual revenues or smaller employee headcounts):

Industry type plays a big role in the capacity of its constituents to survive an economic downturn. Service industries such as hospitality, leisure, and arts and entertainment lost significant financial ground through COVID, and many organizations within those quarters did not recover.

Changing modes of employment contributed to challenges as well. The shift to remote work in many industries has left whole swaths of commercial real estate vacant, and it’s unclear whether the demand for that type of office space will return.

Post-pandemic inflation has also eroded the small business’s ability to maintain its place within its market. Usually, available working capital is limited for these smaller enterprises, and higher prices for commonly used commodities drain those resources faster than before.

Small businesses comprise a large slice of the American economy; contractions within this segment impact every community in which they exist.

 

A Contentious Infrastructure

Another concern that is – and will continue – impacting the work of the future is the current roiling of today’s workforce environment. ‘How’ work gets done changed irrevocably during the pandemic, and those innovations continue to evolve. Additionally, social upheaval across the country underscored the significance and corrosive realities of embedded inequity barriers to economic growth. Reviewing current circumstances at the micro-local level reveals equally imposing challenges to a fully realized economic recovery.

Sector Restructures

So many ways of doing business are now obsolete as the industrial world embraces emerging technological innovations. Customers are no longer greeted at the shop door but instead place orders, file complaints, and pay their bills using their digital devices. The ‘digital’ factor alone has up-ended virtually every brick-and-mortar enterprise by eliminating the need for excess square footage and unnecessary staff while also requiring technology investments that had never been needed before. Larger organizations must also shift their operations to account for crisis-driven changes in their relationships with suppliers, regulators, and consumers.

Embedded Inequities

The social turmoil that exploded before and during the pandemic turned a glaring spotlight on how the embedded inequities built into many public systems leave large percentages of the population unprotected in times of trouble. In many cases, these unfair practices and policies were deliberately designed years ago to promote one class of people over another. In all cases, they result in the loss of an inestimable volume of invaluable yet wasted human resources.

 

Individually and collectively, the influence of each of the four catastrophic phenomena has been profound, and this time frame – 2020 through 2023 – will, most likely, be seen as the cumulative pivot point when society fully embraced the emerging ‘5th Industrial Revolution.’ They have irrevocably changed the definition of ‘work,’ how it is valued, and the value it will provide in the future. Looking forward, those changes also allow every community to redress past mistakes and build a stronger, more robust economic foundation to support everyone, regardless of heritage or history.

 

Influences on Labor in the Post-Pandemic Era – California and Los Angeles County

Pam Sornson, JD on July 17, 2023

Pam Sornson, JD

July 18, 2023

Even in light of the economic, social, and political upheavals of the past few years, there remains in California an optimism that this moment presents more opportunity than oppression. Foreign investment levels are rising after a dip during the pandemic. Federal and state investments promise both more jobs and an improved infrastructure. Unemployment figures show that the State has reached its pre-pandemic level, and the overall employment picture continues to improve. In Los Angeles County, data suggests there is also reason to believe better days are ahead.

 

California’s Economic Future

An underpinning foundation of the State’s future growth is the recent investment by both its government and the federal government in California-based projects. The ‘feds’ have noted the State’s unique economic attributes and opportunities and are helping to revamp those in anticipation of future development expectations. The 2021 federal ‘Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal’ (aka the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)) aims at (finally) rebuilding the country’s crumbling transportation and utility frameworks after decades of neglect.

The State’s transportation network gains the most federal support:

Its bridges, roads, and railway projects will see a cash injection from the feds of almost $5B ($4.938B).

Ports and waterways will receive another $10M, which will offer some response to the pandemic-driven crowding at both the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. These adjacent shipping destinations combine to form the 10th largest port system in the world.

Support for ‘active‘ (human-powered – walking, cycling, etc.) and public transportation services will amount to almost two billion dollars ($1.962B).

The conversion to electric vehicles will grow with the support of $57M federal dollars aimed at an infrastructure for electric cars, ferries, and buses.

Responders to the environmental challenges that were prevalent throughout the state (drought, wildfires, and floods ravaged many communities) will share $228M in federal aid to alleviate those problems and build back solutions.

Public safety also nets a gain of $331M, aimed at improving drivers’ safety on California’s many highways and roads. So far, the IIJA accounts for more than $3.25B in recent investments, which, in turn, is responsible for creating over 42,300 jobs.

The ‘Build Back Better Regional Challenge‘ awarded California $67.1M in 2022 to assist disinvested communities with rebuilding efforts. As an aspect of the ‘American Rescue Plan,’ the grant was part of the $195M the State received to “catalyze new markets and technologies [that drive] shared prosperity … [and] unleash state and local innovation … .”

California itself is investing heavily in its own future. It allocated $54B over ten years into its transportation network through Senate Bill 1, the ‘Road Repair and Accountability Act‘ of 2017. Fiscal year 22-’23 will see a road-building budget of $1.6B from this source and another $8B for improvements in its logistics and product transportation sector.

 

LA County’s Economic Future

As home to almost ten million people, Los Angeles County’s population is bigger than that of 95 countries. Its ~4,000 square miles support a multitude of industries and nearly 300,000 businesses. Accordingly, its economic future is more about its specific metrics than it is about its connection with other states.

That distinction explains some of the anomalies that show up in LA County’s current economic analysis.

 

On the Downside:

Unlike the rest of the state, the County still struggles with an employment gap of about 25,000 vanished jobs, primarily in the hospitality, leisure, manufacturing, and wholesale trade industries. Other sectors, in contrast, are doing well after the pandemic; the education, health services, and professional & business services sectors have experienced ‘robust’ growth in the past year.

Tourism remains down, too. LAX data indicates that international and domestic traveler numbers remain at ~75% of pre-pandemic levels. Fewer travelers from China are just one influence that continues to suppress this industry.

Also weighing on county leadership is the exodus of Californians to other states. The California Department of Finance reports that approximately 300,000 people have left the state since 2019 and that the City of Los Angeles has been home to more than half of them.

One reason for that departure is that LA County has the highest number of impoverished households in the nation and the worst income inequality in Southern California. Consequently, inflation, job losses (for any reason), and industrial advances that leave these populations behind all add additional barriers to finding their ‘new’ future.

Other trends in LA County are also notable because of how they impact the region’s capacity to fully recover from the pandemic and its consequences.

Housing affordability has caused serious pain for thousands of county residents who can’t afford a single-family home’s now-typical ~$975K price tag.

The shift to remote work is also impeding economic progress, especially in urban areas that usually host several thousand people on a daily basis (‘daytime occupancy’). These mostly-business districts were also home to restaurants, hotels, and other ancillary agencies, many of which closed for lack of business during and after the pandemic.

Compounding the daily occupancy issue is the correlated real estate vacancy rate. In LA County, vacancy rates for office space are approaching 16%, up from ~10% in Q1 2020.

Taking into consideration all the economic and industrial elements that drive the development of a regional ‘domestic product’ calculation, LA County is expected to experience a slight economic contraction over the next two years as these circumstances continue to drag on efforts toward growth.

 

On the Upside

Despite continuing low employment numbers in some industries, job hiring numbers are growing beyond pre-pandemic levels in others. Organizations doing business in natural resources, mining, construction, business services, information, education, and health services have surpassed the employment levels they established in 2019. Many of these sectors – education and health services, in particular – will continue to see growth in the future. As well, transportation and infrastructure projects in and around Los Angeles County are receiving $368 million in federal funding in Fiscal Year 2022/23 to support $1.7 billion in public development projects, which will add to the County’s overall employment rate.

 

Incoming funding support gives State and County leadership teams tools and resources to build novel and comprehensive solutions to the challenges that have arisen in the past three years. At the same time, governments are working closely with regional and local agencies to incorporate resources that address emerging future demands, such as technology connections and training. The conversation about California’s ‘future of work’ continues to expand as more perspectives come to the table and more organizations join the endeavor.

Entrepreneurship: Upward Mobility, Equity, and the High Value of Original Labor

Pam Sornson, JD on July 1, 2023

Some might consider that America’s unique beginning was also the launch of its ongoing entrepreneurial spirit. After all, rather than recreate their political structure to mirror that of their forbearers, the Founding Fathers apparently decided that they should just build a new one from scratch. That entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive in the 21st Century, as is highlighted by the country’s growing population of self-employed business owners. As one of four alternative paths to ‘Upward Mobility,’ the opportunity presents its own unique method for enterprising workers to overcome inequitable situations and find the future of their choice.

 

Valuing Original Labor – The Entrepreneur

With its mild climate and forward-thinking attitude, California is attracting significant entrepreneurial investments, ranking 12th in the nation for its welcoming ‘business-building’ infrastructure. The State’s community colleges are part of that foundation. As the Covid-19 pandemic recedes, investments in programs aimed at building and supporting the entrepreneurial community are proving to be more valuable than ever. Not only do they help each emerging little company grow and prosper, but they also address the social and equity gaps that have held back so many ‘business-owner-wanna-be’s’ for so long.

Ultimately, the value of the new-business launcher is measured by how well their product or service responds to a current need. During the recent health crisis, for example, highly skilled technology workers experienced unprecedented popularity (and pay raises) as their abilities, in some cases, saved the business that had hired them. Not surprisingly, after the urgency waned, many elected to go into business for themselves and bypass the ’employee’ role altogether. In fact, more than half of respondents to a recent survey (58%) indicated that they were happier in their new station as CEO and were enjoying the increased job security that came with being their own boss. (Interestingly, almost all of the entrepreneurial respondents (93%) also reported being current competitors with their former employers.)

The reasons these new business leaders gave for launching a new company (rather than looking for another job) are numerous:

They wanted better pay. Essentially, these trained and (now) invaluable workers realized their effort and know-how provided the company with more value than their compensation indicated. The survey revealed that the average ‘new boss’ took home approximately $13,000 more each year after leaping into entrepreneurship.

They wanted more control. In their new role, the business moguls now run the show on their own terms and answer to no one but themselves (or their investors. Or their customers). They can manage the direction of the enterprise while also exploring their personal sense of leadership.

They could see the value to their community of something new; they had a different perspective or approach to a concern that their former employer didn’t like or couldn’t see.

Fundamentally, all the survey respondents had enough confidence in their skills and themselves to step away from their employer’s corporate vision and into their own.

 

Skills of the Entrepreneur

Other researchers have evaluated the skill sets and practices of successful business owners and have determined that they – as a group – share a number of similar attributes:

They have a passion for their focus, whether it’s the result of their education or simply their love of a life-long hobby. What they are putting their minds to is all-consuming for them.

They also have a vision for what they want to create. Often, not only are they invested in the creation of their ‘thing,’ but they are also invested in the public having access to it, whether it’s a product, a service, or even a piece of original art made simply to be enjoyed. When they connect this vision to a future expression of corporate growth, then they have the bones of a solid business plan.

They can plan. Ideas are good but need execution to become great. These technology entrepreneurs learned how the plan for the software/hardware/networks they work with creates the underpinning architecture of those final iterations. That linear thinking process helps them both envision and execute their personal company trajectory

They can also make decisions. What sets a great leader apart from other leaders is their capacity to analyze a situation and then execute a response as needed, whether that’s immediately or sometime later.

Perhaps the most notable assets shared by most (or all) business visionaries: their sense of self-belief and their capacity to persevere through obstacles to the goal they’ve set on the other side. It takes courage to forego the security of a regular paycheck and steady benefits and, instead, take charge of steering one’s own boat. Not all the businesses launched by entrepreneurs are successful, but certainly, the people who step out into that uncertain future to find their own way forward can’t be considered less than successful even if their enterprise doesn’t fully materialize.

 

The Entrepreneurial Future is Bright

If data is any indication, the road to entrepreneurialism is busy and getting busier. In 2022, more than five million new business applications were filed across the country, the most since 2005. And, of course, not all were for tech companies. In California, small and medium-sized companies make up a significant portion of the business community – there are over four million of them – and, in 2019, they accounted for 99.8% of all organizations in the state. Together, these smallish, locally owned businesses are responsible for employing over seven million workers.

The current uptick in entrepreneurialism is also addressing the equity concerns that have been so prevalent in the news in recent years. The pandemic adversely impacted businesses owned by women and People of Color (POC) significantly more than those held by white men. In 2020:

more than 40% of all California businesses owned by African Americans closed;

Over 30% of Latinx-affiliated companies also disappeared, as did

25% of those owned by Asians, and 36% of those held by immigrants.

Tax incentives have lured many of those back to the marketplace, while the Governor reestablished the 2022  Entrepreneurship & Economic Mobility Task Force for the specific purpose of connecting state-based assets to the underserved potential entrepreneurs that need them.

 

Each of the four alternate pathways to Upward Mobility provides its own challenges and benefits. Of them, only entrepreneurship puts control over both in the hands of the ambitious new business owner.

Entrepreneurs in California – Establishing Their Own Value

Pam Sornson, JD on July 1, 2023

‘Getting ahead’ in life typically means ‘to be successful’ or ‘to excel.’ For many people, however, that aspiration is often hampered by a variety of barriers and obstacles, both personal and public. Unfortunately, much of today’s outdated social and political infrastructure contributes to the problem by retaining policies and practices that were designed to prevent some California residents from ‘getting ahead’ in their own lives. California’s government is working at changing that reality. One avenue it is specifically pursuing is improving the opportunity for residents to build their own roads to getting ahead by investing in support and services for current or wanna-be entrepreneurs.

 

California’s 2023-2024 Budget

Perhaps most notably, Governor Newsom’s proposed 2023-2024 budget optimistically recognizes that the State’s economy has entered the post-pandemic recovery period. The May ’23 revision of the proposed budget notes many significant factors impacting California’s current and future economic outlook:

The State’s prevailing inflation rate, while relatively high at 5/1%, is much lower than the initially projected 7.1% (down from 8.3% in June of last year). Elements contributing to the reduction include the easing of costs for trucking and port congestion, reduced fuel prices, and an increase in the availability of microchips.

The labor market continues, also, to add jobs, although not at the rate seen in early 2022. California’s monthly jobs gain was ~68,000 in that year’s first quarter. In the first quarter of 2023, that number fell to an average of ~32,700.

In its forecast for the future, California believes it will track the country’s economic growth pattern, which is now averaging about .5% for each quarter through Q3 2023. However, confident financial advisors expect the Federal Reserve to ease its inflation-curbing policies by Q4, which would also jump-start a subsequent growth range of 1.5% to 2.0% for California in that quarter and those that follow.

Not insignificantly, the State has recovered all of the jobs lost in early 2020 because of the pandemic. As of March 2023, nearly 2.8 million jobs returned to the economy, five full months before originally projected by previous analysts. That number includes occupations in low-wage ranges, which are now showing ‘robust’ growth. However, the State’s current labor force remains less than it was before COVID hit, with only ~77% of those who left the market in 2020 returning in 2023. The Governor’s office predicts that California’s GDP will regain forward momentum and stabilize at 1.5% to 2.0% through 2026.

 

The EEMTF and the CalOSBA

Two notable entities are tasked with helping the State and its residents achieve that growth. The California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) and the Entrepreneurship and Economic Mobility Task Force (EEMTF). Together and in conjunction with numerous other state and regional economic entities, these business, industry, and economic experts provide guidance and information for small businesses of all kinds, including entrepreneurs.

The CalOSBA focuses its attention on helping smaller organizations manage the myriad of financial resources, regulations, and programs available through state and federal agencies.

The experts appointed to the EEMTF in 2022 are directed to focus their attention on assisting entrepreneurial enterprises in attaining their full potential by identifying and clearing away obsolete programs and policies that presently bar their way. As an adjunct of the CalOSBA, the EEMTF will attend to three distinct goals, each of which is driven by the State’s mandate to improve the depth and breadth of its economic diversity:

Democratize access to capital – ensure that all those businesses that seek financial assistance can find it, regardless of the ethnic or other background of their ownership.

Diversify the innovation economy – This goal specifically looks to assist visionaries with diverse backgrounds and perspectives in bringing their unique ideas to life.

Drive economic mobility through entrepreneurship – As a pathway to upward mobility (both social and economic), entrepreneurialism offers individuals the opportunity to build the entity of their dreams while improving their station in life.

The EEMTF consists of 34 members from diverse backgrounds and with various histories and educational capacities. Together, they will help California identify and eliminate its internally embedded biases to build a stronger and more inclusive workforce and economy.

 

California’s Community Colleges

As one of three pillars of California’s higher education system (the other two being the California State Universities and the Universities of California), the California Community College system (CCC) is equally invested in entrepreneurialism as a foundation of its academic pursuits. It has designed its ‘Small Business’ career pathway to support students with great ideas but need more business know-how by providing them with resources and mentors to guide their way. Further, the CCC system has tailored those resources to comport with the eleven economic sectors identified by the CCC Strong Workforce Program:

Advanced Manufacturing

Advanced Transportation & Renewables

Agriculture, Water, & Environmental Technologies

Energy, Construction, & Utilities

Global Trade & Logistics

Health

Information & Communication Technologies and Digital MediaLife Sciences & Biotechnology

Public Safety & Service

Retail, Hospitality, & Tourism, and

Business & Entrepreneurship.

Each sector is led by a Sector Navigator with long-term experience in that particular economic component.

The Business & Entrepreneur sector, which straddles all the others, is significant to the State’s economy and future:

California is 5th highest in the country for entrepreneurial growth.

It’s second overall in entrepreneurial activity.

Small businesses, almost all of which are owned by individuals, comprise 98% of the State’s business community. They:

Provide four of five (82%) private sector jobs

and 75% of its GDP.

As those businesses look for ways to improve their fortunes in the post-pandemic era, many are turning to the CCCs to provide training facilities, educational support, and – most importantly – a well-trained workforce to move them forward. As well, in response to the burgeoning of the ‘self-employed’ career industry, 24 of the State’s 116 CCCs now offer a program focused on ‘Self-Employment Pathways in the Gig Economy.’

 

All these developments indicate that the whole of California’s economic community – from its governor’s office through its state agencies to its educational and industrial organizations – looks at entrepreneurialism as a fundamental aspect of its current and future economy. With this vast quantity of quality inputs and resources, there’s no reason why the State shouldn’t rise to become top in the nation as the epicenter of industrial and cultural innovation.

 

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