Strategically Virtual: The Value of Chunking Information for Job Seekers
by Liana Volpe and Amanda Bombino
Job search is an overwhelming process. Many who are looking for employment for the first time, or the first time in a while, find themselves bombarded with large amounts of new information, tools, and techniques that are intended to help them land their next opportunity. For many job seekers, the difficulties lie in taking in all the relevant information and then turning that information into action. Job seekers are often overwhelmed and subsequently paralyzed in their job search by the large amount of information available to them. This situation, coupled with the continued COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of adjusting to job loss, creates an environment in which job seekers find themselves increasingly stressed.
To better help job seekers manage and cope with the stress of job loss and job search, the public workforce system should find ways to help navigate and alleviate the emotional challenges of job search when it comes to service delivery. One way to do this is to adopt a “chunking” technique when giving job seekers new information about the job search.
What is Chunking Information?
Chunking information is a learning strategy. Chunking involves taking large amounts of information and turning it into smaller, digestible modules that are given over time. For example, rather than teaching one large or broad subject at a time, chunking would involve creating narrower subtopics and sharing them one at a time. Chunking was first introduced in a 1956 paper by George Miller entitled, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.” In this paper, Miller shared results from cognitive experiments that he conducted that showed that individuals can process an average of seven pieces of information at a time. When developing the chunking technique, Miller determined that individuals can retain more information in the long term if information is chunked or combined rather than in a longer format.
There are several benefits to this approach of providing information, including better information absorption and retention. The thought is that since short-term memory can be limited and/or strained due to other factors like stress and overload, learning in smaller bits can improve information retention and foster longer-term knowledge of the information. Longer-term knowledge then helps spur turning information into action, which is often a difficult transition for job seekers navigating the available job search information and tools throughout their search.
How Can the Public Workforce System Chunk Information?
For the public workforce system, chunking information can be valuable when thinking about how to provide more impactful services that customers need and about how to optimize service delivery. In order to deliver information, resources, and services for job seekers that can be the most useful for their search, the public workforce system can consider how to transition their existing content into bite-sized lessons, presentations, and/or videos. As a first step, public workforce system staff can utilize their existing information and resources, and simply transform the way these are delivered to job seekers in current workshops and orientations. Since the ultimate shared goal is to assist people in getting back to work sooner, reorienting how information is provided to job seekers could result in them being better able to put information and resources to use and ultimately turn that knowledge into action and real-world application to propel their job search along.
Here are a few methods that the public workforce system can consider to chunk job search information for job seekers:
> Think through how to reorganize and divide information and resource presentations, workshops, and other materials. Create subtopics within overarching main topics to segment content.
> Redesign handouts and other materials to highlight key points and takeaways.
> Create learning objectives for every segmented section so that customers know the purpose of that particular piece of content.
> Create a series of short videos (three to five minutes each), as opposed to longer (30+ minutes) videos.
> For in-person sessions, create space for breaks within orientations, workshops, and other events to allow for greater absorption of information.
> Further segment customers and narrow the scope of offerings to only inform people about the services that apply to them.
Conclusion
Since unemployment and job search can be exceedingly stressful, chunking offers a better way to impart information and resources on job seekers regarding how to navigate all the available job search information and ultimately be most successful in their job search.
In the short term, the public workforce system should look to transition its existing content into chunked and segmented information to enhance the absorption and retention of information. In the longer term, the public workforce system can work toward adopting strategies such as microlearning and text-based courses in order to design and intentionally chunk workshops and curricula to further maximize content and service delivery. For more information about these strategies, read the Suddenly Virtual blog posts Microlearning Strategies: Another Approach to Virtual Workshop Delivery and How Texting Can Enhance Public Workforce Service Delivery. Fundamentally, job search is a stressful process that is further strained by feelings of being overwhelmed and overloaded with information. As job seekers turn to the public workforce system for help, workforce development professionals should look for better ways to deliver much needed information to job seekers by incorporating a chunking information learning strategy to more effectively deliver services to customers.
Liana Volpe is a Research Project Coordinator and Amanda Bombino is a research intern at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.
In the Suddenly Virtual series, the Heldrich Center examined how the public workforce system had adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing case management, training, and job search services in an online environment. The Strategically Virtual series builds on this work, outlining how the public workforce system can use technology and community partnerships more effectively to expand services, address job seeker mental and emotional well-being, and ensure that a broader range of the public is able to access supports during a time of social distancing and massive job loss. The Strategically Virtual series is producing issue briefs, Medium blog posts, practical guides, and more. View all of the Strategically Virtual blog posts.
