Suddenly Virtual: Delivering Workforce Services in the COVID-19 Environment

by Michele Martin and Liana Volpe

In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 shutdowns and subsequent blow to the American economy in March 2020, the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University wanted to understand how the public workforce development system was responding. Workforce professionals are operating in most U.S. counties on the front lines of response, providing in-person job search resources, training, and other supportive services to unemployed individuals to help them get back to work. For a variety of reasons, the public workforce system has had limited infrastructure for and experience with virtual service delivery, so we wanted to learn more about how local areas were responding to becoming suddenly virtual.

Over a two-week period in April, we surveyed 160 workforce staff in seven states and conducted three roundtables with 31 individuals to learn about their experiences in transitioning to remote teams providing virtual services. What emerged was a portrait of caring people doing their best to adapt to an unprecedented crisis, juggling the equally important priorities of serving job seekers and transitioning to working from home at the same time. While they were stressed and overwhelmed by the enormity of the tasks, staff also reported feeling energized with a sense of purpose and camaraderie with their colleagues.

Today, we want to share the first of two briefs that we’ve developed to quickly capture and share the initial lessons of these first responses to the COVID-19 crisis. In Suddenly Virtual: Delivering Workforce Services in the COVID-19 Environment, we are highlighting key findings from our research and some strategic recommendations for moving forward as the pandemic continues.

Our full brief is here, but there are a few key findings we want to highlight:

• Most staff believe that they will be returning to in-person service delivery by fall 2020 and are regarding the pandemic as more of an interruption rather than a fundamental remaking of their work. While some workforce areas are seeing this as an opportunity to reimagine what they do, most are patching together a variety of temporary fixes to get them through the next few months and a return to some version of “normal” operations. The possibility that packed physical locations with “lines around the block” may be a reality for 12 to 18 months does not seem to have sunk in at this point.
• In this initial move to virtual services, the focus is primarily on moving regular operations to an online environment and getting staff on the same page. Although there have been some concessions to how remote, online teaming changes things — for example, the implementation of daily Zoom staff check-in meetings — at this stage, most local areas have not begun to think through more fundamental changes to services and how their teams will operate. This is partly a result of the belief that the situation is more temporary than it may actually turn out to be.
• Both staff and customer access to technology is a major impediment to delivering virtual services and, for staff, operating in remote teams. This is a topic we’ve written about in more detail here. In particular, access to up-to-date devices and broadband Internet are of concern. Moving forward, state and local areas will need to take action to address these issues to ensure that customers are able to access the services they need in a socially distant environment that’s likely to continue for some time.
• Much of the work to find appropriate solutions for both virtual service delivery and remote teaming is happening locally. In some states, regional and state collaborations are forming to share information and resources, but overall, local areas are figuring things out for themselves. Given the magnitude of the challenges ahead and the likelihood that this crisis will continue for some time, this piecemeal, fragmented approach will not be enough. Sustained, collaborative work beyond county borders and across state lines will be necessary. To reduce costs and provide effective services, states will also need to consider contracting for services such as Zoom and DocuSign (for secure document sharing) at the state rather than the local level. This is one time where uncoordinated local responses will not be enough.

In the coming months, the system will continue to face unprecedented challenges, serving unimaginable numbers of job seekers in a constantly changing and wildly uncertain environment. It will take collective, sustained effort to rise to the demands of these times.

The Heldrich Center recognizes this need and is committed to providing resources and opportunities to serve the field. Toward that end, we are offering:

• Access to our free online Community of Practice where staff can ask questions, share ideas, and take part in online learning to build their skills in providing virtual services and operating in remote teams. The link to join the community is here.
• Ongoing staff development opportunities, including Lunch & Learn sessions on using various technology tools, virtual sharing sessions to showcase promising practices from the field, and coaching and practice sessions for staff who are implementing new practices and tools.
• Monthly roundtable discussions with workforce professionals to share new ideas and support collaborative problem-solving and the creation of new connections.
• Ongoing research and issue briefs to share what is happening in the field and identify challenges, opportunities, and recommendations for action.

Michele Martin is a Senior Associate and Liana Volpe is a Research Associate at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development.

About Suddenly Virtual

Suddenly Virtual is a series of products highlighting the challenges facing the public workforce system and how frontline staff are stepping up to solve those challenges. View the complete list of products in this series.