San Diego employers can look forward to elevating their approach to talent engagement starting March 2024 by joining a no-cost 10-month immersive learning experience called the California Employer Action Lab. The San Diego Workforce Partnership collaborated with Talent Rewire and Unite LA to provide an experience that seeks to change the talent paradigm for both employers and employees.
While California’s 2022 GDP was $3.6 trillion, our state also ranks as having the nation’s sixth highest income inequality rate. Among all workers, 35% earn less than $15 per hour despite living in cities that rank among the country’s highest in cost-of-living. This, on top of other factors like an on-going housing crisis, tax increases, and migration away from the state, contribute to an overall decrease in workforce economic mobility and growth. California employers faced with this changing landscape need dynamic solutions to keep their talent pipeline and systems robust.
Empower Change and Engage Employee Voice
The California Employer Action Lab aims to empower change in the workplace by bringing together a cohort of employers who are committed to intentionally disrupting their current talent systems and practices while addressing their future talent and workforce needs. These collaborative efforts will support and increase opportunities for frontline and entry-level employees to build careers, not just jobs.
This in-depth learning experience offers participating employers the unique experience of learning with and from other employers as they identify and implement pilot programs that target challenges that are related to hiring, supporting and/or retaining frontline employees through a people-centered, equitable systems change approach. With a strong emphasis in engaging frontline employee voice, participants will come to better understand their current workplace practices and culture and how those influence the frontline experience.
Lab Outcomes
The action lab experience is rooted in identifying and addressing the barriers that hold systemic racism, persistent inequities, harmful mindsets and narratives in the workplace. The goals of the California Employer Action Lab is to:
- Advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the workplace
- Provide space for employers to design their own pilot that addresses business needs and helps hire, retain and advance their frontline and entry-level workforce
- Identify and react to urgent challenges related to talent systems with a focus on improving outcomes for frontline and entry-level talent
By addressing these barriers, employers can work towards:
- Higher levels of retention
- Higher levels of employee engagement
- Lower turnover
- Better experience for their customers
All of which are key components to a more sustainable, valuable, profitable, efficient and healthy workplace.
The Experience
Each employer will work alongside a dedicated technical assistance provider (TAP) who will support them as they identify and address workplace and systemic barriers through internal and external data while also drawing on the experience and expertise of frontline employees.
It’s free to employers! This work is made possible by the generous support of The James Irvine Foundation which covers the full cost of the Employer Action Lab, including in-person and virtual gatherings, programming, and technical assistance support for up to four participants per employer, valued at approximately $25K per employer.
This is a unique and exciting opportunity for employers to unite and partner to create systemic change! Learn more or contact our business engagement team at business@workforce.org.