In the new economy, employers compete on talent, and that is especially true in an economic downturn. As businesses and workers adjust to rapidly changing work environments, employers are focusing on improving diversity to strengthen their workforce. In addition, new economic and workplace challenges may exacerbate barriers to employment— particularly for those who experience barriers to education, employment, and advancement — otherwise known as opportunity populations.
Critical skill shortages impede economic progress, and the dynamic nature of today’s work requires close partnership between talent providers and business leaders. Organizations that serve opportunity populations are looking for new ways to connect those who experience barriers to employment to meaningful career pathways and advancement. Strengthening relationships between businesses and opportunity population-serving organizations (OPSOs) is important, but major systemic challenges to sustained partnership often exist.
To address these gaps, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, in partnership with Grads of Life and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, has developed the Talent Pipeline Management Resource Guide: Connecting Opportunity Populations to Better Career Pathways.
Talent Pipeline Management® (TPM) is an approach designed to be a scalable, authentically employer-led solution developed to close the skills gap in ways that generate a return on investment for employers and learners, education and workforce providers (including OPSOs), and the communities in which they reside.
Building on the framework of TPM, the new guide provides a set of resources and strategies that can be used to build stronger employer and opportunity population partnerships. The guide is designed both to introduce newcomers to TPM and to enhance the existing TPM movement. The guide has three core resources:
Resource 1: Opportunity Populations Serving Organizations’ Orientation to Employers— Intended to better orient opportunity population-serving organizations and their associated professionals with the employer community and the professional roles therein.
Resource 2: Employer Orientation to the Opportunity Populations Community— Intended for the employer community as an orientation to better understand opportunity population serving organizations, the professional roles therein, and the services they provide, as well as opportunity population talent, their strengths, and the barriers to employment they face.
Resource 3: Leveraging TPM to Achieve Better Outcomes for Opportunity Populations— Describes how to use TPM to improve employer engagement with opportunity population-serving organizations (OPSOs) and therefore achieve better outcomes for opportunity population talent.
The resources provided in this guide gives employers and opportunity populations specific ways to leverage TPM to achieve better outcomes for all.
To learn more and stay updated on TPM, join the movement.
About the authors
Niki DaSilva
Niki is senior director of policy and programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
