Let’s summarize the TPM process thus far. In Strategy 1, we addressed how employers are more likely to join employer collaboratives when they (1) have a major “pain point” that needs to be addressed in sourcing talent for critical jobs and (2) see value in working with other employers in addressing that pain point. Strategies 2 and 3 helped clarify the specific talent needs of collaborative members. Strategy 4 showed how to establish baseline information on actual and potential sources of talent. Strategy 5 covered how employer collaboratives can establish a talent pipeline that best addresses their major needs and priorities based on value stream, and competency and curriculum mapping. Strategy 5 also addressed how to establish performance metrics, incentives, and risk management strategies to better manage the talent pipeline.
Strategy 6 provides the tools and strategies for employer collaboratives to (1) promote continuous improvement and (2) improve resilience to external disruptions.
Even the best-designed talent pipelines require tweaks over time to improve performance in incremental but important ways for all stakeholders. Using TPM, employer collaboratives can manage their talent pipelines using data and a continuous improvement process in cooperation with their talent providers. This helps keep employers not only engaged and dedicated to the collaborative, but also committed to working with their talent providers, especially those designated as preferred providers. These improvement efforts may—and likely will— involve changes in both employers’ and providers’ behaviors and practices. That is why a cooperative continuous improvement process is necessary.
Finally, Strategy 6 addresses how employer collaboratives and their partners can undertake resiliency planning. Resiliency planning is a process and set of tools that employer collaboratives can use to identify and evaluate the potential severity of both demand- and supply-side disruptions and determine how to respond effectively in both the short and long term using TPM’s strategies.
Strategy 6 Learning Objectives
- Define the role of continuous improvement in TPM.
- Apply the five-step approach to continuous improvement.
- Determine improvement priorities and organize improvement teams.
- Identify the key issues to be addressed in each step of the improvement process.
- Define the role of resiliency planning in TPM.
- Determine and prioritize the potential demand-side and supply-side disruptions for resiliency planning.
- Develop resiliency plans for responding to these potential disruptions.
