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Learn how WorkLife Partnership created skills-based career paths in Apprentix to aid their continued growth.
When companies choose Apprentix as their apprenticeship management platform, they get more than a piece of software. Learn how a free one-hour consultation with our Apprenticeship Expert guided WorkLife Partnership into creating skills-based career paths through apprenticeships to aid their continued growth.
WorkLife Partnership sells its services directly to employers nationwide to provide wraparound services to their clients’ employees. Employees receive individualized support they need in life to feel successful at work. WorkLife also prides themselves on providing a work experience with benefits that are second to none for its employees and has three goals in mind:
Related: What is a wraparound service and how does it benefit your business?
“We use Apprentix because they've automated the process of training and upskilling on-the-job process and have minimized the resources that the whole messy process expends from employers. They are aligned with our efforts to support our people and, simply, they save us time and headache,” says Liddy Romero, Founder and CEO of WorkLife Partnership.
WorkLife Partnership’s training and assessment program is currently moving from a loose documenting system and Google Docs to Trainual.
Centralizing a training program is a great first step to creating a better onboarding experience for new hires, but it isn't enough to get them ready to do the job well.
Training programs typically include information about the organization's standard operating procedures and processes.
These programs can be self-led, instructor-led, or involve hands-on training.
There are often two things missing from many training programs: clearly identified skills needed for each career path and the progression of each employee.
Just because employees can read and study something doesn't mean they are proficient in that skill.
WorkLife realized they were running into this problem, so they turned to Apprentix for help.
Related: How to Train Employees to Fill Your Skills Gaps
Looking at training programs from a skills-based perspective is a mental shift from knowledge-based training.
Gaining knowledge is important to do a job well -- but that knowledge is meaningless without the skills to put it into practice.
One of Apprentix’s Apprenticeship Experts dove into WorkLife's highest-demand job titles, and within seconds, Apprentix automatically generated a list of skills and work activities.
By clearly identifying the necessary skills needed for a chosen career path, new and existing hires can be evaluated and trained on the skills needed.
For example, let's say a new hire is rated an "A" on eight out of ten skills necessary for a job. On the other two skills they're rated a "C" and need to be at least a "B."
That new hire would then have to be trained and evaluated on those two skills until they were proficient at performing the job independently.
To check for a new hire's proficiency in specific skills, WorkLife needed to incorporate those skills into their job description.
That way, WorkLife can map their candidate's qualifications and see where there is a gap so that they can be trained.
Using a skills-based approach is much easier for training managers to track because testing for competency is tangible, whereas testing for knowledge is not.
This ensures that WorkLife will get the best (and most trainable) candidates for the job.
Apprentix has more than 50,000 skills-based job descriptions loaded up for businesses to use, which can also be customized to specific needs.
WorkLife's next issue was that they did not have well-defined career paths visible to people already working for them to grow their own talent pipeline, as opposed to always hiring from the outside.
WorkLife provides employees a 'flighting plan' that shows what jobs they have coming up in the next year, but people didn’t necessarily know what to do to get ready for them.
Apprentix shows WorkLife’s employees what skills, competencies, and training look like, given a particular path.
“It was manageable to train Navigators when new hires were infrequent, but now, with our opportunity for accelerated growth, we realize the need to grow-our-own as necessary to compete in this labor market,” says Liddy.
A skills-based career path maps out the next set of skills employees can opt into learning to progress their careers and make more money once they've put in the work for their current position.
For example, WorkLife has two levels of the same job title, with level two being the more senior position.
Level two workers can only take that rank if they've completed level one. In other words, they can't just come off the street and start at level two.
Using a skills-based career path, Apprentix helps WorkLife identify what specific skills employees must be proficient in to level up their position.
WorkLife can then post a skills-based job description, so employees interested in taking the next step in their career know exactly what they need to do.
WorkLife will also train employees on these skills similarly to how they train new employees.
Whether in entry-level positions or management, organizations can provide transparency about the money employees can make if they progress in their careers.
Seeing a wage schedule upfront helps motivate employees and shows that you're being transparent.
WorkLife will look to incorporate wage progressions as it's relevant to their business so that when there is an opportunity for employees to make more money, they’re clear on what that opportunity is.
Wage bumps are also automated through Apprentix, so training managers will never have to worry about those updates slipping through the cracks.
By putting parameters on their training programs and turning them into apprenticeships, WorkLife will be able to recruit and develop staff much more efficiently than ever before.
Related: How to Start an Apprenticeship: A Brief Guide
This will allow them to sell more deals to clients, as they'll have enough staff members to oversee and deliver those services.
Apprenticeships do more than just get bodies into the door – they build a reliable pipeline of talent.
“While our WorkLife Navigators come in with unique lived-experience, it is our responsibility to upskill them to the soft and hard skills that make up our quality Navigator services,” says Liddy.
With apprentices, companies like WorkLife (and yours) can rest assured there will always be someone qualified to keep their businesses growing.
Contact us now for a free one-hour consultation with an Apprenticeship Expert to learn how you can turn your training program into clear career paths using Apprentix.
