A Collaborative Effort to Build a Nursing Assistant Pipeline
The Older Adult Services (also known as long-term care) collaborative launched in late 2019 as a pilot initiative for the metro area of nine employers. Utilizing the TPM process, the collaborative shared a goal of closing the skills gap and talent misalignment, strengthening the talent supply and employer process, and driving improved retention. The OAS collaborative chose the Certified Nursing Assistant job as their critical pain point.
An Eye-Opening Forecast
Leveraging the data tools TPM offers, the OAS employers engaged in a demand planning process and projected a need for just under 5,400 nursing assistants within the next two years for the Twin Cities metro alone (427 new positions and 4,971 replacement positions). Having made these projections pre-pandemic, we believe these numbers are even higher today.
Alignment and Communication of Job Requirements
Mitigating critical skills shortages requires a focus on quality, which means addressing the competency, credential, and other hiring requirements for critical jobs. The collaborative came to a consensus on:
- Education Requirements
- Credentials
- Experience Levels
- Competencies
- Employability Skills
- Other Hiring Requirements
A Collection of Supply Data
After concentrating on how to focus and communicate demand, the OAS collaborative began an in-depth analysis of current and potential talent supply. The collaborative addressed these critical questions:
- Where have we traditionally found talent for new hires? For upskilling opportunities?
- Do we have the necessary supply of talent internally or from external providers to meet our projected demand?
- What is the current and potential capacity of our internal and external pipelines to meet our workforce needs now and into the future?
- What are other potential sources of talent – both internal and external – that can help us meet our workforce needs, including increasing diversity?
- What are the size and characteristics of the overall talent pool within our geographic area, including those populations that could be prioritized for DEI initiatives?
After agreeing upon a definition of a successful hire, the collaborative engaged in a talent flow analysis, collecting data on 980 hires from the previous years, using this information to identify how effective they are at sourcing talent from education institutions, feeder jobs, and current providers. This, combined with the demand planning data, led to a supply-demand analysis which only confirmed the dire need to address the talent pipeline for nursing assistants.
Co-designing New Solutions
The Older Adult Services collaborative has now identified key talent partners to engage in a co-design of talent pipeline outcomes, define performance and success measures, and establish an action plan to execute. Together, these partners have identified pain points in training and education, employer return on investment measures, talent partner metrics, and potential commitments to performance-incentive processes.
Below are the talent partners identified by the group alongside the original nine employer members of the Older Adult Services collaborative.
Interested in becoming a part of a new employer collaborative?
We are in search of Minnesota businesses that are looking for an effective approach to solving their most critical talent shortages. Please provide your information below, and we will be in touch!
A Collaborative Approach to Building the Public Sector Employee Pipeline
The Public Sector Employer collaborative consist of government-led agencies at the city and county level. In late 2019, these seven agencies formed a collaborative as a pilot project for the seven-county metro funded by the twin cities funding collaborative and now sunset MSPWin. The collaborative agreed to focus on the entry-level Engineering Technician, and after extensive review of job descriptions, agreed upon common hiring requirements. Utilizing the data tool technology from the Talent Pipeline Management approach, the collaborative engaged in a Demand Planning process resulting in a two-year forecast of 135 anticipated openings. A Talent Flow analysis provided insight into previous employment for many of the agencies’ hires and led to the conclusion that these agencies were simply going back and forth taking talent from each other – perpetuating the issues within this talent pipeline. Also, the collaborative discovered an untapped talent pool – women and people of color. The collaborative agreed upon three important metrics that could be tracked as performance measures:
- The number of women and people of color within the candidate pool
- The number of women and people of color recognized as qualified applicants
- The number of women and people of color hired
The collaborative deemed this pilot project a success and in turn decided to conclude the pilot and move forward with a new funding model and occupation of focus. See more about expansion plans on the TPM Expansion tab above.
Interested in becoming a part of a new employer collaborative?
We are in search of Minnesota businesses that are looking for an effective approach to solving their most critical talent shortages. Please provide your information below, and we will be in touch!
Employers joining the CDL Commercial Drivers Collaborative
Employers joining the Mental Health Practitioners Collaborative
About Our Team
RealTime Talent has contracted Cecilia Stanton Adams from Stanton Adams and the Diversity Institute to further the expansion of Talent Pipeline Management in Minnesota. As a fully trained and certified TPM practitioner, Cecilia will continue to work with industry and business leaders, facilitating employer collaboratives starting in 2022. Cecilia brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in corporate and non-profit settings with a lens toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Cecilia is supported by Olivia Heusinkveld, the TPM Project Manager for new collaboratives in Minnesota.
Interested in becoming a part of a new employer collaborative?
We are in search of Minnesota businesses that are looking for an effective approach to solving their most critical talent shortages. Please provide your information below, and we will be in touch!