The system is designed to capture by individual, the services and referrals that were provided on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis for each one-stop and formal affiliate. The data collected will be seamlessly fed into the federally sponsored One-Stop Operating System, the participant reporting system in use by local areas (ETR 4/24/00, p. 523). The state paper sets July 1, 2003, as the system statewide implementation date, indicating plans to provide funds for the program. The state paper announcing the policy hints at new common performance measures, including one that will require tracking efficiency, or cost per participant. The Employment and Training Administration plans to implement the common measures, which were introduced in the fiscal year 2004 budget proposal and are also in a House WIA reauthorization bill, in 2004 (ETR 11/25/02, p. 195 and 2/3/03, p.323). The change is cause for concern among local program managers.

Not Just Registered Clients

The workforce system is facing greater demands for accountability and cost efficiency measures, yet currently it is getting credit only for customers who are registered under WIA for staff-assisted core and intensive services and training, said Virgilia Benker-Beck, manager of career resources at the Buffalo Employment and Training Center.

She noted that ETA requested comments on a data collection effort to track cost and usage of WIA and Wagner-Peyser services that do not require registration (ETR 1/28/02, p. 306). Jobseekers who tap into those services in the one-stop career center system’s

resource rooms without substantial staff involvement are not usually registered and do not show up in performance reports to state and federal lawmakers.

“I felt there would be a day when the federal government would want to know who is using core services,” said Benker-Beck, who describes herself as one of the earlier proponents of swipe card systems in the state. Her organization began to implement a swipe card system four years ago.

Customers’ demographic information is contained on a magnetic stripe on the back of a card they swipe through readers at the entrance and at stations throughout the center as they use services. In the past two years BETC has issued about 12,000 swipe cards. Fewer than half the card-carrying customers, individuals who could not find employment on their own or needed training, were WIA-registered, she said.

Yet the resources expended on the unregistered 50 percent were significant. Though not as expensive as individual training accounts, maintaining a career resource center, computers and staff is a considerable expense, she added.

Benker-Beck expressed concern that under the impending efficiency measure, essentially cost per discussions about implementing the system statewide. This is easier when everyone in the system is using common definitions and counting things the same way. Even if the system counts staff-assisted core services, the point at which customers are registered in the WIA performance system, the workforce system is missing many customers who benefit from WIA dollars and it doesn’t provide a true picture, said Breen. “If we count everyone we touch, we’ll see a very impressive number. If we can’t include those people who receive basic core services, that skews the efficiency measure,” she said. Local areas will also be able to continue to gather data important to them, she added. With minor hardware, software and definitional changes, Breen said, her system will be in compliance with the state requirements, including compatibility with OSOS. Both local area officials have found that swipe cards and bar code systems have applications that stretch beyond basic data collection and tracking core service usage. As a local management tool, customer tracking shows staff what services are in demand and where to direct resources, said Breen. A bar code system, which allows staff members to scan customer “career” cards and activities with handheld scanners, cost about $34,000, including networking, supplies and software to equip Breen’s three one-stops centers. Benker-Beck found that case managers can tell which customers are most committed to adhering to their personal reemployment plan by seeing what services they are using and when. In one instance, staffers were reviewing a customer record and noticed that the individual was consistently 20 minutes late for a literacy class. Discussing the problem with the customer, a staffer learned that because the client’s child was scheduled for late school bus pickup she could not get to the center on time. The staff helped her find a neighbor willing to care for the child when she left for BETC.

The system is programmed to provide Benker-Beck with a list of names and phone numbers of those customers who are not satisfied with service, so she can follow up with a phone call. The system can also be programmed to track customers by Census tract and congressional district, which is useful to show members of Congress constituents’ use of the system.

Benker-Beck figured that a typical one-stop could outfit a center for less than $20,000 and reckoned that a system to track customer activity and provide hard data for about $15,000 was “cheap.”

An inexpensive alternative to swipe terminals is to use a laminated sheet on which services are assigned bar codes, she added. However, Benker-Beck found that when customers used this system scanning the sheet upon entering a one-stop center—they would typically scan in activities they would later forget to attend. In the end the scans did not reflect actual activity. With terminals throughout a center, customers are more inclined to record their activities accurately.

NYDOL officials failed to respond to several MII requests for comment.