In the Spotlight

The Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas will join a new collaboration with The National Fund for Workforce Solutions and local employer partner Via Christi as part of Centering Workers in Job Design – an initiative that aims to help employers engage their employees to co-design new workplace practices that boost job quality, through increased compensation and/or better career navigation services.

The National Fund’s experience leading efforts to improve job quality has shown that when employers engage and empower employees to make critical decisions about business operations, employees experience increased job satisfaction, retention and advancement improve, and both businesses and workers prosper. This initiative works to help employers implement human-centered design approaches, which prioritize co-creating and testing solutions alongside the workers most affected by workplace policies and practices.

“Deeply engaging workers in co-creating workplace solutions is central to the National Fund’s approach to advancing equity,” said Michelle Rafferty, the National Fund’s Chief Program Officer. “Whether a business seeks to improve retention or better help its employees to navigate their own careers, its best to start by listening to and seeing workers as partners.”

“As a long-time partner with the National Fund, the Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas welcomes this opportunity to leverage funds and align resources to for such an exciting collaboration,” said Workforce Alliance President and CEO Keith Lawing. “The relationship with the National Fund allows us to continue working with local employers to empower individuals in gaining quality employment.”

The Workforce Alliance will partner with Via Christi in Wichita on efforts to improve job quality in the healthcare industry.

"Via Christi is excited to join this collaboration, which will allow us to place our associates' voices at the center of their career development," said Marilou Mewborn, Chief Human Resources Officer for Via Christi. "Leveraging a human-centered design approach, we will implement a program at Via Christi St. Francis and St. Teresa hospitals to strengthen career pathways for radiologic technologists." 

The participating National Fund Network Partners are:

• CareerRise – Atlanta, Georgia
• The Health Collaborative – Cincinnati, Ohio
• The Workforce Solutions Collaborative of Metro Hartford – Hartford, Connecticut
• The Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas – Wichita, Kansas
• Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative – Baltimore, Maryland
• Fund for Our Economic Future – Cleveland, Ohio
• EmployIndy – Indianapolis, Indiana
• Partner4Work – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania