Blair Milo is a member of the WorkRise Leadership Board. Milo is the state of Indiana’s inaugural Secretary of Career Connections and Talent. In this role, she is working to fill an estimated one million job openings over the next 10 years. Milo also serves on the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, a body dedicated to shaping education and job training for a 21st century workforce. Before her service in Gov. Eric Holcomb’s cabinet, Milo served as mayor of La Porte, Indiana, after being first elected in 2011 and reelected in 2015. She is also a veteran, having served as a surface warfare officer in the US Navy.
In a conversation with Elisabeth Jacobs, WorkRise’s acting executive director, Milo discussed how her office is connecting residents to job opportunities and other resources during the current economic crisis; creating stronger pathways and talent pipelines between jobseekers, employers, and educational institutions; and developing alternative paths to opportunity beyond the four-year college degree. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Elisabeth Jacobs: As Indiana’s secretary of career connections and talent, you have a very unique job title—perhaps the only one of its kind in state cabinets across the country. Can you explain its origins?
Blair Milo: Governor [Eric] Holcomb, members of his team, and I, as the mayor of La Porte, Indiana, were finding that even when we were growing jobs, we were really struggling to get people into them. And this was not a unique experience for the city of La Porte. In a number of conversations, I learned that other cities were having similar experiences. I also had the opportunity to join Indiana’s State Workforce Innovation Council as one of the local government representatives. There, I learned a bit more about the disconnects between employers and educators.
People weren’t learning about available jobs, let alone the skills that they would need to fill them. Jobseekers needed to know about training platforms to take advantage of these different jobs. A lot of that comes from being in an evolving world, with technology influencing so many different parts of so many industries. There was clearly need for greater collaboration and coordination across all these different entities to inform the talent pipeline and think about how we’re better connecting people to opportunities. Having the position within the cabinet allowed someone to work across state agencies, in communities and regions, and among different stakeholder groups to improve the performance and coordination of our workforce and educational systems.
EJ: I would love to hear your perspective on the pandemic’s effect on your state’s economy, specifically on workforce, and how it’s affected your strategy.
BM: We’re certainly at a moment where we have to continue evaluating how economic aspects plays against the health trends overall. We have launched rapid recovery tools and expanded eligibility for some existing performance initiatives. We’ve got a workforce-ready grant expanded where jobseekers with a postsecondary credential or degree of some sort will qualify. We’ve also expanded our employer training grants, where employers can get reimbursements for training they provided for new hires or newly trained individuals. Using CARES [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act dollars, we’ve doubled those funds. Additionally, we built a portal so people can access those supports that not only connect them to those resources but also answer questions we are seeing about health insurance access or paying bills.
My role in this is growing our outreach network. It’s about meeting Hoosiers where they are. Who is providing those frontline services of food, rental assistance, and so on? We can partner with organizations who have a relationship of trust with people they’re serving. I spend a lot of time talking with faith-based leaders and community organizations to ensure they’re equipped with information about the resources we have to provide and sure people are connected to those resources.
EJ: Are you seeing greater workforce needs in particular industries or demands for particular skills that are different than before the pandemic?
BM: I think there are certain industries that may change. For example: in Indiana’s public libraries, over 25 percent of their workforce are over age 65. As they’re thinking about reopening libraries, they’re facing a considerable challenge of keeping their employees safe. So, I’m sure there are other industries with similar types of challenges, and I think we’re going to have to continue evaluating. People are making very real financial decisions for themselves. They could be thinking, “Will I be putting myself at risk for a lower wage or exposure to COVID-19 if I return to work than if I maintain my unemployment status?” I think we’ll have to continue looking at how that plays out within the hospitality and leisure industry.
EJ: Now that so much of work and school has moved online, rural broadband can be an issue, particularly with states like Indiana. How has rural broadband access come up in your response to the pandemic?
BM: It certainly has been on the radar for a while. I’d like to believe it’s become a more recognizable need and has moved up on the priority list. I think education is a critical component of those broadband conversations. It’s a big challenge for both rural areas, and higher-density communities, like Indianapolis, that have higher rates of unemployment and lower socioeconomic status, creating challenges of accessing internet. Indiana is on track to invest more than $100 million as a part of the largest single investment in broadband access since the announcement of the Next Level Connections program Governor Holcomb launched last year.
I met with neighborhood organizers in the far east side of Indianapolis, an area with the highest rate of unemployment and lowest rate of education attainment levels. In the conversation, they said, “If you want to talk about getting poor people connected up with a job, we have to talk about transportation, internet connectivity and child care.” So, now those are key areas that we are trying to dive into further.
It will be truly transformative when we, as a state government, begin transitioning our high school graduation requirements away from a one-size-fits-all model that assumes all graduates will pursue a four-year degree immediately following high school. We have evolved to recognize the different pathways to opportunity that exist and changed our focus and requirements from standardized tests to work-, project- or service-based learning experiences that fit with students’ potential career aspirations.
EJ: Earlier, you mentioned a state program providing tuition reimbursement for workers going back to school and gaining skills. How have higher education and other credential institutions been able to adapt?
BM: All of our providers have remote learning capabilities within them. Our higher-education institutions are continuing to think through how they can be part of the solution for internet accessibility challenges, thinking beyond how they’re serving their students to how they’re serving the community. I was on a call recently with a learning center partnership to see if they could provide a hot spot for people to use Wi-Fi in the parking lot, and they’re investigating expanding to neighborhoods with limited access.
I’ve been a part of conversations with large providers of how they’re putting together some innovative solutions to work with school districts on affordability options. I appreciate all of the creative options that people try to bring to the table, but I think, ultimately, we just have to get people connected to the internet.
We’ve also collaborated with our higher education partners to directly communicate education and training resources to people receiving unemployment insurance benefits, which led to a drastic increase in enrollments. We are also now building an expanding network of partnerships with community- and faith-based organizations who are providing critical support services for students, jobseekers, and their families, such as access to food, child care, and utility and rent supports.
EJ: It seems that your role is to act as a vital connector between jobseekers, educational institutions, and employers. How do you see the primary role of state and local government in workforce development and in creating opportunity?
BM: I think the state government can help bring a lot of context to the larger picture of changes happening across the workforce. We also facilitate conversation for partners across the state and provide different tools and resources. Having larger-scale resources like the tuition grant program is an important role for the state government, too.
It will be truly transformative when we, as a state government, begin transitioning our high school graduation requirements away from a one-size-fits-all model that assumes all graduates will pursue a four-year degree immediately following high school. We have evolved to recognize the different pathways to opportunity that exist and changed our focus and requirements from standardized tests to work-, project- or service-based learning experiences that fit with students’ potential career aspirations. It will force a much more intentional conversation about what’s right for each student as they are looking at their future and not just assuming the same path for everyone.
From a local government perspective, it’s important they utilize their convening power to talk about how the community is addressing challenges and building opportunities. You have a really healthy workforce by having collaboration across all partners in the community.
EJ: You mentioned the importance of transportation, child care, and then broadband internet access, which we talked about before. What do you see the main set of barriers for workers, particularly low-wage workers, in not being able to get ahead?
BM: We have been brainstorming who may be innovative employers we could invite to a conversation around transportation and removing some of those barriers. I think we could take a similar approach from a child care perspective. I see internet access as more of a utility at this point. Those conversations are ongoing at the state policy level, and I think they have to continue taking place with local leaders too. It’s about crafting those conversations and bringing people to the table to have them, developing some pilots and going from there.
EJ: How are you thinking about job quality, particularly as it relates to low-wage jobs that aren’t providing people with a living wage or other benefits such as paid leave or health care?
BM: We are thinking about how we move people along sort of the spectrum of lifelong learning to ensure they have economic mobility—that’s a lot of the philosophy that we in the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet, and many of the partners that we work with. We try and think about how we don’t want people to be connected to just any job, but one that has a meaningful pathway for advancement. While there may be some intrinsic value in all jobs, we also have to recognize that there is a lot more value in moving people into that spectrum of jobs and careers that have potential for growth and economic mobility.
EJ: What do you think employer’s role is in shaping opportunities for workers? Obviously, they’re the job creators, but how do you think of it beyond that?
BM: It is critical employers are a part of conversations with educators, speaking to them about how jobs are evolving and what skills are in demand, not just in the near term but over the long term. Then the education system doesn’t lag too far behind where technology is taking these different jobs, particularly as we know how rapidly technology evolves. If you brought a collective power together, creating access to higher-wage jobs while addressing those different barriers, and providing the training workers need, then there’s so much potential for economic mobility. And, it’s in the employer’s best interest because they have access to the talent pipeline they’ll need, and then, the employees feel loyal to the company if there’s development and growth opportunities.
EJ: How are you thinking differently about small versus large businesses as employers and the role government plays in connecting jobseekers to each?
BM: Smaller business make up a large chunk of our employer base, and they don’t have quite the same resources as a larger businesses. They may not have the ability or volume for models that a bigger business may have. But if they can stay engaged, there’s an opportunity to think through the different options. When I was mayor of La Porte, we created a “business engagement menu,” where businesses could choose from several options for engaging with us on workforce development and developing the talent pipeline in the community.
EJ: How are you thinking about shifting education, particularly postsecondary education systems, for preparing workers for the jobs and skills that are in demand?
BM: I think there’s a larger recognition from postsecondary institutions on creating earlier and stronger connections between their students and employers. Students can graduate not simply with degrees or credentials but also with a connection to an employer to start building a career.
From a curriculum standpoint too, schools are trying to incorporate more work-based learning. In many cases, there are requirements that allow for students to earn the different credentials, and there is a certainly a growing awareness about the need for that. They’re having more individualized conversation with those employers and working through how to program that in the most efficient and effective manner.
EJ: How are you staying ahead of automation and the rapid pace of technological change? How are those forces shaping decisions to put workers in the best position to seek opportunity?
BM: I try to see the challenges as opportunities, and it’s about sharing some of that perspective with folks, of seeing it as an opportunity. From an education standpoint, all schools in Indiana will be required to teach computer science by 2022. That’s not because we’re trying to make a bunch of computer scientists, but because we’ve recognized courses like computer science help teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills. We can’t know exactly what all of the automation is going to bring forward, but if we can better develop skillsets, it better prepares students for what the opportunities will be.
What about those people who are already in the workforce who are being displaced as a result of this? When we see automation coming forward, entire jobs may become obsolete—or certain aspects of a production line, for example. It may be a case of replacing tasks along the way, rather than replacing entire jobs. These employers have been seeing it as an opportunity to address some of the more challenging aspects of the job for some of their workforce and freeing them up to do some different things. It’s just a matter of how you, as an employer, ensure you’re developing those next set of skills as automation comes into play.