When we founded SkillSmart ten years ago, we had a vision to use technology to make communities stronger by helping workers obtain the skills they needed to be successful working for employers in their community.  We recognized that strong communities need workers who can earn a good wage and employers that can thrive because of their workforce.  Quickly, we also recognized that it’s difficult to achieve in a community without establishing measurable goals, tracking efforts toward meeting those goals, and having the data to demonstrate how workers and employers are improving.  So, we developed additional technology to increase transparency regarding measurable success.

Our organization seamlessly integrates with clients, offering solutions and ideas to advance projects across a multitude of sectors.

We know that in order to help our clients achieve their important goals, that the SkillSmart team has to be one with synergy, understanding of the challenges that our clients face, and to be supportive of each other as we continue to evolve during very dynamic times. Our organization is one that can easily integrate with our clients and comes to the conversation with solutions and ideas to advance the dialogue and help move the project forward. Each of our team members seeks to uphold our principles of innovation, equity, service, accountability, balance and fun.  In order to recognize the efforts of our team and SkillSmart’s commitment to each other, we set aside June 1 each year, the anniversary of our incorporation, to pause and say thank you, re-charge a bit and reflect on how we can support making others stronger.

Over the last decade, we have helped make countless communities across the country stronger.  Tens of thousands of workers in communities like Prince George’s County, MD, Milwaukee and Racine, WI, Springfield and Everett, MA, Detroit, MI, NYC have been matched to the skills training and job opportunities they needed.  We’ve also helped organizations like the Purple Line, the Detroit Pistons, Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, Portland Community College, the St. Louis City SC,  Guilford County, NC, the Milwaukee Bucks, the Nashville SC,  and Amazon HQ2 and other large-scale infrastructure projects demonstrate how the businesses and residents in their communities are benefitting from the economic investments in their communities.

More and more organizations and communities are taking steps to be more inclusive to make their communities strong and we’re excited to help them achieve this important objective, document their progress and tell each unique story.

So, this June 1 and SkillSmart Day 2023, Jason (Green) and I (Mike Knapp) want to say thank you to each of our clients that we’ve had the pleasure to serve and grow with during the past decade.  We also want to say a heartfelt thank you to our SkillSmart team who have each chosen to join us on this journey to make stronger communities – we are honored to serve with you and appreciate all that you do each day.

Everywhere you look, from small towns to big cities, and even the federal government, there’s a drive to improve the economy and create more good jobs with decent pay so folks can live well and help the economy prosper. These are great platitudes, but how can it actually happen?  Well, I had two experiences this past month that provide some perspective on this.

First, we brought on a new client, a county in North Carolina, and I had an opportunity to sit down with our contact who had just started her position in December.  Her title is MWBE Program Director and she reports into the County Manager.  We were discussing why she was hired, why it was an interesting job opportunity and what the County is hoping to accomplish with her in this role.  She said, “If you look at my title, it looks like a traditional compliance role – make sure everyone is reporting things correctly.  Yet, the County recognized that with a nearly $900 million budget, they should have a huge impact on their economic growth, particularly small businesses.  However, they also recognized they don’t have the tools or data to know what impact they’re actually having. So, my job is to help our leaders and policy-makers understand our current impact on the local economy and how to make stronger.”

The second experience was my attending the P3 Conference in Dallas, TX where everything you wanted to learn about public-private partnerships (the 3 “Ps” in P3) was on display for three days.  As I participated in the sessions, it became clear that these innovative financing mechanisms are a “newer” way to get projects constructed in communities – everything from schools to roads and transit and to community centers and libraries.  But every public sector partner I heard speak discussed how each of these projects is a catalyst for economic growth in their communities, especially for small and local businesses which drive the local economy.  So, a critical element for these projects is community engagement and local participation, at every level, and it’s vital to track and manage this in order to achieve the desired community impact and growth.

At SkillSmart, we are partners in helping to achieve these outcomes. Our tools are designed to be easy for project participants to input and share information, the data is readily accessible so everyone can see the progress that is being made, or changes that are needed, and ultimately the reports can help managers, leaders policy-makers and residents can see the impact they are having to make the community and economy stronger.

Let us know if we can support you in your efforts to positively impact your community and grow the economy.

The Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA) was passed at the beginning of 2022, but we are still in the early stages of this funding being available and for the various requirements to be more fully clarified.  Yet, we know that among the key elements of the IIJA and its funding is to revitalize and build new infrastructure in numerous markets to strengthen communities across the country.  Traditional projects like roads and airports top the list, but there is also funding for alternative energy and EV charging projects among many other areas.

No matter what type of project is being funded, there is a significant focus on demonstrating the impact of that project in the community where each project is happening. – By showing participation from local businesses and workers and providing good wages communities, governments and commercial partners may be afforded access to more funds or tax credits for the project.  Many traditional infrastructure projects and general contractors currently track and report on this information, but with such an array of diverse projects, there are many that don’t have the process or tools in place to do this with efficiency and success.

For the past five years SkillSmart’s InSight software has been used to provide business tracking, supplier diversity, and workforce tracking to support large manufacturing projects, transit and highway infrastructure projects, supplier diversity in higher education, commercial real estate, and municipal jurisdictions.  With superior technology that combines the ability to track numerous project goals and multiple projects in an easy-to-use platform, SkillSmart can help track the information that is needed to tell the story about how the community is growing stronger because of your project and the economic impact it is having, with the data to back it up.  It shouldn’t be difficult to tell such a positive story and SkillSmart helps make the process as easy as possible.

For more on IIJA, visit our additional blog posts:

https://www.skillsmart.us/7-things-to-know-about-iija/

https://www.skillsmart.us/the-1-2-trillion-infrastructure-bill-what-the-construction-industry-needs-to-know/

Want to get ahead of the funding and successfully set your firm up for collecting data, assessing insights, and taking actionable steps on IIJA projects? Contact the SkillSmart team to set up a demo of our software or to ask specific questions about how our software can provide a solution to the data and reporting challenges you are facing today.

When we started SkillSmart 10 years ago, there were two important points we hoped to achieve. First, we had a chip on our shoulder about showing the world that a for-profit business, with strong margins, could also have social impact as part of its core strategy.  Second, we recognized that in order to thrive, communities need small businesses and skilled labor, and our solutions could help build pathways to participation and success for local and diverse businesses and workers.

We began by combining our real-world experiences with technology to design a skills-based hiring platform to increase the number of workers getting jobs and the pay they receive. This was impactful, and our technology is being applied more broadly to have an even greater impact on communities.  Through this process we recognized that what really moves the needle is letting people, organizations, and governments collect and use data from their community, and the communities in which they’re operating, and providing the tools to explore that data and make better decisions to make the community stronger based on those insights.

More simply, we believe in:

Data, Insights, Action

Organizations in most markets are looking for ways to better share the impact they’re having in communities, in part by building a strong foundation of diverse, local business partners and ensuring that local workers are earning wages that allow them to live in that community.  In the past, this has been a compliance and regulatory function – a box to be checked – but now this is a dynamic function that can be tailored to each community depending upon its unique needs.  So, technology must be adaptive, easy to use, and most importantly, responsive to the needs of the users.

Our InSight platform is being used on large and impactful projects like Virginia’s Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, Maryland’s Purple Line, and Amazon’s HQ2 expansion, and it’s also being used in local community-based projects like the mixed-used community development, Carillon in Largo, MD, the Lehigh University’s Clayton University Center, and the Illinois Medical District in Chicago. We are continuing to see more organizations in education, capital infrastructure, local and state governments, construction, airports, mixed-use development, healthcare and others that are looking for improved tools to move beyond compliance to capture their data, understand the insights in that data, and then take action.

As the end of the year approaches and we look to the promise of 2023, we are heartened to see the number of organizations our InSight and Seeker platforms are empowering to be more impactful, ensuring communities can become stronger every day. We look forward to sharing more around the success of these projects, how our solutions address challenges in different sectors, and the positive economic impact communities are seeing by focusing on the important work being done and the individuals performing that work each day.

Our Best for a Wonderful Holiday Season and a Blessed and Prosperous New Year!

We have a rare and exciting opportunity in our country right now, and we’re struggling a bit with how to write about it.  With everything so politicized, sometimes it’s difficult for all of us to see the significant wins even when they’re right in front of us.  So, we’re going to just wade in…

There is an opportunity for working people who have started their own businesses to grow those businesses, expand the economy, create wealth, and help build their communities.  With the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), there is a nonpartisan effort within red and blue states to plan how small and large businesses in communities across the country can help improve our nation’s infrastructure and grow their local economies.  It’s often portrayed that for the economy to improve for one sector, another sector must be losing, but this is one time because of this previously unanticipated federal investment there is now actually a bigger pie that can benefit everyone!

The Equity in Infrastructure Project has brought together a diverse set of jurisdictions –  from Louisiana and Kansas to California and Illinois – to sign a pledge to leverage IIJA funding to create more opportunities for historically disadvantaged construction businesses — with an important emphasis on prime contracting roles.

“We thought that contracting was one of the ways we could use to increase generational wealth in underserved communities,” said Phil Washington, co-chair of the Equity in Infrastructure Project, at a press event on Oct. 11. “These six [DOTs] represent billions of dollars in infrastructure monies, and billions of dollars in terms of the work that they do in their respective states. So, this pledge to significantly increase minority prime contracting is very, very significant.”

Now is a time where our nation’s infrastructure can serve to bring communities together and benefit our largest construction companies and build capacity and economic growth among small, local, and MWDBE firms, subcontractors, and consultants in these communities.  It is unusual for this type of opportunity to come along, and it requires a measure of intentionality to ensure that all can benefit and the Equity in Infrastructure Project pledge is one way to do this.

At SkillSmart, we help track, measure, and demonstrate how the benefits of making investments in local workers and firms can benefit communities and we know that what is measured is what matters.  So, we’re pleased to see the pledge and look forward to seeing other organizations make similar commitments. And our team will continue working with these and other jurisdictions and general contractors to grow our nation’s infrastructure and communities, while positively affecting economic development.

We can all agree that “an honest day’s work deserves an honest day’s pay.”  Unfortunately, millions of workers across the country are victims of wage theft and don’t receive the full benefits of their work.  Moreover, general contractor’s who may be completely unaware that wage theft is happening may be liable for lost wages, damages, and attorney’s fees.  SkillSmart’s InSight technology is designed to both minimize liability for contractors and ensure workers receive the full benefits of their honest day’s work.

Most people are unfamiliar with wage theft, but it is the largest form of theft in the United States totaling more than $15 billion a year.  While it is prevalent in many industries, it is often undiscussed because it disproportionately affects the most marginalized — those in  lower wage, hourly jobs, who are most at risk of losing their job should they speak out against wage theft practices.  It occurs when workers are misclassified as contract workers instead of full-time employees, or at a lower salary level than is appropriate, and the employer withholds some of their pay, taxes, or benefits.

Wage theft can be particularly pervasive in the construction industry where there can be hundreds of subcontractors and workers on a single project.  A number of states and jurisdictions have passed laws to expand the responsibility of addressing wage theft beyond just an employee’s immediate employer to also include the prime contractors for whom the employer is working. These laws create a right of action for the employee against their employer and any contractor for which their employer is working.  In other words, all contractors are now responsible for making sure that every employee, for each of their subcontractors, is paid the correct, timely wage.

We believe technology can be used to help improve the well-being of people and communities, and wage theft is a perfect example of how that can occur.  Our InSight technology captures the wage information for every worker, of every subcontractor, working on a job-site and analyzes the wage data to ensure the workers are being paid the appropriate wages and benefits as well as flagging any discrepancies for the contractor and subcontractor. This provides visibility into the process, identifies any issues, and gives notice about potential wage theft instances to be quickly addressed.  This approach mitigates the liability for the prime and subcontractor – avoiding expensive damages and attorney’s fees, helps ensure subcontractors are appropriately paying their workers, and ultimately helps to achieve “an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay” strengthening our workers and communities.

As we continue to navigate the effects of the COVID pandemic, businesses have confronted the challenges and opportunities left in the pandemic’s wake.  For example, the Great Resignation has created an opportunity for employees and employers to re-think, re-train, and refine what an evolving workplace looks like and what each stakeholder can get out of it.  We have also used this time to wrestle with our responsibility and step into our opportunity.

At SkillSmart, we first got into the technology business because we believed that technology could help communities thrive by focusing on the workers and businesses in those communities.  We believe that by creating a more connected ecosystem where better data is collected and provided in a faster, more efficient way to stakeholders – that better decisions can be made and outcomes for all stakeholders are improved.  Of course, we realize that technology itself can’t produce those better outcomes. Only when people are committed to those better outcomes and leverage our better technology can those improved outcomes be achieved.

We have turned our focus in the last few years to the construction industry which has typically been predominately white and male.  However, there are assumptions with each construction project that it will necessarily benefit a community – that it will create jobs or provide contracting opportunities to local businesses – but, too often, those components are only afterthoughts and its increasingly difficult to even articulate the benefit to the broader community.  Our goal is to work with owners to specifically track, manage, and demonstrate how their efforts do benefit the community.  Our tools also increase the transparency to increase opportunities for local businesses and residents to help that new project grow.  By increasing the visibility into these efforts, it helps to build trust in our communities because it provides the data that demonstrates our commitment to each other and the interdependence that makes us stronger.

This Labor Day, as we all continue to regain our footing and move forward, we reflect on our workers and how technology can enable them to be more successful to the betterment of our employers and communities, if leadership is committed to those outcomes.  Over the coming weeks and months, we will identify and discuss topics that demonstrate how working together, technology can be used to make people, communities, and businesses stronger.  We hope to enlighten, provoke a little, and provide an opportunity for discourse.

We look forward to engaging with you further.

Wishing you all a restful Labor Day holiday!

Jason and Mike

One of the ongoing themes of these weekly blogs is the fact that the current college system is broken.

This system not only limits those who chose not to attend a university, but also a significant portion of those who graduate. The fact that employers tend to favor college graduates over those who did not attend university has not only saddled a large segment of the population with debt, but has also caused businesses to overlook many skilled employees.

There have been countless case studies and surveys conducted which have shown that in many cases graduating college alone does not properly prepare an individual to complete tasks at their job. There is no significant difference between the skills of someone who graduates from a university and a high school graduate in entry level positions.

Within the Bloomberg article “Do You Really Need a College Degree for That Entry-Level Job?” Peter Coy compares the job experiences of college graduates to high school graduates.

Because employers tend to respect candidates with college degrees more, graduates have an easier time receiving a position that high school graduates. However, 49% of recent college graduates indicated that they “didn’t have to go to college to acquire the skills they needed for their current jobs.”

This data might cause one to reconsider the college process altogether. If college does not prepare a young adult for an entry level position, then why are they placed at a premium?

The article’s second case study further proves that a college diploma may be overvalued. A new research algorithm (funded by the Rockefeller Foundation which was created to test employee skills) indicated that 83% of high school graduates without college experience performed at a level comparable with the average entry level employee at various businesses.

While we can all agree that there are several benefits to attending university, perhaps it is time for us to stop placing so much importance on it.

What do you think?

Read the Article  Share Your Thoughts

The Smart Talk weekly blog posts and online job seeker articles are atypical from the common job advice you might receive from your parents in the past. Perhaps this reflects the changing mindset of the modern job seeker.

In the past, jobs were seen as a career, so you have to work hard to impress future employers knowing that this business could probably be your place of employment for life. However, the combination of distrust of big business, and the importance of happiness at your workplace has led to a new modern mindset.

Twenty years ago you may have gone into a job interview looking at the experience as a one-way relationship, now the you’re more likely to observe how you are being treated within the interview process.

While bill collectors wait for no one, and some still view the job interviewer as the party with all the power, a growing segment of the younger generation looks at employment as a mutual relationship: I provide a much needed skill, you provide me with respect and happiness.

Therefore when you read our weekly blog posts, we want you to read about more than just techniques to please your interviewer, or the right words to say during an interview. Here, you’ll find employee empowerment pieces. You will read about signs you should look for during an interview process, and what you should gather from them.

The current generation changes positions at a faster rate than previous generations, and if some continue to rush into positions specifically for a paycheck this trend will only continue.

So keep following us, and stay tuned for more tips and guidance on how you can prepare for a job that meets your budgetary requirements as well as your happiness ones.

Do you have any suggestions our other readers can benefit from?

Share Your Experience

Students majoring in Liberal Arts fields are often undervalued. Relatively speaking, these degrees do not carry the same weight as medical or engineering degrees.

In an uncertain job market some look at these graduates as individuals who do not possess a certain skill to do a particular task. These are not graduates who can do an open heart surgery or write code for a Fortune 500 company, therefore finding a job after graduation for these students can be rather problematic.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers “only 32.6 percent of philosophy majors in the class of 2015 secured full-time employment by January 2016, compared to 65.7 percent of business majors” within the same timeframe.

However, this mindset may be on the precipice of change. Recently, Forbes contributor Renee Morad wrote an article titled “Why Mark Cuban Believes Liberal Arts Is The Future Of Jobs” in which the Dallas Mavericks owner is quoted explaining why Liberal Arts majors may be in demand in the near future.

Cuban theorizes that as technology advances some skills may become redundant. Cuban believes that society will give machines more of the tasks which we attend college for today.

This change will cause freethinkers to play a more integral role in the workforce.

Commonly overlooked skills such as communication, foresight, and critical thinking will be needed because these are skills which machines can not possess. This information would be welcomed by colleges, who in recent times have attempted to add more skills based courses to their Liberal Arts curriculums in order to secure more job prospects for their students.

What are your thoughts? Does this make you re-think your liberal arts choice, or reinforce that you made the right one?

Read the Article Share Your Experience