Announcing the Workday Opportunity Onramps Conference

We’re entering 2018 with a good economy and a low unemployment rate. Yet this also means many organizations are churning out more job requisitions than they can fill. In fact, 40 percent of employers report talent shortages, with engineering, finance, office support, skilled trades, and IT among the hardest roles to fill.

But that’s only one side of the story. There are many unemployed or underemployed people who are eager for work, but repeatedly turned away from jobs because something’s missing—a four-year degree, the right experience, or a solid corporate resume without any gaps. Maybe it’s someone who just returned to civilian life from the military, or was a stay-at-home parent for five years, or had to choose to provide for their family over college tuition.

Now what if there was a way to give these people the opportunity to prove themselves to be among your best hires and most dedicated employees?

If you’re intrigued by this idea, I hope you’ll join us for the inaugural Workday Opportunity Onramps workforce development conference. The mission of this one-day conference, taking place Tuesday, April 24 at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District, is to rapidly expand and accelerate programs that provide career opportunities for candidates facing barriers to employment. It’s designed for any organization interested in providing training, internships, and job opportunities for nontraditional candidates from diverse backgrounds, as well as workforce development organizations seeking to learn more from their corporate hiring partners.

At Workday, we’ve had great success partnering with organizations such as Upwardly Global and Year Up, as well as programs we’ve built from the ground up such as Workforce Week and the Career Accelerator Program. In addition to benefiting the communities in which we operate, we’ve been able to expand the diversity of our workforce with people from different backgrounds and experiences, which makes us a better company both for our employees and for our customers.

We know other companies have also had great success with similar programs, and look forward to joining them to discuss ideas and share models and programs that have proved to work. And thanks to the generosity of the conference’s corporate sponsors, all who have done great work in this area, we are able to offer an all-inclusive conference registration for just $195.

Session topics will include using internships and apprenticeships as career onramps, accelerating diversity through workforce programs, running workforce development volunteer programs at scale, and exploring progressive hiring policies. We’ll also hear from nontraditional candidates that have successfully launched corporate careers, and nonprofits that offer ready-to-hire candidates.

Our opening keynote speaker for the event will be Year Up CEO Gerald Chertavian, who captivated and inspired his audience during a session at Workday Rising last year and is a national leader in the space. And we’ll have a fireside chat with Byron Auguste, CEO at Opportunity@Work, a non-profit organization he co-founded in 2015 after serving in the White House as deputy assistant to the president for economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council.

As employers and individual hiring managers, every step we take to close the opportunity gap benefits our communities, the economy, and our companies. We’d be delighted if you or someone from your organization joins us on April 24, where we will work together to find even more ways to build opportunity onramps that lead to thriving-wage careers for everyone.