Part of the Conversation: Workforce Professionals' Perspectives on the Roles and Impacts of Workforce Technologies

Abstract

Amidst recent enthusiasm for data-driven technologies in workforce development, prior HCI research has explored job seekers' perspectives to inform the design of new technologies that could support their job search. However, in practice, the process of looking for work is often embedded in local workforce development ecosystems, where networks of organizations provide a range of services, from employment consulting, to resume workshops, to job skills training programs. Although prior CSCW work has explored the role of algorithms in social services, there has been little work investigating how algorithmic systems may shape workforce development professionals' interactions with clients and how they might be better designed to complement these professionals' work and responsibilities. To begin to address this gap, we conducted an interview study with five workforce development professionals in the US in both management and client-facing roles. Our findings contribute to research on how algorithmic systems are shaping workforce development, shedding light on the importance of the relationship building work that workforce professionals engage in with clients, the difficulty in maintaining boundaries in the face of resource and information challenges, and the ways that workforce development technologies are shaping the work of workforce development.