Creating opportunity for all Hoosiers through digital credentials

As businesses face difficulty in finding qualified talent, shifting hiring practices to a focus on specific skills is key to addressing workforce shortages. 

Through their SkillsFWD partnership, Western Governors University (WGU), the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, and the Institute for Workforce Excellence are building a comprehensive learning and employment record (LER) ecosystem that provides the human capital needed to drive a robust, forward-thinking economy through public-private partnerships.  

We recently sat down with Natalie Wenzler, director for partnerships and training at the Institute for Workforce Excellence, to explore the project’s goals and strategies for sustaining and scaling digital credentials for all Hoosiers. 

In this discussion, we discovered how the Institute tailors workshops to encourage employer engagement and meet business and workforce needs, in addition to the focus on ensuring high-quality employer data. 

Share the top goals and priorities around advancing skills-based hiring and economic mobility for all Hoosiers. 

NATALIE: At the Institute for Workforce Excellence, a nonprofit of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, we focus on helping Indiana employers attract, develop, and retain the Hoosier talent needed to drive a highly skilled and equitable workforce. To accomplish this, we collaborate with state agencies, economic and workforce development ecosystems as well as community organizations and regional talent intermediaries.

We have consistently heard from employers that their top organizational challenge is workforce recruitment and retention through our annual Indiana Chamber of Commerce Employer Survey. In 2024, 51% of respondents stated they use skills-based practices in hiring, and another 18% were interested in learning more.

We’ve witnessed firsthand the results of adopting a skills-based approach to talent attraction and retention with employers. We are excited to continue supporting employers in building a connected talent process using skills to streamline the attraction, evaluation, selection, and development of Indiana talent.

As a SkillsFWD grantee, your primary agenda is to sustain and scale a comprehensive LER ecosystem that drives a robust economy. What are key success metrics for this project, and how do you envision the impact of a fully scaled LER ecosystem on both businesses and individuals working towards economic growth in Indiana?

NATALIE: The Institute launched employer support with Skills-Based Talent Strategy in 2023. Since then, we’ve hosted free workshops helping employers learn and practice skills-based hiring. There is support for any stage an employer may be at with adopting skills-based approaches from beginning to scaling.

It’s great to see that more employers are thinking about and using skills-based hiring, especially when it’s affirmed in our employer survey showing a three-point increase from last year’s results. We’ll continue exploring the information from our survey to understand more deeply the needs of employers around workforce and how that can inform our engagement with LERs as well as skills-based hiring practices.

We’re also curious about which sectors are using skills-based hiring and how they align with priority sectors in Indiana. Generally manufacturing, information technology, construction, professional services, and health care are areas we work frequently and partner with intentionally.

How will the project ensure that LERs are aligned with the skills most in demand by the state’s employers?

NATALIE: An LER connects employers to available talent with self-attested or verified credentials via a skills match. Therefore, employers must ensure that job postings are as accurate and updated as possible when uploaded into the LER system.

This helps employers see what skills are needed for their jobs and the talent who has those skills. It also helps to show what skills are missing to help create onboarding and ongoing development training plans. The LER technology infrastructure is essential to providing this quality and efficient match that is not available today.

With SkillsFWD, we are starting with employers who have completed our Skillful Talent Series and will receive dedicated support from the Institute to ensure their job postings are updated as well as other steps in the hiring process. That way, the information populated from the employer side of our wallet is of high quality. 

This is the beginning of a tech system for both talent and employers, and we’re working to develop the highest quality to set ourselves up for success in these initial uses of LERs.

In your view, what misconceptions remain around digital credentials?

NATALIE: I would reframe it and say there are more unknowns around digital credentials, especially from the employer's perspective. Digital credentials are still fairly new, sporadically used, and often not communicated well to employers. They are not sure what the digital credential entails and how they can best use them. And understandably so, since employers are doing a lot and being asked to do a variety of things internally and externally.

Once we better communicate the potential and uses of digital credentials, employers will have an immense opportunity to improve their performance management and evaluation cycles. And some already do understand the relevance of digital credentials for their businesses, specific needs, and occupations — which leads to the adoption of LERs.

What do you hope to learn or gain from the broader SkillsFWD community?

NATALIE: I’ve been so impressed by everyone’s different projects and approaches to developing their LER infrastructures. I’m excited to continue learning from other groups on how they engage their employers and look forward to capturing case studies, which I’ve really needed support with.

Seeing metrics and the commonality between each group’s work could also help develop a baseline for longitudinal data on how the work is evolving and being built in different environments, as varying factors will drive the creation of larger LER ecosystems. I’m curious to learn how we are all approaching this, and appreciate sharing with one another.

I feel so honored to be working with such thoughtful and dedicated partners on the Indiana Achievement Wallet and building out our connected employer side. It’s been years in the making.

The support from SkillsFWD, as well as their team, is invaluable to the continued build and success of connecting talent to open opportunities, meeting the needs of employers and individuals.