Nonprofit digitally transforms to enable remote collaboration and respond to a community in crisis

The opportunity to work

The San Diego Workforce Partnership wears its heart on its sleeve. The nonprofit is passionate about outcomes and the people it serves. Its CEO, Peter Callstrom, is a national thought leader on the future of work in the United States. And as one of the 550 workforce development boards serving the country, the Workforce Partnership believes that everybody deserves the chance to access affordable education and training that leads to a decent job, a living wage with sufficient benefits, and the ability to properly support their families. 

“Your zip code shouldn’t determine your destiny,” says Callstrom. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to get a good quality job and to continually advance in their career journey. Lifelong learning and innovation are central to our approach. The Workforce Partnership connects San Diegans to training, career opportunities, and other resources that empower all with the knowledge and skills to succeed.” 

Adults can contact the nonprofit’s headquarters or six career centers to find job opportunities, develop new skills to advance their careers, and learn what kind of unemployment assistance is available to them. Youth who are 16 and older can learn about careers and get paid work experience, and employers can connect with diverse and skilled candidates who can help their businesses grow. 

A community in crisis

When COVID-19 began to spread throughout the San Diego, California, community, nearly 100,000 residents lost their jobs almost overnight. That included tens of thousands of frontline workers in retail, service, and tourism jobs. 

“We saw more people laid off in 90 days than we normally see in an entire year,” says Brooke Valle, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at the San Diego Workforce Partnership. “Everyone, even those who were still employed, grappled with how they were going to get through this, and employers wondered whether their businesses would survive.” 

California responded to COVID-19 with stay-at-home orders, business closures, and social distancing guidelines, forcing the Workforce Partnership to temporarily shut down all its physical locations, with more people than ever in need of its help. The nonprofit’s leaders had to think fast. To support effective remote collaboration and help staff continue to serve a community suddenly in crisis, the organization rolled out Microsoft Teams, used Power Virtual Agents (part of Microsoft Power Platform), and took advantage of the omnichannel capabilities within Dynamics 365 Customer Service. 

Rapid adoption, reliable remote collaboration

The Workforce Partnership office closures accelerated the organization’s already ongoing digital transformation journey. The nonprofit turned to the Microsoft Technology Centers and Microsoft Digital Store for online training for IT staff and other employees. In just one month, it expanded its use of Teams from a few employees to its entire workforce. 

That gave the whole staff a highly secure, reliable, and agile way to work together remotely. Employees easily adapted to using the instant messaging and voice capabilities in Teams to communicate, conduct “face-to-face” video meetings, share files, and collaborate on projects. 

“Prior to COVID-19, people weren’t consistently using Teams throughout the organization,” admits Stephen Colón, Manager of Integrated Services at the San Diego Workforce Partnership. “Now that everybody works remotely with Teams, it really feels like you’re at the office, just dropping by somebody’s desk.”

Bot power, human empathy

The nonprofit took a second important step by empowering its customer service agents and advisers to better manage the steep increase in inquiries from thousands of workers who were displaced by COVID-19. The Workforce Partnership rapidly built and deployed an AI-assisted chatbot with Power Virtual Agents. 

When its offices first closed, people had to phone or visit the organization’s website for information about unemployment assistance eligibility, job opportunities, and training and placement resources. Staff had trouble keeping up with the overwhelming volume of requests for help. Many callers were met with busy signals or interminable holds, while hordes of people online struggled to navigate the nonprofit’s many offerings without aid. It was a frustrating experience for all, especially those going through a significant crisis. 

The Workforce Partnership launched its new bot in June 2020. Now, visitors to the website’s home page can select the Let’s Chat! button and immediately interact with a virtual agent to get answers to most of their questions in their preferred language. “We designed the bot to handle that initial intake,” says Colón. “It points people in the right direction, helping them find the specific information they need among all our different offerings.” 

Some people use the bot to quickly get what they need and then go on their way, but others who want more guidance can direct the bot to instantly connect them to a human agent. To support this direct live-agent handoff across its digital channels, the Workforce Partnership uses the omnichannel capabilities within Customer Service. “Not having a job is stressful,” says Colón. “Getting to talk to a real person—someone who brings empathy and understanding to the conversation—can make all the difference in the world.” 

The Workforce Partnership extended its bot’s capabilities across text messaging to serve even more people in need. And the organization plans to offer similar bots to other workforce investment boards across the country, which will allow more live agents to benefit from a unified view of information from various engagement channels and provide better customer experiences. 

A combination of tech and touch

The Workforce Partnership offices won’t stay closed forever. Eventually, the nonprofit will welcome people back into its physical spaces and provide them with the same critical services it always has. But now, thanks to its remarkable digital transformation, employees can work from anywhere, anytime, and engage people without friction—precisely what the organization’s leaders envisioned from the outset. 

“This wasn’t just a crisis response,” says Valle. “We intended this to be a long-lasting transformation.” 

Equipped with Teams, Workforce Partnership employees can stay productive while working remotely. Staff have helped thousands of people in the San Diego area who were affected by COVID-19 to learn more about future employment opportunities, training courses, and assistance programs. 

The bot has generated a 75 percent resolution rate and successfully handed off 23 percent of users to live agents upon request. This has gone a long way toward creating more positive experiences with the Workforce Partnership, especially for people who couldn’t get through on the phone or wanted help finding content on the website. 

“We pivoted really quickly by moving everybody to Microsoft Teams and building a bot ourselves with Power Virtual Agents to make sure people get help from the right person, right away,” says Colón. 

With the bot fielding a large portion of general questions, Workforce Partnership staff have more time to serve people with major needs—handling each and every one of those interactions with care and sensitivity. 

“We believe the future of engagement will require a combination of tech and touch,” says Valle. “We’re using Microsoft technologies to deliver personalized service with compassion, humanity, and hope through sophisticated, real-time solutions.“ 

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