Overview
Strategic Goals
When creating the strategic plan, the leadership team took great time and care to develop the goals that will ultimately lead to a successful implementation. We gathered input from all divisions on what we are currently doing to serve New Yorkers every day and what we will strive to do in the future. The following goals encapsulate that work:
Protect all workers by enforcing labor laws, providing critical benefits, and creating an environment of awareness, accountability, and responsibility.
Improve customers’ experience by implementing modern business practices and programmatic initiatives to meet the diverse needs of those we serve, enhance service quality, and increase efficiency.
Set job seekers and businesses up for success by fostering innovation, and forging strategic partnerships as we prepare workers for quality and in-demand jobs.
Be a model employer as we prepare our own workforce for the future and build a supportive, flexible and inclusive work environment that attracts talented individuals and allows all employees to thrive.
Be the trusted expert for relevant and easily accessible data, knowledge, information, and services.
Be resourceful and responsible with public dollars, carefully aligning mission-critical activities, continuous improvement efforts, and data-informed decision-making.
Prioritize, develop, and implement environmentally sustainable business practices.
Embracing an Innovative Mindset
New Yorkers expect their government to operate and interact with them in a way that reflects today’s constantly changing world. We work to meet this expectation in every aspect of our work and ensure that all key operations are modernized to meet future challenges. Specifically, the Department will:
- Deliver a new, updated and secure Unemployment Insurance (UI) system to provide timely benefits.
- Implement new technology-supported programs and processes to hold employers accountable for paying their UI debts, helping the State to stabilize the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund and level the playing field for all employers.
- Expand opportunities for our customers to securely and effectively communicate, interact, and transact with us in a robust online environment.
- Leverage advanced technology to bolster our efforts in labor law compliance and enforcement including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).
- Deploy customer relationship management and artificial intelligence tools effectively and responsibly, allowing us to increase capacity and seamlessly deliver the best service to New Yorkers.
- Support a culture of continuous improvement in all aspects of the work we do, focusing on aligning our business protocols, quality review processes, and procedures.
Related Goals: Improve customers’ experience, protect all workers, set job seekers and businesses up for success
Centering Our Customers
As a Department, we are committed to continuously improving our understanding of the needs of our customers and implementing processes and procedures to meet or exceed their expectations. We take a comprehensive approach to delivering excellent service to New Yorkers. Our efforts are informed by active engagement with customers allowing us to seek valuable feedback, develop actionable intelligence, and implement new approaches to our work. Specifically, we will:
- Make it easy for workers and employers to learn about workplace rights, responsibilities, and best practices by developing and sharing reference and education materials that are simple, helpful, and widely available.
- Create a dedicated team to implement and sustain customer feedback through focus groups, customer experience surveys, and other means.
- Transition critical workforce programs and customer interfaces, such as Registered Apprenticeship and the One Stop Operating System, to newer platforms that more closely align with business and job seeker needs.
- Expand our inventory of publicly available data visualization dashboards, making even more information about the labor market and other critical labor issues readily available to members of the public and other stakeholders who wish to explore this information.
Related Goals: Improve customers’ experience, set job seekers and businesses up for success, protect all workers, be the trusted expert
Prioritizing Our People
As an organization, our most important asset is our people. Employees of the New York State Department of Labor are a critical component to our success, and we do everything we can to make sure they have ongoing, structured support and the tools they need to do their jobs and deliver excellent service today and in the future. We are committed to building a supportive, flexible, and inclusive work environment, where all employees can thrive. This includes enhancing the spirit of collaboration across the agency to strengthen the quality of our interactions with New Yorkers.
To help make this happen, the Department will:
- Identify and deliver new training and professional development experiences to staff at all levels of the Department.
- Highlight to employees the benefits of mentoring through our new Employee Mentorship Program.
- Evaluate and strengthen our internal communication practices so that we can all learn and grow, together.
- Redouble and formalize our efforts to document, preserve, and expand institutional knowledge, so that the Department is prepared for the future, all staff have the critical information they need, and our role as labor and workforce issue experts is reaffirmed.
- Launch the first New York State Civil Service Registered Apprenticeship program, helping to fill some of the most critical roles in our Department and eventually serving as a model for other state agencies.
- Strive to create a supportive working environment and culture where employees feel welcomed, valued, and accepted. Doing so distinguishes the Department as a standout state government agency where people want to work and more importantly, choose to stay. Some highlights about our work in this important space are noted below. A separate and comprehensive strategic plan related to the Department’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion portfolio, which is required by Executive Order 187, can be found here: DEI at DOL: Strategic Plan | Department of Labor
- Establish and support expansion of Employee Resource Groups so that our employees have a place to connect and learn from each other on issues of mutual interest and concern.
- Strengthen our domestic violence policy and action plan for hiring people with disabilities as outlined in Governor Hochul’s Executive Orders.
Related Goals: Be a model employer, be the trusted expert, improve customers’ experience
Optimizing our Data
The Department is strengthening our data and technology stance by examining and improving all critical aspects of how we collect, organize, store, and share data with the public. From establishing data governance structures to breaking new ground in how we analyze data, how we use it to enhance decision-making, and how we share information more broadly, the Department is actively evolving in this space. We will:
- Create a Department-wide data governance plan, helping to ensure we are managing our data assets effectively, creating alignment among various program areas, and ensuring consistency in data management processes and procedures.
- Support the Office of Workforce Data and Research (OWDR), a new office that will collaborate with other State entities to connect and analyze data from educational institutions, employers, and workforce programs to identify impacts and outcomes.
- Increase our use of data to inform strategic, proactive enforcement methods, to drive results on behalf of workers and employers.
- Institute a formal internal Return on Investment (ROI) review processes to critically evaluate technology purchases, ensuring we are getting what we want from the tools we adopt.
- Conduct an internal DOL Employee Census and supporting analyses so that, through quantifiable data, we can better understand the characteristics and demographics of our workforce.
- Set the stage to design new and relevant recruitment, hiring, and retention practices, using the results of the DOL Employee Census and analyses, to ensure we have staff ready and able to meet people where they are, in all regions of the State.
Related Goals: Be the trusted expert, be resourceful and responsible with public dollars
Strengthening our Partnerships
Key partnerships are a critical component of our work and driver of our success. By maintaining on-the-ground expertise about local communities and connecting regularly with stakeholders across the state we can ensure that these partnerships grow and strengthen. To that end, the Department will:
- Pursue key partnerships and resources to support equitable workforce participation in the green economy. We will do this work through our Office of Just Energy Transition, which is responsible for directing training and upskilling opportunities for individuals, including those from disadvantaged communities.
- Redouble efforts to identify and maximize available state and federal funds to support initiatives that can help employers, workers, and job seekers in New York State.
- Increase stakeholder engagement to maximize our opportunities to share and amplify our technical expertise and labor law knowledge.
Related Goals: Set job seekers and businesses up for success, be resourceful and responsible with public dollars, environmentally sustainable business practices, be the trusted expert
Doing our Part
The Department is committed to helping New York achieve its ambitious climate goals. We prioritize and implement environmentally sustainable business practices. We aim to be a leader among state agencies in this space and we are taking a holistic approach to this effort. We will:
- Create a culture of collective responsibility in our workplace by educating and empowering our workers about how they can make a positive impact on the environment, in their daily lives.
- Make necessary green capital investments to help New York State achieve its emission reduction targets.
- Collaborate with key partners in government to identify all available resources to help fund or offset the costs of these critical activities.
Related Goals: Environmentally sustainable business practices, Be resourceful and responsible with public dollars