Staffing Capacity Pilot Program Supports WAP Agencies in Illinois

About the Project 

The Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies (IACAA) was seeing challenges with hiring, training, and retaining their Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) workforce, at the state and local level. To help address this, the organization created a pilot workforce program through a utility partnership.  

Challenge      

IACAA was seeing a lot of turnover in their WAP workforce across the state. Particularly challenging was a shortage of Energy Auditors, Quality Control Inspectors, and Healthy Homes Evaluators. In addition to difficulty with recruitment, bringing new employees up to speed could take 1.5 years, and there was immediate need. 

Solution     

IACAA created a pilot workforce training program in coordination with Ameren Illinois (a utility), Walker-Miller Energy Services, and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. Through this program, IACAA was able to hire and manage two new staff to provide services to multiple WAP agencies. The intention was to be a short-term solution while the agency was rebuilding their staff capacity. 

Funding from Walker-Miller and Ameren covered the first-year salaries for the two new staff, as well as vehicles and diagnostic equipment. The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity funded a 10-week training program, allowing the new staff members to get their Energy Auditor and Quality Control Inspector certifications.

Positive Impact       

The candidates hired were successful in the training programs, and in turn were able to help the agencies significantly. The two pilot program hires worked with six agencies on initial and final inspections, completing work on 100 homes in 6 months (75% of those homes braided funding with Ameren Illinois funding).   

Having the Assessor come in already trained allows for the agency to continue production. Giving the Assessor multiple weeks or even months at one agency before moving to another one is the best for all parties. Overall, this model gave agencies immediate assistance and freed the local agencies to increase their production in ways that they would not have otherwise been able to do.

This story was developed using content submitted by the Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies.