U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Talent Pipeline Management Initiative

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation is dedicated to strengthening America’s long-term competitiveness. We educate the public on the conditions necessary for business and communities to thrive, how business positively impacts communities, and emerging issues and creative solutions that will shape the future.

What challenge is this solution working to address?

We have people without jobs, and jobs without people. Today, 50% of open, available positions in this country go unfilled, because the candidates aren’t available. At the same time, 40% of businesses can’t take on more work… because they can’t fill the jobs they have. Traditional education and career pathways weren’t designed to develop skills for a fast-changing market or to match the speed of changing industry requirements.

The demands of today’s economy require a strategy that connects workers to the jobs employers are trying to fill.

Solution Overview

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Talent Pipeline Management™ (TPM) initiative is an effort to mobilize the business community to close the skills gap by applying lessons learned from supply chain management to its education and workforce partnerships. The idea is that if employers play an expanded leadership role as “end-customers” of a talent supply chain, they will be more effective at organizing performance-driven partnerships with responsive preferred education and workforce training providers.

The TPM Academy™ is an in-person training for state and local chamber, business association, and economic development agency leaders, as well as employers, to learn the TPM approach to drive partnerships with their education and training providers based on industry need. In 2019, the U.S. Chamber Foundation launched the first TPM Upskill Academy, an expansion of the TPM Academy that builds on existing TPM resources to support employers in improving the skills of incumbent employees and preparing them for success in new and changing roles.

Facilitated by the U.S. Chamber Foundation, the TPM Academy is supported by a customized curriculum that serves as an employer handbook and gives participants the knowledge, skills, and abilities to implement talent supply chain solutions on behalf of their employer collaborative members. In addition, the corresponding TPM web tool activates the six TPM strategies to streamline data collection and visualization for employer partners. Because employer needs vary, the curriculum is a customizable framework for employers to create solutions that directly address the challenges they face in building high-performing talent pipelines.