Vanderbilt Wayfinder

The evolving landscape of the American labor market presents distinct and persistent barriers for those from non-traditional backgrounds, often sidelining capable workers and creating disparities that hinder economic and social progress.

• People with Disabilities: Individuals with physical or mental disabilities experience an unemployment rate nearly double that of those without disabilities. They face physical workplace barriers, as well as insufficient support for their needs, leading to lower workforce participation and higher poverty rates.

• Neurodivergent Adults: While falling under the broader category of individuals with disabilities, neurodivergent adults encounter unique challenges, including a 30-40% unemployment rate. They often struggle with social cues and workplace flexibility demands, despite offering specialized skills and unique perspectives. 

• Military Veterans: About 7% of the U.S. population, veterans frequently find their specialized military skills and experiences underappreciated in the civilian job market, resulting in underemployment and difficulties with job role transitions. 

• Formerly Incarcerated Individuals: Each year, roughly 650,000 individuals re-enter society facing stigma and legal barriers, which contribute to an unemployment rate over five times higher than the general U.S. population.

The cumulative effect of these employment challenges contributes to broader issues of poverty, inequality, and reduced diversity in the workplace.

Our solution, the Vanderbilt Wayfinder app, is an AI-enhanced platform that matches job seekers, including those from unconventional backgrounds, to fulfilling roles. At the core of the user experience is a chat agent that engages job seekers in conversation to discern their work preferences, unique skill sets, and any necessary workplace accommodations they might need. 

The app draws upon Vanderbilt's skill-based job architecture database, a comprehensive system that catalogs job roles based on skills rather than title hierarchies. The app aligns candidates with positions that best fit their abilities and personal work preferences, ensuring that each placement is optimal for both the employee and employer.

Designed to be inherently accessible, the app supports screen readers, keyboard navigation, and customizable UI options, ensuring it is usable for people with a range of abilities. Security and privacy are paramount, with stringent adherence to GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA regulations.

The Wayfinder app goes beyond just job matching; it also provides customized interview preparation advice. Drawing on the user's profile and saved job interests, it offers strategies to showcase their strengths and effectively address any weaknesses. This holistic support system is crafted to guide users through every step of their job-seeking journey.

Our solution targets a demographic of capable yet underserved individuals within an organization and the broader labor market, including neurodiverse adults, military veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, and people with disabilities. Traditional employment channels often overlook these workers’ unique skills, abilities, and life experiences, leading to their underrepresentation within the workforce.

To address this, our solution leverages a skills-based job architecture that accurately identifies and aligns these individuals with job opportunities that are suited to their abilities. By focusing on skill alignment, we ensure that their strengths are fully utilized, facilitating more effective and satisfying job placements.

Our multifaceted solution also provides personalized interview preparation and real-time workforce forecasting, offering predictive and prescriptive insights to navigate emergent challenges. These tools support not just job attainment but also retention, aligning roles with individual needs.

The impact of our solution aims to go beyond job placement. By improving skill alignment and employers' responsiveness to varied needs, we endeavor to cultivate rewarding employment experiences that reflect Vanderbilt's core beliefs of belonging, self-direction, collaboration, and growth. The result is anticipated to boost job retention, career stability, and the economic well-being of these individuals, contributing to a more inclusive and prosperous society.

Our team, led by Dr. Sydney Savion, Vice Chancellor of Vanderbilt’s division of People, Culture and Belonging, exemplifies proximate leadership—a principle that emphasizes the power of leaders who are closely connected to the communities they serve. Dr. Savion's military service and her deep understanding of veteran transitions, detailed in her book Camouflage to Pinstripes, underscore her direct link to the veteran community.

Proximate leadership is further embodied by team members like Brian Bergheger, an Army veteran whose efforts as Vanderbilt’s Workforce Integration Specialist are informed by his own experiences transitioning to the civilian workforce. Matt Estes ensures our learning initiatives cater to diverse segments of our workforce, while Cleo Rucker's record of outreach to justice-involved individuals has created pathways to employment. Lydell Francis, also a veteran, champions wellbeing initiatives that are sensitive to the needs of a diverse workforce.

Our approach is grounded in our division’s values of inclusivity and authenticity, ensuring every voice contributes and feels a sense of belonging to our vibrant community. Our proactive engagement with special worker populations is evidenced by our programming investments and partnerships. For example, our partnership with the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge program reflects our commitment to veteran employment. Additionally, our partnership with The Precisionists, and collaboration with Vanderbilt's Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, led by the esteemed Dr. Keivan Stassun, a 2024 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, provides us with a unique talent pool and leading insights. This engagement has been critical in shaping our solution to meet the distinct needs of our users.

These initiatives and partnerships have fostered interactions with hundreds of individuals, offering insight that has been pivotal in the conceptualization phase. By maintaining close ties with these groups, we ensure our solution is informed, empathetic, and designed for sustainable impact.

We selected the "Concept" stage for our solution, as it aligns precisely with the current phase of development described. While we do not have a functioning prototype of the Wayfinder app itself, our team has successfully developed and currently pilots an in-house generative AI chatbot with Vanderbilt staff. This chatbot, though distinct, shares underlying technology and capacities with the proposed Wayfinder app, providing us with a solid foundation and valuable insights for its development.

Key to the Wayfinder app is the skills-based job architecture data, which is crucial for accurately pairing job seekers with roles that suit their skills and for effectively implementing the app's workforce forecasting feature. Our team has been assiduously crafting this architecture, and it is on schedule for completion by Spring 2025. This will allow for seamless integration of the job architecture into the Wayfinder app's database, significantly enhancing its AI-driven matching capabilities.

Our progress with the AI chatbot and the development of the job architecture database reflects our commitment and capability to bring the Wayfinder app from concept to reality, leveraging our existing technological assets and ongoing work on skills-based job categorization.

The Wayfinder app concept represents a significant innovation in employment support and career navigation, harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to precisely match talent from unconventional backgrounds with careers suited to their unique skills and accommodation needs. This app actively dismantles barriers that these workers face, offering a modern skills-first approach to recruitment and hiring that promotes a more inclusive and equitable workforce.

At the foundation of any AI and ML driven product is a robust database, and Wayfinder will be no different. The application will draw upon Vanderbilt's comprehensive skills-based job architecture to identify job matches with unprecedented accuracy and fidelity to required skills and reasonable accommodations. By placing skills at the forefront, our app aligns with an emerging best practice in workforce planning and management that has a growing base of evidence showing its ability to attract and retain diverse talent. 

Vanderbilt is the ideal testbed for this solution for two primary reasons:

1. Our unique workforce encapsulates a full spectrum of 7,500 professional roles, from frontline services to specialized knowledge positions. Vanderbilt is akin to a microcosm of the global workforce, offering a broad canvas to test the utility of AI and ML in optimizing skill matches.

2. We have significant institutional strengths in AI and ML that are relevant to this project. Having already pioneered a proprietary AI chat product, we are equipped to develop and scale Wayfinder for global impact.

Wayfinder's potential extends far beyond Vanderbilt and aligns deeply with our mission to bring out the best in humanity and push new ideas into the frontiers of discovery. This path of inquiry has the potential to transform the way organizations across industries plan and recruit their workforces, making the persistent employment gaps among unconventional workers a relic of the past. 

Goal 1: Demonstrate the Wayfinder app's ability to improve job placement and career development outcomes for individuals with unconventional backgrounds by piloting it with successful results within the context of Vanderbilt workforce.  

• Target 1.1: Increase representation of the collective target population by 5% within Vanderbilt’s workforce One Year Post Implementation.
  • Indicator 1.1.1: Comparison of collective target population’s composition percentage of Vanderbilt workforce One Year Post-Implementation with Day Zero of Implementation (baseline).  

• Target 1.2: Achieve a 90% job retention rate of app users within their first year of employment.
  • Indicator 1.2.1: Proportion of app users who remain employed in the same job for at least one year.
  • Indicator 1.2.2: Comparison of retention rates between app users and the broader workforce within Vanderbilt.

• Target 1.3: Score an average user satisfaction rating of 8 out of 10, reflecting the app's effectiveness in meeting users' needs.
  • Indicator 1.3.1: User satisfaction ratings collected through post-employment surveys. 

Goal 2: Publish a white paper within one year post implementation on the Wayfinder app, including the evaluation of our pilot outcomes in order to promote the solution, our learnings, and solicit criticism from other thought leaders and employment practitioners.

• Target 2.1: Reach a wide audience of thought leaders to disseminate findings and encourage collaborative dialogue.
  • Indicator 2.1.1: Number of downloads and shares of the white paper within the first three months of publication.

• Target 2.2: Receive constructive feedback from external experts to refine and improve the Wayfinder app for broader application.
  • Indicator 2.2.1: Number of feedback submissions received from thought leaders and employment practitioners after the white paper’s publication.

By pursuing these targets and closely monitoring these indicators, we aim to not only validate the efficacy of the Wayfinder app but also to foster a community of practice that can drive innovation and inclusivity in workforce development on a larger scale.

At this time, 11 full-time staff members are working on our solution team, each allocating varying percentages of their work time to the project. 

Our team has been working on the solution, including its various underlying components such as our AI chat agent and skills-based job architecture, for 16 months. 

Vanderbilt University is unwavering in its dedication to cultivating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture among its workforce. This dedication is evident in both the diversity of our leadership and the initiatives we have established to ensure every member of our community is appreciated and supported.

Under the stewardship of Chairman Bruce R. Evans and Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, our Board of Trust and executive leadership team prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion as essential pillars of our institution. Our leadership includes 30% women and 20% Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) on the Board of Trust, with 36% women and 18% BIPOC in executive roles, while our overall staff composition is comprised of 55% women and 38% BIPOC.

We have recently advanced our commitment to fostering a sense of belonging through several key initiatives:

• The expansion of employee affinity groups,
• The enhancement of Identity Centers for all university members, and
• The introduction of an award-winning Health, Wellbeing and Belonging center for staff.

Further underscoring our commitment, Vanderbilt also created the new division of People, Culture and Belonging to better organize and innovate on our mission to support our staff. Our team lead for this MIT Solve project, Dr. Sydney Savion, was appointed as Vice Chancellor to lead this work.

The Vanderbilt Wayfinder app emerges from this rich organizational context. The project is a manifestation of our commitment to equity, designed to offer meaningful engagement opportunities to all staff and job candidates. By removing systemic barriers and emphasizing individual talents, the Wayfinder app is a step towards a thriving, collective future. Our dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion is dynamic and ongoing, as we are continuously committed to developing strategies that enable all members of our talent community to realize their full potential.

In the framework of the Social Business Model Canvas, our solution’s business model is as follows:

Beneficiary Segments:

• Neurodiverse individuals
• Veterans transitioning to civilian employment
• Formerly incarcerated individuals
• Individuals with disabilities 

Beneficiary Value Proposition:

• Personalized job matching with Vanderbilt University’s diverse opportunities
• Tailored interview preparation based on job type and user profile
• Accessibility features ensuring ease of use for all beneficiaries 

Impact Measures:

• Increased employment rate among beneficiary segments
• Job retention rate within Vanderbilt University
• Beneficiary satisfaction with employment matches

Customer Segments:

• Vanderbilt University (initial customer)
• Potential expansion to other universities and organizations seeking diverse talent

Customer Value Proposition:

• Access to a vetted, diverse talent pool
• AI-powered workforce forecasting to align skills with job openings
• Improved retention rates and workplace diversity

Channels:

• Direct integration with Vanderbilt University’s job listing platforms
• Outreach and partnerships with organizations supporting our beneficiary segments
• Future expansion through online marketplaces and HR tech platforms

Key Activities:

• Continuous development and improvement of AI and ML algorithms
• Regular updates of the skills-based job architecture
• Engagement with beneficiaries for feedback and iterative app development

Key Resources:

• In-house AI and software development expertise
• Skills-based job architecture database
• Partnerships with organizations like The Precisionists

Cost Structure:

• Ongoing app development and maintenance
• Marketing and outreach activities
• Partnership and collaboration expenses

Revenue Streams:

• Potential licensing fees from other organizations adopting the app
• Grants and funding for social impact initiatives

Surplus Investment:

• Reinvestment into product development for scalability and new features
• Expansion of beneficiary support services

Vanderbilt University is dedicated to societal advancement through the development of the Wayfinder app, prioritizing social good over commercialization. Our intention is to foster positive change for mid- and late-career professionals from diverse backgrounds, aligning with the MIT Solve-Truist Foundation's challenge’s goal of advancing solutions for workers’ prosperity, mobility, and wellbeing. We are eager to disseminate the insights from the app’s development and pilot stages, contributing to the collective knowledge base.

Financial sustainability is a cornerstone of any new initiative. The Wayfinder app represents a strategic investment that we believe will enhance operational efficiency and employment outcomes. By improving job alignment, we anticipate significant cost savings stemming from reduced turnover and recruitment expenses, thereby achieving long-term financial viability.

Our journey with the Wayfinder app is bolstered by Vanderbilt's financial stability, diversified revenue streams, and a successful track record in securing grants. Our esteemed reputation enhances our ability to realize the app’s potential. Together, these elements lay a solid foundation for the app's development and subsequent impact assessment, ensuring a profound effect on the careers of our target demographic.

We are applying to the Truist Foundation Inspire Awards to gain strategic support and recognition for the Vanderbilt Wayfinder app. We believe that the collaboration with Truist Foundation and MIT Solve will provide us with invaluable opportunities to enhance our solution and expand its impact.

Collaborating with MIT Solve and the Truist Foundation would strengthen our solution through:

1. Expertise and Mentorship: Tapping into MIT Solve's network, potentially engaging with thought leaders like Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, to strengthen our thinking and development of the solution.
2. Visibility and Credibility: Gaining validation to elevate the profile of the Wayfinder app, helping to establish its credibility and attract potential users and partners.
3. Resource Development: Utilizing technical and financial support to prioritize app development and impact evaluation.
4. Scalability: Drawing from the community's insights to extend the app's reach beyond Vanderbilt, potentially impacting broader populations.

A key barrier we face is the extensive testing required to refine our AI algorithms, particularly in varied work environments beyond Vanderbilt. The Inspire Awards could connect us with a wider testing pool and a network of experts to enhance our algorithms' precision. The Challenge also promises to inform our strategies for user engagement and retention, incorporating best practices from the MIT Solve community.

The Inspire Awards would undoubtedly contribute to the Wayfinder app's journey, supporting our goal to provide inclusive and equitable employment opportunities for those from unconventional skills, abilities, and backgrounds.