The Journey to a Living Wage Career
The MemWorks Employment Journey Map synthesizes the MemWorks roadblocks to employment and visualizes them from the perspective of a job seeker pursuing a living-wage career. In the coming weeks, we will release the highly anticipated MemWorks business cases that provide in-depth research and analysis on each employment roadblock and opportunities to overcome that roadblock.
Employment Journey Map
We frequently speak about employment roadblocks singularly. This enables us to delve deep into the causes of specific challenges for job seekers as they pursue living-wage careers. The MemWorks Employment Journey Map allows us to take a step back and visualize employment roadblocks playing out over the course of a person’s path to living-wage employment.
The road to living-wage employment and employment milestones are represented by the bright green signs while potential pitfalls or exit ramps on the employment journey are marked by blue signs at the end of exit ramps. The exit paths are manifestations of the employment roadblocks MemWorks identified. Some roadblocks, like postsecondary attainment, aptitude alignment, and uncoordinated workforce systems, are directly represented in the exit paths. Other roadblocks – adult academic remediation and the long-term effects of trauma – are persistent factors that can influence each exit path despite not having exit paths of their own.
If we successfully overcome employment roadblocks facing job-seeking Memphians, more people will progress smoothly along the road on their journey to a living-wage career. This ideal end point is represented by the buildings where job seekers are earning a wage sufficient to thrive. The road continues toward the horizon because we recognize that beyond a single living-wage paying job, a living-wage career path is the ultimate goal.
The employment journey map can be accessed in PDF format below. We hope it will serve as a useful tool as stakeholders consider the overarching goals of MemWorks and our ability to positively impact the lives of job seekers in our community.
