ePolicyWorks: Innovate, Rinse, Repeat
ePolicyWorks is a collaborative approach to federal policymaking that coordinates the flow of ideas and information between federal policymakers and key stakeholders in the public. It has become a model for national policy-building efforts and, most recently, as part of the Department of Labor’s efforts to support American workers and position the economy for a strong rebound in an unprecedented pandemic, the department hosted a couple of national online dialogues to solicit ideas about challenges that may be faced as businesses reopen and how best to help employers and workers reopen America's workplaces safely. Those ideas played a crucial role in informing USDOL’s rapid public policy response and helped secure safer workplaces in these exceptional times. Since then they’ve begun to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and have begun to leverage their best practices that they’ve perfected over the past seven years to solve bigger and more complex issues. They have run over 60 ePolicyWorks challenges over the years and now Katia Albanese and Hope Adler, both leaders at Concept Communications which supports several of the US Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy initiatives, including ePolicyWorks are here to share what they have learned.