Forming STARs are workers often in roles with small wage gains and limited development pathways, but also represent a significant and often untapped segment of the workforce. Forming STARs are frequently overlooked due to traditional education-based hiring practices, but these individuals possess valuable skills and on-the-job experience but may lack formal qualifications. By recognizing and supporting Forming STARs, organizations can access a diverse talent pool, enhance workforce capabilities, and contribute to broader economic growth and equity.
Knowing this information can help employers:
- Identify Skill Gaps: Pinpoint the specific skills that Forming STARs need to excel in their current roles or advance their careers.
- Develop Targeted Training Programs: Create customized training initiatives to close skill gaps and prepare Forming STARs for higher-paying, in-demand roles.
- Collaborate with Employers: Partner with other organizations to establish apprenticeship programs, mentorship opportunities, and hands-on learning experiences for Forming STARs.
- Improve Retention: Support Forming STARs through career advancement initiatives, leading to increased employee satisfaction, loyalty, and retention.
Employers can leverage STARSight to unlock the potential of Forming STARs, filling critical roles while driving organizational success and fostering a more equitable workforce.
STARSight provides three dashboard tabs: Explore, Compare, and Assess. The steps in this guide will help you navigate between the dashboards used for this task.
Use the Explore and Compare dashboards to identify Forming STARs and Destination roles
In addition to workforce data for a specific area, the Explore dashboard provides insights about the development stage STARs may be in. Forming STARs are workers often in roles with small wage gains and experiencing limited development pathways. STARSight supports identifying potential pathways for STARs by connecting the roles they might be in today with Destination roles.
Step-by-step details
1. On the Explore dashboard, select a location to view insights about STARs in a specific area.
2. Scroll to the section below the map to view demographic details about the workers in that area and the STARs among the workforce.
Learn more about interacting with this demographic data chart.
3. The bottom row of this chart demonstrates the distribution of STARs across three groups: Forming STARs, Rising STARs, and Shining STARs. Use the chart on the left end of the row to learn more about Forming STARs.
This chart shows the count of Forming STARs for the selected area; experiment with the area selections in the interactive map above to see how the number of STARs may change.
Understanding the amount of Forming STARs in an area enables conversations about a significant portion of the workforce that is skilled and primed for roles that offer upward career mobility.
4. The last section on the Explore page is a table that displays the most in-demand roles that offer career mobility for STARs in the selected state. Most listings for these roles don't require a degree and offer a salary above the median wage.
This table provides the opportunity to see the percentage of STARs already employed by in-demand roles.
Learn more about the information this table offers and how to use it.
5. To learn more about the possible development pathways for a STAR, identify one of the roles to look up on the second tab on STARSight, the Compare dashboard. For example, Retail Salespersons.
Use the job title search box on the Compare dashboard to look up the selected role. STARSight uses occupations provided by the O*NET database in the job title search bar, which are informed using SOC codes to group related job titles. Type or scroll the dropdown list to select a job title for the job description.
6. If unavailable in the dropdown list, the O*NET Online tool can help identify the broader SOC job title.
- Navigate to the O*NET Online site and use the search bar to enter the job title you want to explore.
- On the results, click the blue How do they match? button to reveal the question mark icon next to each result and discover more about how the titles in the list relate to the search.
- Click the blue question mark icon next to the SOC job title best representing the role you are searching for to view more information. View the Alternate Occupation Titles to validate that the job title searched is included.
- Return to STARSight and use terms from the related O*NET-SOC Title in the job title search box.
For the example of Bookkeepers, note that the list of broader job titles in STARSight includes the best-fit option for Accounting & Auditing Clerks, which relates to the Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks title from O*NET. This is the option that should be selected.
7. Scroll down to the last section on the Compare page to view the Source to Destination transition map. The Selected Job is in the middle of the chart, while the bands on the left show possible Source Jobs for the role chosen. The bands to the right of the selected job show possible Destination Jobs, which are roles that provide upward mobility for STARs.
Hover over the Destination Job bands to learn more about the number of workers transitioning into those roles nationally in the most recent year.
For example, it is estimated that 36k STARs transitioned from a Retail Salesperson role to a Wholesale & Manufacturing Salesperson Representative role.
7. Click on a bar to select a Destination Job (transition role offering upward mobility for STARs) to update the spider chart on the left and view the skills overlap between the Source and Destination roles.
Identifying the skills overlap draws attention to the transferable skills between roles and where opportunities for training may be expected. Alternatively, it can suggest which skills used in a Source role may offer expertise in a Destination role.
In the example of a Retail Salesperson transitioning to a Sales Representative, the skills are an 86% match, and there may be opportunities for training new Sales Representative hires with programming skills.
Learn more about the role transition map and transferable skills chart.
Assess opportunities for upward mobility for Forming STARs
1. What in-demand roles are hiring in a selected area? How many STARs are employed in that role today?
2. Does this information encourage sourcing talent to hire for similar open roles in your organization?
3. When employing STARs in a Source role, can you identify Destination roles for your organization, industry, or area?
4. Can you create opportunities to support STARs in further developing the skills needed for Destination roles?