The Workforce Evidence-Based Spending Guide

Use Active Contract Management

Why It Matters

Treating contracts and grants as partnerships, instead of compliance documents, can transform workforce programming. Active management, powered by data and collaboration, unlocks better service delivery and value from your investments. An overemphasis on compliance can create the wrong incentives and miss learning opportunities, while proactive engagement fosters continuous improvement, cost-efficiency, and innovation in service delivery. Government agencies can transform grants and contracts into catalysts for better outcomes and accountable stewardship of their funding.

Overview

Active contract management (ACM), developed by the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab (GPL), in partnership with state and local governments, requires government agencies to proactively partner with service providers to improve ongoing service delivery and achieve better outcomes. For ACM success, workforce agencies should build collaborative relationships with service providers, focusing on a shared goal of improving outcomes for program participants, instead of punitive, compliance-based relationships. Data access is crucial, including receiving performance data from and sharing administrative data with providers to support continuous learning and improvement. Workforce agencies can also achieve better outcomes by facilitating shared learning and the exchange of best practices between providers.

For more information on active contract management, including the typical structure of an ACM meeting and considerations for implementing ACM effectively, see Harvard GPL’s publication: Active Contract Management: How Governments Can Collaborate More Effectively with Social Service Providers to Achieve Better Results.

Harvard GPL’s Six Tools for Implementing Active Contract Management offers hands-on, practical resources and guidance to help workforce development agencies implement ACM, including identifying key performance metrics, analyzing data, and building trust between the agency and service providers.

Defining ACM

Government workforce agencies can use active contract and grant management to achieve high-quality outcomes even after award. While traditional contract management might focus on ensuring compliance, ACM focuses on regular collaboration between government agencies and service providers to:

  • Set shared expectations about performance management during the application phase.

  • Analyze performance data throughout the service delivery period.

  • Identify service delivery trends and challenges early on and in real time.

  • Problem-solve rapidly and continually to course correct.

  • Identify opportunities to rethink and improve service delivery systems on a long-term basis.