How City Year Revamped Its Application Experience With Liaison TargetX

City Year, a nonprofit organization with 35 years of experience in providing national service programs, operates in 29 locations across the United States and plans to continue expanding its presence. The organization provides education services through its “Whole School, Whole Child®” model, which is designed to support elementary, middle, and high school students so they graduate ready for college and career success. Since City Year relies on AmeriCorps members, who are required to work long, 10-hour days, the organization was facing recruitment challenges. To attract a wider range of recruits, it leveraged Liaison’s TargetX CRM to create a streamlined application process that offered more flexible roles, reduced complexity for students, and increased transparency for staff.

Fewer Recruits

Due to AmeriCorps’ demanding requirement that members serve 1,700 hours annually, and with other competing options available to young adults ages 17-25 in a relatively strong economy, City Year has faced significant recruitment challenges in recent years (declining from a high of 3,400 annual recruits during the last economic downturn to 2,000 per year recently).

The pandemic further exacerbated these difficulties, highlighting the need for a more flexible role structure that could attract young adults with various options to support students while also gaining valuable workforce skills themselves. To address these issues, City Year sought to pilot new, shorter-hour roles that would maintain the effectiveness of its existing holistic service model while providing greater flexibility for recruits. The goal was to attract a wider pool of candidates, including those who would gain the ability to balance school or other responsibilities during their participation in the program.

New Role Options for Recruits

City Year decided to develop two new roles to cater to prospective applicants: the
1,200-hour School Day Learning Coach and the 900-hour Afterschool Enrichment Coach. These roles, which were designed to accommodate individuals who could not commit to the traditional full-time position, aligned with City Year’s commitment to its holistic service model by breaking the responsibilities of a 1,700-hour SSC into manageable segments.

The School Day Learning Coach provides in- school tutoring and classroom support, while the Afterschool Enrichment Coach focuses on extracurricular programs. By creating these roles, City Year retained its core mission and approach while offering a more balanced work schedule to attract more candidates.

An Optimized Application Process

To launch the new positions, City Year needed to manage the complexity of offering the role options in each of its locations in order to maintain clarity and avoiding confusion for applicants. City Year used TargetX to streamline the application process for the new roles, ensuring a smooth user experience. With TargetX, the organization was able to implement conditional logic and option groups and tailor the application experience to prospects based on their location.

This approach also ensured consistency across various stages of the hiring journey. By integrating TargetX with other internal systems such as Workday, City Year ensured a seamless flow of information from application to interview and from review to final offer. The consistent use of conditional text elements helped explain the roles and maintain clarity, ensuring that applicants understood their options even if they hadn’t seen prior promotional materials on the website, from an in-person recruiter, or via online ads.

Lessons Learned and Future Plans

Through the pilot, City Year gained valuable insights. First, the team realized the importance of understanding the entire process from start to finish, particularly the technical integrations required with systems such as Workday. Ensuring that all information was accurately captured and displayed across various platforms was essential for a successful pilot.

City Year also valued the need for clear internal communication. Feedback from staff about how information was displayed in Salesforce (the back- end platform for TargetX) and other systems led to retroactive adjustments that improved the experience for internal users and applicants alike.

Moving forward, City Year plans to use the TargetX framework for other innovative program opportunities. One notable example is a Master of Social Work fellowship, which will allow graduate students to fulfill their practicum hours while continuing to serve as City Year members, furthering the organization’s mission by providing valuable experience to participants.

City Year’s use of TargetX to support the rollout of shorter-hour roles was a significant step toward addressing the organization’s recruitment challenges. The flexibility offered by this endeavor has helped cast a wider net, attracting a more diverse group of candidates. The improved application process created in TargetX has also ensured a smooth and adaptable experience with practical applications for new initiatives in the future.

City Year was founded in 1988 as a youth development service program that unites young adults for a year of full-time community service. City Year was a source of inspiration for the creation of the national service organization AmeriCorps in 1993 and is one of the largest AmeriCorps programs in the country.

Over the years, City Year evolved to serve schools most in need of additional capacity and resources. Here’s how City Year AmeriCorps makes a positive impact:

• Its daily school service program prepares students with key academic and interpersonal skills needed to succeed in school and in life.
• While corps members are making a difference in the lives of the students they serve, they are also acquiring valuable skills (creative problem solving, project management, teamwork and leadership, and more) that prepare them to lead in their communities and careers.
• As a youth-powered organization, City Year aspires to create positive school and work environments where everyone feels a sense of connection and community, is supported to do their best work and thrive, and feels empowered to learn, contribute, lead, and create to their fullest potential.