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The report examines information from a literature and database review that identified knowledge gaps, discussions with Wage and Hour Division (WHD) about compliance strategies, and discussions with a panel of experts about compliance strategies. The researchers then developed a framework for WHD and other agencies to consider when designing processes for monitoring and evaluating strategies and outcomes.

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Key Takeaways

• Developing a theory of change (TOC) can be used to help clarify a strategy and construct measures that can be used to continue to assess and/or evaluate strategy outcomes.
• Identifying what is needed to increase compliance will allow identification of what needs to be measured, both in monitoring a strategy’s performance and in determining if it is achieving desired outcomes.
• There are five factors that should be considered when designing a process to monitor and evaluate a strategy, to ensure they each provide useful information:
  • Monitored activities should be well-defined and stakeholders should be committed to monitoring and evaluating.
  • Outcomes should be measurable.
  • Monitoring data should be available and appropriate.
  • Evaluation should be conducted after the strategy implementation is integrated into infrastructures and is part of a regular routine.
  • Evaluation should account for factors that may influence outcome results.
• Agencies should consider the following steps to help ensure that future monitoring and evaluation of strategies yields useful information:
  • Build a data infrastructure that is suitable for monitoring and evaluation, including building capacity that ensures data quality; consider ways to ensure the internal validity of data; and link to large or external data to improve analytics.
  • Specify performance measures for agency staff and data collection needs that support evaluation goals.
  • Develop a consistent system to monitor and evaluate strategies based on a detailed, evidence-driven TOC for each strategy and an evaluation plan developed before implementation to obtain better data.
• Designing and supporting meaningful monitoring and evaluation can build on existing features of a strategy, agency processes, or resources.
• Monitoring and evaluation can be made unproductive by strategies, features, agency processes or resources.

Citation

Dolfin, S., Maxwell, N., Patnaik, A. (2020). WHD Compliance Strategies: Directions for Future Research. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.