Policy & Practice | Summer 2026

on schedule, transportation, physical demands, accessibility, and language. When individuals are ready to move forward, the front door should connect to clear next steps, rather than becoming a dead end. Warm handoffs to partners, supported by confirmation and light‑touch reminders, help sustain momentum without forcing participants to navigate multiple systems on their own. At scale, trust and curation matter: opportunities verified and refreshed by local partners signal relevance, while feedback loops help states refine pathways based on what leads to sustained engagement and completion, particularly when paired with human support. Designing for Real‑World Barriers to Employment Individuals striving to meet work requirements often face inter secting barriers that shape whether an opportunity is viable over time. Transportation gaps, caregiving When individuals are ready to move forward, the front door should connect to clear next steps, rather than becoming a dead end. Warm handoffs to partners, supported by confirmation and light‑touch reminders, help sustain momentum without forcing participants to navigate multiple systems on their own.

states to adopt employment strategies rightsized to their specific contexts while drawing on proven approaches from across programs. Viewing employment as a pathway, rather than a one‑time transaction, can help align compliance, engagement, and mobility objectives. Moving From Job Boards to Opportunity Boards Traditional job boards play an impor tant role in connecting individuals to open positions, but most assume par ticipants are equally ready to search, apply, and begin work. In reality, indi viduals approach employment from very different starting points. An effective employment “front door” acknowledges this vari ability. Rather than offering a single search experience, opportunity boards organize options into guided pathways aligned to common goals and constraints—such as imme diate income, short‑term training, schedule stabilization, or reentry after an employment gap. This framing helps individuals understand what is feasible now and how choices connect over time. Choice works best when it is informed—when people can quickly see which options are realistic given their constraints, and understand what comes next. A skills‑first approach is central to this model. Opportunity boards translate lived experience—whether caregiving, military service, informal work, or prior employment—into usable skills and link them to attain able next steps. When additional preparation adds value, short‑cycle training and micro‑credentials can be presented alongside jobs, clarifying time commitment, credentials earned, and roles unlocked. Opportunity‑based approaches also recognize that progress is not limited to immediate placement. Structured volunteer and community service roles can function as experience bridges, helping individuals build recent work history, references, and routines. Barrier‑aware filtering further ensures that choice is realistic—allowing individuals to focus on opportuni ties they can start and sustain based

For program leaders, the challenge is not whether employment expectations matter, but how to design systems that meet statutory requirements while sup porting durable outcomes—at scale, within constrained resources, and in ways that reflect real‑world circum stances. Advancing economic mobility requires a shift from viewing employ ment as a transaction to supporting it as a pathway over time. A Converging Policy Landscape Across Programs This shift is relevant across the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) with long‑standing work requirements, as well as near-term Medicaid com munity engagement requirements, where implementation models must come together quickly. Although these programs operate under different rules and funding structures, they increas ingly share common objectives. SNAP and TANF bring decades of operational experience engaging individuals around employment and training. Through real‑world imple mentation at scale, states and counties have refined approaches to outreach, case management, barrier resolution, and employer engagement. Medicaid community engagement requirements introduce similar themes, though often with different approaches to compliance and member engage ment. Across all three programs, agencies are balancing the need to meet statutory requirements with broader goals such as reducing churn, supporting ongoing participation, and promoting longer‑term stability. The convergence of these policy goals presents an opportunity for

Rachel Zietlow is the Regional

Managing Director for U.S. Services at Maximus.

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Policy & Practice Summer 2026