Workforce Development - A Good Investment?

About Learning and the Kirkpatrick Model

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't get engaged in a conversation about how organizations use learning tools and processes.  Godfrey Parkin in his blog posted an excellent piece addressing the 1st level of the 4-level Kirkpatrick learning model.

The learning model is incremental, and organizations build successively upon the foundations of level-1 where as Mr. Parkin shows, there is much room for improvement.  His statement "The typical smile sheet is a lazy and ineffective approach to evaluating learner satisfaction." couldn't be more to the point.  Often learners completes learning programs where they are actually looking for the "easy stuff" and all they want is the certificate of completion.  Does this help the person?  Probably not.  Help the business or organization?  Likely not.  That would take the effort and investment to take the program to level-2 where there is a stronger method of gaging learner comprehension.

Are people satisfied with their eLearning experience?

David Boggs, Founder, President and CEO of SyberWorks, Inc. has done a great job on his elearning blog.

Recently he was commenting on a UK study citing "2 Out of 3 People Taking e-Learning Courses Are Satisfied with the Experience".  In my experience, the percentage is higher, especially among the professional community where mandated Continuing Education requirements take a big slice out of a professionals billable time (sitting in conferences/seminars, lost billable hours, travel annd lodging cost).  As soon as people start to understand what their time is worth, they will gravitate to eLearning solutions.

Is dumber better?

In "Workforce Needs Circa 2006" some troubling statistics:

The United States is falling behind on various measures of workforce readiness:

• Only 13 percent of American adults are proficient in the knowledge and skills needed to search, comprehend and use information—a 13 percent drop since 1992.
• Only 13 percent of American adults are proficient in the knowledge and skills needed to identify and perform computational tasks—a number that hasn’t gone up in 15 years despite our nation’s focus on improving math and science skills.
• And only 5 percent of American college undergrads today are pursing degrees in science or engineering, compared with 42 percent of university students in China.

We are at a critical stage of our country's future where we need to step up to the reality that we are NOT addressing the knowledge worker needs of the 21st century.  Employers are today demanding more skills that revolve around innovation, knowledge creation, collaboration and communication, and analysis.

Intelligent use of technology and computing underpins every function of a business, including market research, product design, finance, strategic planning, environmental issues, etc.  Information workers now account for 72 percent of the U.S. labor force, and over the next decade, 6 out of every 10 new jobs will be in professional and service-related occupations.

As I travel around the country, I often ask "how many of your employees have access to and use Desktop Search?"  Any guesses as to how many "deer in the headlights" looks I get?  (And often these are executives !)

This HAS to start by re-taking control of our K-12 education foundations.  Must do this in order to improve our emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.   If we don't how bright do we really believe our future is going to be?

Do you O*Net Yet?

The Occupational Information Network - O*Net database has replaced the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) as the nation’s primary source of occupational information. The O*NET database and related products helps millions of employers, workers, educators, and students make informed decisions about education, training, career choices, and work. O*Net codes are used extensively by state workforce development counselors. They are also used for “crosswalk” purposes in comparing civilian and military occupations. The O*NET Project is administered and sponsored by the US Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.

Bill Warren, former President of Monster.com has an excellent blog on all sorts of information like the above that relate to employment matters.  He is a unique resource in that he is considered the founder of online recruiting on the Internet and has unique insights into what works well on the web, and what doesn't

What's special about O*NET is that it has electronically enabled Employers including Human Resources Personnel, Business Forecasters, Industry Analysts, Organizational Consultants or others who need access to timely market data in our rapidly changing workforce. 

The O*NET system benefits Employers by expanding the pool of quality candidates for open positions, facilitating development of job descriptions quickly and easily, simplifying the definition of employee and job success factors, enabling alignment of organizational development requirements with with workplace needs, refining recruitment and training goals and facilitating design of competitive and equitable compensation systems.

You can use O*NET to search for occupations that match your skills, or you may search by keyword or O*NET code. For each occupation, O*NET reports information about different aspects of the job, including tasks performed, knowledge, skills, abilities, and work activities. It also lists interests, work styles, such as independence, and work values, such as achievement, that are well suited to the occupation. O*NET ranks and scores the descriptors in each category by their importance to the occupation.

O*NET codes are based on the 2000 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. You can access O*NET on the Internet at http://www.online.onetcenter.org.

 

Is Corporate Training an Oxymoron ? - part deux

On Dennis Coxe's blog, Dennis, an instructional designer asks : Is Corporate Training an Oxymoron?

He cites in a post observations from Lisa Haneberg:
"I concur whole-heartedly that much of what is presented in traditional corporate training has no real application, or, if does have application there is no opportunity to immediately apply it once the trainee leaves the classroom (or shuts down the computer in the case of elearning.) Yet the concept of discovery learning."

This hits home at a basic question?  What do you say the "purpose" is of corporate education? 

Is it to
1) document that training has been provided?
2) determine if (any of) the material that was taught actually sunk in?
3) apply the training in a way that positively impacts on-the-job-performance?
4) to see how training can benefit "the bottom line"?

The real cost of an illiterate workforce?

I've always contended, that "if you consider the education expensive, you need to understand the true cost of ignorance". 

Areas that offer heavy tax and financial incentives to attract businesses cannot really contend with jurisdictions where a better educated workforce is available.

A great example of this is discussed in "Oh Canada !  No - Alabama" where Toyota turned its back on hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies offered from several American states in favour of building a second Ontario plant.

Industry experts say Ontarians are easier and cheaper to train - helping make it more cost-efficient to train workers when the new Woodstock plant opens in 2008, 40 kilometres away from its skilled workforce in Cambridge.

"The level of the workforce in general is so high (in Canada) that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant.

A Canadian Broadcasting Corp news resease went on to say:

Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

Think this is an extreme situiation?  Not really.  I encounter owners of construction compan ies all over the U.S. that describe workers that can't add or subtract, read, or do fractions needed for their normal jobs.  Like the story above a significxant number of these firms also have had to resort to training using "pictorials" and sometimes "templates" (job aids).

So what are the solutions to this dilemma?

Is the U.S. siphoning off Canadian workers?

Jon Gisby's blog "Oh Canada! (part 2)"
makes some interesting points.

"The first is Canada's own self image. Living next door to a neighbour who is larger and louder, and who syphons off talent, can undermine your confidence. Macleans, the Canadian news magazine, ran a competition recently for the Canadian equivalent of "As American as apple pie"."

Do Canadian workers find the U.S. an attractive alternative?  Considering the U.S. has some issues with immigration, healthcare coverage etc., that Canada seems to have figured a way to address, why would this be the case?   What types of workers are finding the  U.S. more attractive than Canada? 

On the other hand, with the new "oil boom" in Alberta province, is the reverse happening?  Are U.S. workers flocking to the oil fields to make their fortunes, like the days of old?

Oh Canada !

The Canadian government has adopted immigration programs in order to attract skilled workers who want to settle permanently in Canada. Skilled workers possess education, work experience, and language skills in addition to other factors. Skilled workers are generally selected based on their ability to establish themselves successfully as permanent residents in Canada, fill critical worker shortages, and contribute to the Canada’s economy.   

The Canadian program described on its website,

Selection Criteria	Maximum Points
Education	25
Official languages (English and/or French)	24
Employment experience	21
Age	10
Arranged employment in Canada	10
Adaptability	10
TOTAL	100

The applicant must attain at least 67 points out of the possible 100 points in order to qualify for permanent residency in Canada.

This seems like a very sensible program.  Wonder what correlation one might ask is there with the U.S. immigration programs?  Comments?

the New Gender Divide

A NY Times article on the New Gender Divide based upon Department of Education statistics show that men, whatever their race or socioeconomic group, are less likely than women to get bachelor's degrees — and among those who do, fewer complete their degrees in four or five years. Men also get worse grades than women.

And in two national studies, college men reported that they studied less and socialized more than their female classmates.

Small wonder, then, that at elite institutions like Harvard, small liberal arts colleges like Dickinson, huge public universities like the University of Wisconsin and U.C.L.A. and smaller ones like Florida Atlantic University, women are walking off with a disproportionate share of the honors degrees.

So what's this say about who will be available when your new jobs materialize?  Is your organization guilty of "gender bias" or do you believe that "the most qualifed person" should get the job?

Be honest here.  This is no place for self-induced feel-good BS.  Are organizations that have traditionally been "male bastions" (You know who you are - and so do we) really open to putting that bright educated lady into a position that her work experience and education aualifies her for.

Or if you really want to push the envelope - how about that Gay person who applies?  Does it matter to you whether they were the top performer in their previous job? 

Can you really see beyond the blinders that so many wear?  If not - you are in for a rude awakening?  The top firms in the world have figured out where the new "top talent" is coming from.

Ten Ways to Stifle Innovation

In my days as a Booz-Allen management consultant, I was privileged to work with professionals within my firm and the clients that engaged us that were looking for and paying well to obtain the "distinct advantage" that would put their organization at the head of the pack.

In the years since, as competition gets tougher and markets more challenging, innovation in management practice has become an imperative for businesses around the world.   Yet why is it that there are still firms that just don't get it?

The July 2006 edition of the Professional Services Management Journal from PSMJ provides a fresh look at the ways that design firm leaders either intentionally or unintentionally hinder their firms from creating unique products or services.

In the book Leading for Innovation: & Organizing for Results, author Rosabeth Moss Kanter , considered among the “50 most influential business thinkers in the world” describes how many business leaders simply expect innovation to appear yet unknowingly create an invisible set of guidelines that discourage innovation. Kanter lists the ten biggest ways to stifle innovation:

1. Be suspicious of every new idea from below — because it’s new and because  it’s from below. (After all, if the idea were any good, senior people would have thought of it already.)

2. Insist that people who need your approval to act go through several other levels of management first. (Most will fade away before getting back to you.)

3. Ask departments or individuals to challenge and criticize one another’s proposals. (That saves you the job of deciding; you just pick the survivor.)

4. Express your criticisms freely, and withhold your praise. (That keeps people on their toes.) Let them know they could be fired at any time.

5. Treat identification of problems as signs of failure, to discourage people from letting you know when something in their area isn't working. (Fear of mistakes will reduce risks.)

6. Control everything carefully. Make sure people count everything that can be counted,      frequently. (That ensures a tight ship with nothing extra for unproven plans.)

7. Make decisions to reorganize or change policies in secret, and spring them on people unexpectedly. (That also keeps people on their toes).

8. Make sure that requests for information are fully justified; don’t give it out freely.

9. Assign to lower-level managers, in the name of delegation and participation, responsibility      for figuring out how to cut back, lay off, move people around, or otherwise implement threatening decisions you have made. And get them to do it quickly.

10. Above all, never forget that you, the leaders, already know everything important about this business. (Isn’t that why you’re in charge?)

Kanter adds, “To support innovation, the culture must encourage fast approvals, open communication, cooperation instead of combat across internal units, tolerance for uncertainty, and faith in people to try new things. A few reviews and checkpoints can be a good management tool, especially for ideas that are very risky or require high levels of investments.”

Where is your organization on the "scale" of encouraging or killing innovation?

 

The 19 Best Elearning Blogs

Articulate's Gabe Anderson has created a good resource on his blog.  From learning theories to content design, metadata to LMSes, survey data to industry trends, these blogs appear to have it all.   If you're interested in eLearning development / delivery you'll want to visit this site over and over.

Less than one company in five feels it has fully engaged employees

Call them "Seat Warmers," "Paper pushers" or even the indelicate "Walking corpses" -- you know who they are, the dis-engaged employees who show up every day but are dragging your company into mediocrity.

A new survey from Business 21 Publishing shows that 83% of companies are unhappy with the overall engagement level of their workforce. 

It Starts With Understanding Your Requirements

A good model for organizations who are seeking information on how to start framing their workforce requirements can be found in a paper produced by the Tampa Chamber of Commerce.

Download current_workforce_opportunities.doc

Among the significant findings of this paper, it offers a good taxonomy on important points needing to be considered in any comprehensive workforce plan:

1. The Gap - There is a perceived gap between what employers need and what the workforce is producing
2. The Demographics - The workplace is not prepared to manage the rapid pace of the changing demographics of the workforce
3. The Bridge - Economic development and workforce development initiatives have historically not been integrated.  

Are you measuring the "right stuff"?

Jack Welch famously said that the 3 most important things for a company to monitor are Customer Satisfaction, Employee Satisfaction and Cash Flow.  How are these three elements interrelated?

A recent businessweek article "How To Be A Talent Magnet", by Hack and Suzie Welch realistically talks about the factors and timeframes associated with firms that desire to become an "Employer of Choice" 

When I ask top executives across many industries to identify how they characterize their approach (e.g. specifically how) to maximize the relationship between talent, customers and profit, I'm often amazed by the responses I get when I ask this very question. I'm not talking about a binary response of AGREE/DISAGREE, but being able to engage in an intelligent discussion of these points, including (ideally), how for example, Employee Satisfaction (including the impacts of employee retention) impact Cash Flow.

Why aren't more business professionals looking at their business using this "simple" but comprehensive "lens" ? Isn't becoming an "Employer of Choice" worth the investment?

Employer of choice has expanded beyond focusing solely on employees' rights, to viewing corporate responsibility as a key driver of operations and as a significant catalyst for enhancing business reputation. Investigations of international and national reports, surveys and ratings addressing EOC have provided a holistic viewpoint from which common criteria can be drawn and applied to employer of choice for Australian programs conditions.

Many global studies, including the IBM Global Human Capital Study 2005, the KPMG International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2005 and the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Human Capital Survey conducted in 2002/03, demonstrate the emergence of common criteria that define successful human capital practices. "Simply the best - workplaces in Australia (by Hull and Read, 2003) is the most comprehensive Australian survey on EOC to date, and its results mirror common criteria drawn from the global surveys.

The 15 key drivers identified by Hull and Read are:

1. the quality of working relationships,
2. workplace leadership,
3. having a say,
4. clear values,
5. being safe,
6. quality environment,
7. recruitment,
8. pay and conditions,
9. getting feedback,
10. autonomy and uniqueness,
11. a sense of ownership and identity,
12. learning,
13. passion,
14. having fun, and
15. community connections.

The researchers concluded that “quality working relationships” represent the central pivot on which excellent workplaces are founded, underpinned by key variables such as good workplace leadership, clear values, having a say, and being safe.

http://kissaneasylum.typepad.com/workforce_development/

Averting fender-benders among age groups in the workplace

When Generations Collide, a work co-authored by with Baby Boomers David Stillman and Lynne Lancaster, draws upon a U.S. survey of hundreds of respondents to provide an in-depth look at each generation and how its perspective was formed. It also shows how employers and managers can address and bridge the generational gaps that result from these differing perspectives.

An excerpt from their collaborative work is found in a recent report by Ceridan an information services company serving businesses and employees in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The Great Labor Shortage

Monster Senior Contributing Writer John Rossheim produced an intriguing article entitled The Great Labor Shortage that discusses the shortage of workers across many industries.

The folks at Monster have a unique vantage point in that they have a unique "lens" into the employment marketplace.  They see both the "buyer" side and 'seller" side of the employment marketplace.  (how / how well they connect the two is outside the scope of this post)

Early Warning System?

Brian Gwyn, an eLearning Consultant in Orlando has a good blog on eLearning and has recently posted a great article on how eLearning technology can serve as an "early warning system" to prevent dropouts.

Purdue University officials are using data captured by the school's course management system (CMS) software to predict which students are in danger of failing or dropping out of school. Officials plan to use this information to develop an early-intervention system that will help retain students and keep them on track for graduating.

Good read !  The same type of approach can also be used to "discover" the energy level in your own organization.  Are your corporate learners complacent, unmotivated?  The data in your Learning Management System can provide you data to give you a hint.

Also - how do you determine your "up and comers" in your organization?  The same LMS data can tell you who is agressively taking courses and improving their skills.  Think the LMS is just an HR tool?  Think again!  It's a powerful management tool too!

46,000 take eArmyU courses online - Courtney Hickson, Army News Service

eLearning has been successfully employed to meet the education/training needs of our Army personnel serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.  2,098 troops are now enrolled in online eArmyU classes. 

Different Generations in the Workforce

For the first time in American history we have 4 different generations at work in our workplace - each with its own unique perspectives and valkue sets.  You may have seen some of this at work in your workplace as well.

Here's some useful reference information for you:

• Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) report on the Aging Workforce
• "Boomer Brain Drain" and "60 is the new 45"

Aggressive vendor sales pitches loosely masquerading as quasi-educational infomercial

There are a lot of "lunch and learn" style education opportunities in todays learning environment.  Jeffrey Cufaude's, of Idea Architects, has done a great essay called  Time to Get Serious About Learning.  Jeffrey is a great writer and thinker.  I think you'll like what he has to say.

My experience is that while "lunch and learn" education can be informative (and you can't beat the coat - free) it's hard to measure if any real learning is taking place.  Aside from the free lunch, and the ability to stock up on needed CE credits, can we discuss how well this works for others who may or may not share my personal views.

Even as construction declines, contractor associations say more workers needed

This article "Even as construction declines, contractor associations say more workers needed"
drives home the point of the difficulty attracting skilled labor to the Construction industry.  FOr too may years, despite advances made in pay, safety and benefits, younger workers are still do not seem to be motivated to enter the field.  Left unresolved this issue, according the the U.S. Department of Commerce will result in approx one million skilled labor positions unfilled by 2012.  It's not that far off.

What motivates the Corporate learner

Over the years I have watched with interest what motivates people to learn.  Generally I have observed  that the "order of interest" seems to suggest that "licensed" professional who as a condition of license renewal, must complete a certain amount of Continuing Ed, followed by those individuals who have Certifications that also require Continuing Ed for renewal, and then all of those motivated souls that use education simply for professional development (regardless of motivation) purposes.

What's even more interesting, however, are the number of professionals who have a large Continuing Education credits needed during each renewal period.  Seems like some use this requirement and a growth opportunity and look for new and challenging programs to help them grow and advance professionally, while many others are only looking for a (set of) completion  certificate(s) to document that they put in the required number of hours, to satisfy their CE requirement.

There are some other great resources available to help discover what's happening here.  Jenna Sweeney has a Corporate Training & e-Learning Blog that looks at these areas.   She also provides a link to the  Corporate Learning Forum, a worldwide knowledge exchange  for corporate training, organizational development and institutional learning professionals.   Suggest you check out these resources...

If you think Training is expensive consider the cost of ignorance

Years ago I attended a conference where the keynote, Dr, Carl Hammer told the audience that lifelong learning was "Fire Insurance" that was the best protection against getting fired.  Yet we see weekly reminders that hundreds to thousands of people being being laid off.  Many of those affected have advanced degrees and education.  Some individuals cite difficulty finding new emplyment claiming that they are "overqualified".

Here's the question...  What is happening here?  Is too much or the wrong type of education the problem or is it not having the right job skills at the right time?  Let me suggest some food for thought:  A post on the X-Blog made a great point -  "The only thing worse than not reading a book in the last 90 days is not reading a book in the last 90 days and thinking that it doesn’t matter."

Maybe it's not about the number of degrees at all, but education that is current and keeping your skills in sync with where our rapidly changing world is headed.  Is a 15 year old MBA as relevant in our internet-based "new economy" as it was when you completed it?