Workforce Development - A Good Investment?

Tipping Point - What Happens When Delegation Doesn't Happen?

The mastery of delegation is the highest form of personal leverage and the ultimate time management tool.  Tim O'Brien, is a expert in this area with an M.S. (Instructional Systems and Human Performance, FSU), and is a Fellow with The American Institute of Stress, and director of The Institute for Stress Management & Performance Improvement.

He has produced an online 3-hour interactive course entitled "The Art & Science of Delegation" that defines delegation, explains its benefits, and guides the student through the process of delegating tasks and projects. This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, for professionals needing CE credit for certain types of professional license renewal.

Another great resource is the Society for Design Administration who has workshop courses helping people address the problems of delegation.  From time to time, their chapters provide a seminar entitled "Making Chaos Work for You: Keys to Small Firm Management".  This session is based upon the recognition that unpredictability is a fact of life for small architectural firms. The author of this program Rena Klein, AIA, is principal of RM Klein Consulting, a Seattle firm offering meeting facilitation, business planning services and management education and coaching to architects in firms nationwide.

Small firm owners must cope with constantly shifting workloads, respond quickly to promising opportunities and deal immediately with unexpected challenges.  The only certainty is the uncertainty that small firms face.

Operational problems are often the result of this unpredictability.   Examples of operational problems in small firms include low productivity coupled with deadline-generated crisis, inadequate human resources management resulting in low job satisfaction and poor delegation, with too much information in the hands of too few people.   Many of these problems relate directly to a firm's ability to handle an environment of unrelenting change.

This is not a new problem, nor is it one that will go away in our lifetime - thus the need for ongoing education to address generation after generation of new leaders that struggle with the issue.   

Workforce Development Ideas - Digineer

An exciting new blog by David Brown, a highly knowledgeable consultant and construction industry expert, explores the elements of recruiting and retaining engineers in todays "digital workplace".  Titled "Workforce Development Ideas - Digineer" it provides some sound ideas to help employers maximize this important resource - engineering talent.  David knows what he's talking about, having many years of "hands-on" expertise.  You'll come back to this article and his blog often!

Will work life balance change with the next generation?

  Kathryn Bendall - a champion for the mature worker is a neat lady with a portfolio career which includes stand up comedy.  A recent article she wrote on the emerging workforce "Will work life balance change with the next generation?"  is really timely and pertinent.   She provides a set of observations as to why the Nintendo or iPod generation may have a better ability to survive the whole work scene than their predecessors.

If your are looking for perspectives on why this "different" generation will make some huge and important changes in the workforce, this article will help you.

It's simple, but many forget to do it

"Even the best managers often forget to craft a workforce strategy along with their overall company strategy, but the two really need to be linked."
This is an excerpt from the new book, The Workforce Scorecard.   If you haven't even thought about crafting a workforce strategy you probably need to get you hands on  The Workforce Scorecard: Managing Human Capital to Execute Strategy  written by Mark A. Huselid, Brian E. Becker, and Richard W. Beatty. and published by Harvard Business School Publishing.  It provides good information on how to start this important process....

Either do it right - or suffer the consequences

People ARE your most important asset. Therefore, increasing hiring accuracy by anywhere from 50 to as much as 500% delivers huge bottom line returns in the millions of net present dollars--- not trite phrases about reducing turnover by 20% or improving patient satisfaction by 40% or increasing process efficiency by 12%.

Why don’t staffing strategy system vendors and HR managers deliver the bottom line numbers when financially strapped executives want to hear them?  Up to now, there was no way to calculate the financial impacts of different staffing strategies when they involved several screening steps leading to a hiring decision.

Tom Janz, Ph.D. of BDT International developed the Talent Curve Simulator to do just that. His simulator walks you through simulating 1000 hires, comparing the financial forecasts based on real examples. Recent advances in online behavioral assessment that deliver higher decision accuracy more efficiently make updating your staffing strategy an important competitive advantage.

He recently presented a paper on the Simulator in September 2006 at the Chicago Metrics Summit, attended by forward looking leaders and practitioners in Workforce Development.  Identifying and hiring top talent has always been tricky - it is getting even more so as the "supply" of qualified applicants dwindles.  Check it out.

e-learning 2.0 - its a big jump from itspredecessor

Donald Clark is a pioneer in the e-learning business and conducting seminars showing organizations how to benefit from the latest trends in this market space.  After 23 years in the e-learning industry, a founder and CEO of Epic Group plc,  which he recent sold in a public offering, he will be conducting in January 2007 a program entitled "Learning 2.0: Learning for the 21st Century"
e-learning, like other web technologies has progressed from the "early days" and in Mr. Clark's program he ikllustrates how e-learning 2.0 incorporates application of the social web to the e-learning environment.  For additional detail, visit his blog
"elearning in the workplace"

Creating a More Productive Work Environment

    Today's white-collar workforce has needs different from those office environments of the past.  It is increasingly important for designers planners to understand how to establish proper workspace requirements and plan a workplace environment that "works".  The contemporary office environment today is often a sophisticated and intricate ecosystem of many interrelated elements and sub-systems, in which various individuals occupy space. These individuals have special needs, and the diligent space planner is required to address these needs.
    A new series of courses is available to assist designers in understanding these requirements and how to develop new design solutions for these kinds of environments.  A 6-part online educational series entitled "Space Planning" has been produced to help designers by RedVector.com a leader in online education programs. 

Space Planning: Barrier Free Design (3 hours) [S] AIA HSW

Space Planning: Design Fundamentals (2 hours) [B] AIA HSW

Space Planning: Design Methodology (2 hours)[B] AIA HSW

Space Planning: Furniture and Furnishings (2 hours) [S] AIA HSW

Space Planning: History and Overview (3 hours)[B] AIA HSW

  Space Planning: Security Issues (1 hour) ^{[B] AIA HSW}

    Anyone who has experienced the consequences of a poorly laid out environment knows first-hand  how costly a design blunder can be when you take into account the loss-of-productivity that a poor design can have.  Or worse, if this environment is the cause of a single person leaving for "greener pastures".  Haven't thought about this?  Take todays average salary and benefit value and multiply  it by 1.5 to 2.0 (depending upon whether you have a easy position or a difficult one to refill).  That's a good benchmark of the cost to replace a single worker.
    If you invested approx $500 in the education above, a facility designer could do a better job at coming up with a workplace that "works", and meets the new code requirements that ensure that employees health and safety issues are addressed.
    Gives a new meaning to the saying "You pay for a education program - whether you have one or not..."

 

Generation Y: They've arrived at work with a new attitude

Stephanie Armour, a well published author and writer for USA TODAY published an excellent article "Generation Y: They've arrived at work with a new attitude" that hits a chord with todays emerging workforce.  Often times, Gen-Y is misunderstood because they're different.  Is different bad?  Not necessarily.  It's just different!

Find out how this generation, which by the way are our future leaders, is changing todays workforce.  You'll be surprised at what you discover!

When A Different Approach is Needed

There is a new solution available, right under our noses, that poses significant opportunity for firms looking for leverage in the 21st century.  Consider the attractiveness of having access to

• a strategic location at the core of major urban areas, highways, and communication nodes with potent logistical advantages;
• an underutilized workforce with high retention amid a tight overall national labor market;
• an under served local market with substantial purchasing power that can support many more retail and service businesses than it now has;
• opportunities for companies to link up with and provide outsourcing for competitive clusters (for example, health care and tourism) in the regional economy.

"A Window on the New Economy", an Inc article by: Michael Porter and Anne Habiby provides some insight into this often overlooked resource, that for adventuresome entrepreneurs, may provide a new perspective on how to take their business to the next level.

Now that the work is Done - A unique investment opportunity

Since its now Christmas and the "heavy lifting" has been completed, the Chicago News blog author Carlos T Mock has some suggestions on how Christmas can be improved for next year:
In his article "Financial Times Editorial - Wishing it could be Christmas every day?" he explores the current practices and suggests some ways this ancient institution can be brought into the 21st century

He poses an unusual - perhaps unique - investment opportunity has arisen that is ideally suited for private equity investment. The target company owns an exclusive franchise, several valuable brands, its own production facilities and a carbon-free distribution network. He also articulates attractive opportunities for consolidation in its industry: the festive gift-giving business.

Six Sigma at the North Pole

Sue Kozlowski, a noted Six Sigma expert, has published a timely view of process efficiency in her recent publication of "A Visit from Sensei Nicholas".

You will not want to miss these perspectives, especially relevant at this time of year as production and supply chain concerns concerns take center stage at the world's pre-eminent manufacturing and distribution enterprise.  Check it out !

Staffing Crisis: What Would Santa Do?

    Everyone in the finance and accounting business knows how hard it is to recruit and retain good professionals. There just aren’t enough to go around. But it doesn’t seem to be a problem for Santa Claus. He employs an army of elves, working year-round for who-knows-what in wages. So why do the elves stay?  These issues are discussed in the article "Staffing Crisis: What Would Santa Do?"

    Rick Telberg, an impressive author for CPA Trendlines, puts retention into perspective this time of year by asking WWSD (What Would Santa Do?).  Rick is President and CEO of Bay Street Group LLC and has some considerable insight and experience in retaining qualified professional staff.

    Check out this insightful article and see what we can learn from the "Jolly Old Elf" himself.

What Naysayers Want for Christmas . . .

    Gianna Clark, as always, has come up with an insightful piece and time-sensitive piece, entitled "What Naysayers Want for Christmas . . ."

Believe it or not, naysayers all over the world are frantically writing letters to Santa.  So what are they asking for?

    Here's a preview :

• Number 8:  A "Harry Potter" invisibility cloak to help them move about the office undetected.

Check it out !  It's full of laughs!

South Pole Elves: An Overlooked Element of Santa's Global Workforce

For decades, Americans and the better part of the Christian world have spread tales of vibrant elves aiding Santa Clause during the holidays. "But the real story hasn't been told," says Peter Wiggley, a South Pole Elf and employee of Santa's global workforce Happy At Work.

In Melissa Arnquist's recent article "South Pole Elves: An Overlooked Element of Santa's Global Workforce" the truth behind the timeless success of Christmas is exposed.

You won't want to miss the details on the details of how work really gets done in preparation for this annual festivity.

Inside the "Invisible Workforce"

Depending upon where you live, you may not even be considered a part of the "labor pool".

A recent publication "The Invisible Job Market" by Tyler Fairbank, president of the Berkshire Economic Development Corporation delves into the current jobs marketplace.  In this work he illustrates how people struggle to find job and career opportunities in the Berkshires. We keep hearing about a high job vacancy rate, a low unemployment rate and all these available jobs, but finding them does not seem so easy. Why?

He says "Jobs with less education and training requirements tend to be advertised locally, while those requiring more education tend to not be." 

What comes across is that in many cases, due to a perception based upon area demographic data having to do with levels of education, many of the best jobs are not listed locally - figuring that the "uneducated" locals are not up to the requirements.  This leaves the lower skilled positions being recruited locally, and the more skilled positions being filled from the outside.

He admits, This creates a "cycle", he says, in which "...most people assume there is no opportunity in the Berkshires. They tell their kids, family and friends there is nothing for them in the Berkshires resulting in our younger future talent force becoming discouraged and leaving the area."

Truer words were never spoken. And not only does Fairbank use his keen insight and insider knowledge to enlighten us, but he also gives some good tips on how to make yourself more "visible" to local employers.

Question - does this help or hurt the community in the long term?   How do you know what the local populace is capable of if you gauge their "aptitude" solely based upon often-out-of-date demographic data.  Does this logic take into consideration the financial costs of relocating a person into a new location, and depending upon the locale, of the person staying there long enough to get established and justify this investment?   Finally, I'd be interested in whether this model considers the cost of training "locals" to step into the role available?

Company loyalty need not necessarily be a thing of the past - there are proven ways to create strong loyalty with the workforce.  But as long as the business community treats locals as "the invisible workforce", the solution to growing labor shortages may remain "right under our noses"

Is it too much to ask?

I'm asked from time-to-time what should represent a good starting point for new people entering the Engineering profession. I have used a well worn list of items that covers items I feel are important in technical, analytical, social, etc. areas. 

However, a colleague called to my attention a program that was developed by Penn State University - their Architectural Engineering Technology (2AET) program. In examination of this program one of the things I particularly liked was a component that measures some of the "soft skill" areas that are increasingly showing their importance for new graduates to be successful.

Their program cites: "An engineering technology program must demonstrate that graduates have:

• Appropriate mastery of the knowledge, techniques, skills and modern tools of their disciplines,
• Ability to apply current knowledge and adapt to emerging applications of mathematics, science, engineering and technology
• Ability to conduct, analyze and interpret experiments and apply experimental results to improve processes
• Ability to apply creativity in the design of systems, components or processes appropriate to program objectives
• Ability to function effectively on teams
• Ability to identify, analyze and solve technical problems
• Ability to communicate effectively
• Recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in, lifelong learning
• Ability to understand professional, ethical and social responsibilities
• Respect for diversity and a knowledge of contemporary professional, societal and global issues
• Commitment to quality, timeliness and continuous improvement

This IS refreshing, and a good sign that academia understands that todays engineers need to operate in today’s collaborative environment, and are constructing quality education programs to develop and measure these necessary competencies. Good Job PSU!

Competency Testing - A timely idea

The National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) and Project Lead The Way (PLTW) have announced a collaboration intended to create aligned and insightful student assessments for high school pre-engineering education nationwide.   The   National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) is a leading provider of high-quality occupational competency assessment products and services to secondary and post-secondary educational institutions in the United States and   around the world.

NOCTI and PLTW share a vision of increased rigor and relevance in career and technical education and a mission to prepare a more diverse and successful student population for post-secondary technical study and ultimately the workplace. PLTW, a not-for-profit organization, is the nation’s pre-eminent pre-engineering secondary school education program found in 44 states in over 1000 schools.    

The partnership will explore mutual interests in the development of assessments for pre-engineering education based on emerging industry standards, collaborate on the validation of contextual knowledge and skills assessment for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Career Cluster and develop specific assessment instruments to support the courses of the PLTW program and the validity of earned post-secondary credit with colleges, universities and industry.  

Opportunity Cost Associated With Most Job Appraisals - not sure I agree

Dave Bogg's wrote a recent article in his The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle blog    In this article , "Opportunity Cost Associated With Most Job Appraisals"  he's put forward the idea proposed by James Adonis who wrote a recent article that bashes 6 month or 12 month standard performance review handed out by most HR departments in his article, "Appraisals Lack One Thing: Performance".

Adonis advocates continuous feedback recommending short, monthly reviews, and other techniques as an alternative to the 6 month or 12 month standard performance review.

While that idea seems innocent enough, it unfortunately, is hardly that simple. 

You see, we must talk about performance feedback systems in the context of the "generation" that you're dealing with.  As you know, we have four very distinct generations in todays workforce, and each have far different life experiences, perspectives, work habits and values.  They also have far different expectations regarding how and what type of feedback they seek. 

Here's some basics about Feedback in todays more complex workforce.

If you are in Management or HR you must also recognize and change the way you communicate expectations and provide feedback across generations. For example, for a traditionalist: “no news is good news.” is acceptable feedback. A baby-boomer generation worker expects feedback once a year and lots of documentation. X'ers may drop by and say “sorry to interrupt but how am i doing?”, while Millenials are thinking “I expect performance feedback whenever I want it at the push of a button.”

To add to this, you may also experience cultural variations on feedback expectations.  We'll save that for a future post.

Sheds a slightly different light on things, does it not?

Have you re-invented yourself yet?

    Not too long ago, a colleague gave me some "sage" advice about lack of knowledge about oneself.  He said that "lack of of self knowledge is like the ant crawling up the leg of an elephant with rape in mind".   While a ridiculous metaphor, it gave me an opportunity to think about self-limiting beliefs.  You know - the things you think about who you are and what you think you can or can't do that limit your potential.

    I've spent the last 2+ years of my life embracing web 2.0 and becoming an evangelist for Learning 2.0 and all that includes. I've learned to install wikis, blogged, aggregated, flickr'd, Google'd, Presented, facilitated, taught, traveled and built inworld via Secondlife, and have increased my already sizable rolodex with a global network of Learning friends significantly via social networking tools.  Experiencing and engaging with Web 2.0 has been an amazing experience for me in many, many ways.  More than anything, it has enabled me to look at the existing world in a far different way.

    As we ponder different ways of addressing the workforce crisis, how significantly have we attempted to truly "re-invent" ourselves in a meaningful way?  Of the 7 hours a day the average adult watches television, how much personal growth could occur in your life if you spent just 2 of those hours involved in some type of self-improvement effort.  Whether its going to the library, reading a book, starting a blog, learning about a new program, taking an e-learning course or writing an article.  Do something, that's active and will help you become a more "interesting" person.

    If we had more self-assurance that we could learn new stuff, and were working toward that goal, perhaps we'd find that there were interesting work alternatives available to us that we're shut out from today. 

    Fifty years ago, a man wrote to Look magazine columnist Norman Vincent Peale, asking, "What should a person do who is unhappy and bored in his job after twenty years, but who earns a nice salary and hasn't the nerve to leave? He'll never go any higher in salary and position, but will always have a job."  Perhaps the situation today calls for a new kind of thinking. Since the time of that Look magazine piece boredom and unhappiness have not gone out of style, and people still complain about their jobs - although pay is increasing, and thanks to the worker shortage - will continue to for skilled workers. 

    Is money a motivator to keep you going in a job you don't love?  I think not.  At best, it gives us short term satisfaction, but lacking a real passion for what we do, it will likely never be a legitimate substitute for doing what we love.  Is there a undiscovered "burning passion" within you, that you could kindle with a small amount of self-development and learning?  Do you have the confidence that you can step out of your comfort-zone to try something new ?

   

When the Numbers Don't Work

   

Alix Nyberg Stuart of CFO magazine published a thought provoking article in the April 2006 edition, entitled "The People Who Count"  In this insightful and relevant piece  - It describes the situation in the accounting profession today - with too few accountants to go around, companies are grabbing people wherever they can find them.
    In the article, it is said that the "Big Four" have doubled their assurance staffs in the past five years and are expected to nearly double them again in the next five, thanks largely to Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley. Smaller accounting firms, their client rosters expanding thanks to new rules on auditor independence, are also upping the ante. Add to that a precipitous plunge in the number of accounting degrees granted in the late 1990s and disaffection with corporate finance jobs, and suddenly the labor pool is roiled by a perfect storm, one that CFOs readily admit is difficult to navigate.
    Increasing government reporting requirements, more transparency being demanded by shareholders, and a growing shortage of the people at the core of it who are charged with keeping and auditing the corporate books.  All of which translates into higher wages, higher fees, and more turnover in the ranks of competent accountants.  Is there any upside to this?

Can we assume literacy?

    The recent increased interest in apprenticeships has led to most training providers and colleges being oversubscribed, particularly in mechanical, electrical, carpentry and plumbing trades. The main constraints on meeting the demand appear to be the lack of workshop capacity in community colleges, and some trade schools and the difficulties in recruiting skilled craft teachers. 
    Some colleges have particularly impressive accommodation for practical hands-on training, which closely resembles construction work environments. Such workshops provide controlled and safe conditions in which learners can practice aspects of their crafts and increase their skills.  Tradespersons-in-training can be given close supervision and support. The transition from training environment to work can be eased.
    There is often more opportunity in these workshops and practical project areas to develop learners’ skills incrementally than there would be in an actual working environment.  Sometimes community colleges have to turn away prospective learners because of insufficient workshop accommodation and staff shortages.
    Thus arises a question as to what can be done to help increase the number and quality of educational resources for those people seeking entry into the trades.  Learning resources for literacy, numeracy and language development vary considerably from facility to facility. The better education providers have sufficient up-to-date textbooks, and equipment.
    What is needed however are resources to assist those who are not literate enough to handle the "standard" educational format provided.  It may be necessary to provide "readers" to help those with poor reading skills.  Likewise, it is not uncommon for app0licants to have less than adequate arithmetic skills.  Thus todays trade learning center should be equipped with the personnel and training aids to assist those who require "extra" assistance.
    Are these "learning centers" equipped to handle these challenges?  Are additional resources needed to handle these remedial skills development areas?   Many education providers today do not have enough appropriately qualified staff to support the number of construction learners who experience literacy and basic math difficulties. But there is hope as initiatives to provide skills training are raising awareness of this problem.
    This may not be a problem for providers that utilize online education, since computer savvy learners tend to be more literate than those that are not.  Still, is it safe to assume in an e-learning environment, that the learner has basic reading and math skills?  What are the areas you've found this phenomenon to be most commonplace?  Are there any gleaming examples of learning centers that you have found that are "getting it right?"

         

Imagine trying to manage a workforce - with many fewer people...

Jørgen Mortensen,   Senior Research Fellow, at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels is a brilliant fellow.  He has been involved in looking at issues that affect the societal structures of our world, including those that impact our current and future workforce.

The challenge he cites for public policy in the   developed world, in fact, arises due to two contemporary and puzzling enigmas: (i) that the total fertility in a number of countries has declined to totally unsustainable levels, and (ii)   that the average effective duration of working life has not   increased in line with the rise in the life expectancy.

Let's talk about the first enigma he cites - the decline in fertility.

Even today,   when knowledge of and access to contraception has spread over   large parts of the world population, the rate of fertility still   ranges between 5 and 8 children per female in certain extremely   poor countries. It is normal and indeed appropriate to expect   this rate to decline towards the level of reproduction in   response to economic and cultural development. However, that   fertility in a number of European countries has declined to   levels far below the 2.1 threshold corresponding to a stable   population is indeed both puzzling and worrying.

Demographers   tend to integrate the current fertility values into their   projections for the next fifty years although extending this   tendency into the more distant future involves the gradual   disappearance of the population of a number of countries,   including, in particular, Italy, Spain and Germany and several   countries in Central Europe.

I ask my readers to consider this aspect.  Does this not add a new element to the challenge of having an adequate supply of workers in the future?

Poaching - the realities of todays tight job market

    "Poaching" -- a term used when companies that don't hire apprentices go after trained apprentices of companies that do.  Direct recruiting from competitors, customers and vendors can produce a high-performance workforce. It can also break the bank.
    In recent discussions, however, a series of questions about the ethics of "poaching"-the misnomer often used in the recruiting industry-have overshadowed the more fundamental issues of costs and benefits.
    In today's tight marketplace, it is not uncommon for "poachers" to come onto a jobsite or workplace and blatantly try to buy off seasoned workers.  Does this work?  Yes it does, and can net the poacher a competent workforce for far less than the cost of training them personally.
There are other issues of course - like what can be expected as far as worker loyalty further down the road - if you stole them away, what's keeping others from doing the same to you?  There are also many other potential problems that can arise --- but we'll discuss those some other day...

First there were Porta Johns - Now we have Porta People...

With all the talk of the mobile and global workforce, those who work outside the office often remain at a disadvantage when it comes to meetings and other forms of real-time collaboration. Conference calls only convey so much information, and those on the call -- as opposed to those physically in the room -- are often forgotten about in the course of the conversation. Plus, callers can only hear the discussion, missing out slides, whiteboard drawings, and other visual nuances.

To help solve those problems, Sun Microsystems has developed a "porta-person" device that allows a remote worker to more actively participate in meetings.

FIrst reported in MIT Technology Review, this innovation is detailed in the Future WIre blog that is always coming up with great new ideas.

Care to find out what you're REALLY good at?

Many people stumble through life, often unaware of what they gidts or talents they have, but have never exploited. Do you know what you do well naturally? Do you know how to take advantage of what you’re naturally good at in your work, your play, and your relationships? If not, find out by putting your abilities to the test!

Everyone is born with a range of abilities. These abilities, which are essentially hard-wired, mature during infancy and childhood and can be measured after the age of fourteen. The Highlands Ability Battery measures these abilities by having you perform 19 work samples in the privacy of your home or office.

The key idea is that a person who knows the range of his abilities is better able to use them in his life and work and in his relations with others, including his fellow workers.

Are we shooting ourselves in the foot?

    In a survey of 800 manufacturers conducted by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) last year, more than 80 percent said they were experiencing a shortage of skilled workers. In October, manufacturers surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said "finding qualified workers" was their biggest business problem.
    The shortage of skilled workers is the result of a number of factors. One of the biggest is that manufacturing in the nation is becoming more high-tech and skill-based as the more repetitive, less-skilled work is moving abroad. Such jobs require greater expertise.
    Plus, baby boomers with years of experience are retiring. And younger people are bypassing factory jobs, viewing them as repetitive, dirty and without much opportunity, a view that hasn't been helped by all the factory closings and headlines about manufacturing jobs moving to China.
   Are we "shooting ourselves in the foot", so to speak by continuing to harp on the loss of jobs in manufacturing and impact of offshoring, to the extent that it is discouraging younger people from considering these fields as viable career choices?

U.S. manufacturers getting desperate for skilled people

Much has been made of the loss of millions of manufacturing jobs in the USA in recent years.  There is however a much more troubling situation brewing - inability of manufacturers to retain existing skilled workers or hire new employees with the skills needed to support business levels.

I'm turning down contracts," says Bunner, president of Electro Chemical Engineering and Manufacturing, which makes chemical tanks. "I could expand 20-30% overnight if I had more people."

Manufacturers, regardless of size, specialty or location, across the USA are reporting a dire shortage of skilled workers: people such as welders, electricians or machinists with a craft that goes beyond pushing buttons or stacking boxes but does not require a degree.

A recent story published by USA Today illustrates the many impacts that such shortages are having on the economy, and ultimately the health of the American manufacturing marketplace. 

Increasingly, "basic" businesses such as manufacturing and construction, are finding that younger workers are turning their backs on these industries as "unattractive", forsaking the good pay and benefits available.

What many do not understand is that we live and work in a "built" environment, and depend upon manufactured products for everything we do in daily life. 

So what then is the solution?  After reading the article, you may change your mind.

You have to start them young

Developing the Engineering talent needed is not an easy job.  It's even harder due to the lack of emphasis on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (aka STEM) programs in our schools.

So its a good thing that the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) has created a new resource to help industry players, educators, and parents become engaged in the effort to improve our education needed to develop future engineer talent.

The ASEE EngineeringK12 Center seeks to identify and gather in one place the most effective engineering education resources available to the K-12 community. From comprehensive data on outreach programs to profiles of “cool” engineers to hundreds of links and readings related to  engineering education, the ASEE EngineeringK12 Center offers immediately useful, easily accessible materials specifically tailored to students’ and educators’ interests.

You can't escape this problem by running to Canada

    You can run away from many problems, but you can't escape the current and worsening GLOBAL skilled labor shortage.  Many approaches are being tried to address this situation, and here's another one. 
    Our friends "up north" have developed a program called Skilled Trades: A Career You Can Build On
that is designed to increase apprenticeships in the trades.  This program pulls no punches and is based upon some pretty disturbing market data:

• Only 28% of youth have indicated that their parents have encouraged them to pursue a career in skilled trades.
• Only 14% of youth indicated that their guidance/career counsellors have encouraged them to pursue a career in skilled trades.

    This points out some of the "weak links" in the existing system - parents and educators (most of whom are unfamiliar with what the trades are about today), simply do not help youth get engaged early enough and participate in the types of education and training needed to get into the trades.

   Canada’s Sector Council Program is showing some sound leadership by dealing with the perception problems head-on by engaging the entire education and business community in a way to efficiently roll out a new awareness of tradespeople and their essential role in our society.  Consider this - what good are architects and engineers if you don't have the people to build the structures and operate them?

Not The Great Lie: Education Will Save Some of Us

    The Huffington Post's blogmaster, Johnathon Tasini is a smart guy.  But, I need to step up and respectfully disagree with part of his recent post, "The Great Lie: Education Will Save Us".
Here's why...

   

He first correctly cites that education is not the panacea that government officials and business leaders say it is.  No problem there.

    But here's where I get a bit of heartburn.  He closes with : "Education is a wonderful thing.  Learning new ideas nourishes the human mind and keeps our spirits alive. I'm all for teachers and schools.  But, education is a cruel lie if it becomes the answer to the challenge of global competition. It's insulting to workers to feed them the line that they are just too dumb to get a fairly compensated job. It isn't their fault. And until we are willing to confront corporate power, people may hang diplomas on their walls of their homes even if they can't feed their families."

    The issue is twofold. 

    One very strategic, one more tactical.  On a strategic level, we ARE experiencing a brain drain from lower levels of "academic" production percentage-wise than many other foreign countries.  This, coupled with our shift from a manufacturing-based economy to an information-based one, demands that we have a more literate and better educated workforce.  And the schools are simply not turning these individuals out in sufficient numbers to meet the demands of 2015.

    On a tactical level, the jobs that are difficult to outsource, such as plumbers, are going unfilled today because basic education and aptitudes do not exist in adequate numbers in todays workforce, or that due to the "unattractive" nature of these jobs, are being bypassed by people thinking that a professional or corporate job is the answer.  We have today a marginally literate pool of workers who can't do basic math, can't read well, and are ill-equipped for many of the decent paying jobs that are struggling to keep up with customer demand.  This IS a problem that education can and should solve.

    Johnathon, as usual, makes a good point though about too much talk, too much smoke, and far too little action to address the real issue; no comprehensive, practical plan is being put forth to deal with the real challenges.  No doubt driven by the national obsession with Politically Correctness that promises to be our undoing - by doing nothing but talking.

   

The Biggest Gamble of Your Life (Is College Worth it?)

In 2005, young people (ages 18-25) in the US gambled $67 billion. Not in Vegas or online poker rooms, but on a betterment program called college. Their hope is that the monies they are spending will allow them to earn more money over their lifetime. Many are paying for this wager by amassing a mountain of debt that will take years to pay off.

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Construction pay is dropping

Talk to any construction worker in Sarasota and one will find that, in the last five to seven years, illegal Mexicans have come to represent about 50 percent of the work force. The result of this cheap, illegal labor is an actual reduction in skilled-trade wages to nearly the lowest level in the country.

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Multi-tasking can adversely affect learning

Studies have long shown that multitasking works for computer processors but not human brains..  Task overhead - the time it takes to re-orient yourself to a new task after switching - takes up more time than working through tasks one at a time.

"Multi-tasking adversely affects how you learn. Even if you learn while multi-tasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily. Tasks that distract you are likely to adversely affect your learning. Music , however can be helpful under certain circumstances.

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The Shadow Knows...

Job shadowing is a great way to learn first-hand about a career you're interested in. You may want to try shadowing several different jobs before choosing a college or career. You may even want to shadow different people with the same job. Often people with the same degree or job title do very different things in their day to day work.

There's a great article available on EngineerGirl that provides the "ins and outs" of setting up a successful job shadowing experience.  Check it out!

The role that Gender Plays in the Global Market Economy

The Economist report "The Importance of Sex" points out how vital a role women play in todays economic picture.  The increase in female employment in the rich world has been the main driving force of growth in the past couple of decades.   Those women have contributed more to global GDP growth than have either new technology or the new giants, China and India.  Good read.  Might even change your perspective....
Do you agree?

When the Job is Un-cool

In a recent article in the Gainesville Sun, "Shortage of labor means now's the time to enter trades", John Carlson, President of PPI Construction Management observes that there are plenty of good paying jobs in the construction trades, due to the skilled labor shortage. "But the problem now is, the young people are not interested in going into the trades. There is a stigma against it."
How then, do you make a career like construction appeal to youth that may be looking to other "more attractive" career fields?
Like the article states, there are lots of career options available to these future workers.  Does our K-12 system have the teachers and guidance counselors properly oriented to direct our young folks toward construction trades as a viable profession?  Or do these folks, who are important forces in directing our youth in specific courses, programs, and school / academic program selections, still have the impression that the trades are less desirable than a career in IT, health care or the like

What people won't do for $50k a year

I ran into a friend who owns a mechanical contracting business who was lamenting that he couldn't find competent workers to hire.  "They're just not out there" he complained.  "I'm paying people with 5 years of experience $50-55k a year plus generous benefits", but continued to remark that the basic skills a pipefitter needs were only demonstrated in about 5% of the people that applied.

What types of skills does one need to get this type of position?  Well for one, some basic construction math such as :

• Denominators
• Numerators
• Converting Fractions to Another Term
• Reducing Fractions to Their Lowest Term
• Reducing Measuring Fractions to Their Lowest Term
• Increasing Fractions to Their Higher Term
• Converting Fractions to a Common Denominator
• Addition and Subtraction of Fractions
• Multiplication and Division of Fractions
• Multiplication of Fractions
• Division of Fractions
• Multiplying and Dividing Fractions by One
• Improper Fractions
• Multiplying Whole Numbers and Fractions
• Decimal Fractions
• Converting Fractions to Decimals
• Converting Fractions of Inches to Decimals
• Converting Mixed Numbers to Decimals
• Converting a Fraction of a Foot to a Decimal
• Converting Whole Inches to a Decimal of a Foot
• Converting Inches and a Fraction of an Inch to a Decimal of a Foot
• Converting Decimals to Fractions
• Converting a Decimal of an Inch to a Fraction
• Converting Inches with Decimals to Inches and Fractions
• Converting a Decimal of a Foot to Inches and a Fraction of an Inch
• Doubling a Measuring Fraction
• Halving a Measuring Fraction
• Halving Mixed Numbers
• Mixed Numbers with an Even Whole Number
• Mixed Numbers with an Odd Whole Number
• Rough Conversions

It's gotten so bad that my friend has to send many workers out into the field with cardboard "cheater" templates because they can't do basic fractions.  Sad huh?

Ohio Gets It - E-learning is big business !

Ohio has about 40,000 students completing an e-learning course, and e-learning encompasses more than just distance learning. E-learning includes online, video, blended, CD/DVD, correspondence. Furthermore, the impact is measurable on the faculty-student relationships and the outcomes.

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