Workforce Development - A Good Investment?

Tougher US immigration leading to 'reverse brain-drain': study

The huge backlog in US immigration visas is leading to a "reverse brain-drain" that will force skilled workers to return to their home country, a report released Wednesday concludes.

read more | digg story

How Safe Is Your Job?

In a recent edition published by Parade magazine, an article entitled "How Safe Is Your Job?"  examines a very real issue for management and affects workers too: 
U.S. workers are increasingly disengaged, and that foreign workers have appear to have a higher level of focus and commitment.

The article cites :
Beyond the cheaper cost of labor, U.S. employers say that many workers abroad simply have a better attitude toward work. “American employees must be punctual, dress appropriately and have good personal hygiene,” says Chao. “They need anger-management and conflict-resolution skills, and they have to be able to accept direction. Too many young people bristle when a supervisor asks them to do something.”

Thus, when developing today's workforce, attention needs to be paid to the "soft skills" that are essential for career and workplace success.  Providing development in just the technical skill areas is simply not enough.

There are plenty of good traditional classroom training and online training resources available to help develop these skillsets.  For busy people, who want or need to take courses on their own time schedule, online training providers RedVector and Skillsoft provide excellent "competency-based" education programs to help you or your team to increase their skills in these important areas,

You'd probably never have expected this...

Fred Stopsky, the author of The Impudent Observer, shares with us a relevant discussion, particularly given the American obsession with undocumented immigrants that fills today's media.

His article New China Develpment — Rural Labor Shortage, paints an interesting picture of the likely future of China's workforce where for the first time in historic memory, China is entering a new phase of its population characteristics — there is evidence by 2010 China will lack sufficient workers in rural areas.

You may want to think about this.

For many years American jobs migrated from the farms to the more urban areas.  The same phenomenon is occurring today in China.  Add to this that while only 11 percent of the Chinese population today is over 60, the United Nations projects that this segment will increase to 28 percent by 2040.  At that time, China is expected to have 397 million people over 65, which is more than the total current population of France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom combined.  And they all need to be fed.

Consider the trend of more people living in cities, fewer farm workers, lower birth rates, more people at or beyond retirement age (hence fewer experienced workers available), and fewer workers in rural areas to produce the basic food items needed, you have a formula for significant challenges.  China may well need to import foreign workers to do the work that Chinese will not longer do.  (Sound familiar?)

Mr. Stopsky asserts that the China situation also raises an important issue for Americans — migrant labor is vitally important for a nation’s growth.  Our skilled labor force depends upon others providing the "basic necessities" that we have come to expect.  What happens if these necessities become increasingly unavailable, or prohibitively expensive to buy?

Today we bemoan the undocumented worker that is arguably a mainstay of America's agrigulture industry.  In the future we may wish we had access to these workers as the competition for talent worldwide worsens.  Our representatives formulating public policy might want to give this sme consideration.

Blog :Global Labor Strategies

Global Labor Strategies an advocacy blog containing both accepted as well as highly controversial discussion of ideas and resources for the global labor movement caught my attention recently.  It is an excellent resource on what's happening in the organized labor community, and provides good insights on policies and activities of "players" in the global labor marketplace.  Stuff that we all need to stay on top of.

The authors include Tim Costello who has over 40 years of work and union experience in the area. He helped organize and served as Coordinator of the Boston based North American Alliance for Fair Employment, Brendan Smith is a legal expert (J.D. Cornell University Law School) specializing in national and international labor law and policy.  He is currently co-director of the UCLA Law School Globalization and Labor Standards Project, Jeremy Brecher a leading labor historian, writer, and documentary script writer who has for more than two decades collaborated with Costello in research and publishing numerous books about labor and globalization, and Claudia Torrelli of Montevideo, Uruguay. who handles GLS’s Latin American network, an activist the in labor—community based Hemispheric Social Alliance, and in other social movement organizations in Latin America.

In this blog, you will find insights not readily available elsewhere.  For example, a recent article "Why Labor Can and Should Lead a Reassessment of Approaches to China"  examines the role of the U.S. labor movement in the reassessment of approaches to China.

Great blog and excellent overall resource on this important aspect of todays global workforce.

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?

Even the Asians are having problems

Ever get the impression that the majority of jobs that could be outsourced would end up in Asia?  Might want to rethink that.  According to a recent New Economist article entitled, "India's engineer shortage", there is a current and worsening shortage of resources in that part of the world that everyone thought had unlimited skilled talent, and an unmatched ability to produce talent to keep up with demand.
Clearly it begs a number of very obvious questions.  One of the issues that outsource companies are reporting is high levels of attrition, which we know is not unique to outsource firms.
Here are some positive steps excerpted from "21st Century Workforce Challenges - Strategies that Work" that can help any firm do a better job of keeping a competent workforce intact.

1. Check your "Vision". 
   Does your firm have a formalized Employee Recruitment and Retention “vision”?  Have you created and publicized a “roadmap” to all employees on how your firm intends to recruit and retain the best people?
2. Take a look in the Mirror. 
   Do your people understand that your firm’s reputation is built upon your ability to deliver services or projects consistently over time?  Do they understand their individual role in enabling the team to “win” (e.g. deliver on time and within budget) again and again?   Does management understand what they need to do to create the environment that will enable their team? (It’s much more than lip service).
3. Do a "Sanity Check".   
   Have your expectations kept up with today’s market reality?  Are you able to find workers with the basic skills of reading, writing, math, listening and speaking? 
   Do your knowledge workers have the thinking skills of creativity, decision-making, problem solving, visualizing, learning, reasoning and use of technology technology?
   If these skills aren’t where you want them to be, what are the resources you have available to develop these skills?
4. Understand What Is Controllable in This Labor Market and What’s Not. 
   There are many aspects that you as an employer can control, and many that are beyond your control.  Do you understand which are which.
5. Reassess your concept of "recruiting".
   For example, is recruiting a person who is a laid-off worker from an assembly plant going to make a good worker in the field where little repetitive work is a factor and where ability to take direction is essential? 
   Does your organization know how to define the jobs in enough detail to make sure you get the “right” worker, not just “any” worker? 
   Do you look at “best practices” in job structure and evaluation used across other industries?
6. Look at your suppliers and subcontractors critically.
   Do your suppliers and subs have the ability to maintain an adequate skilled workforce?  If not, and they fall behind in maintaining an adequately trained staff, does this also put you at risk? 
   What types of mechanisms have you put in place to prevent “delivery jeopardy” on the part of your suppliers and subs?
7. Take another look at the "older worker" in the marketplace.
   Training, recruitment costs and time spent learning are much lower for older workers
   Older workers are more prone to staying with a company—not quitting after a few years
   Turnover rate for workers over 50 is just one tenth that of those under 30
   Older people these days, especially baby boomers, realize the importance of keeping their minds active and alert
8. Understand “What does my firm have to Offer” from a candidate/employee perspective
   Start by making a list of what makes your firm different/unique and appealing to a worker.
   Consider how attractive your company is compared to your competitors.  Remember that in this tightening market for labor, your “labor competitor” may be in another industry. 
   It is imperative that you “brand” yourself.  Branding isn’t just for Home Depot and JC Penney --- it’s your unique “value” proposition and will become your “guiding principle(s) in the eyes of those who see it.
9. Invest enough in Training to make a difference.
   Unlike other forms of significant business risk, that can be insured, inability to maintain a competent workforce is an uninsurable risk.
   You probably already know from past experiences what the consequences of delays and non-performance are to your business.    However, another way of looking at and justifying your investment in training your workforce, is to consider the competitive advantage you obtain, over your competitors who can’t keep good workers. 
   By reducing your labor dependency, you can significantly mitigate your business risk and associated impact cost.
10. Know What To Expect From Your Training Investment.
    Be realistic of what to expect from the level and style of training you're providing for your people.  Everyone wants to see a quick impact of training on their P&L's but for most organizations this isn't reasonable, and may take years to accomplish.  Like all developmental objectives, there are specific steps, and observable outcomes by accomplishing each step.

Offshoring - We're worried about the wrong thing

There are many industries where the rush to offshore labor has resulted increased corporate profits and resulting higher US unemployment.  Still other industries have considered themselves somewhat "offshore proof" such as Construction, Farming etc., where moving the job to an offshore location isn't feasible.
The Economist, in its Economist View blog, just published a good perspective on this issue (see "Avoiding Protectionism", and why the solution, Protectionism (which has worked to a degree in past circumstances), may not work this time.