Workforce Development - A Good Investment?

Why the 90/90 Rule of Project Management Still Exists

Project managers are often their own worst enemies and say things to avoid conflict and make people happy that to lead disaster. Here are few of the classics, according to a colleague, Dick Billows, PMP.

1. I understand this is priority #1.Sure we can start immediately,plan as we go and finish it by October 1st.
2. Gee, everybody was happy with the project plan, they approved it in 3 minutes.
3. I've scheduled every detail. The plan weighs a ton!
4. No, you are wrong, that was never part of the scope! It's clearly a scope expansion.

We've all heard renditions of the above.  In fact that's why the "ancient 90-90 rule of project schedules" still applies today: The first 90 percent of the project takes 90 percent of the allotted time. The last 10 percent takes the other 90 percent of the time.

Of course, it doesn't need to be that way.  And from a business sense, shouldn't be that way.

Untrained project managers lack the necessary skills required to lead cross-departmental work efforts. They often don't know which of the project management techniques or tools to use or how to motivate people who are not directly accountable to the project manager.  Remember, one of the top skillsets of an effective project manager is "influence management"

Have you ever asked yourself the question: What problems do I  encounter which affected the success of my projects, (and how should project grading be adjusted to account for these mitigating factors)?

Project management is hard. It isn’t rocket science, although the formal discipline of project management as we know it today began as a tool necessary to make rocket science effective in the space program.

If you view project management from a purely technical perspective, it looks easy. There are only a few core ideas, each of which is conceptually quite simple and can be learned in a matter of hours. They include:

The idea of “project” as an activity with a beginning, a middle and an end. The idea of breaking up a large project into a set of smaller and independent tasks. The idea of defining the relationships among the tasks in terms of precedence, which tasks must be completed before others can be started and the description of theses relationships by means of critical path diagrams. The twin concepts of milestones and deliverables, allowing project managers to track and assess the progress of a project.

Still, a majority of all projects fail. Why? There are two basic reasons: untrained project managers and lack of historical data about costs and levels of effort.

As to what can be done, there is a lot.  And it extends beyond just knowing how to prepare a project schedule and budget.

Good PMs must like working with people, have good communication skills (70-90% of your time will be spent communicating), able to develop strong working relationships, able to influence others, sell the benefits of your project, motivate and lead others, enthusiastic & energetic, trustworthy, respectful, organized, must be able to deal with ambiguity, have the confidence to ask questions, and listen to what others are saying.

So "soft skills" are of critical importance.  You must also like organizational planning, vision, getting people focused in the same direction, and have excellent business skills.

It is extremely easy today to find quality accredited Project management training today, utilizing learner paced e-Learning methods.  I did a scan on the RedVector site and found 48 accredited courses on Project Management, averaging $25-30 per course credit hour.  Seems an affordable way to acquire or update the PM skills that are needed.

                                                                                               

CPM   Scheduling for Florida Contractors

CPM   Scheduling Part I

CPM   Scheduling Part II

Developing   & Managing a Project Budget

Financial   Management 1: Negotiating Contracts

Financial   Management 2 & 3: Pricing for Profits, Generating Cash and Getting Paid

Financial   Management 4: Accounting & Cash

Financial   Management 5: Strategic Planning & Budgeting

Financial   Management 6 & 7: Financial Controls, Monitoring & Project Budgeting

Financial   Management 8: Controlling Labor Costs

Financial   Management 9: Purchasing

From   Project Manager to Principal 1: Foundations of Management

From   Project Manager to Principal 2: Marketing Your Services

From   Project Manager to Principal 3: Negotiation Outcomes & Strategies

From   Project Manager to Principal 4 & 5: Manpower & Quality

From   Project Manager to Principal 6: Financial Management

Productive   Project Meeting Methodology for Architects and Engineers

Project   Decision Making with Case Studies

Project   Management Basics

Project   Management for Florida Contractors

Project   Management Trends

Project   Management: Professional Techniques

Project   Risk Management

Project   Team Management

CPM Scheduling

The   Art & Science of Delegation

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 01: The Changing PM Role

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 02: Managing the Proposal

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 03: The Agreement

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 04: The Project Management Plan

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 05: The Project Schedule

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 06: The Project Budget

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 07: Managing The Project Team

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 08: Managing The Client

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 09: The Project Start-Up

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 10: Managing Your Time

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 11: Managing Project Studies & Reports

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 12: Managing Design & Construction   Phases

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 13: Managing Quality

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 14: Managing Risk

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 15: Financial Management

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 16: Project Management Technology

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 17: Controlling Project Budgets &   Schedules

The   Ultimate Project Manager, Chapter 18: Project Close-Out

Winning   Proposals 1: Preliminary Steps & Planning Strategies

Winning   Proposals 2: Effective Design & Development

Winning   Proposals 3: Components of a Successful Proposal

Winning   Proposals 4 & 5: Final Considerations & Evaluations

If you are a Project Management Professional (PMP) or are seeking to get your PMP certification, or just increase your project management skills, you may want to look into these offerings.

So is there a alternative to the 90/90 legacy?  You bet?

Where do you think the workers are coming from?

China currently uses half of the world’s production of steel and concrete and will probably construct half of the world’s new buildings over the next decade.

What you might ask is fueling this awesome level of construction activity?  There are actually many factors at work?

• China's increased global visibility, including the WTO, APEC, Olympics, Expo 2010
• Continued GDP Growth – Currently running at 9% plus
• Construction spending growth – running at 8% annually
• An emerging middle class and growing consumer market
• A proactive and supportive Chinese government
• The reality that they have become the “Manufacturers” for The World
  • and that's Manufacturers with a capital M - Some Chinese factories can fit as many as 200,000 workers

What we're seeing is an unprecedented growth in Chinese construction, and construction by Chinese contractors in Asia and Africa, where the Chinese continue to invest heavily, often to secure access to oil and other natural resources China needs to fuel its economic expansion.

The engineers and contractors that we have come to expect to hire, increasingly are eyeing the "red hot" East as the "hot spot" for the AEC industry.  And that implies there will continue to be a diversion of foreign engineering and construction talent to the US that will continue to frustrate US firms trying to recruit talent. SO where will the talent come from that is needed for their business backlog and active projects? 

A Perfect Hiring Storm: Scarce talent and Bad Press

Over at the Offshore Recruitment Outsourcing blog I always find perspecfives of value.  In early December, they published a great piece entitled A Perfect Hiring Storm: Scarce talent and Bad Press

In this article, they discuss another recent article appearing on Careermag.com contributed by Debbie Benami-Rahm, whose research I have found to be top shelf.

One of the key elements of this discussion is the following:

The way your organization handles the interview and hiring process either brings you the talent you want or scares your talent away.

Couldn't agree more.  It's increasingly a binary choice.  Many organizations with whom I have consulted over the years have not changed their tactics and methods, despite the fact that entire workforce "value proposition" has changed.  Further, many are completely clueless, and still do the same thing over and over and expect a different outcome.

A few years back, I also put some specific metrics on the true cost of employee attrition when I wrote "The Death of Employee Loyalty"

The situation is changing, and the companies that refuse to change will be relegated with higher costs, lower customer satisfaction and lower profits until they come to the realization that the workforce recruitment and retention process IS their business.

The Organizations That Continue To Win The “War For Talent” Will Be Based On Many Factors…

The demographics of the global workforce aren’t going to stand still while businesses try to catch up.

This makes having a transparent, consistent and strong employer "brand" essential, because it allows employers to align their talent acquisition and retention strategies to their corporate values. It also allows companies to project into the market a clear image of themselves, which a potential employee can buy-in to.

Whether its encouraging the aging workforce to remain motivated and continue working, whether its making the differentiation between themselves and the competition clearer to the smaller pool of Human Capital that do have the skills and abilities needed, or whether its continuing to drive a volume of employees into specific market sectors - strong recruitment campaigns, imaginative retention strategies, employee engagement initiatives, flexible benefits and work/life balance can be key ingredients in attracting and retaining talent now and into the future.

Performance Appraisal and Feedback - What are Today's Management Expectations?

Performance Appraisal and Feedback is an important part of the talent management process.  However, the "equation" is different today than it has been in the past.

I'd like to share with you some ideas on current thinking about:

• Supervisors’ Accountability For Employee Performance
• The Supervisor As Coach
• What Does The Company Need From The Employment Relationship?
• What Do Employees Really Want From The Employment Relationship?

The Supervisors’ Accountability For Employee Performance

Traditionally, management has meant performing the functions of:
Planning

• Define Goals for Future Performance
• Determine Tasks Needed to Meet Goals
• Determine Available Resources

Organizing

• Assign Identified Tasks
• Allocate Needed Resources

Leading

• Inspire Employees to Achieve Goals

Controlling

• Monitor Employee Activities to Assure Progress

Over time, this role has transformed to include an awareness of :

• Decentralized Decision Making
• Flexible, Skilled & Involved Workforce
• Increased Sensitivity in Work Relationships

The Supervisors’ Job Description has thus evolved as a Supervisor of the Work of Other Employees to include :

• Setting Objectives
• Hiring Employees
• Training Employees
• Assigning Tasks to Employees (Delegation)
• Measuring Performance of Employees
• Rewarding/Disciplining Employees

Accordingly, the Supervisor is accountable to the business to

• Meet Their Own Performance Objectives
• Maintain Accurate and Timely Records of Employee Performance Throughout the Appraisal Period
• Complete the Forms Used in Appraising Employees and Return Them to HR on time
• Maintain Their Knowledge and Understanding of the Performance Appraisal Process,, and
• Review Appraisals Together With Employees

In other words, from the Company's perspective, they are looking for the Performance Appraisal and Feedback process to help

• Maximize Employee Productivity
• Employees Focus on Organization’s Objectives
• Employees Take On Responsibility for Their Performance
• Management Understand How to Manage Performance Effectively
• Facilitate Coaching, Counseling and/or Discipline for Poor Performers
• Provide protection From Legal Liability
• Establish an Objective Basis for Development, Compensation and Rewards

The Supervisor As Coach

Management is so 20th Century!  This "old" view of things looks at Management as a often one-way process whereas coaching is two-way, with the coach and the employee constantly giving and receiving feedback.

Coaching then, instead of “Managing” or “Supervising” is a key concept for achieving top organizational performance.  Supervisors become coaches when they use feedback on a continuous basis to reinforce positive behavior or counsel employees to correct actions that do not further the organization’s goals.

What does Coaching involve?

• Being there for them
• Giving them what they really want
• Rewarding them with "ownership" of their part of the business

According to a study conducted by Mercer management Consulting for the Council of Communications Management, 75% of respondents in a study of employee communications indicated that internal communication has a positive influence on employee performance.

The supervisor is the critical link between top management and employees.  Keeping employee communications “up front” and honest helps to build employee morale, contribute to company loyalty, and increase productivity.   

What kinds of things are important for your employees to be aware of?

What Does The Company Need From The Employment Relationship?

Employee engagement is more important today than ever.  Business leaders need to encourage activities that make employees feel more participative in the business.   You also need to reward people who learn more about their jobs, new trends, solve problems, and are willing to make changes.  Employees who feel empowered are far less likely to become chronically absent or quit.

What Do Employees Really Want From The Employment Relationship?

According to a 2001 Randstad North American Employee Review study looking at how employees define success in the workplace, the following dimensions were most frequently cited:

• Being trusted to get the job done
• Opportunity to do the type of work i want
• Power to make decisions that affect their own work
• Finding a company where i want to work a long time
• Getting raises
• Having flexibility
• Many different job options & opportunities
• Getting promotions
• Getting praise & recognition
• Managing (leading) other people
• Gaining seniority

But it gets even more interesting.

• Mature workers (aged 61-75) workers view themselves as "contributors," while viewing their employers as a "benevolent master." Their greatest psychological need is "respect" and their overriding workplace characteristic is "dedication." Having power to make decisions that affect the whole organization is important to them.
• Baby Boomers (now aged 42-60) are "adaptable" and in need of "appreciation." They view employers as "partners" while striving to be "recognized employees.”
• Gen X'ers (new age 27-42) are "realists" in need of "security." The volatile nature of the new economy drives them to perceive employers as "terminators," while they view themselves as "employees with a future."
• And Gen Y (26 and younger) see themselves as "entrepreneurs" and their employers as "providers." They are in need of "attention" while remaining "cautiously optimistic" about the future.

But for all employees, the most important corporate value cited was TRUST…even more than money or title.  A well thought out Performance Review and Feedback system can be a unique experience that can help

• Make employees feel like members of the “Club”
• Facilitate their ideas, suggestions for problem-solving
• Challenge them with new tasks, assignments, projects
• Involve them in setting performance criteria
• Encourage self-evaluation of their performance
• Work together to set performance objectives

Why then, does the Performance Appraisal process often evoke discomfort versus a sense of discovery?  Perhaps that's because often the program is representative of

• Inadequately defined standards of performance
• Sketchy or ambiguous performance documentation
• Inadequate time allotment for the discussion
• Supervisor bias in judging performance
• Reliance on gut feelings; lack of objectivity
• Lack of timeliness of performance reviews
• Lack of employee involvement

So are they still relevant?  YOU BET !   

Your workforce wants to do the right thing, BUT

• They may not know the rules
• They may not have clear goals
• They may lack confidence
• They may have limited ability
• They may be poorly trained
• They may not have the right equipment
• They may have limited communication
• They may be distracted by personal problems

Today more than ever, a well conceived and properly executed program can be used

• To let employees know where they stand and to give them feedback
• As A basis for compensation and rewards
• As A basis for individual training and performance improvement
• As A basis for career planning
• As A basis for business planning
• To document HR decisions, placement,promotions and discipline

Is this your experience?  How about sharing your "success" stories as well as "horror" stories with our readers.

Here where the new jobs (and job growth) will be

There's a lot projected to happen as relates to skilled jobs, according to a recent report published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among the interesting data of this report:

WHERE THE SKILLED JOBS WILL BE
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projections of employment in 2014 suggest that apart from IT-related occupations, most other scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical (STEM) professions are expected to grow moderately, at rates similar to those for the entire U.S. labor force. Only three specific STEM occupations are expected to actually decline in employment, and all of those projected declines are quite small.
High projected growth rates (20 percent or better):

• Forensic science technicians +36%
• Medical scientists & epidemiologists (summary) +34
• Hydrologists +32
• Biomedical engineers +31
• Computer specialists (summary) +31
• Network systems & data communications analysts +55
• Computer software engineers +46
• Network & computer systems administrators +38
• Database administrators +38
• Computer systems analysts +31
• Computer & information scientists, research +26
• Computer support specialists +23
• Computer specialists, all other +19
• Environmental engineers +30
• Computer & information systems managers +26
• Environmental engineering technicians +24
• Actuaries +23
• Life scientists (summary) +21
• Market and survey researchers (summary) +20
• Other life, physical, & social science technicians +20

Low projected growth rates (five percent or less):

• Sociologists +5
• Statisticians +5
• Architectural and civil drafters +5
• Chemical technicians +4
• Historians +4
• Mathematical technicians +3
• Computer programmers +2
• Electrical and electronics drafters +1
• Petroleum engineers -0
• Mathematicians -1
• Mining & geological engineers, incl. mining safety -2

 

• WOMEN INCREASE IN THE WORKFORCE - Also of note is the projection that over the 2004-14 projection period, the number of women in the labor force is projected to grow by 10.9 percent, faster than the 9.1 percent growth projected for men. As a result, women's share of the labor force is expected to increase from 46.4 percent in 2004 to 46.8 percent by 2014.

• GROWTH OF THE HISPANIC WORK GROUP -“By 2014, the Hispanic labor force is expected to reach 25.8 million, due to faster population growth resulting from a younger population, higher fertility rates, and increased immigration levels.
  
  Despite relatively slow growth, whites will remain the largest group, composing 80.2 percent of the labor force. Blacks will constitute 12.0 percent of the labor force. Asians will continue to be the fastest growing race group, climbing to 5.1 percent of the labor force in 2014.

and finally, a topic we've covered extensively both on this blogspace as well as my speaking engagements around the country:

• CHANGES IN THE MAKEUP OF THE LABOR FORCE -The labor force will change in composition, as a result of changes in both the composition of the population and in the rates of labor force participation across demographic groups. The projected labor force growth will be affected by the aging of the baby-boom generation — persons born between 1946 and 1964.
  
  In 2014, baby-boomers will be ages 50 to 68 years, and this age group will grow significantly over the 2004-2014 period. The labor force will continue to age, with the number of workers in the 55-and-older group projected to grow by 49.1 percent, nearly five times the 10 percent growth projected for the overall labor force. Youths between the ages of 16 and 24.will decline in numbers and lose share of the labor force, from 15.1 percent in 2004 to 13.7 percent in 2014.
  
  Prime-age workers. those between the ages of 25 and 54 also will lose share of the labor force, from 69.3 percent in 2004 to 65.2 percent in 2014. The 55-and-older age group, on the other hand, is projected to gain share of the labor force, from 15.6 percent to 21.2 percent.

Podcast - Understanding the Generations in Today's Workforce

The Boggs e-Learning journal announced the 1st in a series of two Podcasts featuring yours truly, speaking on Understanding the Generations in Todays Workforce

Check it out - it is (at the risk of shameless self-promotion) pretty informative. 

Emerging Health Care Trends 2007 Survey Results

Today, employers appear to be making a "choice of roads" decision when it comes to providing healthcare for their employees.  The choice taken can have significant effect for the employer as it impacts their ability to retain existing employees as well as colors the attractiveness of the organization when seen through the eye of certain classes of job-seekers.

There are two distinct types of employers, and their beliefs and behaviors are dramatically different in how they view the value of Healthcare benefits according to Hewitt Associates in a recent survey report.
Download emerging_health_care_trends_2007_survey_results.pdf  

There are the “Stop Light-to-Stop Light” employers who find they are primarily focused on managing trends.  They have substantial resistance to cutting benefits because they view health care benefits as an attraction and retention tool and are in a competitive market for talent. At the same time, however, they do not tend to see health and productivity as a business issue.

Then there are the respondents indicate they will become much more involved in health and health care benefits, referred to as the "Superhighway" companies

Employers from both roads ranked managing cost and competitive positioning as their top two business issues related to health care. However, the next most important business issue for Superhighway employers is a leadership mandate to address health care, whereas Stop Light-to-Stop Light employers are worried about profitability. Similarly, employers from both roads ranked employee satisfaction and protection from catastrophic loss as the top two employee issues related to health benefits. Superhighway employers ranked improving productivity next, while Stop Light-to-Stop Light employers are worried about turnover.

Small employers have been exiting from health care, dropping sponsorship of their plans entirely.  However, for most large employers, this approach would create significant difficulties for many of their employees. If an employee or dependent currently had a serious medical condition, for example, he or she may be denied coverage entirely in the individual marketplace. While costs continue to escalate, very few large employers are currently considering dropping sponsorship of health care
plans.

The Hewitt survey validates this trend—no respondents believe their organization will be less involved in health care benefits over the next three to five years than they are today.  What remains to be see is how each group reconciles the cost of quality healthcare to the demands of an increasingly tighter labor market.

Men at Work - Gimme a Break !?!

Call it my warped sense of irony...

I was driving down the road today and saw the DOT standard "MEN AT WORK" sign, and noted that there were 3 ladies on the work crew.  I wonder how often the average passerby even considers that these are not just MEN at work?

It should not be a surprise that increasingly, smart women are looking to the construction industry as careers.  The pay and benefits in the construction industry are the best in business and industry. Pay is based on knowledge, skills and experience. Additional coursework and degrees from higher educational institutions paves the way to promotions within the industry. And there are more jobs than employees available to fill the many positions in construction. Whether your ambition is to work in an office or in the field, furthering your education is a vital step in getting ahead and staying ahead.

Many women enter the field of construction because their husbands, fathers, brothers or uncles work in construction and they encourage their wives, daughters, sisters and nieces to come into the field with them. Other women start out working in a construction office processing paperwork and then advance into the field and up the career ladder. Still others like the idea of working outdoors, using their hands to build houses, commercial buildings, bridges and highways, supervising projects and providing a good income for their families.

Women can be found working in construction offices or on-site as architects, CAD technicians, interior designers, estimators, project managers and project superintendents. Some women work on surveying crews; others work as building inspectors and plans examiners for municipalities. The possibilities are unlimited.

There are several ways to learn the construction business.

1. On-the-job training and apprenticeship programs have been the traditional route to construction jobs.
2. College programs and courses in construction management, business, drafting, estimating, surveying, civil engineering, and mathematics prepare women for both office and field positions. Some women continue their educations at the university level. Networking with management and leadership groups helps in moving up the ladder.  Many colleges offer certificates and associate degrees in Architectural Drafting, Computer Aided Drafting, Building Safety and Construction Technology, Civil Engineering Technology, Surveying Technology, Construction Management and Welding. (before you laugh at welding - bear in mind that a journeyman welder with O/T can make $120-130k/yr)
3. Want to check out construction from the comfort of your living room?  There are hundreds of "continuing education grade" courses on construction available online.  For example, RedVector has a large library of "fundamentals-level" online courses that will help anyone interested become familiar with the concepts and language of construction.
4. Another resource is the Arizona State University, Del E. Webb School of Construction that offers a bachelor of science degree in Construction. Starting wages average $50,000 per year.

Looking for change and a career with a long-term future?  Check out these resources...

Interested in eLearning 2.0? Here it is...

Our colleague B.J. Schone over at eLearning Weekly can always be counted on to provide good insight and perspective.

Never to disappoint, B.J.'s recent article on eLearning 2.0 tools provides a much-needed introduction into the exciting area of  the different tools and technologies that can be used to reach this next level of learning.

He introduces Dr Tony Karrer, considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning and Performance Support, who operates 2 great blogs that you'll want to check out as well:  eLearning Technology and the Learning Circuits blog

Lots is happening in the eLearning world, and as a learner, author, or provider you need to stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies.  I think you'll find these sources helpful to you.

Motivating Workers By Giving Them a Vote

Our friend and colleague, David Wessel, of the Wall Street Journal's Washington Bureau, a brilliant scholar, and writer has once again hit the nail on the head.

In a recent article entitled "Motivating Workers By Giving Them a Vote" he examines a novel approach to self-governance, citing examples where  a large firm Schlumberger Ltd  allows its employee communities to govern themselves and choose their own leaders, often in contested elections.

This is not for the faint of heart, and not right for many firms.  This article shows however what CAN be done, even in a large multi-national firm that one might not expect to be nimble and progressive.

Want to be rocked out of complacency?  Read the article and tell me what you think?

On Temporary Jobs and Long-Term Labor Market Performance

One of the sites I frequent for it's great international discussion of "cause and effect" economic issues is the "Economist View", published and managed by Mark Thoma

Mark has published a very well done article entitled "Do Temporary Jobs Improve Workers Long-Term Labour Market Performance?" where he discusses a new study that contradicts previous thinking that on the job training increases skill levels and allows better employment outcomes.  His article argues that it is mainly better matching, not enhanced skills, that explains why temporary workers tend to do better in the labor market. This implies that there are informational or other problems preventing fully efficient labor market outcomes.

As usual, Mark does his usual "over the top" job of reporting, providing a rich collection of supporting materials and references.  Read this fascinating report - I believe it will change your point of view on this important topic.

Could Mom and Dad help keep young workers in the workplace?

Economists predict that a glut of job openings will wreak havoc on the economy, not to mention happy hour.
There have been plenty of blue-ribbon panels, forums and focus groups to address this issue, but none has answered the basic question: How do we persuade the best and brightest to stick around and help solve this looming worker shortage?

read more | digg story

Hiring Foreign Nationals: A Visa Programs Primer

In many situations, you may not be able to find "local" talent to fill a skilled labor requirement.  Obviously, there are a number of "alternative sources" from which you can source these needed skillsets.  When considering bringing in foreign workers, you and your team need to be aware of the myriad requirements, laws and issues associated with bringing foreign workers on board.

The good folks over at BLR (Business & Legal Reports) have provided a great source of information to help keep you out of hot water.  Their HR Daily Advisor newsletter, which provides in-depth professional guidance to those in the talent business, published a recent article you will not want to miss.

Entitled, "Hiring Foreign Nationals: A Visa Programs Primer", this great article will provide you useful information, including perspectives on your talent acquisition policies and procedures when it comes to hiring foreigners.

Check out this information, it can keep you out of trouble.

Webinar Annouoncement - OCT 17 - The Cost of Dropping Out: The Effects of the High School Drop Out Rate on America's Competitiveness

This is a "MUST ATTEND" for anyone concerned about the effect of dropouts on our skilled workforce.

This session, The Cost of Dropping Out: The Effects of the High School Drop Out Rate on America's Competitiveness, includes an Introduction to Education Day and Opening remarks by Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), and Mason Bishop, Deputy Assistant Secretary for ETA. Panelists will include: Paul Harrington, Professor, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University (Boston, MA) and Martin Bean, General Manager of Worldwide Education Strategy, Products, and Solutions, Microsoft, Incorporated. Microsoft, Inc. will discuss the 21^st century global economy demands for a more highly educated workforce and the effects of our high drop-out rate on America's ability to compete.   

                     

Presenters:	Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary, Office of the Assistant Secretary, Employment and Training Administration Paul Harrington, Professor, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts Martin Bean, Vice President, Educational Programs, Microsoft, Incorporated
Moderator:	Mason Bishop, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of the Assistant Secretary, Employment and Training Administration
Date:	10/17/2007
Time:	11:00am Eastern   (10:00am/Central,   9:00am/Mountain,   8:00am/Pacific)
Length:	90 minutes

 

Register Now!!!
Registration for this Webinar is limited and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Please click the link below to login to Workforce³ One and register today! 

http://www.workforce3one.org/public/webinars/details.cfm?id=234          

If you are deaf, hard-of-hearing, or have speech disabilities and captioning would facilitate your participation in this Webinar, you can register for captioning service through the Federal Relay Conference Captioning. Please note the Federal Relay Service requires at least 48 hours notice (2 working days) to guarantee coverage. For more information, visit

 

http://www.workforce3one.org/support/index.cfm?id=940.                    

               

Laborers Are Unskilled, Right?

A common misconception is that the "common laborer" you encounter falls into the "unskilled labor" category.  In discussions I have with others, I sometimes hear things like "well they're just laborers, anybody could do their job.  Wow!  DO these people need to get up-to-date!

Sure, there are plenty of "general labor" jobs where anyone who can fog a mirror could be pressed into service, but there are in every industry "laborers" that don't fit into the category of "tradesmen", but who have a vital role, and need to have a set of skills to do their job.

For example, in the Construction Industry, here are some of the categories of "LABORER" that the U.S. Department of Labor includes as skilled labor (and have specific "prevailing wages" defined under the Davis-Bacon Act)

• potmen
• power tool operator
• small machine operator
• concrete labor including concrete preparation
• signalmen
• laser beam operator
• waterproofer
• open caisson
• test pit
• underpinning
• pier hole and ditches
• laggers and all work associated with lagging
• strippers
• operator of hand derricks
• vibrator operators
• pipe layers
• tile layers (tile laid on road construction projects ONLY)
• operators of jackhammer
• paving breakers
• spaders or any machine that does the same general type of work
• scaffold builders
• operators of towmasters
• scootcretes
• buggymobiles and other machines of similar character
• operators of tampers and rammers and other machines that do the same general type of work, whether powered by air, electric or gasoline
• builders of trestle scaffolds over one tier high
• sand blaster
• power and chain saw operators used in clearing
• installers of well points
• wagon drill operators
• acetylene burners and
• licensed powdermen.

After looking at this list, it should be clear that these laborers need to have specific skills, right?  Ask yourself, in the "War for Talent", what are you doing to recruit people with these skills, test for these skills, or development of these skills?

Population Trends and How They Play Into the Skilled Labor Shortage

One of the components that factors into the skilled workforce is, the availability of human workers.  Before you accuse me of being provincial, let me clarify.  If you do not have an increasing population base, and you do not have educated and skilled talent being developed in the population base, and demand increases, you will have a shortage.

Thus, it first takes a certain level of population growth to provide a foundation for an adequate skilled workforce.

According to US Census (domestic and international data), the developed countries in the world are all experiencing a population growth deceleration.  What this means is that there are fewer net people to develop into skilled workers.

Many parts of the world already face declining populations, sometimes due to too much of a good thing (the combination of economic development, women's education and easily accessible birth control that we see in western Europe and Japan).

Sometimes for more unpleasant reasons (totalitarian controls, war, hunger, disease, environmental pollution or simply a cost of living that discourages having children) the population is declining.

Add to this, the reality that in many parts of the world life expectancy has significantly increased.  Consider that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1900 the life expectancy of the average American was 47 years, and by 2000 it had jumped to 74.6 years.  That's a lot of older Americans that will require care.

Conversely, between 1960 and 2000 the birth rate fell by 40%.  And we're not alone, other industrialized countries have seen a birth rate decline of 60% or more during the same period.

This represents a reality that we will have to live with.  Let's get used to our "new future"...

Is Fraud or Incompetence Now a Skillset?

I am an avid reader of CFO magazine, an award-winning Economist Group publication, dedicated to providing relevant insights to senior financial executives around the world. Reaching an international audience of over one million corporate decision makers each month through specialized events, conferences and research, it is a highly credible "microscope" into the complex world of corporate finance.

Just for grins, I went back into the first three (3) weeks of headlines for September 2007 and discovered the following:

• Apple's Jobs Was Subpoenaed, Report Says
• Ex-CFO Says He Won't Be the "Fall Guy"
• Del. Court Slaps Staples on Backdating
• Retiree Miscount Leads to Restatement
• Quest's Quest for More Backdating Errors
• German conglomerate, embroiled in scandal
• Wachovia Sued over Drink Company's Spill
• Dynegy Settles Charges with Pensioners
• UTStarcom to Redo China Revenue Report
• Mentor to Fraud? Two Former Execs Settle
• SEC Charges Hedge Fund Head over PIPEs
• SEC Aims to Clean Up Grocery Spill
• Dried Dough: Krispy Kreme's Woes
• Fairchild Dumps KPMG
• CTRL-ALT-DELETE: Dell Frozen, Restarting
• Former HealthSouth CFO Back in Court
• Grand Theft Auto, for Real
• The Morality Play
• Shareholders Cry Foul in Calpine Plan
• Former CFO of a high-end car dealer is accused of embezzlement
• Ex-Controller Settles Fraud Case
• Unregistered Auditors Busted by SEC
• SEC Takes Aim at Ex-Nortel Finance Execs
• CFOs' Optimism Plummets to Six-Year Low
• CSC Tax Review Uncovers Years of Errors
• Wireless Company's CFO Takes a Leap
• Ace Discovers $154M Inventory Error
• Finite-risk Probe Halts Assurant Buyback
• Couple Guilty in "Pillow-talk" Case
• Top Exec Steps Down from FASB Parent
• Macau Gambling Plan Loses $1B in Loans
• Saks Settles SEC Vendor-Allowance Suit
• Motive Inc. Restates, Looks for Auditor
• Did Fake Purchase Orders Oust CFO?
• Overhill Farms CFO Goes over the Fence
• Internal Probe Stalls Retailer's Filings
• CEO Put on Leave Following Audit
• Uncollectibles Force SEC Settlement
• Internal Probe Stalls Children's Place Filings

I couldn't believe it - almost 40 headlines IN 21 DAYS showcasing matters relating to corporate fraud or incompetence (or both).

Makes me wonder?  Is fraud or mismanagement of company assets becoming a "corporate value?"  The headlines over three weeks would seem to indicate that is the case?  Has greed overtaken "core values" as being more desirable for workers than working hard, protecting company assets and keeping the customer satisfied?

Is the "I got mine" mentality, where managers and executives put their own self interest ahead of the employees, customers and shareholders leading to higher levels of frustration in the business world resulting in the attitude of "what the hell, everybody else is doing it?"

If this phenomenon is occurring on an increasingly widespread basis, what effect does this have on Workforce Development?  Do frustrated competent and honest workers leave for places they perceive as better or more ethical?  Does it become harder to attract and recruit top talent, when a cloud (either publicized or not) hangs over the business/organization?  Or do the "opportunists" flock to the firms being investigated in the hopes that they can profit from the "birds of a feather" mentality?

Readers - what do you say?

Want to Understand Peoples Motivations ? Then Understand their Desires !

Incentive Intelligence is one of our favorite blogs.  One reason why is a recent article they published called "Maximize Overlapping Desires..." that does an excellent job of describing how fundamental the changes are in the way todays generations look at employment versus the generations that preceded it.

Wonder why the workforce doesn't "love" the things that the previous generations used to respond to?  Read the article - it's very well done, as are all of the articles at this interesting blog!

Its All About the Talent

FMI Corp's,  Ron Magnus, who heads their Talent Development division dropped me an email recently, alerting me to a new Construction Industry report on Talent Development that FMI has just published.

By 2008, it's an accepted fact that a wealth of skills and experience will disappear from the job market as the first members of the Baby Boom generation reach average retirement age. Talent development will become a critical strategic objective and differentiator for any competitive organization.

Magnus reaffirms that in order to remain successful in the knowledge-based, global economy building and construction firms must continually invest in their human capital. 

1. This is a great report, well worth your time, in a easy to read format. Click here Download USTReport2007.pdf for a copy. 

 

Why Do Women Only Represent 9% of the Engineering Workforce?

A report published by the American Society for Engineering Education paints a picture that should concern for all Americans.  While women represent 56% of  total U.S. undergraduate enrollment across all fields of study, Undergraduate engineering enrollment, is only 17% of the total at 366,361 in 2005, according to the ASEE study

Today, women represent only 9% of the Engineering workforce. 

There's a lot of good programs underway to turn this situation.  Women-in-engineering (WIE) programs, and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) student chapters, other support mechanisms provide:

•   Outreach/ K-12 education
•   Learning and/or living communities
•   Forums for discussing concerns/questions
•   Connection with role models in academia, industry, government
•   Mentoring (peer and professional-student)
•   Advising
•   Professional development and career guidance

It's premature to call this game before all of the innings have played out.  Never before have the prospects for women in engineering been better, nor have there been a stronger advocacy and support system available.  Let's get the word out.

The Engineering Workforce Commission also cites decreasing female enrollments since 2001; enrollment numbers remain virtually unchanged since 1984, and although Doctoral degrees have recently increased, these gains are being undercut by decreasing B.S. enrollments in Engineering.

Ladies, Thinking About an Engineering Career? Here's Some Research

Anay over at Introduction to Womens Studies has done her homework !  I think you'll find the data she's uncovered interesting and helpful

read more | digg story

Addressing low employee retention requires tackling the underlying issues

I've been preaching for many years that it's pretty easy to identify the symptoms of most common business problems, whether it be customer satisfaction, employee retention, cashflow issues. 

In over 30 years of helping firms solve these problems I have also  learneed that there's a lot of "heavy lifting" needed in order to get beyond the  surface. 

For once you start uncovering the underlying causes, it starts to get messy.  Many people don't want messy issues - they want simple solutions.

You may as well get over it. 

As they say, the devil is in the details, and at some point you need to deal with them.  A recent press release from our friends over at PRWeb supports this belief.  Organizations with Low Employee Retention Need to "Unpack" Underlying Issues, Says Corporate Counseling Associates

I suggest you give it a look and let me know what you think, after reading it.  Enjoy.

Stopping the Evaporation of Graduate Women Engineers

There's a wealth of information and resources that are available to facilitate young women that are seeking to enter the engineering discipline.

The following is a partial list of sources you may wish to investigate:


    Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network (WEPAN):

The mission of WEPAN is to be a “catalyst, advocate, and leading resource for institutional and national change that will result in the full participation of women in engineering”.

Society of Women Engineers (SWE): 

The mission of SWE is to “stimulate women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, and demonstrate the value of diversity.”

Yearly women in engineering literature reviews available

Assessing Women and Men in Engineering

Excellent annotated bibliographies, literature overviews

American Society for Engineering Education

Publishes Journal of Engineering Education, Prism Magazine, Engineering Colleges Profiles and Statistics, ASEE conference proceedings

Frontiers in Education conference proceedings

MentorNet: national electronic mentoring program

I've personally interacted with most of these organizations and can vouch for their passion and understanding of how to get more graduate engineers out of the "engineer pipeline"

Check them out!

Offshoring is also eroding the quality of the U.S, workforce

Offshoring is increasingly eroding the quality of the workforce in the US. There are fewer entry level IT jobs in the US. These jobs go to increasingly Indian or Chinese software engineers. Similarly, the legal and investment banking tasks sent overseas are the yeoman's work that historically enabled young people to learn the profession. Next are the entry level jobs in architecture and design/engineering.

Fortunately, many service firms aren't of a scale where this sort of outsourcing is viable, but nevertheless, it reduces the number of domestic training positions. It's a hollowing out of service industries. The fact that is is now happening at the very large firms that do the most sophisticated corporate work begs the question of where their next generation of executives / principals and partners will come from.

Where will it end.  Keep watching this blog.  We've got answers coming for you.

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

Women to overtake men by 2012

Citing better exam results that will catapult them to top at work , writer John Walsh of the Irish Independent wrote that women are well poised to take over the majority of top jobs in business, law, finance and the sciences within the next five years. And it's all because they are staying in education longer and getting better results than men.

The projections are made in a joint report from FÁS and the Economic and Social Research Institute which looks at the likely share-out of jobs by 2012. Just over a quarter of females will have degrees by then compared with only a fifth of men. A further 15.4 percent of females are expected to have attained diploma/certificate level compared with only 9.5 percent of men.

By contrast, nearly a fifth of men (18.9 percent) will drop out of school with only a Junior Certificate. Just 11.4 percent of women, however, will drop out at Junior Certificate level. Women tend to concentrate in clusters of occupations while men are in a greater range of jobs, some of which face uncertainty. The most obvious is construction where most workers are male. And the report, written by Dr Pete Lunn, Prof Gerry Hughes and Ms Nicola Doyle, suggests males workers would be more exposed if there were negative shocks to the housing market and the construction sector in general.

It predicts that, in the medium-term, overall jobs growth will be greatest in occupations that require third-level qualifications and high skill levels. Professional, associate professional and managerial occupations are expected to grow by more than 20 percent relative to 2005 figures. Outside of these high-skill occupations, some personal services occupations, including caring occupations such as childcare, are likely to experience similar expansion. Highest growth is expected in business, financial and the legal professions, where numbers are predicted to rise by nearly 50 percent.

Other occupations forecast to expand are managers and highly qualified workers in health, education and science. The report expects that two thirds of the health and education professions will be populated by female workers in 2012 - in fact 8.5 percent of all female workers will be in one or other of these areas. At present, around half of business, legal and other professionals such as psychologists, actors and information officers are women but the report predicts that their share will increase to 55 percent in the next five years.

In the case of science professionals, the report expects that women will account for 58.5 percent by 2012 compared with 41.5 percent in 1998. The category includes chemists, physicists and pharmacists. However, the proportion of women engineers, including software engineers, is expected to drop. This reflects the recent decline in numbers of females entering related courses. An area where women seem to be heading towards equality with men is management. In 1998, a third of managers were women but this is expected to reach 46.9 percent in five years.

However, Dr Lunn stressed this did not necessarily mean women were breaking through the 'glass ceiling' to the board room - it could simply be that more were being appointed to middle management and supervisory levels.

Looking for Expert Guidance on Online Training Content?

Dave Boggs, the editor of the Boggs eLearning journal, also has a great blog devoted to Online Training Content. Dave, a respected and knowledgeable guy, and what he says about elearning and how to deliver it is always right on point.

Check out this interesting and informative site.  You'll be glad you did!

Are Podcasts an effective learning tool?

For over 20 years, I have been a reader of the T.H.E. Journal.  It's a great publication for those interested in exploring what's going on in the education space, written in plain English, and at a level those of us, who are interested in a "practical" level of technology, can understand.  (With a circulation of over 90,000 T.H.E. is the largest circulated education technology monthly publication.)

Recently, they published a great piece called "Podcasts: Where's the Learning?" by Patricia Deubel Ph D.  In addition to her appearances in the T.H.E. Journal, she also can be found at Helge Scherlund's eLearning news blog.

This insightful article discusses whether podcasts are effective learning tools.  Clearly, podcasts are a part of the learners "toolkit", and as this article points out, we who are looking at podcasts as a learning tool, need to become aware of its strengths as well as weaknesses.

Check it out.  It's the first of a 2 part article that you'll find useful.

The New Leadership Model - Servant Leadership

Have you been introduced to Servant-Leadership?

Servant-Leadership is a practical philosophy which supports people who choose to serve first, and then lead as a way of expanding service to individuals and institutions.  Servant-leaders may or may not hold formal leadership positions.  Servant-leadership encourages collaboration, trust, foresight, listening, and the ethical use of power and empowerment.

The servant-leader is servant first - It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first.  Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.  He or she is sharply different from the person who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.  For such it will be a later choice to serve after leadership is established.  The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types.  Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.

The difference manifest itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served.  The best test, and difficult to administer, is:

• do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?

And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, will they not be further deprived?

Robert Greenleaf, the man who coined the phrase, has been a beacon of light in the increased awareness of this approach.  His "think tank"  the  The Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership has published a set of other resources that may be useful to you.

• Greenleaf Centre Australia/New Zealand
• Servant-Leadership Center of the Southwest at McMurry University, Abilene, Texas
• Hampton House: the house that servant-leaders built, by Brooke Shinnamon
• National Association for Community Leadership
• World Business Academy
• National Society for Experiential Education
• Leadership House, University of South Florida-Tampa
• Crowder College, Neosho, Missouri
• Student Leader Magazine
• TDIndustries
• International Conference on Business and Consciousness
• Institute for Servant Leadership

Check out the Greenleaf Institute as well as these other resources.  If we don't adapt our approaches to developing talent, we'll pay the consequences of not doing so.

Careers With a Guaranteed Future

Looking for an area with incredible need and that will fuel ongoing demand for skilled engineers and construction personnel?  Think infrastructure...

As the Katrina New Orleans levee failure and the recent Minnesota bridge collapse pointed out, infrastructure in the United States is clearly in need of an overhaul. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers, does a report card every two years.  Check out the most recent one (from 2005):

America’s infrastructure report card for 2005
By the American Society of Civil Engineers National grades

• Aviation, D+
• Bridges, C
• Dams, D
• Drinking water, D-
• Energy (national power grid), D
• Hazardous waste, D
• Navigable waterways, D-
• Public parks/recreation, C-
• Rail, C-
• Roads, D
• Schools, D
• Security, I
• Solid waste, C+
• Transit, D+
• Wastewater, D-

Giving an overall GPA to America’s Infrastructure: D

These areas are "essential basic infrastructure" to our society, and it cannot be ignored. 

Education firms like RedVector.com who have extensive libraries of accredited online education provide the leaders in this area with the latest educational offerings in building and improving America's infrastructure.  If you're in this business, or intend to be, it should be mandatory training for you.

Another resource the American Society of Civil Engineers has provided to educate people on the important issues of infrastructure is their "Critical Infrastructure Blog"

All Americans are dependent upon sound infrastructure - so this is REQUIRED reading

Let me know what you think.

The employee retention audit - where it fits

Seldom does a day go by where I am not asked "What can I do to keep good people from leaving?"

Employee retention is essential in "winning the war for talent", so if you are losing good people, you need to understand WHY.

One method that can work is to conduct an assessment of your employee retention practices.  Such an assessment should enable you to :

1. Identify areas and activities that have the greatest potential benefits in retaining employees.
2. Allow you to create measurements and metrics to track your progress over time.
3. Discover what is of most concern to your employees, and therefore the greatest risks to losing them.
4. Learn the reasons your employees stay to continue and improve in these areas.
5. Improve your organization with the specific feedback from the tools, and become more attractive to current and potential employees.

Conducting exit interviews often will not get you the type of information that is useful to you.  These folks are already one step out the door.  You must swim upstream to discover WHY they were motivated to look in the first place.

I also caution you to carefully consider the consequences of simply doing a "standard" employee satisfaction survey.  Not that these surveys are bad, but more often than not, such surveys set an expectation that management is intending upon doing something, based upon the survey results.  If you don't develop (and publish) a plan of action shortly after the survey is completed the staff will see this as a meaningless exercise, and your efforts to elicit their input in the future will suffer.

Frequently, feedback is not acted upon in a timely manner, or used as a basis for terminations or discipline.  Using the survey data for this purpose can lead to a belief in the workforce that surveys are a management weapon, and the staff will respond accordingly.

To summarize, employee retention is about making sure you have a good job to do, finding the right people to do that job, making sure that people are feeling empowered and supported, and that they are being recognized for their accomplishments.

If you suspect, but don't know for sure, the temperature of the workforce, this might be a great time to start to figure it out.

Mentoring the Young Workforce

At some time in your life, you've likely been guided by a senior mentor.  Think of one or more important mentors in your life.  What story or stories can you remember about the experience?

Mentoring is advising, teaching, counseling and role modeling.  Formal mentoring matches a senior or more experienced person—the mentor—to a junior or less experienced person—the mentee.  Mentors focus on a mentee’s achievements, success in school and preparation for the workforce through a one-to-one relationship that is non-threatening and non-judgmental to both parties.  It is a relationship that changes over time as each grows, learns, and gains experiences in the relationship.

There are numerous "formats" of mentoring:

• Peer Mentoring where the Mentor/mentee are of similar ages, and where the Mentor experience greater than the mentee experience.
• Group Mentoring is used where there are multiple mentees
• Professional Mentoring where there is a major difference in life experience

Are you a good mentor?  Strong mentors share the following common attributes:

• Strong performances and continuous improvement on each performance that they mentor
• Ability to grow the performance abilities of mentees
• Professional behavior and attitudes
• Commitment to improving the enriched learning environment project—both the team and the overall environment

Mentoring is highly valuable, and becoming a "business essential" for the employer as well as the employee.  I'll share more on how to setup a mentoring program in a future post.

If you've been mentored, who are YOU mentoring today?

If you've never been mentored, who can you identify that can mentor YOU?

Critical Worker Shortage Issue - Current Warzones

Despite the much publicized effects of the "surge" in Iraq, our combat troops are having a tough time in the middle east warzones.  And it is affecting warfighter recruitment and retention in a significant way.

Reuters June 4 headlines reported: “U.S.-led soldiers control only about a third of Baghdad, the military said on Monday.  The troubling article cites ”After five years of war the US controls one-third of one city and nothing else".  This serious situation, according to a host of US commanding generals is depleting the resourses of the US military. A year ago Colin Powell said that the US Army is “about broken.” Gen. Barry McCafrey testified to the US Senate that without a change in strategy, “the Army will unravel.”

Col. Andy Bacevich, a renowned writer on military affairs, highlights the severity of how this protracted multi-theater war has depleted and exhausted the US Army and Marine Corps:

“Only a third of the regular Army’s brigades qualify as combat-ready. In the reserve components, none meet that standard. When the last of the units reaches Baghdad as part of the president’s strategy of escalation, the US will be left without a ready-to-deploy land force reserve.”

“The stress of repeated combat tours is sapping the Army’s lifeblood. Especially worrying is the accelerating exodus of experienced leaders. The service is currently short 3,000 commissioned officers. By next year, the number is projected to grow to 3,500. The Guard and reserves are in even worse shape. There the shortage amounts to 7,500 officers. Young West Pointers are bailing out of the Army at a rate not seen in three decades. In an effort to staunch the losses, that service has begun offering a $20,000 bonus to newly promoted captains who agree to stay on for an additional three years. Meanwhile, as more and more officers want out, fewer and fewer want in: ROTC scholarships go unfilled for a lack of qualified applicants.”

Without getting into the snare of political assessment, it becomes clear that fighting this war is having a significant effect on our warfighters in combat, the legions of military and civilian professionals working on retention and recruitment.  And in many cases without significant result.

This is not an academic exercise, as we're talking about real lives, and affects us in the battlefield, as well as our communities at home.  The "war for talent" in this case, is an actual war, the consequences of not winning are not ones we want to consider.

Does Playing Games Make You Smarter?

Games may be crucial to ensure the skilled talent pool we need now and in the years ahead...

According to a 2002 study by Gentile & Walsh, American children aged 2-7 play computer games an average of 43 min/day, children aged 8-12 play an average of 56 min/day, and children aged 13-17 play an average of 78 min/day.

Our youth are accustomed to learning through games.  In fact, games are largely responsible for the use of the computer.  According to a national survey conducted by the National Institute on Media and the Family, 92% of kids age 2-17 play video and computer games.  Michigan State University also conducted a longitudinal study of 140 low-income children and their Internet use at home; participants reported game play as their primary reason for using their computers.

For most of you, learning was chiefly considered fun during your stint in grade school when learning games were commonplace. However, once you hit junior high and then high school, learning seemed to be required and was not necessarily fun anymore. Games were no longer commonplace, long lectures, extensive reading assignments and homework became the routine.

 

No matter what your age, games are fun and naturally give people enjoyment and pleasure. Whether it’s a board game, computer game, video game or basketball game, most involve people, inspire interaction, offer challenges, stir a competitive spirit and of course, provide satisfaction. Simply put, games engage people.

 

That’s why corporate learning organizations worldwide increasingly develop and implement learning games and simulations for their employees. Learning games and simulations, much like the ones that were played during grade school, can improve learner engagement, learner participation and comprehension, retention and more.

So should we be focusing our attention on Educational Games?  Consider what's at risk.

• U.S. workforce must raise skills to compete in global labor markets
• U.S. workforce must raise skills to support an innovation based economy
• U.S. workforce must be ready for new jobs created by technological advancements
• Digital media the medium of attention for youth
• Schools must become high-performance organizations

What does this suggest to you?

Women in Engineering - still a "Boys Club"

From "The Herman Trend Alert," by the Herman Group, a new alert, discussing Women in Engineering.  Like all of the excellent work The Herman Group does, it is an exceptional piece addressing a critical issue in the skilled workforce.

A recent study demonstrates clearly that the field of engineering is still primarily a "Boys Club". Only 20 percent of engineering degrees in the United States are earned by women; only 9% of American engineers are women.

Though a study by the Families and Work Institute showed that young men are taking a much more active role in their children’s lives, in the US and Europe, the majority of people still expect that most of the burden of housekeeping, childcare, school interface, looking after aging parents, and similar family duties are handled by the woman.

In many industries, an engineering career frequently demands long hours and lots of travel---difficult for a man, even harder for a woman. It is challenging to take care of a family when the job sometimes requires an emergency plant visit at 2am, or worse, weeks or months on assignment overseas.

When it comes to advancing in the corporate hierarchy, women engineers experience the most problems. There is a "systemic pressure," far more difficult than any "overt discrimination," that makes matters even more challenging for women engineers.

Nancy Bartels, Managing Editor for "Control" Magazine, interviewed a number of women engineers. Here’s what they want:

• Treated with respect, as professionals, just like other engineers
• Given the chance to prove themselves—just like other engineers.
• Respected for their ideas and have their thinking processes accepted.
• Included---in all conversations, casual and otherwise and to be treated as peers and valued team members
• Mentored and encouraged by experienced seniors.
• Considered for promotion.

There is no doubt that engineering will benefit from having more women who bring their unique perspectives and innovative ideas to the industry. They also possess intuitive skills and can provide different ways to solve many complex problems, problems that may be approached better through their distinctive points of view. Hundreds of colleges, organizations, and businesses have created programs, workshops, and conferences to increase the number of women in engineering. And if your organization is looking for engineers, don’t overlook The National GEM Consortium, a non-profit headquartered in Washington, DC.

JIM's NOTE: Also, check out the Society of Women Engineers (SWE)

The Hottest Jobs (for College graduates)

According to Parade magazine, there are plenty of good paying jobs in HIGH DEMAND in today's market for graduates:

Forensic accountant
Combines accounting, auditing and investigative skills: $30,000-$150,000

Logistics manager
Plan, implement and control flow of goods or services: $35,000-$118,000

Corporate librarian
More companies need specialists to manage information: $37,000-$93,000

Emerging media specialist
Managers in Web content and online marketing need communication skills and tech savvy: $26,500-$100,000

Physical therapist
Aging baby boomers will drive the increasing need: $34,600-$74,000

Information security
Workers plan, implement and support network security: $47,000-$122,000

Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., with data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics and industry sources

“Hidden” Costs of Turnover Can Greatly Exceed Numerical Calculations

Finding data on the cost of turnover is easy – many researchers have been able to quantify hard-dollar costs of losing valued employees.

However, many costs occur that can’t be assigned dollar amounts. These “costs’ can far outweigh the traditional, hard-dollar calculations – and organizations are incurring huge, unseen losses productivity, customer satisfaction, reputation among job-seekers and, significantly, in the morale of the departing employee’s co-workers.

When we take into account that about three-quarters of employees polled by the Society of Human Resource Management and the Wall Street Journal’s CareerJournal.com said they are looking for a job (according to information released by the Institute of Management and Administration in 2007), the costs of turnover can be nearly crippling to organizational finances and marketplace position.

Consider these examples, looking at the hard dollars incurred that result from unwanted turnover as determined by research studies plus the costs that can’t be measured precisely:

• Average employee turnover is 14.4% annually, according to the Bureau of National Affairs. And, turnover rates are on the rise, the Bureau now reports; turnover also varies widely among different industries.
  
  Yet, we can’t measure the blow to morale and increased job stress when remaining employees are burdened with the distribution of the departed employee’s workload. We also can’t always determine the negative impact on customer service.

• Replacement costs for a departing employee are estimated at one-third of his or her salary. Even at the former minimum wage, the cost to replace an employee is $3,700. The US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates average costs to replace a worker in private industry at $13,996. (To determine an organization’s annual turnover costs, simply multiply turnover cost by the number of annual new hires.*)
  
  We can’t measure the future turnover of employees who are lured to other organizations by their friends who have departed. With all organizations in an industry competing for talent, informal networks are powerful resources for job seekers and friends often follow colleagues to other employers.

• The cost to replace a registered nurse is 1.2 to1.3 times his or her salary, which is substantially higher than for most other times of workers. We can’t measure the damage to an organization’s reputation when customer service falters due to low staffing levels. When customers are unhappy, research shows they’ll tell their stories to more people than they’ll share a tale of good service.
  
  Additionally, the current nursing shortage means that those remaining will have higher caseloads, possibly face mandatory overtime and incur greater job stress – all contributors, according to the research, to nursing turnover. Nearly half of all nurses under age 52 have said they expect to change jobs within five years.

• A 3,000-employee organization with average salaries of $45,000 that reduces turnover by just 1% can save $1.3 million, according to the Voluntary Hospitals of America.
  
  We can’t measure how employees feel when an admired, valued co-worker chooses to leave the organization. People naturally begin to consider their own options.

• Estimates have determined that lost knowledge that leaves with the departing employee can be as high as 50% of the exiting employee’s salary for one year of service; and, this figure grows by 10% for each year of employment.
  
  We can’t measure how many new ideas and innovations each employee might generate in the future to help the company. Nor can we determine his or her potential to be promoted to higher-level roles and leadership positions.

• On average, 30% of a financial advisor’s clients will move with their advisor if he or she changes firms.
  
  We can’t measure customer loyalty to staff. Customer loyalty often is people loyalty: Customers trust and build relationships with their contacts, often more so than to the organization. Out the door go not only the confidence in this employee, but future referrals from the employee’s loyal customers.

One element that can't be understated is the importance of building trust. 

James Kouzes and Barry Posner who authored the RedVector online course entitled
Leadership Challenge : Enable Others to Act cite the benefits that come to an organization when this is done.  The course poses some very insightful questions to learners:

• Do you appreciate the benefits of collaboration and encourage this in your workplace?
• How many leaders truly understand how to create an atmosphere of trust, which is the most significant predictor of individuals’ satisfaction with their organizations?
• Does existing management appreciate the value of quality listening?
• Who well does your organization understand the concept of positive interdependence and norms of reciprocity?
• Do you currently encourage face-to-face interactions in this age of technological communication?
• How well have you developed your own social skills and awareness of these skills in others?

The authors cite that the best work occurs when more than one person contributes, so this course will show leaders how to create a climate of trust and facilitate positive interdependence in order to maximize the potential for collaboration. One of your primary goals should also be the strengthening of others, so that they are empowered to do their personal best.

Increasingly, these skills are seen as essential, but organizations lacking these skills can see increased turnover, even when seeming to do all of the "technical" things correctly.

Readers, care to weigh in on this?

Skilled worker shortage hurts U.S.

According to a recent story published by CNN, Skilled worker shortage hurts U.S. the cross-industry problem being experienced by all industries is bad and getting worse.

Most experts agreed the shortage of skilled workers is likely to persist longer than it did in the late 1990s. That earlier tightness was fed by dot.com companies burning through investors' cash to hire people. The latest round of hiring is being driven by stronger corporate balance sheets, and as more retiring Baby Boomers start leaving the work force.

Today's challenge is different and the mandate for companies is different.

The problem I see with this article is that it's long on explanations, but offers few substantial ideas for firms looking for solutions.  What's your opinion?

If you're looking for work, these folks are hiring...

In case you haven't been keeping up with current events in the global workforce, the hottest job market in construction in the world right now is not in China, but in Dubai in the United Arab Emeriates.

At this time, Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world's cranes.  And what are these cranes building you might ask?  Well, here are a few of the projects on the boards:

The Dubai Waterfront.  When completed it will become the largest waterfront development in the world.

The Palm Islands in Dubai. New Dutch dredging technology was used to create these massive man made islands.  They are the largest artificial islands in the world and can be seen from space.  Three of these Palms will be made with the last one being the largest of them all. 

Upon completion, the resort will have 2,000 villas, 40 luxury hotels, shopping centers, movie theaters, and many other facilities. It is expected to support a population of approximately 500,000 people.  It is advertised as being visible from the moon.

The World Islands.  300 artificially created islands in the shape of the world.  Each island will have an estimated cost of $25-30 million.

The Burj al-Arab hotel in Dubai. The worlds tallest hotel.  Considered the only '7 star' hotel and the most luxurious hotel in the world.  It stands on an artificial island in the sea.

Hydropolis, the world's first underwater hotel.  Entirely built in Germany and then assembled in Dubai, it is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2006.

The Burj Dubai.  Construction began in 2005 and is expected to be complete by 2008.  At an estimated height of over 800 meters, it will easily the be world's tallest building when finished.  It will be almost 40% taller than the the current tallest building, the Taipei 101.  Fifty stories (around 190 meters) of the Burj Dubai have already been completed.

The Al Burj.  This will be the centerpiece of the Dubai Waterfront.  Upon completion it will rival The Burj Dubai for the title of tallest building in the world.  The exact height of the building is being kept strictly confidential for reasons of competition.  Since the Al Burj and Burj Dubai are both striving to become the world's tallest building, it is rumored that the Al Burj will be built a little higher since the Burj Dubai will be completed first. 

The Burj al Alam, or The World Tower.  Upon completion it will rank as the world's highest hotel.  It is expected to be finished by 2009. At 480 meters it will only be 28 meters shorter than the Taipei 101.

Dubailand.  Currently, the largest amusement park collection in the world is  Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, which is also the largest single-site employer in the United states with 58,000 employees.  Dubailand will be twice the size of Walt Disney World.  Dubailand will be built on 3 billion square feet (107 miles^2) at an estimated $20 billion price tag.  The site will include a purported 45 mega projects and 200 hundred other smaller projects. 

Dubai Sports City.  A huge collection of sports arenas located in Dubailand.

Currently, the Walt Disney World Resort is the #1 tourist destination in the world.  Once fully completed, Dubailand will easily take over that title since it is expected to attract 200,000 visitors daily.

Ocean Heights and The Princess Tower , two huge luxury condominium and apartment towers to be built on the Dubai Marina.  At over 100 stories tall, The Princess Tower will become the largest residential building in the world after construction is done.   

The Dubai Marina is an entirely man made development that will contain over 200 highrise buildings when finished.  It will be home to some of the tallest residential structures in the world.  The completed first phase of the project is shown. Most of the other high rise buildings will be finished by 2008.   

The Dubai Mall will be the largest shopping mall in the world with over 9 million square feet of shopping and around 1000 stores.  It will be completed in 2008. 

Ski Dubai, which is already open, is the largest indoor skiing facility in the world. 

Some of the tallest buildings in the world will line the Dubai Marina.

The UAE Spaceport would be the first spaceport in the world if construction ever gets under way.

The Dubai Metro system, once completed, will become the largest fully automated rail system in the world.

The Dubai World Central International Airport will become the largest airport in size when it is completed.  It will also eventually become the busiest airport in the world, based on passenger volume.

There are currently more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens (although Dubai does has a 80% expatriate population).  And they don't have nearly enough to fill the demand.  The only downside - labor problems seem to be widespread and wages and safety aren't up to U.S. standards, so don't say I didn't forewarn you.

Are 20,000 global temps the right solution to the 2010 Olympics problem?

Like Montreal, 3 decades ago, the construction costs of the 2010 games is soaring.  Construction spokespeople have blamed escalating labour costs for the overrun.  Now, calls are being heard in some business circles for the Canadian government to solve the problem by bringing large numbers of foreign workers into the country.  Union busting?

read more | digg story

Statistics vs. Real Life

A recent article in Parade magazine discusses a concern about the "real" basis of government published workforce statistics.

The article cites:
Many Americans feel that government statistics don’t match their daily experience. “Inflation seems worse than official reports indicate,” says Arden Davis, who made $94,300 teaching geological engineering at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology last year. His view is widely shared. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) says inflation is low, but the cost of necessities like housing, utilities, health insurance and education is rising faster than wages for most Americans. “ The CPI is heavily influenced by the wealthy, who do most of the spending,” explains Zandi.

The Parade article continues, “It doesn’t reflect the budget of most Americans.” Gary Earl Ross, who earned $64,900 as an English professor and author in Buffalo, N.Y., agrees: “Any wage increase I’ve gotten is offset by increases in the cost of living,” he says, “and in the fall I’ll have two kids in college.” Marie Ouano made $75,000 last year performing X-ray and MRI exams as a radiology technician but says housing in San Francisco is so expensive, she’s not sure she can afford to buy a home on one income.

This has always interested me.  The CPI, against which many published economy statistics are grounded, generally excludes costs of housing, food, and energy costs, which have all been rising as of late. 

Does this make sense?

Report on America’s Dynamic Workforce

A report is now available, entitled America’s Dynamic Workforce: 2006, which "presents an overview of current conditions and notable trends affecting the American labor market and economic activity

This report is published by the office of the Assistant Secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Labor

Why don't we invest enough in Workforce Training and Development?

Do you ever wonder why there seems to be so much talk about workforce development and training and so little evident action?  So did Anthony Carnevale who  wrote an excellent article in the "Brookings Review" entitled "Much Ado About Job Training."   He observed that for all the talk, that training consistently seems to loom far larger in policy talk than in public budgets.

Among the interesting insights he addressed regarding the situation was the sidebar that contrasts US behaviors with the approach being used successfully in Europe.

In Europe, labor unions, private corporations, and governments collaborate in an apprenticeship system to provide real training for real jobs.  But workforce development in the United States cannot be modeled on that system. In the first place, U.S. unions aren’t strong enough. Nor are American employers likely to take on big new training responsibilities when cutting costs and increasing flexibility are primary competitive assets.

More fundamentally, the European apprenticeship systems are rooted in political agreements and a popular solidarity absent from the individualistic and diverse
U.S.society.

Because European welfare states guarantee extensive income and basic social benefits, they have powerful incentives to educate and train everybody so that each worker will be sufficiently productive to justify the fixed costs of wage and benefit guarantees.

The United States has no such incentives for universal training investments. Here, the brutal efficiency of the American workforce development system discourages universal policies, and individuals pay the price of education and training failure.

Moreover, the more flexible American labor market appears better suited to meet the challenges of global trade and economic restructuring than the highly regulated labor markets that undergird Europe’s training system.

At the end of the day, what we can do, is determine if we can adapt any of these practices, because time is quickly running out.  Already many industries cite inability meeting their objectives due to lack of having a competent and motivated workforce. 

Maybe it's not too late to lose our pride and take a look over our shoulders to see if we can learn from those who have started to figure some of this out.

Getting to the Starting Block

Many seeking employment today (in any industry) require a High School diploma or a GED.  Without this credential, more often than not, workers are relegated to the lower paid job classifications.

If an applicant hasn't completed High School with a diploma, the GED offers to the roughly 500,000 dropouts per year, a way to get back into better paying jobs in the workforce.

Depending upon how long it has been since the school days, there is increasing resistance with age to get back into self-education.  Online educational opportunities exist to help the dropout who has committed to obtaining their GED.

There's a good bit of discussion about the value and importance of the GED in today's marketplace.  MIT published Who Benefits from Obtaining a GED? Evidence from High School and beyond by Richard J. Murnane, John B. Willett, and John H. Tyler
The Review of Economics and Statistics,        Vol. 82,        No. 1 (Feb., 2000),                   pp. 23-37, a 15 page research paper on the multiple aspects of the value of the GED.  You'll find it an interesting read (I've provided a synosis here)

Leonard Williams, an e-learning instructor, recently published a great article entitled  "Planning, Perseverance and Motivation for the GED Test" that looks int this option and how e-learning can benefit the GED aspirant.  it's well thought out and Williams provides a sound proposal.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

Effective E-learning - how it happens

Over time providers of e-learning solutions have learned that successful outcomes are based on several principles which guarantee the acquisition of the knowledge needed.

Making learning pleasurable
Without pleasure, there is no motivation. Without motivation, there is no learning. e-learning modules need to be mind stimulating : the learner plays an active role, the methods and solutions are not revealed immediately but discovered progressively, quizzes and exercises hold user’s attention and check their understanding, videos enhance pedagogical effectiveness by illustrating good and bad practices.

Making learning user friendly
Navigation must be extremely simple. This apparent simplicity does not prevent users from adapting the tool to their way of learning. Users need the ability to run through the whole module or take any section of particular interest to them ; some may wish to print out the screens, so that they can take notes on them, while following the module ; and others systematically use the links towards complementary resources.  Some providers, like RedVector provide the feature of printing off the lesson as a PDF document so the material can be reviewed off-line.

Proposing the correct time frame
Opinions vary on the ideal module length but it appears that the typical adult learner beyond 30-45 minutes minutes, encountered difficulty with retention, ans training regardless of form becomes increasingly difficult to fit into the day of busy professionals. Concentration is also difficult to hold beyond this timeframe. To adopt progressive learning approach, bringing together discovery, knowledge appropriation and application exercises is hardly possible in less than 20 minutes. Thus, a one hour learner paced online learning session will usually consist of a 25 – 35 minutes lesson, a 5-10 minute break, and a assessment or test.

Offering content from the best sources
Content is King!  The top e-learning providers join forces with subject matter partners as well as well-known authors, professors of leading universities, unquestionable authorities in their particular fields. Custom  made modules can also be developed if your company wants to implant company-specific corporate values, techniques, know-how into an e-learning format.

Strong and effective educational content is as important as adapting it to the different learning styles.

Working with the Contingent Workforce

Esme Friesen of the Galt Global Review published a set of great best practices to assist the supervisor or manager thinking of hiring a contingent worker.

According to Friesen, the squeeze on workforce budgets continues the same as it has for well over a decade. Whereas everybody wants to expand their scope while increasing their bottom line, adapting to variable market trends is still the order of the day. In some organizations this means the hiring of new staff and for others this means a decrease in their labor pool. Both ways, managers have had to find flexible staffing solutions and as a result, the demand for a skilled, reliable contingent workforce has risen significantly.

Fishing for resources in a new "fishing hole" carries with it a special set of challenges.

Friesen offers the following points to help you be more effective in sourcing from the Contingent Workforce marketplace:

1. Have the staffing service coach or counsel a contingent worker on job performance.

It is one thing to point out a procedural protocol to a new contingent worker, but it is another to give them an evaluation. Marcie Ellison, Vice President of The Personnel Department's temporary division advises "the staffing service should be calling you. If there is a need for a performance or corrective review, it is the responsibility of the service to address it." Otherwise, contact the service to request a review and tell them why it is necessary.

2. Let the staffing service negotiate the rate of pay.

This issue is best addressed with the staffing service. The staffing service's account manager uses input from you to establish rates of pay and will handle all communications regarding pay raises for the contingent worker. Contingent workers are regular staff of the service and as such, have their own agreements with respect to wages. When you begin negotiating with the contingent worker, you become a de facto employer and can run into difficulties in defining the "employer" if there is ever a dispute.

3. Express your needs for skills and let the staffing service do the training.

Staffing agencies often have training and upgrading programs available to their field staff. If specific training is required for a job, the staffing service will work with you to identify and implement the best training program for the contingent worker.

4. Refer any requests for personal time-off or vacation to the staffing service.

Contingent workers will request time off through their staffing service manager who will then contact you regarding coverage prior to approval being given. If temporary employees approach you, simply refer them back to their staffing service manager. Your primary relationship is with the service, and so is the employee's.

5. Discuss job opportunities with the staffing service.

In this era of talent shortages, it is best to discuss job opportunities with the staffing service. Often the best contingent worker is not the best permanent employee. For many individuals in the contingent workforce, it is a lifestyle choice. They prefer the flexibility and variety that going from job-site to job-site affords them and staffing services know this. The service may have other individuals available who are interested in finding permanent employment, and who are more suitable to the position. To get the best from the "temp to perm" potential, contact the service who can then work with you to determine who the most suitable candidates are. It is always good to check first with the service.

If a temporary or contract worker approaches you for a position, it is a compliment to your managers and your organization. Still, you are best advised to direct them to publicly available job postings to which they can apply. If there were a position that you wanted to hire the contingent worker for, contact the service, which will then approach the employee directly.

6. Be discrete regarding harassment or discrimination issues.

If a situation where a contingent worker is behaving inappropriately arises, contact the service directly as soon as you become aware of a situation.

7. Let the staffing service terminate a contingent worker.

While it may be your responsibility to do the hiring and firing for your firm, the contingent worker is the responsibility of the staffing service. Always contact the service to terminate a contingent worker.

8. Do include contingent workers in your company's employee functions where appropriate.

Contingent workers are an important part of the modern workforce, therefore it is important to make them feel as though they are part of your team. Inclusion at staff parties and other employee functions is a good idea.

There are times, however, when the company may be hosting "staff only" events such as company retreats and seminars etc. In these instances, it is best to contact the service to explain the contingent worker's exclusion. For recognition events, the service should be invited to present any awards or bonuses the company is offering to its contingent workers.  In addition, a few staffing services offer their field staff benefits packages, training and skill development, advancement schemes, and recognition programs. Choose one that does.

9. Be in touch with the service.

The basic rule of thumb is to always be in touch with the service. They are set up specifically to manage contingent and leased workforces. They have a firm understanding of the legal and logistical issues associated with the hiring of temporary staff.

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,

It starts with a plan

Today's secondary, postsecondary and career and technical education students stand poised at the center of industry trends that will benefit them enormously. The United States is embarking on a construction boom. In fact, according to a 2004 report published by Brookings Institute, more than half of the buildings that will exist in 2035 have not been built yet.

As baby boomers approach retirement age, a significant portion of the existing construction workforce will be leaving. The demand for quality skilled craft professionals will be critical, and this will create a wealth of possibilities for young people who seize that opportunity. It is critical to the future of our industry that we reach out to our young people and expand career-training opportunities.

Accordingly, the US has a vested stake in ensuring that the workforce needed to construct these buildings.  Thus, the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) has been an advocate in promoting ways for contractors to keep up with this surge.

The challenge is that the Construction industry, representing almost a trillion dollars of spending in our national economy is incredibly fragmented, and it is a monumental challenge to get the industry on the same page, with literally almost 1000 construction industry different trade groups in operation.

The NCCER has produced a document entitled the 2007 Construction Careers Planning guide, Download 2007_construction_careers_planning_guide.pdf in conjuntion with the upcoming National Careers in Construction Week (CiC Week) is a nationwide campaign designed to increase public awareness of the hard work and contributions of our nation’s craft professionals by highlighting the many career opportunities available in the Construction industry.

Is use of "Best Practices" a common practice in your firm?

The term "best practices" is commonly bandied about in business.  "We use this 'best practice' or that one" some claim.  Matt Stevens in his blog "The New Business Model of Construction" gives us some good insight on how to leverage Best Practices in a practical way.

A "Best Practice" is a management idea which asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and testing, a desired outcome can be delivered with fewer problems and unforeseen complications. Best practices can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

Thus, one of the growth strategies for any successful business should be the identification and adoption of Best Practices.  There are numerous sources for these practices.  One of the challenges is finding practices that are relevant to your particular type of business. 

For example, take construction:  According to Matt Stevens of the Stevens Construction Institute, there are over 100 market sectors in the construction industry. F.W. Dodge reports in its construction permit data 30-odd categories and that is just the type of projects. Multiply that by the all the different types of contractors. The old CSI classification methodology outlines 16 divisions of work. Each division typically has several construction firm types occupying each of those.

Stevens has published over 140 best practices in the construction industry in a book entitled "Managing a Construction Firm on Just 24 Hours a Day" that helps contractors seeking to imporove their businesses with better techniques, construction methods, business processes, activity management, workplace incentives etc.

Check out the book and Matt's blog.  Both are filled with good information for Contractors.