Workforce Development - A Good Investment?

For work needing specialized skills, there's a labor shortage, not a jobs shortage

Don't assume you've survived 2009 quite yet...

Recent surveys have found that 40 to 60 percent of employees intend to look for new opportunities as soon as the job market improves, possibly next year. 

Yes, unemployment rates are still at record highs, and that's part of the problem...

Workers, including some great employees, have been being cut throughout 2009 for budget, not performance, reasons.  That left remaining workers holding on for dear life, afraid to make any job search noises lest they be viewed as an attitude problem or disloyal.

But here's the thing...  As I've pointed out in previous posts, at the first sign of stability, the employee morale issue will leap to the forefront.

Sadly, many employers, despite years of warnings that "employee engagement" is broken, have done little about it, and instead continue to heap more and more work and responsibility on those that remain.

Workforce Management magazine had a article on entitled "How Do We Retain People Despite Being Unable to Raise Pay?"  that pointed out the necessity of employers needing to act now to get workers back on their side, suggesting unfreezing pay freezes and giving raises or bonuses to valued employees.

Increasingly, in the tightening economy, money talks.  

Diane Stafford the workplace and careers columnist at the Kansas City Star also suggests other essential non-financial imperatives to employers who seek to preserve their top talent:

• Tell employees who work hard that they are valued. Make sure they know this by a simple "thank you" or compliment for their work. (And that doesn't mean doing it once a year in a formal performance evaluation. It means every day, if warranted.)
  
• Evaluate and readjust workloads to make sure the most competent employees aren't overwhelmed.
• Assess and readjust work assignments to make sure priorities are being handled and that discretionary or less important things that used to be done with larger staffs are no longer sapping time and energy.
  
• Make it clear that naysayers and office gossipers don't help. Encourage more feedback, and share more business information. Misinformation usually gets spread in a knowledge vacuum. Don't be dogmatic about squashing naysaying.
  
• Provide opportunities for employees to say what's on their minds and ask questions. Encourage them to contribute tales and ideas from the front line.

Here's another useful resource:  "One Foot Out the Door"  (How to Combat the Psychological Recession That's Alienating Employees and Hurting American Business), is a great book by Judith M. Bardwick Ph.D. offers smart suggestions for establishing a workplace that is welcoming to a diverse set of people and committed to their job satisfaction and growth.

Why On-boarding makes sound financial sense

Mark Stein, a colleague over at Kaiser Associates just sent me this update on on-boarding, and it's information you need to think carefully about...

• According the U.S. Department of Labor, over 25 percent of the workforce has been at their current company for under a year
• Young people entering the workforce today will change jobs an average of 10 times before they turn 40
• Employees are most likely to leave an organization in the first 18 months after they are hired, according to the U.S. Department of Labor

It may take significant time for new employees at your organization to become functioning members of the team:

• According to Mellon Financial Corporation, the average times to full productivity are
  • Eight weeks for clerical jobs
  • 20 weeks for professionals
  • 26 weeks for executives

Also, there are significant costs to ineffectively On-boarding your new hires:

• The direct cost of recruitment, according to Staffing.org and the Bureau of National Affairs, ranges from 5 percent to about 21 percent of annual compensation, and ineffective On-boarding could mean wasting these investments

• The Institute of Industrial Relations at the University of California, Berkeley, has estimated that the total cost of employee turnover is 150 percent of annual compensation, including hiring costs and more intangible elements such as “ramp-up time and lost productivity while the job is vacant”

An Important Piece Of The Puzzle Regarding What New Engineers Should Learn

Anne Scarlett, of Scarlett Consulting, (former principal of Zweig-White), who appears in the AISC's publication, "Modern Steel Construction" produced a very good article entitled "10 Things Entry-Level Engineers Should Know"

The article points out many of the essential things that a young engineer should to to become well established in the profession.  But she missed an important one.

Professional Development.  And ny this I don't just mean getting the necessary continuing education (CE/PDH) credits needed to maintain an engineer's license(s) or certification, but the kind of ongoing life-long-learning habit that takes you beyond what a new engineer needs to stay current with in order to practice.

Here's a perspective that I see too frequently, from the point of view of a firm that is a leader in professional development education/training for engineers:

• an engineer will look for the simplest way to amass the nesessary number of PDH in order to complete the requirements for the state boards by the mandated completion deadline.
• in cases where a education provider offers multiple levels of course difficulty (basic, intermediate, advanced) the learner will often opt for the easiest material, just to ensure a passing score and getting the needed credits
• the closer they get to the reporting deadline, the less discerning the learner will be regaridng the relevancy of the course, to their job area, or professional needs

I have asked several "professionals" why they do this, and often get the response, "I don't have the time to be picky", or "I don't want to risk not passing"

When I've asked managers of engineers if they wonder why an experienced engineer would load up on courses that are very basic, they often tell me that they don't watch what their people take that closely, or even will tell me "it's up to the engineer"

What would happen if you discovered that your newest engineers were regularly stretching themselves and taking intermediate and advanced courses, and doing well on them?  Wouldn't you look at these individuals as "high potentials" for the firm's future.  Likewise, what about the ones that consistently just do the minimum?

With today's powerful Learning management Systems, and the increasing popularity of eLearning for Engineers, managers can now observe not only what their people are taking, but watch how they are growing professionally.  Isn't that a great asset to the firm?  Strange, isnt it, how in a profession where we put so much emphasis on improving outcomes based upon use of data and process, that we often overlook one of the most important processes in the Engineering profession - professional development?

The Workforce Crisis is Real, and Creative Solutions Are Needed

In the view of Ed Gordon, author of The 2020 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis, the forthcoming IT workforce shortage is a legitimate worry. Millions of Americans who are unemployed do not have the right talent for the jobs that need to be filled, with many people earning college degrees that are not translating into decent employment.

There now are four million jobs empty, Gordon said, and half of them are highly skilled positions that require specialized technology training and education.

“The issue is that the labor market is out of sync with the realities of the global marketplace with the jobs we are creating and the jobs that are disappearing,” Gordon said. “This is a problem all over the U.S. and most of the developed world.”

Convergence of forces

Gordon said the situation is being exacerbated by specific social and economic forces converging at the same time. The most prominent is that technology is becoming more pervasive in every facet of life, and since technology is complex, people use it in ways that support or create new products and services.

If there is one mitigating circumstance regarding the IT worker shortage, it's that companies are loading up on technology and they want fewer workers to do more. The trend is offset somewhat by the increased efficiency enabled by technology, but that requires talented people. They must be highly literate, and they need specialized technology training.

“Only 25 percent of the workforce comfortably fits into that category, but 75 percent of the jobs we're creating demand it,” Gordon said.

Those other 75 percent, many of whom are high school dropouts, don't have the right talent mix. Some were trained in old technologies that now are obsolete and have gone away. Some have college degrees, but they are degrees in communication, finance, and marketing, where there already are far too many people for the number of available jobs.

At the same time, we have too many “techno peasants,” who Gordon characterized as people with low levels of literacy, plus no specialized career preparation, who are confined to low-wage jobs for the rest of their lives. Until last 20 years, there were fairly good-paying jobs, mostly in industrial settings, that did not require high levels of literacy. Those jobs since have gone by the wayside, and new technology requires higher levels of literacy, specialized skills, and career preparation.

With that in mind, Gordon believes society is divided into three groups.

1. Smart people with right talent who keep their skills up to date through networking, seminars, and simply reading books. These workers keep shifting. Most mature workers are not doing the exact same things they did when they were young, and so they had to update their knowledge and apply it in new ways. Given the increasing complexity of technology, this trend will continue to accelerate because people will need more education, not less.
   
2. Younger people who have been steered away from technology fields. In 2010, a tsunami of 79 million Baby Boomers will start to leave the workforce, and about 60 percent of the jobs that must be filled now are occupied by Baby Boomers that will need to be replaced. Many Boomers have the technical skills to keep the economy running, and they represent a larger cadre of people with more technical skills than the generations behind them, who were told that tech jobs weren't cool and don't pay enough. "They love technology - they eat it and breath it,” Gordon said, "but they don't want to design it, make it, repair it, or manage it. The sad part is we need a certain proportionality of these generations to become involved.
   
3. Imported models. American companies used globalization to get rid of low-pay, low-skill jobs that could be done elsewhere, especially India. In addition, U.S. companies have hired high-wage, high skill people they have not found in the United States, and they have imported foreign workers with H-1B visas to fill positions in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers. The challenge will be that the countries America is importing from are becoming richer as their own economies develop. These imported workers are being called home, especially as wages rise, where they can earn more money and be with their families.

Still more labor competition will come, Gordon said, when Europeans move production facilities to the United States because they can't find enough workers.

What Does It Take to be an "Employer of Choice"?

Joyce L. Gioia and the late Roger E. Herman wrote the groundbreaking book "How to Become an Employer of Choice" back in 2000.  It has become the foundation for several subsequent works assisting organizations who aspire to this distinction.

One of them was published by Sandy Asch, author of Excellence at Work--The Six Keys to Inspire Passion in the Workplace, who has addressed how employers can transform and reward employee performance and offered six things employers can do to become an employer of choice.

Asch identified a number of questions companies can ask themselves to determine if their employees view them as an employer of choice.

• Do your employees love to work for your company?
• Are employees deeply engaged?
• Are employees' full potential being realized?
• Are employees planning on staying with your company?
• Are communications open, honest, positive and future-focused?
• Are people proactive and see, own, and act on problems quickly and efficiently?
• Are truth telling and risk taking encouraged and rewarded?
• Is there a high level of cooperation and collaboration?
• Are people respectful and seek to bring out the best in each other?
• Is there a healthy work-life balance?
• Do employees have energy and passion?
• Do employees trust and respect their managers and feel valued and supported?
• Are your leaders trusted and respected?
• Are employees treated fairly?
• Are employees regularly rewarded and recognized for good performance?
• Are there opportunities for growth and development?
• Are employees encouraged to contribute and make a difference?
• Are employees proud to work for your organization?
• Would your employees recommend your company to their friends as a good place to work?

How does your organization fare in each of these areas?  If you aren't sure, this book may be a good one in which to invest...

Exodus of Skilled Workers Leaves Germany in a Bind

German skilled workers are leaving in record numbers and fewer immigrants are arriving, resulting in skill shortages.  About 16% of German companies say they can't find qualified candidates for open positions, partly because of the flight of highly qualified workers.  The engineering sector alone boasts 22,000 openings, with architects and electrical engineers among the most sought after.  Read why...

read more | digg story

What are the pros and cons about telecommuting?

I have a blog I read with some frequency entitled HR Clean-up (Because HR is a Dirty Business), that recently published a great article entitled "Telecommuting"

It is written from the perspective of the current astronomical fuel prices we're seeing. The gist of the article follows:

There was an article, not a big one, in Sunday's Boston Globe that stated "4-day weeks, telecommuting look better to employers now".  Since I actually teach Virtual HR and I've been a proponent for flexible work arrangements for a long time, I read with interest. Traffic It turns out that soaring commuting costs are finally forcing employers to help employees out.  And, given that so many of us have moved away from work to find cheaper housing, employees are buckling under the increased expenses.  On top of employee costs, employer costs are also skyrocketing.  Companies are starting to figure out that office space isn't cheap--so if an employee is ok with heating and cooling themselves, why not? The other really big change is on the legal front.  Finally, there seems to be some movement to get a bit more flexible. As organizations start to embrace telecommuting, it will be critical for HR to be at the decision making table--along with IT, Building Services, and everyone else who makes the organization tick.  HR has an amazing opportunity to push the traditional boundaries of "butt in seat" and get companies to start measuring what counts--work output. It is going to be a long hot Summer and fuel costs are going to continue to escalate.

However, there are many faces beyond this article, that factor into the telecommuting discussion:

An article "Telecommuting not so great for those left in office" that was published in January 2008 by Kristina Cooke over at Reuters looks at how those that telecommute have less stress and a higher morale compared to those that are left to come into an office everyday. She mentions that “their co-workers tend to find the workplace less enjoyable, have fewer emotional ties to co-workers and generally feel less obligated to the organization.

The beginning of the article states "Telecommuting may boost morale, and cut stress, but it can have the opposite effect on those left behind in the office, according to a new study"

The author cites how telecommuting has been a growing trend in the United States since about 2000. About 37 percent of U.S.-based and international companies now offer flexible work arrangements, with the number of those programs growing at a rate of 11 percent per year, according to the Society of Human Resource Management. but then goes on to explain how

The author cites research of Timothy Golden, a management professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that claims that when a number of their co-workers toil away from the office by using computers, cell-phones or other electronic equipment, those who do not telecommute are more likely to be dissatisfied with their job and leave the company.

I'm a bit skeptical about this inference.

In the late 1990's I worked with IBA, an early pioneer in telecommuting, and participated in the establishment of the first "telework" centers around Washington DC.  Others have since sprung up, adding credence to the ideas of telecommuting in various "flavors".  In 2006, The Telework Coalition, conducted a Telework Benchmarking study of 13 large organizations with mature telework programs.

This study asked about the attitudes of those employees who did not telework. Both our study and two previously conducted studies by other organizations in which there were multiple participants showed that the non teleworking coworkers were both enthusiastically supportive and felt teleworking was good for the organization, or at the least, the situation was a non issue.

I believe that this area is ripe for investigation and action by management and HR practitioners.  Since each organizations' DNA is different, it may not be the right solution for every situation, but there are viable telecommuting approaches that will and do help organizations attract and retain talent in todays increasingly complex market.

The key talent planning areas - Overview

As I speak at different events around the country people come up and ask a lot of really good (and sometimes tough) questions.  One of the ones I frequently hear is "What are some of the key talent planning areas that I should be working on?"

That's a big area, and I'll try to expand on some of these over the next few weeks, but let me begin by summarizing for you:

Operating Model - (what "stage" is your organization in?)

• Growth, contraction, restructuring, reorgs, funding

Workload & Flow - (how are you approaching the process of managing your workforce?)

• Outsourcing, combining functions, realigned duties

New Positions - (what is the expected impact of new additions?)

• New positions; additional headcount on existing positions

Technology - (how will technology affect my workforce requirements?)

• Expected productivity gains; reduced headcount needs

Work Processes - (how can we re-engineer our current processes to acheive smarter results?)

• Expected productivity gains; reduced headcount needs

Retirements - (looking at the inevitable loss of knowledge, experience and industry contacts)

• Planned (known) and historical level of unplanned

Turnover (recognizing that levels of long-term commitment are going down, and that competition for skilled workers is going up)

• Planned and unplanned voluntary and involuntary

Diversity (as our workforce gets increasingly diverse, not get more multicultural - our organizations need to be more adaptable)

• Any specific goals or talent gaps that need filled

Buy vs. Build - (FTE vs contingent labor pool - which works best for you?)

• Recruit or train/develop the needed skills internally

Competencies - (Its all about having the competencies you need to get the job done)

• Any gaps in required capabilities & related competencies

Want to be thrown into the "deep water" unexpectedly?

Nobody likes surprises, and the people you are grooming for future top opportunities are no different.  That's why it's extremely important to make sure that you have a "pre-departure cross-cultural training" program established when you are thinking about sending people to work overseas.

A pre-departure training program helps to ensure fewer difficulties when abroad. The program should cover such topics as: customs and norms of the country; working visas; risks and responsibilities of travel; health issues; emergency procedures; day-to-day living; strategies for adapting to an international environment; and ongoing communication with the program.

As part of the training, it is also important to provide participants with the tools necessary to recognize and to effectively deal with difficulties or traumatic events.

During the course of the training, the expat should be encouraged to take responsibility for their health and well being abroad.

Such a program should be carefully thought out and run for at least several days, and ensure that the expat and their trailing spouse does not get the impression that they're being "thrown into the deep water" and expected to learn how to swim by themselves.

What should such a program entail?

Obviously, there are many variations, but I'd suggest as a minimum:

• Visas, Passports, Travel Arrangements, Vaccinations, Insurance, Medical Exam, Basic Items to Bring, etc.
• Communication/Reporting expectations
• Accommodation provisions of the assignment
• Policies and Procedures (contracts, emergency form, liability waiver, etc)
• Intercultural communications to include
  • The Concept of Culture
  • Understanding Culture Shock
  • The Ways in which Values and Attitudes Affect Behavior
  • Communicating Across Cultures
  • Problem Solving scenarios
• An overview of the "Host Country"
  • Social, Political and Economic context
  • Cultural Context: Values and Attitudes
  • Day to Day Realities they'll likely encounter
• Managing Your Health Overseas is important too. 
  • Logistics and medical preparations
  • Maintaining their health overseas
  • Coping with stress and mental health while abroad
• Safety and Security Issues are a MUST
  • Tips on keeping safe
  • Sexual Harassment
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Emergency Procedures

Ideally, this orientation should be done by company managers who have been overseas and have been reassimilated into the company.  It will help the anxious manager/spouse to get the facts and experiences from someone who's "been there"

And while we're on the subject, don't underestimate the impact of the spouse in the "assignment satisfaction process"  (we'll get into this more deeply in another post in this space)

To deal proactively with spouse concerns, this training should also deal with helping him/her identify career orientation and aspirations, assess career “sabbatical” options and alternatives, review realistic relocation options and support needs, and establish informal communication links.

Putting these "up front" pieces in place will help to ensure that the persons international work assignment is a success.

Is Letting Them Go a Wise Strategy?

Leslie Levine is a seasoned author who writes great stuff about what's happening in toe workforce.  One of the articles she wrote about developing your employees, entitled "Let Em Go" struck a nerve with me.

She cites how some businesses view the anticipated departure of Baby Boomer s as an exodus, which is a fairly dramatic term. Is that what you see happening at your company? Even if you don´t know when your older employees plan to leave it still behooves you to have some idea. Clearly, you don´t want to be caught off guard, especially if your competition has been planning all along. Here are some points to consider:

She presents in this article a series of probing questions that aren't intended to put you into a panic but rather to remind you that the future is here.

She refers to David Delong, author of the book, "Lost Knowledge: Confronting the Threat of an Aging Workforce", and a management consultant and researcher at MIT´s AgeLab, stated on NPR that Leaving workforce with knowledge that didn't exist 20 years ago.

He also said that between 2003 and 2013 the age group of 50-64 will grow 40 percent while the age group 35-49 will shrink 10 percent. Those are numbers that no business can afford to ignore. What will you do?

I'll also suggest a alternative view that I hope evokes some discussion...

What of the "knowledge" held by baby boomers is worth passing along to the younger generations?

I throw out this question, because, depending upon which industry you are in, the "entrenched" thinking of these workers may be viewed as a factor in prohibiting new ideas from being developed.

So, is it always valid to assume that the "boomer knowledge bank" should be passed on?  Readers, care to share your experiences?

Being "Green" is Also Good For Worker Retention

GrAn article published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers says that being "green" is not only good for the earth, it's also good for employee retention, worker morale and the bottom line.

That's the message from the Kenexa Research Institute's 2007 WorkTrends[TM] survey of workers in the U.S., U.K., Germany, China, India and Brazil. The survey shows companies with clear corporate social responsibility (CRS) efforts, including environmental and social programs, are most satisfied.

Kenexa's executive director, Jack Wiley, a workforce development guru, says the survey shows workers at these companies stay at their jobs longer and are more content with senior management. He says other benefits of CRS activities include increasing an organization's advantage when recruiting employees, setting the organization apart in terms of employment brand, elevating the sense of teamwork among employees, and helping establish an emotional tie between the employee and the organization.

Going green is becoming increasingly popular, so why wouldn't you want to increase your retention while you build employee engagement, and social awareness?

The role that "Career Blockage" plays in International Assignments

Increasingly, firms find that it is necessary and prudent to expose their promising talent to international assignments.  Sometimes it works out fine, other times it doesn't.

One of the reasons cited by expats that leave posts (or firms) is "career blockage", or better known as the feeling that working abroad has gotten their career sidetracked, while people back home are climbing the corporate ladder.

I used to travel abroad extensively, and would frequently run into an expat that after a few drinks would admit “the home office has forgotten about me”

It doesn't seem to matter whether you are doing your job or not, it's just a human nature response to conditions.  It appears to the expat that there is a lack of collegiality and communication when working abroad, especially when surrounded by cultural natives who are in their natural setting, and receiving support and personal communications routinely.

The role of "HQ" managing this common concern is significant. 

HR needs to ensure that expatriates know that an international assignment helps in terms of advancement within the firm.  This also needs to be periodically reinforced by upper management.  Sometimes this is hard to do, especially when there is a lot or organizational "churn" at the upper management levels with people moving to different jobs, or leaving the firm altogether.  Remember that the initial expectations that may have been set, if not committed to a written agreement, may not survive if there is (as if often the case), changes in upper management.

Likewise, planning needs to take into consideration, the very real concerns that expats have about their return to their "home base."  I have declined some overseas posts because the company was unwilling or unable to describe what would happen upon my return to the states.

Will the firm respect (and value) the unique new skills that I have acquired while overseas?  Will my return represent a "loss of status" (either real or perceived)?  Will there be a plan for re-integrating me into the stateside business?  Reverse "Culture Shock" can also be a factor, (and an adjustment period is a wise idea for the expat, as well as their family)  If firms are not prepared to do these things, it can really impact on the willingness of personnel to go overseas on assignment.

It is food for thought, hmmmm?

Good Grief Charley Brown ! Now We Have a Maintenance Crisis

My thanks to Joel Leonard over at PlantServices.com for taking the bull by the horns.

With American Idol returning to the television air waves, Joel was reminded of why he started his crusade for awareness for the Maintenance Crisis in the first place.

The fuss and attention being paid to crowning still another singing American Idol has gotten on his nerves again. In case you didn’t know, almost five years ago he was a guest speaker at the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) Conference in Nashville. That conference changed his life and started him on a crusade against the maintenance crisis.

At the time, Joel was serving as VP of the Association for Facilities Engineering and the board had been discussing the pending retirement of the boomer generation. To his surprise, that was a key concern at SMRP. Bob Baldwin, then editor of Maintenance Technology, led an open discussion about the pending crisis. He polled the audience of more than 600 engineers and maintenance pros from the biggest companies in the United States and said, “Raise your hand if you plan to retire in the next 10 years.”

More than 90% of the audience  reached for the sky. Then he asked the attendees to keep their hands raised if they felt comfortable with the next generation. Everyone dropped their hands.

Baldwin then asked why. One said,  “The kids aren’t hungry and aren’t pursuing the education needed to advance in this competitive profession.” Others chimed in, saying, “The insecurity of manufacturing is scaring the younger generation away,” and, They don’t want to get their hands dirty.” Some said that most of them don’t even know about the maintenance, reliability and facilities engineering professions. Or maintenance simply just isn’t cool.

When the group adjourned for a break, Joel and others stretched their legs outside in the 30° weather. To their surprise, around the corner they saw about 5,000 of the very people we had been looking for —16-to-28-year-olds — standing in a line outside the Nashville Coliseum. They were waiting to audition for American Idol. While we were discussing the exodus of retiring maintenance talent, whose salaries averaged more than $80,000, and wondering where the next generation was, we realized there they here at the Coliseum, hoping to sing their way to the top.

That evening, they decided that talking at maintenance conferences or writing books and articles for other engineers wouldn't fix the problem because outsiders need to be aware of the problem and the opportunities the crisis presents. After a couple of barley-infused beverages, Joel posed, “Why not write a song about the maintenance crisis?” His friends agreed that it was a good idea, but they said he couldn’t do it.

They were partly right: he couldn’t do it alone. With the help of some friends, real musicians took Joel's original lyrics and now as a result there we is not only a song, but in nine genres, with one version especially for women, and jazz, Spanish and French renditions in the works.

The songs have been played at industrial and engineering conferences worldwide. Rolls Royce Aerospace and others have made it their department’s anthem. The songs have been downloaded from Joel's Web site more than 50,000 times. Radio stations, including National Public Radio, have played it. Even a class of sixth graders knows the country version, “Find me a Maintenance Woman,” and at least three of them memorized the lyrics.

Free downloads of “Find Me a Maintenance Woman” and “The Maintenance Crisis Song” can be found at www.mpactlearning.com.

Are Construction Jobs Going Down Under?

One of my favorite sources on trends about the skilled labor shortage, is "Perfect Labor Storm 2.0" authored by Ira Wolfe, who constantly helps fill in the gaps about HOW people are coping with the worsening skills shortage.

One of Ira's latest excellent contributions is "Will U.S. construction workers flee to Australia?" where he discusses how the Australian Housing Industry Association (HIA) has called for a special visa scheme to recruit 15,000 overseas construction workers to combat the local (Australian) skills crisis. Thousands of skilled building workers could be lured from the faltering US housing industry to help ease the crisis "down under"

I'd like all of my readers in the construction space to ponder this, and carefully so.  Ask yourself what you think the economic will be to the US, when many workers choose to "relocate" their future to the other side of the globe. 

Just check out one of many sites offering Construction Jobs in Australia and you'll notice two things:

1. many companies are actively seeking qualified and skilled people to join them, and
2. these are the same types of jobs that are being cut by the implosion of the residential housing construction market in the U.S.

American construction workers may be surprised at how well they'll be received by the Australian workforce marketplace, and the incentives they'll have to come down to work.  Kind of makes you wonder when the last time their former American employers told them how valued they were?

Put yourself in the place of the laid-off or soon-to-be-laid-off construction worker.
There are a number of questions you might want to ask yourself...

• Did you feel valued at your last job? 
  
  • Was it because you were unappreciated, or was it because your work contribution was just "ordinary"?
• Do you have the skills to compete in the highly competitive Australian workforce
  • you didn't think they were looking for unskilled general labor did you?
  • (by skills, I mean the skills to survive in the marketplace, not just the technical skills to get the job)

Looking for another job, especially in another country, can be a daunting, as well as an enlightening process for US construction workers.  By entering into a job search in the other parts of the world, they will become informed of other opportunities and perhaps for the first time for most U.S. construction workers, lets them know how competitive they are in the "global" job market.  (HINT: If your skills have become outdated or job specific, you might want to consider a few training programs in order to update your skills, or develop new ones.)

American construction workers who consider the new global opportunities that are appearing, may also find that they need skills to adapt in a different culture that they never before had to consider.

Time of great risk or great opportunity?  I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.

Can You Afford The High Co$t of Turnover?

Thanks to the folks over at Chrysalis for this article, which puts the real cost of workforce turnover into a real-world dollars and sense perspective.

Case Study:The High Cost of Workforce Turnover

Les's business generated revenues of $6.6 million in 2003. Profit margins were 14%. His 2004 projected increase in revenues (an eight percent increase) is $528,000.

Last year, Les's company produced sixty-four W- 2's for 35 positions. Essentially they hired 64 new employees for twenty positions; 15 employees were employed more than 12 months.

On the surface, turnover appears to be 83 percent, less than the 92 percent industry average. Churn-over, the number of employees hired and gone in less than one-year, was a whopping 320 percent (64 attempts at hiring for 20 positions)!

At the cost of $6,000 per employee, these 64 employees cost the company $384,000. Even at the same clip this year, churn-over will eat up nearly seventy-two percent of the projected revenue gains.

What's worse - much worse - is how much revenue has to increase to sustain the 14 percent profit margin. At fourteen percent profit margin, nearly $2,743,000 in additional revenues need to be brought in just to keep pace with the lost costs of churn-over.

Increasing revenues shouldn't be Les' primary focus unless he likes to just work harder and harder with not a lot to show for it. If Les and his team would only put a plan in motion to reduce annual hourly turnover to 25%, they would find it much less painful to grow the business at the top line and the bottom line.

The cost of 16 churned employees would be $96,000, a savings of $288,000 in the human resource line item. Re-funneling a portion of the savings for wages, benefits and training back to the remaining employees would certainly be a good idea too as the return on retaining employees is clearly much greater than recruiting new ones.

Of even greater importance will be the increased profit margin from revenue growth. Although the revenues required to foot the bill for even 25 percent turnover is still over $600,000, Les's company will increase profits due to increased productivity and quality from a more experienced workforce, lower administrative and training costs for new hires, and less stress on supervisors, managers and co-workers.

Myths about Gen X in the Workforce - They don't want to grow up

The Reality:

They really don't know how.

The youngest generations in today's workforce are facing a delayed adulthood. They are getting married later, having children later and just generally facing the "real world" later. This isn't the result of a mutated maturity gene, it just is. And if we are being completely honest, Boomers had a lot to do with why it's happening.

First, as parents, Boomers had a tendency to coddle their children and use their own good fortune to make sure their children didn't experience adversity. Second, as career models, Boomers demonstrated the toll of working long hours and "paying one's dues" in a way that made their children less likely to follow in their footsteps. Millenials today look at the corporate ladder and think, "there must be another way."

My advice to you—don't waste time wishing they were different. Don't spend your energy comparing today's youth to the desires and drive you had at age 18. These employees are not a reflection of you, nor are they an earlier version of you. And again, that is okay. Your task is to take this new understanding and use it to reposition how you interact with, motivate and reward your staff.

Take attire for instance. Your 18-year-old self would have gladly donned whatever uniform was necessary to fit the company mold. Be it pressed khakis and a tie or a specific corporate uniform, fitting in was part of the package. Today's youth wants to stand out. They want their individuality to shine through even when required to provide a consistent standard of service and performance. Balancing corporate needs with individual desires takes some creative thinking.

Home Depot is one company that has addressed this dilemma at a very basic level—company uniforms. They simply require that all employees wear a standard Home Depot apron. Be yourself underneath (within reason) and show the customer that you are on the Home Depot team with this bright orange apron. Is there a standard that you can adopt to accommodate individual preferences? Something to think about.

Thanks to Cam Marsten for research cited in this article

Boomers Defy Traditional Retirement Through 'Re-careering'

Although the demand for talent continues to escalate as millions of Baby Boomers reach retirement age, a growing number of these professionals are "re-careering," or changing professions mid to late in their careers, according to more than 270 international recruiters surveyed by Korn Ferry

read more | digg story

The "Perfect Labor Storm" and Why It Isn't Going Away

Among the top experts in the discussion of the "Perfect Labor Storm" is Ira Wolfe, who authored the book by the same title.

The book discusses why the aging workers, retiring baby boomers, rising health care costs, shortages of skilled workers, generational gaps, work ethics (just a few of the workforce demographic and socio-economic events that I discuss on this blog) are colliding to produce the biggest shortage of skilled workers in the United States and many other developed countries.

It's a good read, and worth the time, especially if you're an employer or policy maker.

Here's a synopsis of what you'll find...

Many managers and business owners and even economists and strategists are hoping for a break in the socio-economic "climate" and praying this storm too will pass. Human resource professionals, executives, and managers alike wrongly believe they are the isolated targets of some insidious plot to abscond with their workers or else are just magnets for under-skilled workers with poor work ethics. And not unlike the Andrea Gail which was sucked under by the colossal waves even two days before the full force of the storm hit, their businesses too will sink with this short-sighted, wait-and-see attitude.

All workforce trends indicate future employee shortages will not blow over for decades. Many solutions such as retaining older workers longer are flawed. Since health care and retirement costs explode for workers over age 55, how will businesses afford to insure these workers....and without health care and retirement benefits, why will they work? Even worse the full force of the storm won't hit until the end of this decade.

The Perfect Labor Storm has no industry or geographic boundaries. From plumbers to dental hygienists to teachers to border patrol to radiologists, virtually every industry at nearly every skill and position level is affected by shortages of workers with the right skills and attitudes to do all the jobs.

Is this starting to get you attention?  It should!  Besides Dr Wolfe's book, check out the other parts of this blog to get a better understanding of why this is an issue, and most importantly, what you can do about it.

Putting "old Charley" out to Pasture

Recently, I witnessed the retirement of a fellow, who I'll call "old Chariey" who after many decades as a player in a large construction firm, stepped down, in order to "pursue other interests"

A veteran of the business, he had built up a stunning legacy of successfully completed projects, had served on dozens of committees and industry boards, was well known in the construction market, and when he walked out the door, took much of this knowledge with him.

We live in interesting times, indeed.

There is a general recognition that many industries, including construction, can benefit from the extensive skills of existing older workers.  And trend data indicates more older workers want to remain on the job longer.  Unfortunately, they often are forced to decide between their social security benefits and a paycheck.

Older workers possessing a broad array of building, supervision and management skills are often discouraged from working past retirement because they can lose some of their social security income if they earn more than the limits.

In calendar year 2005, for example, until recipients turn 65 (currently the normal retirement age) they can earn up to $31,800 without penalty; seniors earning more than that amount lose $1 of benefits for every $3 of earnings above the limit. There is no limit once past 65 years old.

Beneficiaries under the age of 65 are penalized by a reduction in benefits of $1 for every $2 of earnings above $12,000 in 2005.

Smart firms are starting to realize that they need to make better use of older workers talent, relationships and experiences.  These are people proud of their accomplishments, who want to contribute and share in a meaningful way, and it puts organizational leadership into the position of "thinking outside the box" to figure out how to leverage these assets in a meaningful "win-win" way.

Removing the social security earnings test would encourage more skilled workers to remain in the building trades - where their knowledge, connections and experience are still needed, and valued.

Myths about Gen X in the Workforce - Younger generations have no work ethic

The Reality:

Younger generations have a self-centered work ethic. This is not necessarily the negative that it may seem at first. Millenials are dedicated to completing their task well. They have not been raised in a way that demands them to look around and see what should be done next. Instead they ask "what is my job" and go about figuring the best, fastest way to complete that task. Then they consider themselves done. This is a key differentiator between your employees and yourself.

The younger they are, the more your employees view their jobs as "something to do between the weekends." For most, early employment has nothing to do with a career path; it is a way to earn money to have fun in their free time. And that is okay.

When you understand what motivates your employees you are better able to set mutual expectations for success. Instead of being frustrated that your youngest employees are not interested in climbing your corporate ladder, embrace their true motivation—reliable spending money—and use it to your advantage. When you tell an employee, "I understand this is not your lifelong career, but to earn the paycheck every week, here is what I expect…" they are much more likely to respond than if you try to motivate with promises of promotions and titles down the road.

Understanding that being at the job isn't as important to Millenials as completing the assigned task also opens up new opportunities for motivation and reward. Younger employees are very likely to respond to offers of paid time off.

A leading retail organization has recognized this new way of thinking with its "Working Hard Card." When managers witness an employee rising to a challenge, exceeding expectations or otherwise giving 110 percent, they can hand the employee a "Working Hard Card" on the spot. Each card is worth a set amount of paid time off to be used at the employee's discretion. It is a simple strategy that rewards employees in the currency they value most—their time.

Thanks to Cam Marsten for research cited in this article

Construction Industry Needs 185,000 People Per Year Over Next Decade

The construction industry will need an average of 185,000 new workers annually for the next 10 years to meet the nearly equal growth and replacement needs, according to a labor supply outlook released in January 2007 by the Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC), a private research group in Washington, DC, that is underwritten by contractor associations. 

The CLRC found that industry growth will require an average annual increase in construction employment of about 90,000, or 1.6 percent, over the next 10 years, which is about half the actual employment growth rate in construction for 1992-2002.

The average annual increase in the overall workforce for the next 10 years will be 1.1 percent, according to CLRC, the slowest rate of growth since the 1960s.

An additional 95,000 workers annually will be needed to replace current industry workers who are expected to retire during the next 10 years.

Factors accelerating this trend in construction are

• the higher average age of workers in the industry and
• a decline in the portion of the labor force in their prime working years of age 25 to 44.

“This country is in a period in which the labor markets are most impacted by the growing number of workers in their final working years, rather than the stable number of potential new entrants.

The outflow from the age pipeline is the dominant characteristic, not the inflow. The potential will continue for tight competition for new labor force entrants, primarily due to demographic factors,” the research group said. CLRC stressed the importance of “communicating construction's opportunities to all potential qualified entrants” in the new environment created by this “societal shift.”

Because the working life of construction field labor is shorter than most occupations, CLRC said that demographic trends “are impacting whether this trend of relatively early retirements in construction will continue is less certain that in the past, the research group found.

Factors that may reverse it include

• the physical ability to work later in life,
• the financial need to work longer, and
• the increase in age for the receipt of full Social Security benefits.

The group also noted a shift in construction from defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans.

The greatest demand in the next 10 years by craft will be for

• electricians, with an average of 22,400 annual new entrants needed,
• carpenters (22,000 needed), and
• laborers (20,100 needed).

“An actual shortage of bodies is highly unlikely,” CLRC said of the future workforce. As has been typical in construction, there often is “a mismatch between skills available and skills required.”

Large Influx of Hispanic Workers

A key to meeting heavy demands for new workers in construction during the past 10 years has been a large influx of Hispanic workers, when employment of Hispanics more than doubled to nearly a quarter of all industry workers. With Hispanic employment projected to increase relatively rapidly, their impact in construction is likely to increase.

Immigration is an unknown that could significantly impact the future supply of labor, according to CLRC, finding that a relationship between the influx of Hispanics on construction job sites and immigration is very likely.

Labor demand in construction can be moderated by the use of more highly skilled workers and by increases in productivity. For the period 1992-2002, CLRC said that construction employment increased at a greater rate than output.

Forecast Based on Training Data Inconclusive

Training is a significant determining factor in the future availability of skilled workers in construction, the research group said. An estimated 225,000 persons are enrolled in federally registered, multi- year, apprentice programs but the quality of federal data on completions was found to be “questionable” by CLRC.

This and the lack of reliable national data on the number of persons in vocational programs makes "the adequacy of industry training efforts impossible to determine," the research group said.

Relatively good apprentice data from California “provides an interesting look at the characteristics of today's apprentices,” according to CLRC.

More than half of apprentices in the state are minorities and whites slightly outnumber Hispanics. The largest construction apprentice program in the state is 70 percent minority.

The CLRC based its survey on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.

To Have A Good Workforce, You Need To Have Good Leadership Skills

You'd be surprised at how much good talent flees from bad bosses each year.  Did you ever wonder if there is a "scale" (other than gut feel) to determine just how good - or bad, a boss is? 

in order, if you are looking at retaining top talent, and seeking to retain the talent you have, in addition to running the business or department responsibly, you need to be a boss that employees are thankful for

John McKee (Founder and President of BusinessSuccessCoach.net, is the author of "Career Wisdom: 101 Proven Strategies to Ensure Workplace Success") offers this quick quiz to help you find out if your management style is helping or hurting employee perceptions:

Simply answer yes or no to each item below. (scoring provided at end)

QUESTIONS
1. All employees generally dislike work.
2. The best motivator for your team is money; it's what brings them back every day.
3. Keeping emotions out of the management process has served the operation well.
4. Your staff prefers to work as a team so that individual accountability is lessened.
5. As much as I would like to, I just don’t have the time to spend talking in-person to my subordinates.
6. I encourage feedback from a suggestion box or other anonymous method.
7. I live for the weekends (this job is a paycheck to support my "real" life).
8. I don't believe outsourcing can happen to my company.
9. Regular team meetings are not justifiable as they take too much time, which lessens productivity.
10. My current management position isn't very influential, but when I move up the ladder a bit I can make a "real" contribution to the company.

SCORE CARD:
Give yourself 1 point for every time you said "No:"

10 = Excellent!! You'll be running the show in no time!
9 = Brilliant. You obviously see your employees as an asset.
8 = Solid. You have the right attitude, and the team will see that.
7 = Well done. You know people and their needs.
6 = Good. You recognize the power of your role.
5 = Fair. May be time to rethink your management strategy.
4 = It's definitely time for an attitude adjustment.
3 = Change or die (metaphorically). Things aren't good, but it's not too late to make impactful changes.
2 = Do something significant that will be viewed in a positive light or your employees will leave.
1 = It's time to consider a new job where you do not manage people.
0 = Ever consider a job as a bounty hunter?

Factors Shaping Our Future Workforce - Part 1 - Impact of an Aging Population

Aging of the population is currently the single most important trend affecting the workforce in the USA.

Personal lifestyle changes and medical advances are keeping people viable and active longer.

Additionally, financial pressure and personal desire are keeping them working beyond traditional retirement age.  This is evidenced by the projection that by 2025, workers aged 55 and older will be more than 20% of the work force in the USA

The concept of "old" and "senior" are also changing.  By 2050, individuals aged 75 – 78 will be considered to be "middle age."  Mortality tables are being changed to reflect this: maximum life expectancy is increasing from 99 (tables created in 1980) to 120.5 years (new tables published in 2003)

Finally, we are and will continue to experience a lack of younger replacement workers due to a "baby bust" which started with Generation X

One of the most anticipated workplace trends of the 21st Century is the huge retirement wave that will hit most industrialized countries, including the United States, in the next few years. But surveys consistently report that most companies are unprepared to respond to the seismic shifts that are expected to appear in the workforce.

What implications does this have?

Searching for the Silver Bullet: Leading Edge Solutions for Leveraging an Aging Workforce, the latest study from the MetLife Mature Market Institute, which was developed in collaboration with David DeLong & Associates, explores what proactive organizations are doing to creatively meet the challenges posed by an aging workforce.

The study includes in-depth case studies about four companies that have successfully implemented programs to address the changing workforce demographics: Boston Scientific, First Horizon Corporation, The Aerospace Corporation and Weyerhaeuser.

Drawing on the experiences of employers that have put innovative initiatives in place to address the changing demographics, the study provides insights for HR managers on such topics as: implementing effective flexible work arrangements, helping older workers successfully transfer knowledge and devising creative solutions for rehiring retirees.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that between 2004 and 2014 the growth in the percentage of older workers will far outpace that of younger workers.

In that period, the percentage of individuals in the workforce ages 55-64 is expected to grow 42%, compared to a 5% increase in workers age 45-54 and an 8% decline in workers age 35-44. At the same time, the percentage of workers 65+ is expected to grow 74%.

“As the wave of baby boomers approach retirement, companies are searching for a silver bullet – a one size fits all approach for addressing the needs of an aging workforce,” said Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. “However, what we learned from this new study is that there is no panacea for addressing the needs of a mature workforce.

What’s needed, instead, is a portfolio of strategies and solutions that balance the need to retain older workers while also transferring knowledge to younger workers, so that business performance can be sustained.”

“By learning from others and putting practices in place now, employers will be better able to navigate the dramatic changes coming in the workforce,” added Timmermann. “Organizations that haven’t prepared properly will have fewer options to minimize the impact of retiring baby boomers in order to sustain business performance.”

Valuable lessons learned from the study include:

• The need to think of phased retirement or flexible work options as a program, not a policy;
• How to create effective knowledge sharing relationships between older mentors and younger workers;
• How company-sponsored benefits and retirement planning workshops that focus on the economic consequences of leaving the workforce will encourage some employees to remain in the workforce past age 65;
• The need to make knowledge transfer an explicit part of any job when rehiring a retiree; and
• Why companies must stop searching for the “silver bullet” and recognize that there is no quick fix to these workforce challenges. The solution is a portfolio of integrated programs that will accommodate the changing labor market.

The study also provides specific tips to help employers:

1. Create and leverage a network of former employees;
2. Rehire retirees indirectly on a project basis when pension restrictions prevent direct re-employment;
3. Hire retirees with special expertise to innovate on critical projects; and
4. Tap the expanding pool of older people seeking employment.

“When it comes to solving the problems of an aging workforce, the glass is both half empty and half full,” said Dr. David DeLong, president of David DeLong & Associates, Inc. “Organizations can focus on the barriers or the opportunities. Most executives today recognize that their workforce is going to change dramatically in the next decade. They can maximize the contributions of employees and the assets they bring to the workplace.”

The MetLife Aging Workforce study was conducted during the first half of 2007. While this research focuses on four specific case studies, more than 75 interviews were conducted with managers in 28 organizations identified as leading edge in dealing with the changing workforce. To enhance the findings, more than a dozen experts on aging workforce issues were also interviewed.

Shouldn't that Christmas Feeling Last the Entire Year?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY LOYAL READERS!

PEACE TO YOU AT THIS SPECIAL TIME OF YEAR, and throughout the year

Wouldn't it be nice if the feelings of appreciation that are expressed between friends and colleagues continued throughout the year?

That is the genesis of the question that our friends over at AZCentral.com raises in their recent article entitled "Show worker appreciation every day"

This timely article discusses the benefits of "showing the love" to the people that are important to us - every day.

Because isn't it a good feeling to know you're appreciated?

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.

We All Want To Work for A Company That Supports Us, Don't We?

I wanted to share this with you my readers.  I received this message from a close friend of ours, who also like myself is a vet.

My cousin sent this to me and I thought you all would like to know about it.  Happy holiday shopping!
Shannon

I know I needed this reminder since Sears isn't always my first choice. Amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and they haven't withdrawn from their commitment. Could we each buy at least one thing at Sears this year? How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years. I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution.

I suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves. Pass it on.

Decided to check this before I sent it forward. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department: I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, th e Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it's cheaper at that store.

This is their answer to my e-mail:
Dear Customer: Thank you for contacting Sears.The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback. Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.
Bill Thorn
Sears Customer Care
webcenter@sears.com
1-800-349-4358

Please pass this on to all your friends. Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!!

It's Verified ! By Snopes.com at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp (shows the entire article)
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/s/sears.htm

Not bad for a McJob

One high profile example of a corporation tackling their employer brand head-on is McDonalds, who rely on a steady supply of Human Capital to give their business and their brand life.

After the term 'McJob' appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary, being described as having low pay and poor prospects, McDonalds responded in 2006 with the challenging 'Not bad for a McJob' campaign.

The McDonalds fight-back campaign featured posters including examples of health policies, flexible working hours and prospects for promotion, with the objective of improving their public image as an employer of choice and ensuring their employees felt 'McRespected' and 'McValued'.

McDonalds represents an extreme example, but other companies across the world dedicate much time and resource to winning coveted places in top employer listings, such as the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to Work For in the UK and the 100 Best Employers to work for in Canada. And, according to Sheffield University, its a case of 'Who Cares Wins' in todays job market.

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.

Do you Understand Older Workers Priorities & Work Life Balance Concerns?

Older workers are one of the keys to the "War for Talent", but many employers do not understand these workers.   There are many different types of workers in this age group, and each one requires a different key to unlocking their potential.

Older members of the workforce who have extensive experience and skill, also have a significantly different "point of view" when it comes to what is important to them.  Firms and organizations alike need to recognize these  personal priorities, which include the important "work-life balance" element

Consider the many varied "situations" you'll discover when you examine a "cross-section" of these workers in almost every business and organization:

1. Those that are stable and settled:
   (and may have no further career aspirations)
   
2. The workers who are motivated by reputation,
   (they're seeking status and have a need for achievement that is still growing)
3. Workers who feel vulnerability
   (may feel that their "value" is diminished through reduced capability or feel that their skills are no longer up to date)
4. Those who are more engaged or feel their work more is important than in past periods of intermittent or part-time working. 
   (many women re-entering the workforce with grown families fit into this category)
5. People who are more confident, and ready for new challenges
   (ready for anything new, or are ready to try self employment)
6. and workers who are anxious about being displaced by younger colleagues

As you can see, each of these "categories" of workers are looking at employment from quite different points of view.  Keep checking back, as I'll be expanding on some ideas that you'll find useful in reaching out to each.

A Halloween Treat for You from the Evil HR Lady

I'm a fan of the "Evil HR Lady", who publicly claims to be "an HR professional in a Fortune 500 Company. I've hired, fired, managed pay and analyzed the numbers. I've even tried to cooperate with Finance, but, well you can guess how that turned out."

She operates a great blog by the same name (Evil HR Lady) with a high volume of feedback that confirms that she is on the right track.

She recently published a great article called "The Coming Talent Shortage" that provided a response to the YouTube video about workforce demographic changes. 

Michael Moore (the lawyer, not the other Michael Moore) posted a link to this video about the upcoming labor shortage.

This article is a "MUST READ" for people concerned about where our future experienced talent will come from.  Enjoy and let me know what you think!

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.

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?

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. 

 

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!

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

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.

“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?

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.

The Fastest Growing Top 10 Middle Class Jobs

As a person about to enter the workforce or someone who is simply trying to hang onto your job, the middle class has become a worrisome place for many. If you aren’t laid off you might soon become outdated.

If you are going to work you might as well work for the most money you can. You might not be aware of the highest paying middle class jobs and

read more | digg story

How do competencies factor into Business Performance/

The folks over at General Electric are known to be pretty smart folks.  So when they look at competencies in the workforce, its a good bet that they know what they are talking about.

GE has a competency model that starts with the strategic intent of the business, or put another way, what is it that we're trying to accomplish?  From this "foundation" definition, they then develop the organizational capabilities that GE requires.

The GE competency model looks at has four (4) "pillars":

1. Competence Pillar - What are the Competencies we require  to accomplish our Strategy?
2. Consequence Pillar - What are the standards and  consequences requires to accomplish our strategy?
3. Governance Pillar - What is the Organization we need to accomplish our  strategy?
4. Work- Process/Capacity for Change Pillar - How able are we to manage the work processes and change in order to accomplish our Strategy?

They have wisely implemented an organizational model that not only addresses the competencies (very important), but go well beyond to tie how these resources will be utilized effectively to accomplish business results.

Thus, it's important for you to understand that competencies represent a basic "foundation" upon which business performance is predicated. 

So in today's increasingly skill challenged work environment, having an ample supply people with a skillset will be inadequate.  Unless you are able to not only secure the competencies that the business requires, (that often requires looking at new hires and existing staff differently), but also address how these competencies will be productively applied in the business, you probably won't get the "pull through" effect you may have been hoping for.

Before you give orders, you need experience taking orders

Many years ago, when I was aspiring my first supervisory role, my mentor asked me what experience I had in "taking orders", by which he meant, did I have any experience being directed what to do, and being held accountable for the result?

As it happens I had multiple such experiences - by directive parents, teachers, and early employment situations, and time served in the armed forces - all of which gave me perspective about examples of leadership - some were great leaders - some were awful.

This is a critical skillset to master, even if you're only a crew chief of a two person crew.

From these experiences however, I learned a couple of important things:

• giving orders is not as easy as it seems - properly done, there is a good deal of work that precedes the order.  It is not just "passing the buck" for someone to do something that the supervisor doesn't want to (or won't) do themselves.
• taking orders and getting them done requires good listening, and attention to detail, and especially important - finishing the assigned task
• It is not just about "assignment of work" and intimidation ("because I'm telling you to"), as much as it is facilitating the completion of the work to be done.  The "baby boomer" generation would take orders without question - increasingly, people want to know "why" and "why is this important" - you need to be prepared as a leader to answer these questions directly.

When I encounter someone who has not experienced first hand "taking orders", who wants to accede to supervision or management, it makes me wonder what kind of orders they will give, and what kinds of results they will see.

Seems like the "veterans" who have been the most successful, can relate to their own personal experiences and draw upon not just theory of management, but actual emotions that help them give orders that important, are appropriate to the person and address the situation at hand.

How do you acquire the ability to direct others if you've never had to do it yourself?

Partnership - How Education and the Construction Industry collaborate

Don Whyte, President of the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) published a paper on the strategy and activities of his organization, which is focused on dealing with the formation of the craft and supervision in the large and highly specialized Construction industry.

The paper, Download building_success.pdf delves into the industry situation, challenges and some of the initiatives that are underway to address the needs of the current marketplace.  If you're interested in how the Construction industry is approaching the challenge, this is a "must read".

How to Get Employees to Meet Their Jobs Head On

Internal communications, planned and executed correctly, can have a profound impact on transforming a workforce from disengaged and lethargic clockwatchers into engaged and motivated coworkers, who view “their” company as an employer of choice. By following some simple principles, employers can get their employees to meet their jobs 'head on.'

read more | digg story

Why is aging of the workforce significant to employers?

Demographers have presented a compelling case: the 21 st century workforce is – and increasingly will be – different from the workforce of the last century. One important change is the aging of the workforce, a trend expected to continue for several decades. Labor force economists expect significant increases in the percentages of workers 55 and older who will be in the labor force by 2012.

The National Study Report,a research product of The National Study of Business Strategy and Workforce Development authored by Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Ph.D., Michael A. Smyer, Ph.D., Christina Matz-Costa, and Katherine Kane, looks deeply into the internal dynamics of workforce analysis and planning, and provides a rich and current set of options for employers to refer to when trying to make sense of today's dynamic workforce.

Employers increasingly understand that the success of their businesses often reflect the adaptations they make to new trends and changes occurring both inside and outside of their organizations. The reports shows conclusively how the “right” adaptations made “just-in-time” may produce competitive advantages; adaptations that are “not enough” or that occur “too late” could result in unanticipated vulnerabilities.