A previous employer used to say, "we all can't flip burgers, somebody has to make something"...
And in old manufacturing towns throughout the U.S. it's not hard to find people complaining about NAFTA and Free-Trade, and economic development, community colleges and others working hard to hang on to those last manufacturing jobs with incentives, lean manufacturing training, six sigma, etc. This has been going on for the last 20 years. And what has been the result?
As this chart on MSNBC shows...
U.S. Manufactures Are Making One Thing - Profits
Which begs the question, if they're running lean and using advanced technologies to make record profits - What are the people they no longer need to make profits going to do?
Friday, October 21, 2011
Starbucks - Microloans
Starbucks - Venti Plans for Microloans
"The micro-lending revolution, which made it possible for community-based lending institutions to bundle together micro-donations of $25 into loans for entrepreneurs in emerging markets, is making its way to your local Starbucks. Starting November 1, if your local bank won’t give your small business a loan, you might just be able to receive financing from hundreds of thousands of everyday coffee-drinking Americans who care about bringing jobs back to their community. At over 7,000 Starbucks coffee shops around the nation, patrons will be able to submit micro-donations as small as $5, which will then be re-packaged into larger loans for worthy local businesses."
Interesting idea. I've argued for a while that helping the unemployed and underemployed develop basic small businesses and teaching the basic skills required to run them effectively is, perhaps, a more effective workforce development strategy than sending someone to school for two-years and/or getting them a certificate in hope they'll find a job. Very simple stuff, ebay stores, mowing lawns, cleaning homes, etc. Microloans would obviously be a piece to that puzzle. The other piece would be great tutoring and mentoring.
"The micro-lending revolution, which made it possible for community-based lending institutions to bundle together micro-donations of $25 into loans for entrepreneurs in emerging markets, is making its way to your local Starbucks. Starting November 1, if your local bank won’t give your small business a loan, you might just be able to receive financing from hundreds of thousands of everyday coffee-drinking Americans who care about bringing jobs back to their community. At over 7,000 Starbucks coffee shops around the nation, patrons will be able to submit micro-donations as small as $5, which will then be re-packaged into larger loans for worthy local businesses."
Interesting idea. I've argued for a while that helping the unemployed and underemployed develop basic small businesses and teaching the basic skills required to run them effectively is, perhaps, a more effective workforce development strategy than sending someone to school for two-years and/or getting them a certificate in hope they'll find a job. Very simple stuff, ebay stores, mowing lawns, cleaning homes, etc. Microloans would obviously be a piece to that puzzle. The other piece would be great tutoring and mentoring.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
A better question to ask
Workforce professionals have been told for years to be more "demand driven" - that is to ask business and industry what skills they need in the workers they'll be hiring. This has always struck me as ridiculous. How many companies can see around the corner? I'd argue very few, they know what they need right this minute, but in this dynamic economy where knowledge becomes obsolete very quickly those same skills will be just as obsolete by the time it takes you to train the workforce. For that matter, that company itself will most likely be changed dramatically during the same period.
In an interesting post @ Huffington Post, Jeff Selingo suggest another question -
"At the same time, employers and politicians need to learn that if colleges provide training only for jobs that need to be filled now, those workers will probably be useless in about two years given the rapid pace of change in most industries.
Colleges need to reframe the question when asking employers what they need. Instead of asking about the jobs they need to fill tomorrow, colleges should ask employers to describe the valuable skills of their best-performing and longest-serving employees. It's likely the answer will be critical thinking, writing, team work, and problem solving -- all attributes of a classic liberal-arts education."
Doesn't that make more sense?
In an interesting post @ Huffington Post, Jeff Selingo suggest another question -
"At the same time, employers and politicians need to learn that if colleges provide training only for jobs that need to be filled now, those workers will probably be useless in about two years given the rapid pace of change in most industries.
Colleges need to reframe the question when asking employers what they need. Instead of asking about the jobs they need to fill tomorrow, colleges should ask employers to describe the valuable skills of their best-performing and longest-serving employees. It's likely the answer will be critical thinking, writing, team work, and problem solving -- all attributes of a classic liberal-arts education."
Doesn't that make more sense?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
How to find great talent...
Good stuff from Dan Pink -
From his blog- Interesting interview with author George Anders
"George Anders is a top-shelf business journalist, a veteran of the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and now Bloomberg View. For the last couple of years, he’s tried to answer that question by hanging out with the best talent spotters in the world – the U.S. Army’s Special Forces, a squadron of basketball scouts, the folks at Facebook, and many more."...
"Everybody should be searching for resilience, and hardly anyone does. Being able to bounce back from adversity is crucial in just about every field I examined. You need resilience to be a great CEO, a great teacher, soldier, investor, etc., etc. But when we hire, we’re taught to regard setbacks — regardless of what came next — as flaws in a candidate. So when we prepare our own resumes, we hide our stumbles. That’s wrong! We should cherish people who have extricated themselves from trouble in the past."
And Pink via a retweet - (what if every company had this philosophy?)
"RT@Sisarina: "We have no vacation policy. The best person to decide whether you should take the day off is you." - @TheMotleyFool #TEDxPQ"
From his blog- Interesting interview with author George Anders
"George Anders is a top-shelf business journalist, a veteran of the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and now Bloomberg View. For the last couple of years, he’s tried to answer that question by hanging out with the best talent spotters in the world – the U.S. Army’s Special Forces, a squadron of basketball scouts, the folks at Facebook, and many more."...
"Everybody should be searching for resilience, and hardly anyone does. Being able to bounce back from adversity is crucial in just about every field I examined. You need resilience to be a great CEO, a great teacher, soldier, investor, etc., etc. But when we hire, we’re taught to regard setbacks — regardless of what came next — as flaws in a candidate. So when we prepare our own resumes, we hide our stumbles. That’s wrong! We should cherish people who have extricated themselves from trouble in the past."
And Pink via a retweet - (what if every company had this philosophy?)
"RT
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Employee's Matter
A very good piece by SJF Institute - this is a conversation that is never had in workforce development circles. If employee's matter to the businesses in your region, then you should share this piece with them, help facilitate regional conversations on the topic, and clear the path for implementation. If, on the other hand, the biggest workforce concern your businesses share with you is drug testing and basic skills then, frankly, their employee's don't mean much to them and thus the company shouldn't mean much to you.
Employee's Matter: Maximizing Company Value Through Workforce Engagement
"In recent years, the link between responsible business practices and competitive advantage has become increasingly clear. Successful profit-seeking firms that produce positive social and environmental outcomes have grown in number and acclaim. This growth in social ventures is meaningful and exciting, promising to promote greater economic opportunity for people at all economic levels as well as better stewardship of the world’s scarce resources – while proving that firms can indeed do well by doing good.
Although in the vast majority of businesses and at many business schools employees are still viewed merely as a cost, increasing numbers of businesses are taking a different approach. The Employees Matter report profiles 24 fast-growing entrepreneurial companies that clearly perceive a link between employee ownership and engagement strategies and improved business performance, including an improved ability to weather economic downturns."
Employee's Matter: Maximizing Company Value Through Workforce Engagement
"In recent years, the link between responsible business practices and competitive advantage has become increasingly clear. Successful profit-seeking firms that produce positive social and environmental outcomes have grown in number and acclaim. This growth in social ventures is meaningful and exciting, promising to promote greater economic opportunity for people at all economic levels as well as better stewardship of the world’s scarce resources – while proving that firms can indeed do well by doing good.
Although in the vast majority of businesses and at many business schools employees are still viewed merely as a cost, increasing numbers of businesses are taking a different approach. The Employees Matter report profiles 24 fast-growing entrepreneurial companies that clearly perceive a link between employee ownership and engagement strategies and improved business performance, including an improved ability to weather economic downturns."
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