Welcome
Welcome to the
latest issue of Bringing Work to Life.
Our new book
Building Workforce Strength: Creating Value through Workforce and
Career Development has just been published. This book highlights
the perspectives and learning of experienced practitioners about
building and sustaining workforce strength. It is described in our
first newsletter article here. Here is a link to the book at the
publisher’s site (Praeger):
http://www.abc-clio.com/products/overview.aspx?productid=120026&viewid=1
We explored
the following topics in the past twelve issues of Bringing Work to Life
(all newsletters are available at
www.elsdon.com/newsletters.htm):
o
Job satisfaction, affiliation and prosperity (Second Quarter 2010)
o
The purpose of organizations (First Quarter 2010)
o
Career stepping stones (Fourth Quarter 2009)
o
Portfolio careers (Third Quarter 2009)
o
Career windows (Second Quarter 2009)
o
Handling upheaval (First Quarter 2009)
o
Career transformation (Fourth Quarter 2008)
o
Career interdependence (Third Quarter 2008)
o
Demystifying workforce metrics (Second Quarter 2008)
o
Transforming a Human Resources (HR) career (First Quarter 2008)
o
Stewardship and governance (November/December 2007)
o
Finding the peaks (September/October 2007)
In this issue
we describe our latest book “Building Workforce Strength.”
Building Workforce Strength
Fragments of past memories sometimes come together
with new meaning when seen through a present-day lens. This is
particularly so when the lens is seasoned by recent economic and
societal distress. It has been more than 30 years, but I still remember
going through job interviews with a number of companies during those
final months of struggle and relief as I completed an engineering degree
at Cambridge. Each interview with these established companies had a
distinct flavor - not unpleasant, but a bit disconcerting. One was
conducted in a small room at the top of a long, circular staircase in a
house off a quiet London square. Another, a group interview, was
conducted at a large chemical manufacturing complex in the northeast of
England; a third was in a rural setting at a small manufacturing site in
the south of England; and a fourth was at an imposing headquarters
building in London. In retrospect it is not the content of those
interviews that is most interesting today; rather, it is the path those
organizations have taken since that time in the mid-1970s.
Two of the companies were in the film business, the
kind of film we used to put in cameras. Both companies are shadows of
their 1976 selves. Ilford had the small manufacturing site in the south
of England. Today, the remaining vestiges of Ilford are part of the
Japanese company OJI. Eastman Kodak, the company with the imposing
headquarters building in London, employed 124,000 people worldwide in
1976. These numbers had decreased to about 20,000 people by the end of
2009. ICI, the large chemical manufacturing complex, dominated the
chemical industry in the U.K. in the 1970s and employed about 148,000
people by the end of that decade. What is left of ICI today is part of
the Dutch company AkzoNobel. Amoco, the company for which the interview
was conducted in a room located at the top of the staircase and was the
one I joined, employed 47,000 people in 1976 and was twelfth on the U.S.
Fortune 500 list. It does not exist today, having been acquired by BP
in 1998. These four companies employed more than 300,000 people in the
1970s. Three of them have vanished, and one is struggling to survive.
Each enjoyed success at one time but ultimately was unable to
capitalize on the ingenuity and creativity of its workforce. Our book,
Building Workforce Strength, is about how to avoid a similar demise. It
is about creating and sustaining a vibrant and strongly affiliated
workforce. It is about building foundations for thriving organizations
that are central to prosperous and caring communities.
Workforce strength benefits individuals by
providing meaningful and rewarding work; it benefits organizations by
building a solid foundation for creating value; and it benefits
communities through fulfilling, shared experience and financial
prosperity. The individual, the organization, and the community each
become giver and receiver. For example, the community provides
educational resources and receives financial support. While workforce
strength is observed at the system or institutional level, it is created
at the individual level. So it is necessary to look through both
organizational and individual lenses to understand how to build and
sustain workforce strength. Our book explores how relationships of
people with each other and with organizations are at the core of
workforce strength. We find that ongoing development, whether at the
organizational level or the individual level, is a connecting theme, and
we explore what this means in practice. We examine the interaction of
workforce capability and flexibility and explore how the combination of
these attributes speaks to workforce strength.
Workforce and career development are built on a
strong relationship between an individual and an organization. This is
a two-way relationship of affiliation (Affiliation in the Workplace,
2003), reflecting mutual respect and benefit, not a one-way relationship
of retention, something done by the organization to the individual.
Strong affiliation is built on understanding individual needs,
providing options and choices for people, fostering learning, supporting
breadth in development, and engaging individuals as free agents. It is
with this in mind that we explore workforce strength.
The book begins in part I by establishing a
foundation for examining workforce strength. Part II looks at effective
implementation of workforce and career development processes at the
organizational level, while part III explores working with individuals
in organizations. Part III also includes example cases illustrating the
implementation of workforce and career development in organizations.
The book concludes with a review of the themes that have emerged.
As expressed in part I, the benefits of a strong
workforce in an organization are felt by the people in it, by owners, by
shareholders and those charged with governance responsibility, by those
who work with the organization, and by the communities within which it
operates. In chapter 1 Ron Elsdon and Rita Erickson review what is
meant by workforce strength, how it is characterized, and why workforce
strength is important for different constituencies. This chapter also
examines the link between workforce development and career development,
and the allocation of development and learning resources; further, it
explores, and provides examples of, establishing a need and sense of
urgency for committing resources.
In chapter 2, Rita Erickson and Michele McCarthy
address the importance of understanding the needs of different
individuals in organizations. While many opportunities and challenges
associated with workforce and career development are common regardless
of the context, there are also significant differences according to
individual perspectives. The chapter establishes and then builds on a
framework for understanding individual differences, illustrating the
framework with examples of effective practice. Part I concludes with
chapter 3, in which Nancy Atwood, Anna Domek, and Richard Vicenzi
examine the links to educational systems and community developments, and
mentoring processes in organizations. One important aspect of workforce
and career development is the opportunity for educational institutions
to support growing organizational needs for particular capabilities and
skills. This includes equipping those new to the workforce, and those
with experience, with needed competencies that evolve over time. This
chapter explores how to build effective bridges between organizations
and educational institutions to meet such needs, and it examines
building effective internal bridges for development through mentoring.
Part II, which focuses on implementation in the
organization, begins with chapter 4, in which Bob Redlo and Ron Elsdon
look at workforce planning and development from an organizational
perspective. Workforce planning provides a compass to gauge the needs
of the organization in the future. It focuses on projecting required
capabilities and identifying where there are potential gaps. As such,
it guides workforce development efforts designed to close those gaps.
Workforce development provides a systematic approach to enhance
organizational capabilities, connecting individual aspirations to
organizational needs. This chapter examines approaches to workforce
planning and development and their contribution to organizational
strength, with healthcare as a primary example.
Chapters 5 and 6 then examine the application of
career development processes, which are key components of workforce
development in an organization. In chapter 5, Rita Erickson and Ron
Elsdon focus on designing, developing, and measuring career development
processes and systems. Career development provides both a developmental
path that enables people to move toward meeting their aspirations, and
the opportunity for organizations to build and develop strength in
depth. This chapter addresses understanding and assessing career
development needs in an organization, recognizing differences in
organizational culture, and building the needed infrastructure and
capabilities to foster shared learning. The chapter also addresses
measuring progress and establishing a launch timeline for career
development services.
In chapter 6, Amy Lichty and Darlene Martin
describe approaches to implementing and carrying the message about the
value of career development in an organization. Engaging people in
career development conversations means reaching out and establishing a
reason why it is important. Sustaining individual and organizational
interest means creating ongoing value. This chapter examines how to
reach out effectively to people within an organization to communicate
career development’s benefits and value, and it explores the
opportunities and challenges that accompany implementation of career
development processes. It also addresses the needs of managers who
carry both personal career development aspirations and the
responsibility for supporting others in their development.
Part III addresses working with individuals in
organizations. In chapter 7, Michele DeRosa and Cynthia Brinkman Doyle
examine components of career fitness for individuals. Career and
workforce development take shape with individuals. It is here that
personal transformation can occur, which then cascades into the
organization. This chapter provides a foundation for working with
individuals in organizations, identifying the elements that constitute
individual career fitness and the skills associated with becoming
effective in each of these areas. The chapter also examines the
different stages of personal experience when engaging with an
organization: entry, integration, development, and transition, and shows
how to provide mutually beneficial support at each stage.
Effectively implementing career development in an
organization means addressing the specific needs of different
populations. In chapter 8, Shannon Jordan, Lisa Franklin, and Martha
Edwards address this topic by examining three groups as examples. These
groups are those with specialized technical expertise, a labor
union–represented population, and those who are over 50 years of age.
The chapter explores the attributes of these populations and how to
tailor career development approaches to address their needs.
The section concludes with chapter 9 and example
cases at the organizational level. Zeth Ajemian and Mark Malcolm’s case
study of a major healthcare provider, Kaiser Permanente, illustrates the
implementation of a broad-based workforce and career development
initiative within an organization. In the second case study, from the
high-technology sector, Ron Elsdon illustrates the implementation of a
career development pilot project sponsored from within a particular
group as a beginning foundation. These examples identify the driving
forces that led to the workforce and career development initiatives, the
approaches adopted, and observations about successes and challenges.
Chapter 10 then weaves the threads of the book
together. This final chapter links the foundation principles of
workforce and career development with learning from the examples, and
summarizes themes emerging in the book. It addresses the challenge of
organizational change and underlines the contribution that workforce and
career development efforts make to personal fulfillment, organizational
success, and community prosperity.
The approaches adopted by chapter authors vary from
descriptions of general principles that are then illustrated with
specific examples, to the use of specific examples from which general
principles are derived. In some cases authors interweave both of these
approaches. Chapter authors show the benefits and positive outcomes of
their work, and on occasion they also describe challenges and how they
were addressed. We hope that the combination of practice and purpose,
of accomplishment and challenge, will support others in their path
forward, and we are grateful for fellow travelers on this journey of
discovery.
This article includes extracts from
the Introduction to Building Workforce Strength: Creating Value
through Workforce and Career Development, Praeger, 2010.
Workforce Trends
Both the extent of the challenges resulting from
past U.S. economic and related policies, and the encouraging signs from
recent administration initiatives, are clear in recent workforce
trends. The next figure shows the extent employment declined during
the 2008 recession, preceded by an equally precipitous drop in the job
openings rate, which is a leading indicator of economic health.
Stimulus initiatives over the past eighteen months contribute to the
recent upswing in job openings, which will translate in time to
employment growth.
Source: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
Highlights, February 2010, Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 6, 2010
However, for those engaged in job search the recent
recession creates a major challenge. The number of those unemployed
relative to the number of job openings increased rapidly to a level not
seen since this information was first tracked, as shown in the next
figure. Again recent initiatives contribute to the first signs, which
are now evident, of the trend reversing.
Source: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey
Highlights, February 2010, Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 6, 2010
The sectors hardest hit are construction where the
ratio of people unemployed to job openings jumped to more than 50
relative to a normal ratio of about 3 to 5, and in manufacturing it
peaked at about 20 as shown in the next figure. Again recent reductions
in the ratio show the first signs of encouragement.
Source: Issues in Labor Statistics, Summary 10-03,
U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, March 2010
This is supported by the hires rate now exceeding
the separations rate (which last occurred in 2007) with a resulting
recent increase in the job openings rate, as shown in the next figure:
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings
and Labor Turnover – April 2010
Both mass layoff events and claims peaked in early
2009 and have been generally trending down since then, as shown in the
next figure:
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Mass Layoffs –
April 2010
This recession has exacted a particularly heavy
toll on the career aspirations of younger workers as shown in the
following figure:
Source: Economic Policy Institute Snapshot,
2/24/2010
This is happening in the context of an unemployment
rate that appears to have stabilized since a precipitous increase in
2008 and early 2009 as shown in the next figure. Again recent efforts
are bearing fruit as shown by the increase in employment in the right
chart of the next figure.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Employment
Situation, May 2010
This information begs the question, how long until
full recovery from a jobs perspective? The next figure shows how the
recovery time was much greater after the 2001 recession compared with
the 1981 and 1990 recessions.
Source: Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz, For Job
Seekers, No Recovery in Sight, Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper
#259, March 31, 2010
So it may take until 2014 for full recovery, as
shown in the next figure, if the rate of employment increase mirrors
that of the recovery from the 2001 recession.
Source: Josh Bivens and Heidi Shierholz, For Job
Seekers, No Recovery in Sight, Economic Policy Institute, Briefing Paper
#259, March 31, 2010
This underlines the value and importance of
stimulus funding to accelerate recovery. Not surprisingly involuntary
job loss is particularly likely to cause substantial income decline (50%
drop in four months), as shown in the next figure:
Source: Gregory Acs and Austin Nichols, America
Insecure, The Urban Institute, February 2010
and the burden falls particularly heavily on people
at lower income levels lacking liquid assets as shown in the next figure
(where general deprivation is indicated by reporting two of ten
indicators that include such factors as food insufficiency or trouble
paying basic bills):
Source: Gregory Acs and Austin Nichols, America
Insecure, The Urban Institute, February 2010
This hardship is likely to cascade through future
generations. The following figure shows the likelihood of children from
families at different income levels making economic progress. For the
middle quintile there is an almost equal chance of children moving to
higher or lower income levels. However children from privileged
backgrounds are much more likely to enjoy similar economic privilege in
adulthood and children from poor economic circumstances are much more
likely to experience similar hardship in their future.
Source: Gregory Acs and Austin Nichols, America
Insecure, The Urban Institute, February 2010
This reminds us how important equity and economic
prosperity, driven by a thriving workforce, are to our communal and
individual well being. And it reminds us of the importance of public
policies that support those whose birth world brings few resources.
Quotes
“And we shall, I am confident, if we
maintain the pace, in due season reap the kind of world we deserve and
deserve the kind of world we will have.”
Quote from John F. Kennedy, remarks
upon receiving Annual Family of Man Award, New York, Protestant Council,
New York City, November 8, 1963.
“I belong … to a privileged minority.
Everyone reading this sentence belongs, in fact, for only a small
percentage of the world’s people has the ability and leisure to read and
the resources to buy a book. How do we, the ‘privileged ones,’ act as
stewards of the grace we have received? We can begin … by ripping off
the labels we so thoughtlessly slap on others unlike ourselves. We can
begin by finding a community that nourishes compassion for the weak, an
instinct that privilege tends to suppress. We can begin with humility
and gratitude and reverence, and then move on to pray without ceasing
for the greater gift of love.”
Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor
Elsdon Organizational Renewal (EOR) Mentions
·
A description of “Building Workforce Strength: Creating Value through
Workforce and Career Development” (2010) is provided at:
o
http://www.abc-clio.com/products/overview.aspx?productid=120026&viewid=1
·
Reviews of “Affiliation in the Workplace: Value Creation in the New
Organization.” Ron Elsdon. Praeger, Westport, CT (2003)
o
Harvard
Business School
·
HBS Working Knowledge: Organizations
o
Global Diversity Institute
·
Global Diversity Institute - The Journal of Diversity Praxis
o
Journal of Asian Economics
·
ScienceDirect - Journal of Asian Economics : Ron Elsdon, Affiliation in
the Workplace: Value Creation in the New Organization, Praeger
Publishers, Westport, CT (2003) 280 pp. (hardcover), ISBN 1-56720-436-8,
$49.95.
o
Greenwood Publishing Group
·
Affiliation in the Workplace — www.greenwood.com
·
Chapter titled “How Can You Grow Your Practice with Purpose?” in
National Career Development Association Monograph, “Starting and Growing
a Business in the New Economy” Edited by Sally Gelardin, 2007
·
Recorded webinars for the American Institute of Chemical Engineers,
2009/2010
o
The First 90 Days: Succeeding in a New Position
·
http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=161aa612-36fb-4885-93e4-50db5f659afb
o
Staying Career Fit in Turbulent Times
·
http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=5b5ab7c8-d88a-4592-8b97-0a8c25eeea59
o
Networking and Connecting
·
http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=ccdc8053-0321-4c3f-b1c7-8c4254e2fffb
o
Progressing in Your Organization
·
http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=3fd526f3-ac7e-4a3e-b70b-08d771211e46
o
Negotiating for a New Position
·
http://apps.aiche.org/chemeondemand/Preview.aspx?ID=aea9e4cc-d045-4d20-bebe-cbba93ab0d1a
·
Webcast for the Human Capital Institute (and associated white paper)
o
Building Workforce Affiliation to Keep Your Best and Brightest Talent,
2008
·
http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/research_community_product.guid;jsessionid=8C417EAC34880D6A38E82D4FBE2598C4?_webcastID=74366
·
Recorded webinars for the Project Management Institute
o
“Building Workforce Strength and Thriving Careers.” Ron Elsdon and Rita
Erickson, 2010
·
http://pmi-issig.org/Learn/Webinars/2010/BuildingWorkforceStrengthandThrivingCareers/tabid/546/Default.aspx
o
“Becoming Career Fit in Turbulent Times”, 2006
·
“Building a Strong Workforce Through Affiliation.” Chapter 26 in “On
Staffing: Advice and Perspectives from HR Leaders.” Eds. Nicholas
Burkholder et al, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken NJ (2004)
o
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471410691,descCd-tableOfContents.html
·
“The Growing Divide Calls for Advocacy.”
o
Article in March, 2007, NCDA Career Convergence magazine
·
http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=947&Sections=&IncludeDropped=1&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285
·
“Reaching for Our Deep Gladness”
o
Article in May, 2005, NCDA Career Convergence magazine
·
http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite/tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayNewsDetails&RecordID=625&Sections=6&IncludeDropped=&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285
·
Mention in article on cost of turnover
o
East Bay Business Times, April 2005
·
Turnover costs exceed employers' estimates - 2005-04-25
·
“Worklife Survival: Finding a Fit”
o
Article for HR West, February 2005 (Northern California Human Resource
Association)
·
http://www.nchra.org/StaticContent/Download/EXT0205007.pdf
·
Interview in the education field “Affiliation as a Unifying Principle in
Education”
o
Career Pro News
·
Affiliation and Education
·
MBTI Step II workshop
o
CCDA News, 2005
·
Local Chapter News
·
Review of ICDC Global Issues Forum
o
CCDA, 2005
·
ICDC Global Issues Forum
About EOR: Our Value Contribution
We enhance
your workforce, leadership and organization by:
·
Using proprietary approaches to understand workforce and leadership
challenges
·
Creating tailored action plans and solutions to strengthen workforce and
leadership practices
·
Building individual capabilities and contributions
We enable you
to focus on external results and building value, confident that your
organization and leadership are operating at peak effectiveness.
Our Mission
To support
your organization by enhancing performance, productivity and
effectiveness through revitalized workforce relationships and leadership
practices.
Our Approach and Values
We tailor our engagements to the needs of each organization with a
process designed to surface critical issues, identify root causes, build
effective solutions, monitor progress and implement.
With a scope that ranges from system and organizational interventions to
work with individuals, our focus is on the heart of the relationship
among the individual, the organization and the community. We believe
that organizational and community prosperity are built on enabling each
person to fulfill his or her potential.
Our foundation principles are: service, generosity, growth/development,
bringing together, inclusion, participation and innovation.
Our Services
We work with
individuals and groups in your organization to drive performance and
development for both the short and long term. As a result people will
choose to work in your organization and will prosper there.
We bring
solutions when you need to:
·
Reverse declining revenues and performance
·
Revitalize your workforce
·
Stem the loss of key talent
·
Redirect your organization to new areas
·
Stop losing customers or market share
·
Penetrate new markets
·
Combat aggressive competitors
·
Handle major change
·
Break down communication barriers
·
Energize your leadership team
·
Successfully build on an acquisition or merger
Our
proprietary services include:
·
On-site career services that support the development of your workforce,
build strength in depth, increase individual fulfillment and
affiliation, and accelerate productivity growth
o
On site career counseling
o
Individual and group delivery
o
Metrics to guide on-going system enhancement
o
Integrated with the needs of your organization
·
State-of-the-art tools to take the pulse of your organization and then
move to action
o
Web enabled systems
o
Experts to gather and analyze information, moving your organization to
action
·
Individual leadership coaching to give you world class leadership
capabilities
o
Leaders who know themselves and their aspirations, build their
capabilities and become catalysts developing others
·
Workshops to build interpersonal skills in your organization so that:
o
Communication is timely, concise, accurate and personal
o
People listen to each other
o
Negotiations are quick and effective
o
Differences create rather than destroy value
o
Teams move forward, get results and quickly commercialize new products
and services
o
People understand and link their motivations to your organizational
needs
o
Your teams understand what it takes to create a committed, energized
workforce
o
People use their time well
·
Systems that make it easy to drive performance and build capabilities
by:
o
Linking objectives throughout the organization
o
Strengthening key competencies
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Making sure you have the bench strength where and when you need it
o
Giving people tools to take charge of their own careers and development
and have a major long term influence on your organization
·
Proprietary simulation and modeling techniques that let you explore how
to maximize the value of your workforce
o
Move from guessing what might happen to looking in depth at the
financial impact of different approaches
