Employee Development Systems, Inc. News

The Impact of Executive Coaching on Self-Efficacy Related to Management Soft-Skills

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 8 Mar 2010 16:04:37 PST

The Impact of Executive Coaching on Self-Efficacy Related to Management Soft-Skills
Leadership & Organization Development Journal (02/10) Vol. 31, No. 1, P. 18; Baron, Louis; Morin, Lucie

This paper explores the ability of executive coaching to boost self-efficacy related to management skills. The document reports on a pretest-posttest study of a leadership development program using a trio of training techniques: classroom seminars; action learning groups; and executive coaching. Data is collected on a large global manufacturing firm from 73 first- and second-level managers over an interval of eight months. The outcomes indicate that the number of coaching sessions has a significant, positive association with post-training self-efficacy, as do utility judgment, affective organizational commitment, and work-environment support. It is the suggestion of the paper that an organization desiring to improve its return on investment with respect to coaching should deploy a program with multiple sessions spread over a period of several months. It is additionally suggested that organizations should consider coaching from a systemic perspective, accounting for not just design but also individual and situational factors.

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Leadership Development

sherm@edsiusa.com — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:22:14 PST

Leadership Development
Leadership Excellence (01/10) Vol. 27, No. 1, P. 10; Bersin, Josh

Companies reaching the strategic stage of leadership development (LD) outperform firms with generic, inconsistent strategies. LD continues to be a leading priority, according to the Leadership Development Factbook, but there are several alarming trends, including the fact that only 50 percent of all leaders participated in some kind of LD in 2009. Many leaders also come up short in skills development, with just 37 percent of executives being described as having excellent skills. Furthermore, less than 50 percent of executives have entrenched development plans, while 20 percent of companies do not offer any development to executives. Momentum is building for informal learning among leaders, which can raise the cost efficiency of LD programs. Informal learning is characterized in various ways, including on-demand learning, self-study learning, social learning, and embedded, on-the-job learning. Building an effective LD program entails a considerable investment in time, so developing a multiyear plan that features executive sponsorship, business alignment, customized competencies, and TM integration is recommended.

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What Happens When Companies Hoard Too Much Talent

sherm@edsiusa.com — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:19:25 PST

What Happens When Companies Hoard Too Much Talent
Canadian Business (03/01/10) Cowan, James

Companies need to strike a balance between its leaders and the numbers of positions available, says Marc Effron, president of consulting firm Talent Strategy Group. "If you have three great leaders and only two spots, it's OK to let go of the third great leader," he asserts. Drug company GlaxoSmithKline, for example, had three candidates competing when it needed to choose a successor for CEO. But when Andrew Witty became CEO in 2007, the company sought to convince the other candidates to take on less prominent roles. The strategy failed even though the company used $4 million incentive packages and promises of seats on the board. Effron says it would be costly to retain individuals who could potentially become a future competitor to a firm. Experts say companies should not be concerned about vying with former executives. Miriam Ort, a senior human-resource manager at PepsiCo, observes that every time a sports team lets go of a player, they are aware that they could soon face that person on the field. Companies should "just make sure they've made the right decision for their business for that time," says Ort, who has co-written a book on talent management with Effron.

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Business Professor Says Lessons on Ethics, Character Can Prevent Unethical Behavior in the Workplace

sherm@edsiusa.com — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:15:08 PST

Business Professor Says Lessons on Ethics, Character Can Prevent Unethical Behavior in the Workplace
Psychology & Psychiatry Journal (01/09/10) P. 15

Research by Kansas State University professor of management Thomas A. Wright, the Jon Wefald Leadership Chair in Business Administration, shows that there is a gap between the character traits that business students say make good executives and the traits that they say they have themselves. Wright says business schools need to close that gap by continuously discussing ethics and character in the classroom, and that it is critical for students to learn about the importance of character and ethical behavior before entering the workplace. "As business professors in an increasingly 'just show me the money' business school environment, we all share responsibility for this moral decline," says Wright. "Many citizens are increasingly seeing the potentially grave consequences of dishonest and fraudulent actions by our business and political leaders." Wright's research involves measuring student character strength on several dimensions, including valor, hope, zest, honesty, critical thinking, kindness, and gratitude. Through Wright's research, students are able to identify their individual strength profile, as well as how them compare to other students. Wright found that business students believe social intelligence and a love of learning are the most important strengths to being an effective manager, but both of those strengths were among the least common strengths self-reported by students. Many students also rated honestly as one of the top five strengths, but another study found that 88 percent of students report they have cheated in school, with many reporting that they have cheater 100 times or more. "Our collective failure to practice strengths of character, such as perseverance and self control, has led us to the brink of both moral and financial ruin. Massive governmental takeovers are not the answer, but the development of individual character may well be a viable solution. As faculty members, the ethical and strength of character development of our students should be made an integral part of our stated mission in higher education," says Wright.

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10 Ways to Coach for Performance

sherm@edsiusa.com — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 20:08:48 PST

10 Ways to Coach for Performance
Washington SmartCEO (01/10) Vol. 4, No. 1, P. 10; Strouse, Douglas; Wexley, Kenneth

There are 10 steps for executives to follow when conducting coaching sessions with employees. In coaching sessions, CEOs should make a point not to judge the employee, but to be supportive and helpful. Control of emotions is important to coaching sessions, as is selecting a private location, allowing as much time as is necessary, and avoiding a third party. Executives should collect the necessary facts, figures, and behavioral observations to support the position that there is a performance problem and get the employee to recognize that a performance gap exists. Executives also should create a plan to remedy the problem and stick to it until the problem is rectified; identify the cause of the problem when performance issues come up; engage employees and listen to their input and viewpoints; and focus the discussion on observed behavior or results, instead of comparing one employee to another or making sweeping statements. Finally, they should acknowledge improvements along the way, even before an employee reaches perfection.

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Talent Search

sherm@edsiusa.com — Sun, 7 Mar 2010 19:46:05 PST

Talent Search
Forbes (02/11/10) Barret, Victoria

Within the next five years, the population of U.S. workers over age 55 will reach 20 percent of the total. Although the oldest of the baby boomer generation are expected to retire eventually, new employees remain difficult to find, with 2.4 million empty positions waiting in professional services, health care, and education. Organizations could promote their younger managers, but executives in their 30s and 40s are currently reporting 43 percent job satisfaction levels, according to a survey from the Conference Board, down from about 66 percent 20 years ago. Employees in their 20s also have 22 percent turnover rates, twice that of older workers, leaving companies often scrambling to fill empty places and keep the right talent. Technology distributor Arrow Electronics has begun to use software to track about three-quarters of its 12,000 employees' performance and aspirations, a technique was formerly used only on potential executives. Managers at health insurance company Aetna attend classes intended to keep younger employees more engaged in the organization and reduce turnover, which can save on training costs.

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Improve Your Employee Training Sessions

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 15:14:14 PST

Improve Your Employee Training Sessions
BusinessWeek (02/03/10) Gallo, Carmine

An enthusiastic and knowledgeable trainer can make employee training sessions engaging and interactive and thus facilitate the transfer of knowledge. Dan Carroll, a vice-president at Wente Vineyards, the oldest continuously operated family-owned winery in the United States, employs three strategies that can help others create a more engaging training experience. Carroll says trainers should make a connection early and learn attendees' names and some information about them ahead of the session. He makes it a point to arrive early, greet everyone by name, and establish some familiarity. He also embraces multimedia, using PowerPoint as a tool to transfer knowledge. Carroll points out that it must be used in an engaging way. Carroll's PowerPoint presentations have few if any bullet points, and the slides are mostly photos and video clips. Carroll chooses relevant video that resonate with the twentysomethings who made up the majority of the staff. Finally, Carroll makes the experience interactive by asking questions about something and turning to the group for answers and encouraging attendees to share their experiences.

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Employee training programs show signs of improvement

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 08:59:46 PST

Employee Training Programs Show Signs of Improvement
By Jim Schakenbach, Special to Mass High Tech (01/06/10)

The year 2009 is one that many businesspeople would probably like to forget. Sales and budgets took a hit, companies shed employees, and overhead was slashed across the board. “Flat is the new up” was the grim joke making the rounds.

Among the casualties were many employee training and professional development programs.

“There’s no question that budgets for professional training are under pressure because of the economy,” said Bob Eubank, executive director of the Northeast Human Resources Association, a Waltham-based HR industry advocacy group. “In some cases, training was simply neglected.”
Professional training can often make the difference between companies being industry leaders or second-stringers. Some companies, however, were caught between a rock and a hard place, recognizing the value of employee training programs but helpless to deflect the full blow of budget cuts as they looked at every budget and program for ways to squeeze the red ink out of them.
“The economy definitely played a part in the funding of our employee training and development,” said Melissa Lawrence, director of human resources for travel industry software developer ITA Software Inc. in Cambridge.

And the same story held among the tech workers of non-technology companies.

“We had a force reduction this past August, so we needed to look at our resources and use them in the most effective way,” said Pam Wing, director of end user support services at South Coast Health System in New Bedford. “Our IT staff used to go to user group conferences every year. This year, no one went.”

For 2010, however, technology investments also mean training investments.

Waltham-based Accounting Management Solutions Inc.’s human resources director Rita Vogel tells a similar tale. “We have a formal training program for our consultants to improve their skill sets and keep them current on topics pertinent to our industry so they can talk knowledgeably to their clients,” says Vogel. “This year we reduced the program, cutting the training budget and time in half, but we kept the program alive.”

Many companies began to feel the effects of professional development cutbacks in ways they perhaps didn’t anticipate. The 2009/2010 U.S. Strategic Rewards Survey reported that employee engagement levels for key personnel dropped almost 25 percent as a result of restructuring and employee benefit cutbacks, including professional development and training, indicating a significant slump in employee morale and productivity.

“When you go through what’s basically a reorganization, you create some very defined areas of improvement and the staff morale really goes way down because they’re really concerned about keeping their jobs,” said Wing.

Yet despite these grim realities, many HR directors see a silver lining in the economic black cloud.

“We found that when you take something away, people value it more,” according to ITA’s Lawrence. “We started getting feedback that people really valued training and they were disappointed that ITA wasn’t offering as much professional growth training as they would have liked. We realized training was important for retaining good employees and an investment we needed to make, so we got together a group of managers to determine what kind of training our employees were really looking for in 2010. We got as much specific information as possible so we could make sure we met the needs of the employee base.”

To try to meet both employee needs and budget limitations, ITA is turning more toward peer-led training sessions. “Instead of sending 10 people to a conference, we’ll send two or three people and they come back and train others,” said Lawrence. “We’re actually beginning to invest more in training, but we’re trying to spend our dollars in the most effective and efficient way possible.”

At South Coast, staff reduction could be viewed as the classic half-full/half-empty glass. According to Wing, the reduction in force raised the bar for the remaining staff.

“This year we’re deploying new technologies, going from paper records to electronic records, so we really needed to raise the remaining employees’ skill levels and training to bring them to a point where they can support this new technology infrastructure,” she said. As a result, South Coast has made a major investment in outside training to provide A+ proficiency certification for its tech employees.

“For some people, their grade levels went up for their job descriptions, which increases their salary levels as well,” said Wing. “We want to make sure we continue our training process to keep the staff skill levels up there. We’ve actually done more this year than in the past.”

Vogel is cautiously optimistic. “We’ll stay on the leaner side for 2010, but we’ll continue to offer critical and relevant training to our staff.”

NEHRA’s Eubank sees a better year ahead. “We do see some indications that things are coming back,” he said. “The pressure is starting to let up as organizations realize they need to keep their talent and keep them engaged. Training’s a big part of that. We’re hoping to see a more tangible recovery in 2010.”

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State-of-Mind as the Master Competency for High-Performance Leadership

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:41:16 PST

State-of-Mind as the Master Competency for High-Performance Leadership
Organization Development Journal (Quarter4, 2009) Vol. 27, No. 3, P. 23; Polfuss, Craig; Ardichvili, Alexandre

A great deal of leadership development strategies are based on models that consist of behavioral or cognitive competencies or skills, like decision-making, organization, delegating, interpersonal communication, influencing others, and building talent, among others. A recent paper explored the question of whether there is a single master competency that is the executor of all other competencies, and found that "State-of-Mind" is the master competency. The State-of-Mind does not replace or negate the importance of behavioral and cognitive competencies, but instead enhances a leaders understanding of those competencies and his or her ability to use them more effectively. A strong State-of-Mind allows leaders to constantly absorb the experiences and information life provides for them, and to continue to evolve their abilities to creatively express newfound knowledge. As the Master Competency, State-of-Mind incorporates previously learned knowledge into decision making and other functional responses. Organizations should incorporate State-of-Mind training to all levels of employees, and expect supervisors to use State-of-Mind solutions in dealing with conflicts and problems. Traditional competency-based leadership development approaches have proven to be quite valuable and are characterized by an outside-in paradigm. The State-of-Mind model is an inside-out model that suggests, in addition to various behavioral and cognitive competencies, leaders must develop their State-of-Mind competency in order to bring their best possible performance to every challenge.

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A Little Knowledge Is Deadly Dangerous

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:39:08 PST

A Little Knowledge Is Deadly Dangerous
Financial Times - Business Life (01/12/10) P. 10; Stern, Stefan

In the 1990's, "knowledge management" was a significant buzzword for many business professionals on the executive level. Knowledge management is based on the idea that employees of a company often possess scores of knowledge valuable to the company's proceedings but the knowledge becomes useless because it does not travel throughout various facets of the company. Although the term has been overridden by other recent business trends, Stefan Stern of the Financial Times says knowledge management is still just as valuable. According to him, organizations often already have the information they need to prevent disaster, but they are unaware that they have it. Recognizing patterns in data and the value of those patterns as well as stressing the importance of passing vital information along to others in an organization are two ways to encourage better management of the information possessed by any company. Stern observes the recent bombing attempt on a plane over Detroit as a perfect example of why knowledge management is necessary because officials failed to put together bits of intelligence leading up to the event. Ultimately, Stern points to "collective corporate memory" as being one of the most important facets of knowledge management. It will benefit a corporation in any industry to recall crucial details about the market in which it operates and look upon this knowledge and the employees who own it as important assets.

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Leading into 2010?

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:36:34 PST

Leading into 2010?
Washington Post (01/10/10)

To effectively motivate and lead people as the market recovers over the new year, leaders should focus their efforts on four critical qualities. First is transparency. Employees are extremely skittish due to growing unemployment, so it is important that leaders be open with employees. A good strategy is to hold town hall-style meetings where employees are encouraged to ask any question, and leaders answer honestly and openly. Second, it is important to make employees feel appreciated. Let your best employees know just how much they are valued, which will keep them motivated during difficult times. Third, show respect for your employees, their jobs, and their skills. The days of one-size-fits all jobs and inflexible hours are over. Modern workers want to be treated as individuals, and will stay longer in a job that is designed for his or her unique needs and skills. Fourth, be as honest as possible. As the economy recovers, employees need to know that rewards will return. Having an honest conversation during difficult times will make leaders more credible as conditions improve, provided organizations promise to deliver on their promises of rewards for loyalty and hard work during difficult times.

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Preparing Your Workplace for Recovery

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:37:31 PST

Preparing Your Workplace for Recovery
Kansas City Star (12/22/09) Coleman, Jeanette

As the economy begins to recover, businesses should refocus their attention on employee needs that may have become neglected during the recession. There are a number of strategies companies can take to achieve this goal in the new year. First, companies should assess any gaps that may have been created by downsizing during the recession. In order to do so, they should engage employees in a reevaluation of the company's mission using surveys, focus groups, or other direct feedback mechanisms. Employees are the company's best resource when it comes to identifying reorganization needs, and they are more likely to buy into any changes if they are involved in the process. Businesses should then make sure they act promptly on employee suggestions while continuing to develop a culture of communication. One survey is not enough to rejuvenate company ties, so managers should make a habit of providing employees consistent opportunities to ask questions and provide information. Furthermore, businesses should make an effort to identify employees who have influence and get them behind the cultural changes being made. One way to do so is to find ways to show employees they are appreciated -- for example, developing a mentoring program or scheduling meetings designed to highlight achievements. These actions have little or no cost, which is important as the economy continues to struggle, but they can have a positive

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Global Companies Find Cultural Training Is More Than Etiquette

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:35:34 PST

Global Companies Find Cultural Training Is More Than Etiquette
USA Today (12/22/09) Yu, Roger

As more companies initiate and develop international operations, many are realizing that language barriers are not the only cultural differences that must be overcome in the global economy. In order to avoid misunderstandings caused by cultural differences, multinational corporations have started cultural training programs to educate employees about these differences. Initially, cultural training began as overly simplistic lists of the do's and don'ts of doing business in a particular country. More recently, however, such programs have evolved with the goal of instilling "realistic cultural empathy" amongst multinational employees, says Gary Weaver of American University's Intercultural Management Institute. This new mindset has become even more important as countries in the Middle East and Asia have become major players in international business. In order to meet the needs of companies doing business in and with these countries, intercultural trainers have begun tailoring lessons to the specific goals of each client. That being said, certain lessons about cultural awareness are almost universal. For example, Western companies working in Asia and the Middle East should be conscious of personal relationships that are far more valued as part of business relationships in these regions. This difference means that employees should avoid business talk during social engagements and instead make an effort to get to know their international business partners. Westerners must also be aware that time management works differently in other cultures. While most Americans are used to meetings with very specific time tables, their international partners are much more flexible. Additionally, Westerners should pay particular attention to the organizational hierarchy in Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latin American companies, as professional titles and age carry much more weight in these cultures. Without an understanding of these differences American managers can quickly become frustrated by how hierarchy effects communication in international workplaces.

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Attracting and Retaining the Mature Workforce

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:33:44 PST

Attracting and Retaining the Mature Workforce
T+D (11/09) Holmes, Melanie

Mature workers are as enthusiastic about training as their younger counterparts, asserts Melanie Holmes, vice president of World of Work Solutions for Manpower. It is important to keep veteran employees up-to-date about training and advancement opportunities to retain talent and make workers more productive. The AARP's 2005 report, "The Business Case for Workers Age 50+," found that although employees age 50 to 65 use more healthcare compared to workers in their 30s and 40s, base salary represents the largest part of labor costs rather than healthcare. After factoring in all costs, including the cost of recruiting, interviewing, and training new workers, the study concluded that it is economically sensible to retain experienced, talented employees. When asked about what constitutes an ideal job, mature workers cited such things as paid time off, flexible schedules, part-time hours, and working from home. This indicates that many mature workers do not want to give up work entirely but rather seek greater career and employment options. It is apparent that even in a difficult economy, many companies are finding it difficult to find adequately skilled individuals, requiring employers to turn to experienced workers to stay competitive.

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Employers, Educators Must Collaborate

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:21:58 PST

Employers, Educators Must Collaborate
Central Penn Business Journal (12/18/09) Mattes, Bill

The U.S. Department of Labor's 2008-09 Occupational Outlook Handbook predicts a significant increase in demand for jobs in management, scientific, and technical consulting services by 2016. The projections also indicate that 80 percent of jobs created within the next decade will involve technology to some degree. An estimated 54 percent of the jobs created will require a college degree. Such intensive careers will necessitate having strong math, communications, and critical thinking skills. Most professionals will also require continuous education over the course of their careers. At present, 73 percent of college enrollments comprise adult learners and/or working professionals, and this segment is forecasted to remain the fastest growing demographic in higher education, according to the University Continuing Education Association. Nationwide, there is a significant shortage of qualified professionals trained in technology- and science-related fields. This means it will be crucial for employers to invest in the training and education of employees despite strong economic challenges Employers will need to strengthen their corporate curriculum and delivery offerings to achieve the competencies and skills they need in new hires, retrained workers, or advancing professionals. Employers will also need to collaborate with college and university faculty to help shape and deliver programs. For example, the Harrisburg University of Science and Technology and GeoDecisions, a division of Gannett-Fleming, have collaborated to form an undergraduate program in geography and geospatial imaging. The program has created internships for university students and new hires, both for the company and other organizations.

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Communications, Computer Training Can Boost Older Workers in Tight job Market

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:19:20 PST

Communications, Computer Training Can Boost Older Workers in Tight job Market
Waco Tribune-Herald (TX) (12/19/09)

Older workers continue to find it difficult to re-enter the workforce even in tough economic times. In fact, time spent being unemployed is often longer for older workers at an average of 24.6 weeks for those between 55 and 64 in 2007, which is higher than the average of 17.6 weeks for all workers. However, programs, like Experience Works, help low-income applicants in part-time, minimum wage jobs learn the skills necessary to find better jobs. Most of the training is covered by the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which offers these programs funding. Many older workers use these programs to garner new software and technology skills. Employers are more eager to hire older workers if they have the appropriate skills, and Experience Works Texas State Director Wesley Cowan says, "They've got work ethics and experience, and a lot only want part-time work. A lot of employers find that attractive."

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Workplace Manners Critical

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 7 Dec 2009 13:13:37 PST

Workplace Manners Critical
Lansing State Journal (MI) (11/30/09)

In this recession, etiquette can influence the possibility of a job offer. Common mistakes like answering a cell phone during a business lunch could ultimately cost someone a job, according to Pattie McNiel of First Impressions Training. McNiel says, "In these tough economic times, professional business etiquette has never been more important." Furthermore, proper etiquette will distinguish one candidate from another, especially as competition in the workplace increases. Consultants say a large portion of business school graduates surprisingly lack common sense etiquette. A few tips etiquette consultants recommend include: drinking with your left hand, so your right hand is free for a handshake; accounting for cultural differences when invited out to a meal; allowing the wait staff to pick up a dropped napkin or silverware, rather than picking it up yourself; and always allowing guests to order first, while refraining from discussing business until the main course is finished.

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HR and Ethics Departments Need to Work Together to Ensure Appropriate Risk Management and Corporate

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:42:43 PST

HR and Ethics Departments Need to Work Together to Ensure Appropriate Risk Management and Corporate Culture
PR Newswire (11/12/09)

Corporate ethics and human resources departments are working together to increase the focus on ethics in their organizations' corporate culture and risk management processes, finds a report released by The Conference Board. Although there is optimism for striving for greater collaboration, only about 20 percent of those surveyed see a complete merging of these departments as ideal. But more than three-fourths of the participants -- 77 percent -- would like to see their organizations take a more collaborative approach than they currently are. The report, based on a survey of more than 200 global companies' human resources and ethics and compliance officials, found that collaborative processes are strongest when they pertain to code of conduct and policy writing, risk analysis, employee training, and support line maintenance. "Many CEOs and boards of directors recognize the critical contribution that a teaming between human resources and ethics and compliance can make towards an ethical corporate culture, especially in the areas of acquisitions, joint ventures, and supply chain links," says The Conference Board's Ronald E. Berenbeim, principal researcher and writer of the report.

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Leadership Move Four: Lead Through Visible Participation, Not Proclamation

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:40:27 PST

Leadership Move Four: Lead Through Visible Participation, Not Proclamation
SecurityInfoWatch.com (11/03/09) Wright, Derrick

Management being 100 percent "behind" an initiative is quite different from being 100 percent "in front" of it. A major tenet of the lean management philosophy is "pull, don't push," meaning, the leader must be pulling the company through the change process, instead of pushing those who are unsure whether the leader is directing them to a higher plain or off a cliff. A leader cannot incite transformational growth simply by writing a few emails or attending some reporting sessions. Management buy-in must eventually grow into leadership commitment or the organization will flounder in the process. Conventional wisdom says if a cause is good, then people will automatically follow it, but in reality people buy into the leader first, and then adopt the leader's vision. To get people to follow, a leader must pay a high price -- become better so that people will give their trust. Commitment, in its simplest form, is active engagement; true leaders take part in activities that will change the organization, while poor leaders stand aside and watch. "Actions speak louder than words," and if people see the leader spending his or her time on financial reviews, presentations, and status reports, then the people will also take on these priorities. Setting a good example is a good reason to actively participate in transformation and lean management, but more importantly, participation shows leaders how lean works and is applied on the ground level.

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ASTD Report Says Businesses Invested $130 Billion in Training

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:01:51 PST

ASTD Report Says Businesses Invested $130 Billion in Training
Environmental Protection (11/16/09)

U.S. organizations spent $134.07 billion for training, or an average of $1,068 per employee, in 2008, according to the American Society for Training & Development's 2009 State of the Industry Report. Even as the economy remains in turmoil, businesses continued to allocate substantial resources to the learning functions in their organizations, with learning professionals responsible for a greater number of employees. Employees accessed an average of 36.3 hours of formal learning content, slightly down 2.9 percent from 2007's 37.4 hours, but still representing a meaningful amount of resources allocated to each employee for workplace learning and performance. The average cost per learning hour used decreased 7.1 percent, from $56 in 2007 to $52 in 2008, as learning professionals continue to increase their operational efficiency and manage learning content without incurring additional overhead.

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Help! I Need a Mentor

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 2 Nov 2009 13:43:20 PST

Help! I Need a Mentor
CBS MoneyWatch (10/08/09) Brown, Ron

Mentors can be especially helpful for people who have recently switched professions, but CBS MoneyWatch columnist Ron Brown cautions that finding a mentor is something that must be carefully thought out. "Choosing a mentor should really be a long-term process of identifying the best person or persons to help you get where you want, and then cultivating a strong enough relationship with them so that asking them to become your mentor becomes an easy and natural request with clear mutual benefits," he writes. The first step is to identify someone—ideally more than one person—inside or outside the company who would be in the best position to mentor according to their function and influence. "Then you want to start establishing a relationship with them, perhaps by volunteering to work on some initiatives they're pushing or offering some thoughts on or admiration of things they're doing," he says. Aspiring protégés should make a substantive presentation of themselves to their prospective mentors. "In my experience, many people who want mentors fail to communicate a strong sense of what it is they want out of the mentorship, and that can be an obstacle to both getting a mentor in the first place and to having a successful relationship with them down the line," Brown says.

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What Companies Need to Develop Women Leaders

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:45:31 PST

What Companies Need to Develop Women Leaders
Yahoo! United Kingdom & Ireland (10/19/09) Valerio, Anna Marie

Columnist Anna Marie Valerio writes that the attraction, retention, and development of talented women has become an important issue for many U.S. corporations. Demographic trends show that as the large number of baby boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- in the country begin to retire, there will be a distinct shortage of trained, experienced people to fill key positions. The smaller Generation X -- those born between 1965 and 1979 -- are poised to serve as the replacement group and must be ready to move into leadership roles. Valerio states: "The most likely candidates to be promoted into those leadership roles in the U.S. are those who are now earning the majority of college and graduate education degrees. This majority happens to be female." Consequently, she calls on more companies to make the organizational climate increasingly hospitable to women in order to allow greater flexibility in the way females are perceived and allowed to act. She adds: "Organizations may implement programs and policies that can support diversity and inclusion, women's leadership and work-life integration." Furthermore, research shows that both Gen X and Gen Y women and men are more likely to be family-centric or dual-centric, that is, placing a high priority on family or on work and family equally. Issues that had previously been considered "for women only" now apply to both sexes in the workplace, leading to greater job satisfaction for both genders. One of the keys moving forward is to allow greater work flexibility. For instance, technology not only erases the time barriers around the world, it allows speeds of human communication never before experienced by earlier generations. At the same time, many firms have adopted flexible work arrangement policies that involves everything from telecommuting to reduced/compressed hours.

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Invest for the Long run in Employee Training During an Economic Downturn

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:42:49 PST

Invest for the Long run in Employee Training During an Economic Downturn
Mass High Tech (10/21/09) La Monica, Gabriella

"In an economic downturn, businesses often look at cutting employee training programs as a way to trim expenses," writes Gabriella La Monica, the training manager at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Mass. "While providing immediate savings, eliminating employee training can prove costly in the long run. In today’s constantly changing business environment, where yesterday’s great innovation can be outdated tomorrow, it is important that all employees remain highly trained and on the cutting edge." La Monica outlines rules for planning successful employee training sessions identified by BBN Technologies. Included in the rules is that he quality of training provides a higher return on investment than the quantity of training; establishing a process for adopting employee training programs is essential for proper execution from the planning stage to the training session itself; and not to try to save time during the planning stage. "Investing the necessary time in the planning stage provides a higher probability of success," says La Monica. Other rules include: Requesting employee input and incorporating it will get employees involved earlier and more willing to participate; provide the most cutting-edge information, top experts and best learning environment possible; and establish a plan for follow-up and ongoing learning.

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Break the Rules, Think and Be Adaptive, Sustain and Grow Your Business

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:24:33 PST

Break the Rules, Think and Be Adaptive, Sustain and Grow Your Business
National Driller (09/09) Vol. 30, No. 9, P. 40; Ingbretsen, Roger

It is important for companies to launch new organizational patterns that are based on adaptive systems that account for change and ambiguity. This is because both the short- and long-term future is difficult to predict. Yet many organizations and their executives continue to believe in the ability to control and command. Such an approach should be replaced by guided autonomy within a culture of shared performance and personal responsibility. In contrast to the conventional notion of strategic planning, McGill University professor Henry Mintzberg advocates "strategic thinking." In "The Boundaryless Organization," the authors wrote that "strategic thinking is what successful companies use to track changing social and economic trends, to access their implications, to experiment with new ways of doing business, and to build on empirical experience." Mintzberg also describes strategic thinking as a continuous process that gets incorporated into an organization's fabric rather than a one-time event. This means that organizations need to adopt unconventional thinking as situations become increasingly complex and uncontrollable. In his book, "What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School," Mark McCormack wrote, "Have you noticed that the best-run companies all seem to be managed unconventionally?" He observes that such firms' success is linked to their breaking rules rather than following them, and advocating independence among employees, departments, and divisions.

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The Lost Generation

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:21:52 PST

The Lost Generation
BusinessWeek (10/19/09) No. 4151, P. 33; Coy, Peter

The unemployment rate for 16- to 24-year-olds in the United States has increased to more than 18 percent from 13 percent over the past year, hurting both their futures and the economy as a whole. According to Lisa B. Kahn of the Yale School of Management, graduating from college in a bad economy has a long-lasting negative effect on wages. For each percentage-point rise in the unemployment rate, those who graduated during the recession of the 1980s earned 6 percent to 7 percent less in their first year of employment than their more fortunate counterparts. Even 15 years out of school, the recession graduates earned 2.5 percent less than those who started working during more prosperous times. Those looking for a solution say companies should keep hiring young people even while layoffs are in progress. General Electric learned the hard way at its aviation unit years ago when a hiring and training freeze left its pipeline dry, says Susan P. Peters, the company's vice-president for executive development. "We tell our businesses, 'Tough, you have to hire.'" Free-market economists advocate the removal of obstacles to employment of the young, such as high minimum wages. "The government in some ways is contributing to this problem," says Kristen Lopez Eastlick, senior research analyst for the Employment Policies Institute, noting that the 40 percent increase in the federal minimum wage over the past two years made it less appealing to hire young workers. Some states and European countries have reacted by enacting subminimum wages just for young people or people enrolled in apprenticeships. More job training would help as well, say experts. The British government has announced that starting next January, all people under age 25 who have been unemployed for more than a year will have a job offer, training, or a paid workplace experience. The United States has been slower to boost programs aimed at the young, though the White House is allegedly reconsidering a proposal to give $3,000 tax credits to employers for each new hire.

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Rewards of 'Gen-Blending'

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:17:46 PST

Rewards of 'Gen-Blending'

Financial Times (09/14/09)

Human resources consultant Bette Price has developed the term "gen-blending" to describe the mixing of people from various generations at workplaces. These employees work together as equals to address company issues. "The goal is to collectively brainstorm in order to identify problems and get a broader vision of the company," says Price, who is publishing a book on the topic. Gen-blending typically involves three generations--Baby Boomers born in the 1940s and 1950s, Generation Xers born in the 1960s and 1970s, and Millennials or Generation Yers born in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2008, media firm Time Warner started a program called digital reverse mentoring where university students tutor senior executives about using such tools as Facebook and Twitter. Similar efforts are emerging in sectors like finance and commercial services, but are mostly concentrated in energy, engineering, and technology companies, says Price. This is because there is a greeter need for knowledge transfer at those firms. where there is greater need for technical knowledge transfer. Many firms continue to offer traditional programs where senior employees mentor junior employees, which experts say lets senior employees feel engaged.

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Challenges to Work-Life Balance

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 8 Sep 2009 16:04:37 PST

Challenges to Work-Life Balance
Talent Management (08/01/09) Kropp, Brian

Workforce development executives will need to determine the benefits employees actually want in order to have effective work-life balance programs. Although CFOs have looked to cut work-life balance initiatives during the economic downturn, the programs have real value because they can help bolster employee productivity and help organizations retain workers when the economy rebounds. Research from the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) indicates that work-life balance trails only compensation and future career opportunities among important employer attributes for employees through the second quarter of 2009, after ranking sixth in 2006, but only 30 percent are satisfied with their work-life balance, compared to 53 percent before the downturn. Organizations need to create the right work-life proposition (WLP), which is a set of work-life practices that are of value to employees in the areas of work time, work location, family, development, services and health. However, they tend to fail in designing and delivering a valuable WLP because most employees are not aware of the work-life practices that are offered, the work-life practices are not in line with employee preferences, and few employees take advantage of the work-life balance programs. Organizations can create more effective work-life balance program by focusing on practices related to time management, such as flexible work schedules. They should build awareness by making information about work-life practices accessible. Also, organizations should find ways for workers to see their peers using the services, which would help drive participation more than communications about the program from human resources.

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Why Gen-Y Johnny Can't Read Nonverbal Cues

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:50:06 PST

Why Gen-Y Johnny Can't Read Nonverbal Cues
Wall Street Journal (08/28/09) Bauerlein, Mark P.

Tasked with chronicling communications differences among the different generations in the workplace and other social settings, Emory University English Professor Mark Bauerlein writes: "We live in a culture where young people -- outfitted with iPhone and laptop and devoting hours every evening from age 10 onward to messaging of one kind and another -- are ever less likely to develop the 'silent fluency' that comes from face-to-face interaction." Bauerlein laments that too many of today's cutting-edge communication tools involve the exchange of written words alone. While phones at least allow the transmission of tone of voice, pauses and so forth, this is not the case in text-dependent communications. Bauerlein states: "Users insert smiley-faces into emails, but they don't see each others' actual faces. They read comments on Facebook, but they don't 'read' each others' posture, hand gestures, eye movements, shifts in personal space and other nonverbal -- and expressive -- behaviors." Some in the workplace are beginning to take steps to improve the situation. In Silicon Valley, for instance, several companies have implemented "topless" meetings in which laptops, iPhones and other similar tools are banned to combat the problem of "continuous partial attention." With a device close by, attendees at work meetings have proven time and again they are unable to devote their full attention to who is speaking. Bauerlein remarks, "It's too easy to check e-mail, stock quotes and Facebook. While a quick log-on may seem, to the user, a harmless break, others in the room receive it as a silent dismissal." Consequently, such devices must now be checked at the door. Bauerlein is the author of "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future."

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Training That Starts Before the Job Begins

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:39:42 PST

Training That Starts Before the Job Begins
Workforce Management (07/09) Kranz, Garry

Booz Allen Hamilton and Vestas Wind Systems have redesigned their training programs in an attempt to get new employees up to speed quickly. Booz Allen, a consulting firm in McLean, Va., has implemented a "preboarding process" for providing people with training and development tools the moment they accept a job offer. New hires are directed to an internal Web portal that offers information about their jobs and the company as well as learning activities, and Booz Allen is also accelerating the process of providing new employees with personal development plans. Preboarding will enable new hires to make immediate contributions, according to the company. "Preboarding is all about getting someone engaged and excited about being here, prior to their actually showing up for their first day," says Aimee George Leary, director of learning and development for Booz Allen. Meanwhile, Vestas, a Denmark-based provider of turbines and integrated wind technology systems with U.S. headquarters in Portland, Ore., has added an "induction program" to its training and development efforts to stress learning and to document its value. "One Vestas" consists of animated sessions in which employees, with an average tenure of two years, face questions posed by "Mr. Butler" on how Vestas' products and services differ from competitors. Vestas is also consolidating the development of job competencies, the streamlining of performance reviews and the creation of development dialogues with employees onto a single learning management platform.

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Report Finds New Hires Poorly Prepared for Workforce

sherm@edsiusa.com — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 13:14:28 PST

Report Finds New Hires Poorly Prepared for Workforce
Reliable Plant (07/20/09)

Employers report that they hire a large number of new workers who are ill-prepared for their jobs, requiring additional company investment to train the employees. The American Society for Training and Development, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management surveyed 217 employers to examine corporate practices on training newly hired graduates. The survey results raise the question whether compensating for poorly prepared new workforce entrants with on-the-job workforce readiness training is the most effective way to address the readiness gap. Approximately 50 percent of the organizations surveyed use workforce readiness training programs, but the majority of them feel that the system is “moderately” or “somewhat successful”, at best. Additionally, the companies do not know how much they spend on these programs and often the programs do not match the company's needs. This is especially true for applied skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving, since 40 percent of companies need those programs and are not offering them. There are also gaps in programs that encourage creativity, reading comprehension, writing and math. However, there are some examples that are successful, such as programs at Bank of America, CVS, Harper Industries, Northrop-Grumman, and YUM! Brands. In addition, American Express is cited as an example of a major corporate employer that does not provide workforce readiness training but has instead taken an alternate route to ensure its new entrants are ready to work.

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A Matter of Transparency

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:41:23 PST

A Matter of Transparency
T+D (06/09) Wolfe, George A.; Talaga, Jean A.; Bernard, Laurent

Companies are mixing various strategies to facilitate transparency in human capital management, and workplace environment manufacturer Steelcase understands that customer service as well as internal operations can benefit from a comprehension of human capital transparency. "The point is for the organization to be authentic and align the level of disclosure with what the organization can support," says Steelcase CEO Jim Hackett. Last year, transparency in talent management cropped up in several ASTD Benchmarking Forum venues, beginning with a member-to-member poll produced by Steelcase. The benchmark survey on talent management transparency concentrated on a formalized talent review or succession management process as well as a specific high-potential accelerated development initiative. The survey asked companies whether programs were installed and whether information about the processes or people involved was communicated throughout the organization. The strategy with the most openness could be characterized as one that notifies employees whenever individuals are chosen for succession or when a position has been identified as an essential role for the company. Organizations with transparent talent processes have a very friendly corporate culture and report a high degree of employee motivation when talent management information is exchanged. However, Steelcase research indicated that transparency in certain corporate environments can breed disengagement and demotivation as workers learn that they have not been recognized as high potentials or future successors or that their current role lacks strategic corporate value. Steelcase discovered that most corporations have no single perspective about talent transparency, which tends to foster a "do nothing" approach. Steelcase guaranteed the availability of equal development and growth opportunities to all employees before formalizing a transparency perspective, and the company reached the conclusion that greater transparency regarding talent management processes impacts employee retention and trust. Steelcase has determined that the business rationale underlying the succession planning process must be communicated to all employees, which signals that the company possesses a scientifically based, legally sound succession planning process implemented to ensure strong, future leader fitness.

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Managing Generation Y: Why the Challenge Is Worth It

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:11:23 PST

Managing Generation Y: Why the Challenge Is Worth It
Association News (06/09) Vol. 33, No. 6, P. 38; Pearson, Daniel

For some people, the millennial or Generation Y workforce is characterized by moodiness and disengagement, but these workers could be spurred to achieve more if leaders gain a better understanding of their underlying interests and motivations. Millennial employees are technologically savvy, having come of age at a time when most homes had high-speed Internet connectivity, video games and online social networking were very popular activities, and cell phones were affordable for adolescents with part-time employment. About.com blogger Sally Kane notes that 18-year-old millennials were expected to enroll at competitive colleges, use handsets and laptops on the job, and spend between 40 and 60 hours a week at work. A recent Mercer report identifies baby boomers and Generation Xers' failure to adjust to changes in the workforce driven by the millennials as a serious challenge for Generation Y leaders, but author Johnny Taylor says Generation Y shares with other generations the desire to be heard, respected, and appreciated. Consultant Yoon Cannon advises that leaders should arrange one-on-one sessions with staffers to find out their individual motivations, and develop action plans with them to help them achieve their short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals at work. Observers say that younger workers do not value long-term employment because of the tumultuous economic climate, and consultant Laurent Duperval suggests that leaders should stress that the skills and training the younger workers are getting will help them in their next job. Teamwork also should be emphasized as a priority among young staffers, and business psychologist Debra Condren says that managers can tell new staffers, "If you're unwilling to roll up your sleeves and be a part of the team, you're going to sabotage yourself and your ambitions."

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Reconciling Short- and Long-Term Workforce Trends

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:08:42 PST

Reconciling Short- and Long-Term Workforce Trends
Harvard Business Review (06/09) Erickson, Tammy

Talent shortages are already occurring, despite the economic recession. There are approximately 3 million unfulfilled jobs in the United States, many of which require specific training. Because more jobs require special skills, it is more difficult for laid off individuals to move from one organization to another. As the economy recovers, the shortages will become more obvious. About 75 percent of jobs require some post-high school education, but education patterns have not kept up with that trend. In addition to talent shortages, there is the growing trend that birth rates are falling. Businesses are used to a steady stream of young employees, but this will no longer be the case. Both these trends mean that the supply/demand balance will shift toward the person looking for work, especially if that person is skilled, educated, and experienced. Work arrangements will become more varied as well. Companies will need to offer new ways of working because younger generations are more interested in self-reliance and immediate challenge, so their bond to their organizations is looser. Finally, the recession has led to companies introducing individuals to new ways of working by removing the dependency on one work relationship.

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How Cell Phones Will Replace Learning

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:32:43 PST

How Cell Phones Will Replace Learning
CIO (06/06/09) Elgan, Mike

The increasing use of cell phones to find instant information is leading to a future where such devices replace learning, writes Mike Elgan. One no longer needs to learn where a movie theater is located or what films are playing before leaving the house, as that data can be gotten easily by punching some buttons on a cell phone. The type of information to be obtained will continue to grow in complexity as technology progresses, and indeed, this week’s introduction of Bing 411 and the Palm Pre are two steps in that direction. Bing 411 offers local information on traffic conditions, step by step directions, weather, movie showtimes, and other data. The Palm Pre, meanwhile, comes with a new WebOS operating system that makes web searching much easier—just three steps compared to the iPhone’s seven. And Web 3.0 will push the envelope even further, functioning more like a human brain to link facts and ideas and understand what the user is looking for based on context, needs, and preferences. The Google of the Future might, for example, offer restaurant suggestions based on location, weather, traffic, preferences, and what was eaten the night before. Bing 411 and Palm Pre are two important steps toward a future where cell phones rather than PCs will be the main tool for knowledge-access.

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Identifying Employee Skill Gaps

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:30:09 PST

Identifying Employee Skill Gaps
McKinsey Quarterly (05/09) Gurdjian, Pierre; Triebel, Oliver

Identifying areas of improvement becomes especially critical in a recession, when training resources must be used to bridge performance gaps that keep a company from meeting its goals and objectives. Unfortunately, many training initiatives are unsuccessful because they are launched without first identifying the areas where training is most necessary. Workforce training experts have found that an effective way to recognize these needs is to survey employees and let them gauge their own capabilities against colleagues in their department. Not only does this redefine for each worker what he or she, and the department as a whole, must do in order to achieve success, but brings awareness of areas where workers are lacking and breaks down their opposition to acquiring new training.

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A Culture of Candor

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:31:56 PST

A Culture of Candor
Harvard Business Review (06/09) O'Toole, James; Bennis, Warren

Companies need to create a culture of openness or candor to become innovative, responsive to stakeholder needs, and function more efficiently. To this end, it is important to ensure that staff can communicate with their supervisors in an honest manner. In the 1980s, organizational theorists Robert Blake and Jane Mouton examined NASA research on pilots and flight simulators. Blake and Mouton found that pilots were more prone to making mistakes if they lacked sufficient information and yet took action, as opposed to pilots who waited to gather more information before taking action. They also found that pilots who routinely conducted open exchanges with their crew members were the most likely to make right choices. Ideally, a firm's corporate culture should reward employees for doing beneficial acts, while leaders need to act as roles models. People should be encouraged to speak the truth even if it is something leaders might not want to hear. By building trust, companies can get access to a steady flow of information that provide alternative insights. Ethics training can be helpful, as can such things as open-door policies, ombudsmen, safeguards for whistle blowers, and internal blogs. Northrop Grumman's recently retired chief ethics officer Frank Daly helped create a program that let managers practice having difficult conversations. The aim is to help managers learn how to deliver unpleasant messages in a constructive way.

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Talent Is Everything

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 13:51:22 PST

Talent Is Everything
The Conference Board Review (05/09) Hagel, John; Brown, John Seely; Davison, Lang

Both companies and governments need to have adequate talent development strategies to be successful. This entails going beyond traditional programs in training and education. Studies on employee satisfaction indicate that development opportunities are paramount in workers' decisions to stay at a particular company. Experts say workers expand their talent by attempting new things, experimenting with their job responsibilities, and approaching problems collaboratively. They also need to take part in talent networks comprising knowledge flows within and sometimes between firms. However, most enterprises currently prohibit workers from collaborating across boundaries, resulting in organizational silos. But because talent is present at multiple levels, a corporation must become talent-driven by rethinking their operations and strategies. For example, a motorcycle assembler called Dachangjiang Group provides its designers with basic sketches, performance outputs, and specific dimensional requirements rather than detailed product blueprints. The company expects the relevant design partners to work together to resolve design issues, ensuing significant testing and revision while participants increase their knowledge.

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Why Aren't You Listening to Me?

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 8 Jun 2009 13:49:05 PST

Why Aren't You Listening to Me?
Training Day (05/26/09)

Listening to employees' thoughts and insights is important for managers, but many lack good communication skills. To examine how well managers listen to workers, a company might conduct a free-form survey that offers incentives. Successful communication can also be fostered by asking work groups to discuss problems they encountered in the past due to miscommunication. For all employees, communication competence should become a key part of the performance review. In addition, managers should assess their own communication shortcomings and those of staff. If necessary, a manager should tactfully inform an employee if they talk in an overly wordy manner, for instance, or frequently go off-topic. One exercise that employees might benefit from is asking people to take turns describing the same situation to each other and comparing how engaging or understandable they are. Ideally, managers and team members will be able to hold the attention of others by speaking clearly and interestingly.

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Embracing the Changing Workforce: 7 Tips to Sustain a Successful Strategy

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:41:20 PST

Embracing the Changing Workforce: 7 Tips to Sustain a Successful Strategy
Electric Light and Power (04/09) Pearman, Stu; Manning, Scott; Kohut, Dan

Studies suggest the depletion of experienced labor from the power industry over the next 10 years is one of the most significant challenges facing the electric utility industry, but experts say there are steps the industry can take to overcome this and other obstacles. The first is to understand the problem. With thousands of boomers reaching retirement age each day, the labor pool of workers between 40 and 50 is getting smaller and smaller. Taking their place are younger workers from Generation X and Y, which unlike Baby Boomers, who as a generation were characterized as being team players and trusting of institutions, laborers from Gen X and Y distrust institutions and expect immediate feedback and rewards. As a result, utilities will need to adjust their management styles for this new population of workers. The next step for the utility industry is to personalize how these labor force changes affect their organization. Utilities should understand how to capture and transfer the knowledge of retiring employees. They can begin by pinpointing demographics and retirement age eligibility by plant and job description, and identifying impending and future skill gaps. Other steps utilities can take to sustain a successful strategy is to create a strategic roadmap outlining goal and steps to achieve them; establish a balanced, structured approach to developing and implementing a strategy, and partner with a union.

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Foster a Positive Corporate Culture for Your Business

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:51:30 PST

Foster a Positive Corporate Culture for Your Business
Timmins Daily Press (05/05/09) P. A8; Robson, Keitha

Corporate culture, often defined as "the character of an organization," encompasses the values, traditions, goals, and customs that separate one company from another. A positive corporate culture is one in which workers feel valued, appreciated, and listened to by their superiors. Fostering a positive corporate culture results in increased productivity, lower stress, strong teamwork and camaraderie, and an environment in which employees can enjoy themselves while striving to meet goals. Regardless of a business' size, it must have a corporate culture of its own that defines what is expected of employees and what is acceptable in the office. A corporate culture addresses the following: how creative and innovative employees are encouraged to be; which actions and outcomes are lauded; if failure is seen as a growth opportunity; how the organization handles positive and negative feedback from employees; and how conflict resolution is handled.

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Ranks of Older Workers Swell as Losses Shorten Retirement

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:47:37 PST

Ranks of Older Workers Swell as Losses Shorten Retirement
Wall Street Journal (05/10/09) P. A2; Evans, Kelly

Losses on 401(k) retirement plans have more U.S. citizens over the age 65 looking to return to the work force, and has convinced many workers in this age group that they cannot afford to retire. Retirement age workers accounted for 16.9 percent of the work force in April, which was the highest rate for that month since 1971, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Meanwhile, unemployment for workers in that age group rose to 5.8 percent in April, up from 3.5 percent a year ago. The April survey from the Employee Benefits Research Institute found that 22 percent of workers nationwide are "not at all confident" that they will have enough savings for a comfortable retirement, surpassing the number of "very confident" workers for the first time since the survey began in 1993. Also, 20 percent of these workers say they now plan to work into their 70s, and 10 percent do not plan to ever retire. For the typical 55-year-old worker, 401(k) losses in 2008 mean she will have to work another two years, according to a study by human-resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates.

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Closing the Generation Gap

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:53:02 PST

Closing the Generation Gap
Calgary Sun (05/03/09) Klingensmith, Dawn

Currently, one in five workers ages 55 to 64 plans to put off retirement because of the economic downturn. Additionally, many retired employees are returning to work because they need to make money, they want to, or both. Typically, economic downturns have resulted in companies providing early retirement packages to older workers who readily accepted them. This allowed younger workers to enter the workforce when the opportunity to find a job was difficult. These days, older workers are staying at their jobs and companies are keeping experienced employees in case leaders are lost. "The bottom line is, I don't see any real fear about older workers affecting the career path of younger employees. In fact, with retired workers coming back, it allows younger people to gain product knowledge and business knowledge from people with decades of experience," says Robert Bradley, a recruiter in technical and science careers. Young workers that want to get ahead should focus on their communications skills, including establishing people relationships, giving presentations, and other basics. Many new workers are not loyal to their companies like their parents were, but some companies may skip past a resume if an employee has hopped through different jobs. Younger workers may have different work behaviors than older workers, but younger and older workers should learn to work together as opposed to competing with each other.

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The Right People vs. Getting the People Right

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 4 May 2009 13:54:56 PST

The Right People vs. Getting the People Right
BusinessWeek (03/20/09) McFarland, Keith

Consultant and author Keith McFarland says the identification of weak team members presents leaders with an opportunity to either jettison them or aggressively develop them into effective players. He stresses that the frustration leaders feel about the poor quality of their teams should not be vented on their staff, and argues that, as with athletic coaches and the military, leaders should spend the bulk of their time developing their people's abilities rather than worrying about whether they have the right people. As an exercise, McFarland suggests that leaders divide a piece of paper into three columns and write the names of their direct reports in the first column, the positive qualities each staffer brings to the organization in the second, and things that each person would have to cultivate or learn in order to be in his or her position in the third. The leader then brainstorms to identify resources that would help each person master those needed skills or knowledge, gets feedback from the employees to learn what they think they need to move forward, and outlines a development plan to help them reach their career goals. McFarland advises that "if there is a person on your list you can't imagine working with to improve, then you need to make him available to the industry."

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The Engagement Gap

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:09:47 PST

The Engagement Gap
Successful Meetings (03/09) Vol. 58, No. 3, P. 20; McDonald, Tom

According to Towers Perrin's recent Global Workforce Study, which surveyed 90,000 workers in 118 countries, fewer than 60 percent of employees are partially or fully engaged in their jobs, leaving a sizeable "engagement gap" that employers must bridge to survive the recession. First, managers should clearly make known to workers what is in it for them if they succeed and excel. Employees want to know if their efforts generate a higher salary, a reward, a stake in the business, more authority or some other kind of benefit. A position of superiority is no longer enough to drive workers, say experts. Managers and senior leaders must inspire and motivate employees to keep them engaged. Employees in the United States and other parts of the world say the primary driver for engagement is the belief that an organization's leaders are truly looking out for the them. However, only about 40 percent of the respondents felt this way about their own employers, while more than 50 percent said their bosses treat them "as just another part of the organization to be managed." The biggest challenge for managers is learning how to get the most out of workers' energy, drive and commitment. Increasing engagement by harnessing these traits requires a different, more personal set of skills from leaders. Experts say identifying the value of employees' abilities will yield real, long-term results.

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Aging Your Work Force

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:06:31 PST

Aging Your Work Force
Wall Street Journal (04/09/09) Joerres, Jeffrey

Companies and organizations across the globe must prepare for the workforce gaps that are yet to come. However, a Manpower survey of 28,000 employers in more than 25 nations reveals that only 14 percent of respondents have strategies in place to recruit older workers and 21 percent have strategies in place to retain older workers. In some instances, employers are viewing the impending explosion of retired workers as a way to save money. With the current state of the economy, it is erroneous for employers to think that older workers will retire as soon as they hit a certain age; many of these workers are willing to continue with their jobs beyond retirement age. To retain older workers, employers must simply keep them engaged as part of the team and offer them various employment opportunities. Modified working arrangements are more likely to help organizations to retain older workers than higher pay. Offering workers a life-work balance arrangement, part-time hours, and opportunities to mentor the next generation are just some of the changes older workers are seeking. Retaining organizational knowledge can be done through formal mentoring programs, online information sharing forums, and pools of older workers available for consultation on a variety of projects. Experts agree employers will have to change their current talent management strategies to compete in the new marketplace.

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Ernst & Young Trains Its Own

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:03:58 PST

Ernst & Young Trains Its Own
Wall Street Journal (04/15/09) P. D4A; Dizik, Alina

Accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young plans to launch a companywide internal development program next week, designed to engage its 135,000 employees during the recession. Employee participation is mandatory, and the program will become a regular part of the workday. Ernst & Young will use a variety of curriculums, offering employees a variety of "experiences" to participate in each year, which could include improving their skills in their own divisions, or becoming exposed to other areas of the company. The program pairs employees with two kinds of mentors and counselors, one being a level above who will meet with the employee regularly, and a second, more senior, who will meet with the employee every two to three years. Pat Galagan, executive editor at the American Society for Training and Development, said that these types of initiatives are effective in maintaining employee retention after a recession, and encourage workers to be more engaged in the company.

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Leveraging Generational Capital

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:33:43 PST

Leveraging Generational Capital
Associations Now (03/09) Vol. 5, No. 3, P. 78; Blue, Jennifer Gleeson; Van Hekken, Maria

The workplace is increasingly becoming a diversified place in terms of age. Traditionals, baby boomers, gen X-ers, and gen Y-ers are all interacting in the same workspace, but everyone thinks the other groups are going about the work the wrong way. This disharmony is largely due to the fact that, for the first time, there are four generations working at the same time, and the rapidly evolving world of technology only serves to emphasize their generational differences. Even with this problem, generational diversity, like all workplace diversity, is a valuable asset, often called generation capital. Leveraging this diversity will have a direct impact on profitability, growth, and retention. Eliminating the focus on the so-called generational gap will increase employee engagement and enable your staff to maximize resources and accomplish more with less. The current economic crisis makes this the perfect time to start dissolving these generational barriers and start building generational capital. Start by exploring how different generations can engage each other to be more productive and achieve the highest levels of performance. Help employees discover a positive and holistic view of generational diversity to create a more positive workplace culture. The workplace has changed in recent years and will continue to change in the future. Good leaders recognize this change and use it as an opportunity to address generational diversity and learn how to take a strategic and inclusive position.

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Now is Time to Focus on Training

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:30:50 PST

Now is Time to Focus on Training
Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) (04/12/09) P. 22; Duval, Toni

The economic recession has resulted in more companies spending time on training. According to a study conducted by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), training now focuses on boosting current best practices, removing redundancies, and creating opportunities for employees to learn from each other. The study also says that learning has moved from event-based to job-based and there is more emphasis on allowing subject matter experts to mentor other employees. Seasoned workers can pass on their knowledge and share their best practices. "Although no one can predict what will happen next week, next month, or six months down the road, learning professionals should be helping organizational leaders focus on new initiatives and competencies that the company will need when economic conditions improve," according to the study. It is important to ask key questions regarding organizational and industry trends, the organization's strategies, and the company's capabilities to achieve those strategies. By asking these questions, leaders can build upon the company's competitive advantage. ASTD recommends up and down communication, mentoring, short learning events, personal development classes, and eliminating training nice-to-haves in order to assist with training.

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How to Screen for Cultural Fit

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 6 Apr 2009 13:47:01 PST

How to Screen for Cultural Fit
HR Magazine (02/09) Vol. 54, No. 2, P. 46;

Here are 10 tips for hiring managers when seeking a job candidate who is a strong cultural fit. Executives and leaders need to examine and understand their corporate culture and ask lower-level managers about the organization's vision to make sure all workers are on the same page. An organization's brand should reflect the culture of the firm. To that end, companies like Nationwide Insurance offer tools to help applicants determine if the company is a good fit for them, rather than the insurer spending time weeding out candidates. Third, require applicants to complete a properly validated assessment, which is sometimes done at the interview site to prevent fraud. Organizations should conduct more behavior-based interviews to screen for core competencies like integrity, punctuality, initiative and focus less on "trainable" assets. Role-play scenarios can help managers observe candidates performing job-related tasks, though interview processes must not run afoul of anti-discrimination laws. Records and documentation about the interview and hiring process can help firms build a legal defense if necessary. Managers must regularly examine quality metrics such as cost-per-hire, time-to-fill, and quality-of-hire to determine whether recent hires remain on the job, and interviewers should be coached on how to recognize positive and negative behavioral traits among job applicants. Finally, the HR department must ultimately be responsible for overseeing, studying, and making changes to the hiring process.

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Five Coaching Tools Guaranteed to Boost Performance

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 6 Apr 2009 13:44:01 PST

Five Coaching Tools Guaranteed to Boost Performance
Rough Notes (03/09) Vol. 152, No. 3, P. 50; Paterson, Kimberly

Some of the best business coaches present five strategies to overcome the barriers preventing organizations from accomplishing their goals. Organizations and employers must outline their priorities and do the most important tasks first. Activities that detract from accomplishing priorities should be identified and eliminated, and to-do lists must be updated periodically to ensure core values are addressed. Business professional will want to determine what fills or depletes their energy and minimize dependence upon adrenaline. Adrenaline junkies can face a number of illnesses including heart disease and chronic fatigue. Accountability partners also are necessary to help professionals and organizations stay on track to meet their goals.

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Top Ten Tips for More Effective EHS Training

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:54:17 PST

Top Ten Tips for More Effective EHS Training
EHS Today (02/01/2009) Walter, Laura

Experts recommend ten tips to ensure training, whether it is in the classroom or over the Internet, remains engaging and effective. First, specific learning objectives must be outlined, and students must be allowed to demonstrate their understanding of the objectives in a hands-on manner. Secondly, training materials and objectives must be tailored to the audience to address their needs. Moreover, trainers must be aware that students will not harbor the same behavior or attitudes towards training, which means they must be prepared to keep lessons on track while maintaining audience engagement. Courses must engage students in the learning experience through interactive classroom activities or individual activities coupled with group discussions for online classes. Fifth, training must incorporate appropriate visual aids to break up monotonous lectures, and lectures should be kept short. Using brain teasers, questions, hypothetical situations, and other methods also can engage learners. Entertaining methods, like jokes and games, can engage students, but those entertainments must meet the objectives of the training program. Technology and videos can help train students, but videos should be tailored to the curriculum and be just long enough to keep students engaged. Training also should be personal, with trainers pointing out how course material applies to students' duties. Finally, all trainers must undergo training to ensure they will effective at relaying information to workers and become prepared and comfortable presenters.

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Retraining America's Workforce

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:50:39 PST

Retraining America's Workforce
Sustainable Industries (03/09) Stroud, Sara

More and more Americans are turning to post-secondary education in order to work in "green" industries. A significant skills gap exists, however--a November 2007 survey of clean-tech companies in Southern California found that 60 percent of employers had difficulty finding workers. Utilities in the energy sector are also finding it hard to attract younger employees, even though the stigma attached it is outdated. Peter Darbee, CEO of Pacific Gas and Electric, told the San Francisco Chronicle in January 2008 that within five years, more than 40 percent of the utility's 20,000 employees would qualify for retirement. Nationwide, roughly half of the nation's utility workforce will reach retirement age by 2016, according to the U.S. Labor Department. The nation's 1,200 community colleges are helping train workforces by partnering with companies. Tuition costs $2,360 on average nationwide at community colleges, and many programs are intended for specific career tracks. The Los Angeles Trade-Technical College now offers courses geared toward jobs in the renewable energy, green building, and alternative fuel sectors.

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Employer Branding

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 13:30:06 PST

Employer Branding
Wall Street Journal (03/23/09) Moroko, Lara; Uncles, Mark D.

The economic crisis, which has caused many companies to lower costs and increase productivity, has increased the important of recruiting the best employees. An innovative way to hire is to look toward employer branding to find workers. The key is to align the brand with the company's business plan, meaning the brand is designed to attract and retain the kinds of workers the company needs most -- those who can help it increase sales, profits, and market share. It is more profitable to treat certain groups of current and potential employees differently than to treat them all the same, and employers who use segmentation to pinpoint who they need to attract and what they need to do to attract them will have an advantage over those who don't. Those who have the skills, experience or knowledge that are critical to the areas of a business that are driving growth are strategically important. Identifying these employee groups through segmentation allows employers to devote more resources toward hiring and retaining them. Companies also need to look beyond attracting entry-level staff. Branding should include different messages for different types of workers, including mid-level and high level executives. Finally, businesses should use the differences among consumers that marketers consider when creating campaigns and apply them to hiring. The variations include identifying groups to whom potential employers turn to for advice and approval when choosing between employment offers; the power that certain employee groups have in negotiating the terms of their employment because of the rarity of their skills, level of seniority, relevant experience and qualifications; and choice barriers that employers set up to prevent people from entering or leaving a firm.

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Job Losses Hint at Vast Remaking of U.S. Economy

sherm@edsiusa.com — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 10:50:30 PST

Job Losses Hint at Vast Remaking of U.S. Economy
New York Times (03/07/09) P. A1; Goodman, Peter S.; Healy, Jack

The United States lost 651,000 jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate to 8.1 percent, the highest level in a quarter-century. In addition to the job losses, many believe the growing unemployment may reflect a wrenching restructuring of the American economy. Layoffs in manufacturing, financial services, and retail have accelerated remarkably quickly in recent months, suggesting that many companies are abandoning whole areas of business. "These jobs aren't coming back," says Wachovia chief economist John E. Silvia. "There are going to be fewer stores, fewer factories, fewer financial services operations. Firms are making strategic decisions that they don't want to be in their businesses." Similar trends appeared in past recessions, with fading industries pushed to the brink during downturns before allowing others to emerge to create jobs when economic growth resumed. However, because the United States has recently experienced such large losses over such a limited amount of time, some economists believe the most recent crisis challenges the traditional U.S. response to such downturns. For decades, the government has handled such problems by providing temporary unemployment insurance checks, counting on the economy to create jobs once it recovers. This time, however, experts say the government needs to focus more on re-training workers for other careers because their original jobs may not return. "The decimation of employment in legacy American brands such as General Motors is a trend that’s likely to continue," says Stanford University economist Robert E. Hall. "We have to stimulate the economy to create jobs in other areas."

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Companies' Secret Weapon: Underutilized Executives

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 13:52:20 PST

Companies' Secret Weapon: Underutilized Executives
BusinessWeek (02/27/09) O'Connell, Patricia

According to a survey conducted by Accenture, 46 percent of women and 49 percent of men think they are not challenged enough at work. In an economy where few companies are hiring and many are firing existing employees, utilizing the skills of existing workers is important. "Your employees are eager to do more. They are capable of doing more. They want to do more. This is a great competitive advantage for you as a company because you don't have to hire new talent in a challenging environment--you have the talent in place," says Armelle Carminati, Managing Director of Human Capital and Diversity at Accenture. Both employees and employers should be enthusiastic about developing new roles, and make sure to adapt them to different workers. This should be easy to do since companies have "many tools and offerings on the plate--from new positions, training, virtual training, or physical training, inviting people to move geographically," according to Carminati.

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Microsoft Aims to 'Elevate America'

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 13:50:17 PST

Microsoft Aims to 'Elevate America'
CNet (02/22/09) Fried, Ina

Microsoft has unveiled a job training initiative in the United States intended to provide technical skills to up to 2 million people over the next three years. The program involves Microsoft providing free certification and other technical training beginning initially in Washington state. Another part of the "Elevate America" program is already available online--a Web site that helps individuals with such basics skills such as creating resumes and sending emails. "Millions of individuals don't have the technology skills needed in today's economy," said Pamela Passman, Microsoft's VP for corporate affairs, in a statement. "Through Elevate America, we want to help workers get the skills they need to succeed." Microsoft is now collaborating with state and local governments to distribute 1 million vouchers for e-learning and certification classes. A Microsoft representative wrote in an email that, "The total value of the investments will depend on the number of vouchers that will be utilized, and the mix of courses and certifications taken." Furthermore, the investments will feature cash grants and software donations to community-based organizations, according to the representative.

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More Bang for Training Buck

sherm@edsiusa.com — Mon, 2 Mar 2009 13:54:38 PST

More Bang for Training Buck
Corpus Christi Caller-Times (TX) (02/02/09) Coker, Ralph

Training that aims to teach professional, supervisory, or sales employees to be more productive is often unsuccessful because it causes a high amount of anxiety and because it requires workers to change behaviors, attitudes, and habits, writes retired refinery manager Ralph Coker. In addition, busy workplace schedules often make it difficult for employees to devote the time and attention that is needed to apply what they learn in such training programs. However, he says there are a number of steps companies can take to make their employee-training programs more successful. For instance, trainers should ask employees to write a personal action plan after they complete the initial training. This plan should outline how employees will use what they learn on the job. Next, companies should hold peer-review meetings among trainees once every two to 10 weeks to allow trainees to review their progress with one another. Another step companies can take to improve the success of their training is to ensure that all managers are proactive and supportive, since these types of supervisors are better at helping employees successfully apply what they learned in training. Finally, trainers should hold follow-up meetings with trainees once training is complete. These meetings also can help ensure that employees are able to apply the skills and knowledge they learned in training.

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Second Spin

sherm@edsiusa.com — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:42:18 PST

Second Spin
Governing (01/09) Vol. 22, No. 4, P. 42; Wilson, Will

Government programs to recruit young employees will not be enough to offset the mass retirement of Baby Boomers. However, with the economic downturn impacting their 401(k) plans and retirees facing longer life expectancies many of the Baby Boomers will want to continue working past the traditional retirement age. Baby Boomers tend to view retirement differently from older generations and they are interested in tackling new challenges by volunteering, starting a second career, or working part-time. Although many employers are concerned about the health and the ability of older workers to learn new skills, retirees can be productive members of the workforce and share their experience with younger workers. Two major obstacles to hiring retirees are the cost of retraining them and the cost of health insurance. Several states have established programs to train older workers and place them in jobs. Arizona's Aging 2020 initiative matches retirees with companies in both the public and private sectors. California's Boomerang program has over 3,000 newly registered retirees, and their names and skills are placed into a database used by companies.

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Gen Y in the Workforce

sherm@edsiusa.com — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 08:40:13 PST

Gen Y in the Workforce
Harvard Business Review (02/09) Vol. 87, No. 2, P. 43; Erickson, Tamara J.; Alsop, Ron; Nicholson, Pamela

This case study involves the story of Josh, a 23-year-old marketing associate at a film and television studio. After his boss, Sarah, ignored his innovative ideas for marketing a film at a team meeting, Josh decided to go over her head and pitch directly to the company's CEO. The CEO liked Josh's ideas and told Sarah, who had been displeased with Josh's performance on a recent assignment, that Josh should be included in an important upcoming meeting. According to analysts there are three approaches Sarah could take to the situation, including commending Josh for his initiative. One analyst suggests that Sarah not only provide him positive feedback on his ideas, but also work with him on the account. A second analyst criticized Josh's behavior, including doing a poor job on an assignment that he considers "busy work" and disrespecting the company's chain of command to further his own career. The third analyst agreed that Josh needed to be reprimanded for going over his supervisor's head, but the underlying issues that forced him to act that way must be addressed as well. However, the issue at hand is generational, particularly since Josh had not thoroughly fleshed out his ideas and Sarah considered him too inexperienced. Sarah also failed to provide Josh with adequate feedback regarding the actions she took. Companies that hire workers directly out of college need to instruct managers to provide feedback to young employees and have training programs that help them achieve personal and professional goals.

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