Workplace Training in a Challenged Economy--Community Needs Analysis

Many organizations cut their investment in workplace learning when their budgets shrink. This is especially hard when employees entering the workforce after high school may be reading several grades below grade-level.

Some organizations use technology to compensate for low employee skills--pictures on keys so that employees can enter orders in fast food restaurants, for example.

I've begun working this summer on some questionnaires to be used to explore current trends and needs in workforce training and continuing education--based on targeting geographic areas based on community college districts set by states. I have proposed a pilot project --see http://drm-resources.wikispaces.com/projects .


The idea is to work with local Chambers of Commerce and other stakeholders to gather a true "community needs assessment" that can then be shared with providers of training based on documented needs of employees and their employers.

The follow-up steps and who would be involved are in another stage of the process. Informal observation says that this is an idea coming at a good time. Who will pay for the needs assessment and/or the training--that is still something to be developed.

Some of the issues identified may well fall into the arena of public education and others into areas for community development. It is critical to realize that the responsibility for assisting the employees to have the needed skills are not exclusively the responsibility of any one stakeholder--the employee, the employer, government agencies, or private trainers.
I see a community needs assessment as having several phases--data collection will include surveys, then, based on the surveys, focus groups or (even better if people are committed to follow-up action, action-learning groups). This will allow the data to be organized and processed so that recommendations for action (including training, collaboration, mentoring, community college, K-12 education, etc.) can be proposed. There is a need for phases--and there is a tie-in with community development and economic development departments in city and county governments--and even states.

In my work with organizations, I talk about three components that are required for change--Awareness, Acceptance, and Action. The Community Needs Assessment is part of the awareness component--acceptance is often a problem--people are "in denial" about reading levels. Recent research I have been doing and reading about confirms Jean's comment about high school graduates reading at a 3rd to 6th grade level in English. Because newer jobs will require more understanding on the part of many workers--even at entry level--we need more self-develop opportunities for high school graduates so that they can bring their own reading abilities up to a level that will allow them to contribute more in the workplace.

I have observed clearly--since 2000--that human resource development (a more generic term for training and professional development) takes a hit when the economy slows. Many companies regard this as a luxury. Others try to out-source areas of competence that they do not have--and do not want to build or pay for--in house. I have also observed that some organizations and leaders have habits of mistrust that can slow or stop efforts to collect information that could lead to positive change.

Trust is a significant factor required from the onset--even to do an accurate, reality-based community needs analysis. That issue has been seen to scrap many good projects and ideas in their infancy.

In the limited work I have had with MBA classes I have not seen a clear focus on building trust--it's critical for success and is hard to measure. Often people make decisions regarding cash flow that have little to do with human-to-human trust and more to do with trusting the balance sheet.

Dialogue is part of building awareness. Change is more possible when organizations accept that they need to change and what they need to change to. Action comes after acceptance when the change is planned and well organized.

Another road-block to organizational change and learning is when executive decisions are made to "scrap the project" or to change directions mid-stream--making everyone think that the training is "just another fad." This ties to my blog post on Organizational DNA.

Organization DNA?

Organizations have a DNA. It's sometimes hard to see and it can be identified when you know what you are looking for. One of the clearest examples from my memory was in a global manufacturer who was a consulting client several years ago. My team was conducting a change management survey for the client and we quickly saw that the DNA of the organization included a true valuing of the entrepreneural ("cowboy") spirit. The organization grew by finding successful entrepreneural smaller companies and adding them to their corporate structure. Each of the parts of the now large organization still had a recognizable culture and values and ways to manage power and information. The company's executive team had decided to implement a new computer system that would centralize all of the information and would keep many of the entrepreneural employees away from the information that had been their power base. What that could mean is that the computer system intended to help the organization make more timely and effective decisions and to communicate with all of its components would actually be destroying the trust of its leaders and be undermining the effectiveness of the subordinate units.

What is the DNA of your organization? How can you find it?
You can begin by tracking what you see in electronic folders. If you see a problem, put it in an electronic folder and keep on with your day. After a while, look at the problems you have captured and look for any common elements. Those common elements may point you toward your Organizational DNA.

Why is it important to recognize Organizational DNA?
If you want to keep your organization healthy, dynamic, and growing, you need to understand its DNA and to work with it. If you decide to do a "transplant" of something opposed to your DNA, the organization will "reject it" (the way tissue transplants are sometimes rejected by the human body). You need to work with your Organizationial DNA and your proposed changes to make sure that there is a good fit and blend if you intend to remain healthy and dynamic.

Let me know when you begin to look for your Organization's DNA.