Dear Friend,

At WorkforceChicago2.0, our mission is to get business to invest more of its time and resources in the training and development of its workforce. It is becoming more evident that it is innovative to show commitment to expanding employees’ skills beyond job-related or technical skills but in this particular issue we want to highlight the need for another practice. There are certain situations in which learning and development programs are created without reference to the overarching needs and goals of the business as a whole. In such cases, the benefit to the organization might be negligible, prompting one to ask: learning and development to what end?

This brings us to our Nine Exemplary Practices of Learning and Development. Exemplary practice #2 states that to be truly effective, employee learning should be aligned with business goals. This means that corporate goals must highlight the linkage between learning and business success, and these goals must be communicated clearly by senior leadership. In order for employees to bring increasing value to the organization, they must first understand their company’s expectations of them and then be able to identify what training, education or experience they need to succeed.

This issue of SmartWork focuses on navigating the link between learning and business goals successfully, leading to greater success for both the individual employee and the organization. We hope you find the information both thought-provoking and helpful, and we encourage you to forward the newsletter to colleagues and friends.

Sincerely,


Michelle Sanford
Director WorkforceChicago2.0, CAEL
msanford@cael.org

Vol. V (December 2006) Survey Results:

In our last newsletter we asked,
"At your organization, how do learning and development goals relate to your business goals?”

  • 11% of respondents answered that, “Our business goals are our learning and development goals”
  • 33% of respondents answered that, “Our learning and development program is aligned with business goals”
  • 44% of respondents answered that, “Business goals loosely inform our learning and development program”
  • 11% of respondents answered that, “Business goals do not inform our learning and development program”

The above results indicate that a solid number of Chicago area businesses either align or combine their learning and business goals: 44%. Despite this number, an equal percentage responded that these business goals only “loosely informed” their learning and development programs.

Vol VI Survey
(June 2007)

At your organization, is the person responsible for learning and development (Human Resources Leader or Chief Learning Officer) part of the executive management team?
Please take a moment to take our survey here.

Nominations have closed for the 2007 WorkforceChicago2.0 Exemplary Practices Awards

With nominations having closed on February 19th, we have made it through the first round of nominations and selected this year’s semi-finalists companies. We are now working to assess each of these companies’ unique organizational culture and programs through site visits, interviews with key personnel, and focus groups with front-line workers.

We appreciate all those who participated in this year’s award process! If your company did not make the semi-finalists stage, please mark your calendars and consider applying again for next year’s awards in January 2008.

Like previous years, winning companies will be recognized at the award event this June, attended by Mayor Daley and local business leaders. Last year, Accenture and IBM were recognized for their strong commitment to employee learning and development. For more information on last year’s award event, please see our brief video including the following features:

  • Highlights from Mayor Daley’s speech
  • Details on the 2006 award winners, Accenture and IBM
  • A full listing of all 19 award winning companies since 2002

Please click here to visit our website to view the video and get more details of this special event!

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WorkforceChicago2.0 Awarded a Taproot Service Grant!

WorkforceChicago2.0 is proud to announce that it has been awarded a Taproot Foundation Service Grant for 2007! This grant will provide the initiative with approximately $25,000 worth of professional expertise in the fields of marketing, analytics, strategy development, and graphic design—all working to develop a new brochure highlighting the initiative’s mission and impact. This compelling brochure will be printed and released in Fall 2007.

The Taproot Foundation is the largest non-profit consulting firm in the country. It operates by leveraging the talents of the local business community to provide pro bono services to nonprofit organizations, like WorkforceChicago2.0. Based in San Francisco, Taproot now has programs in Chicago, Boston, New York, and Seattle.

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Perspectives on Learning: Conversations with IBM’s Ted Hoff, Vice President of Learning, and Dave Carlquist, Vice President—Americas

IBM's business model is designed to encourage innovation that not only meets the needs of its clients, but also creates a culture of learning for IBM employees.

To meet the responsibility of keeping their workforce skilled and relevant, IBM invests three-quarters of a billion dollars annually in employee learning and development. This investment keeps them at the forefront of expertise in educating a workforce.

For this newsletter’s focus on Exemplary Practice #2, aligning employee learning with business goals, SmartWork has interviewed two of IBM’s leaders—Ted Hoff, Chief Learning Officer and Dave Carlquist, Vice President of their Americas-Central Region. We asked both of these leaders how learning at IBM is positioned and leveraged to meet and exceed business objectives. To get their unique perspectives, from both the learning and business worlds, click on the quotes below:

Ted Hoff: "We work for a global company that is trying to compete on a global basis, and we’ve accelerated the ability of IBM to ensure that we are bringing innovative approaches to learning everywhere in the world, not just in the U.S."

Dave Carlquist:"As you develop the knowledge worker you need first of all to nurture a learning environment that permits the worker to continually up their game—broaden themselves and their skills."

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Getting the most out of your human capital investments: A Review of “Increasing the Strategic Value of Learning Organizations”  by Michael Echols

In today’s business climate, most leaders are aware of the increasing value that people can have on their bottom line. This is an intuitive, learned association: the more experienced and skilled my employees are, the more equipped they are to excel in their work and reap rewards for the organization. But how can business leaders apply this understanding to help them strategically invest in learning programs, returning positive results to the business?

Last September, Michael Echols, the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Bellevue University in Nebraska, wrote about some practical ideas for how to effectively increase the strategic value of learning programs. It is a timely article that provides a clear view on the future of human capital investment. To read more, click here.

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WorkforceChicago2.0 Presents to the United States Conference of Mayors

As part of his continued support to the initiative, Mayor Daley invited WorkforceChicago2.0 to present at the U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting on January 24th in Washington, D.C. This invitation allowed us an opportunity to speak in front of the Committee on Jobs, Education, and the Workforce—a special group focused on the workforce competitiveness issues facing many of our cities today.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. Each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor.

Presenting on behalf of WorkforceChicago2.0 was Pamela Tate, President and CEO of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), the national non-profit that administers WorkforceChicago2.0, and Michelle Sanford, the Director of the initiative. Pamela and Michelle were joined by Mayor Francis Slay, the Chair of the Committee on Jobs, Education, to speak on the success of WorkforceStLouis2.0.

All of us at WorkforceChicago2.0 are very grateful to have had the opportunity to raise awareness about our important initiative and the positive impact its had on Chicago’s regional workforce issues. We thank Mayor Daley, Mayor Slay, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors for the invitation and for all their efforts in this endeavor.

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New Members Update: Recent additions to the Business Leadership Group

We are pleased to announce two new additions to the WorkforceChicago2.0’s Business Leadership Group: Hermene Hartman, President and CEO of the Chicago-based Hartman Publishing Group, and Marc Schulman, President of Eli’s Cheesecake!

Hartman Publishing is the home of the widely-circulated N’DIGO weekly—the largest alternative newspaper in Chicago and the largest African American newspaper in the country. Eli’s Cheesecake has been a Chicago fixture for decades and is known nation-wide for its quality and variety. With unique industry perspectives and deep knowledge of local workforce issues, we look forward to Ms. Hartman’s and Mr. Schulman’s participation and leadership in WorkforceChicago2.0!

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Accenture Hosts Another Successful Installment of the Exemplary Practices Discussion Series: Creating a High-performance Workforce Through World-class Learning

On February 15th, 2006 WorkforceChicago2.0 Award Winner, Accenture hosted another installment of the Exemplary Practices Discussion Series.

Lead by Accenture’s John Higgins, Senior Executive in Accenture's Learning group, the event focused on exploring how high-performance businesses are leveraging world-class learning to harness the power of the workforce and drive competitive advantage. Providing participants with vibrant case studies and detailed strategies, Higgins outlined how to successfully implement “world class learning” in your organization.

The Exemplary Practices Discussion Series is a running collection of workshops that are co-hosted by WorkforceChicago2.0 and a past award winner or current Business Leadership Group company. The purpose of the series is to allow companies in the region an opportunity to share their success stories and learn concrete strategies for better employee learning and development. There are usually between two to three workshops a year, with open admission to the public.

Check back here for more information on the next installment.

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