Vol. III (June 2006) Survey Results: In our last newsletter we asked, “How often do you as a senior leader have the opportunity to share your experiences with your business peers?”
66.6% of respondents answered that they either frequently or regularly have the opportunity to share their experiences with business peers.
33.3% of respondents answered that they rarely have the opportunity to share their experiences with business peers.
Frequent and regular contact with peers in business is one important way that CEOs and senior leaders can ensure that they are the driving forces of learning and development practices—not only within their own companies, but also within the region.
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Vol IV Survey (September 2006):
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Dear Friend
The theme of this issue is leadership vision and commitment for employee learning and development. WorkforceChicago2.0’s Exemplary Practice #1, Leadership Vision and Commitment, states that “the CEO and senior management are the driving forces in elevating the importance of learning and development.” Business Leadership Group co-chair, Jack Rooney, President and CEO of U.S. Cellular summed it up well: “The people who are not committed to this are burying their heads in the sand.” Click here to jump to Jack’s interview.
By honoring companies each year with our WorkforceChicago2.0 Award, we hope to drive more leaders to commit to the ideas behind Leadership Vision and Commitment. This year our 5-year anniversary award event honored Accenture and IBM for their practices in educating and developing employees. Please read on for highlights from our anniversary celebration event, a brief photo gallery and more about the winners.
We look forward to providing opportunities to learn from both winning companies and their innovative practices and ideas. It is our pleasure to invite you to the workshops and events highlighted below.
WorkforceChicago2.0 showcases the CEOs and businesses in Chicago who understand the importance of employee learning and development. The past and present 19 award winners and their senior leaders show that Chicago has a growing strong commitment to learning and development also highlighted by the 22 member companies of our Business Leadership Group.
If more companies begin to provide employees with opportunities to learn and develop, both company and individual employees will benefit. Employers need skilled and knowledgeable people, and employees want to work for companies that invest in their development. Please join me in helping to spread the message to business leaders at all levels within our organizations.
Please forward our newsletter to a colleague or friend.
Sincerely,
Michelle Sanford
Director
WorkforceChicago2.0, CAEL msanford@cael.org
The 2006 Annual Award Winners, Accenture and IBM: “Mayor Daley Speaks” and other Award Event Highlights
WorkforceChicago2.0 celebrated its fifth anniversary at an event attended by Mayor Daley, City of Chicago Commissioner Hanson, Deputy Commissioner Giraldo, and Chicago’s top leaders in business and higher education. Including this year’s winners, WorkforceChicago2.0 has awarded a total of 19 companies for their exemplary learning practices, all of which were in attendance and recognized at this special event.
It is an honor to have had Mayor Daley participate in every of our past five Award events. In his speech this year, he described the importance of WorkforceChicago2.0’s mission in the context of the changing global economy. He noted that if Chicago is expected to thrive, we must have a highly educated and adaptable workforce. Markets and industries are changing faster than ever which is making it difficult for regions to keep up with the ebb and flow of global needs. He also discussed that while many regions suffer from “brain drain”—the loss of the region’s educated workforce to other cities—Chicago has been able to benefit by attracting this educated workforce to our city. However, he cautions that the only way Chicago can continue this trend and increase its global competitive edge is to continually invest in education and training opportunities for our labor force.
Before the 2006 Award Winners were announced, John Rowe, Chairman and CEO of Exelon Corporation, was honored for his five years of service as one of the founding Business Leadership Group Co-Chairs. WorkforceChicago2.0 will continue to benefit from John’s leadership and commitment as he continues to participate as a member of the Business Leadership Group. Jack Rooney, President & CEO of U.S. Cellular, joins Ray McCaskey as the new Business Leadership Group Co-Chair. U.S. Cellular joined the ranks of exemplary practices award winners in 2005 and we were delighted when Jack Rooney joined as a member of the Business Leadership Group soon after.
As a part of our special fifth anniversary, we also honored Pamela Sydelko of Argonne National Laboratory as our 2006 Exemplary Learner. Among Pam’s many accomplishments as a lifelong learner, she completed the demanding University of Chicago Executive MBA program while working full-time at Argonne and being a full-time mother. Her path to success is detailed in the 2006 award event program.
Finally, WorkforceChicago2.0 announced the 2006 Exemplary Practices Award winners—Accenture and IBM. Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. At Accenture, education and training are a distinct part of the company’s culture. Each year Accenture invests hundreds of millions of dollars in education and training. CEO, William Green says it is Accenture’s duty to ensure every person has educational opportunities. According to Dean Teglia, managing director of Accenture’s Chicago office, “Accenture’s people are what make us relevant to our clients. Therefore, we know that we need to re-tool our professionals so that they stay relevant, develop and progress in this quickly paced industry. At Accenture, we really work to grow our own experts.” At IBM, the world’s largest information technology company, the drive for innovation creates their culture of learning for all employees. IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano highlights innovation not only as a priority, but also as a responsibility. To meet this obligation, IBM invests three-quarters of a billion dollars annually in employee training and development. “IBMers can listen to a podcast about a new technology trend while at the gym, download a lecture while at home on a Saturday, or watch the company executives speak at business forums around the world while at work," said Dave Carlquist, VP, Americas - Central Region. Brief case studies of both companies have been printed in our 2006 award booklet, Advancing Corporate Excellence: Exemplary Practices in Employee Learning and Development.
To obtain a copy of the award event program or booklet, contact Michelle Sanford at (312) 499-2337 or download them from our website, http://www.workforcechicago2.org/archives.htm.
CEO Interview with Jack Rooney, President and CEO, U.S. Cellular WorkforceChicago2.0’s Exemplary Practice #1 states that, “the CEO and senior management are the driving forces in elevating the importance of learning and development.” In August, Michelle Sanford, Director of WorkforceChicago2.0 sat down with Jack Rooney, President & CEO of U.S. Cellular to discuss why he feels this practice is vital. Jack explains his role in promoting learning and development at U.S. Cellular, as well as in the Chicago region at large, as the new Business Leadership Group Co-Chair. Click on Jack’s quote below to read more.
Do People=Profits?
Book Review: Destination Profit: Creating People-Profit Opportunities in Your Organization, by Scott Cawood and Rita V. Bailey (2006)
The overarching theme of Destination Profit aligns with a main WorkforceChicago2.0 message: Investing in its people is the smartest business decision any organization can make. Both Scott Cawood and Rita Bailey have worked at companies recognized for their unique relationships with their employees. Before starting his own consulting firm, ModernThink, Cawood served as Vice President of the Great Places to Work Institute and was a senior executive at both Revlon, and W.L. Gore & Associates. Before Bailey founded QVC Partners, her own consulting firm, she held multiple high-level positions at Southwest for twenty-five years. Both authors use their veteran business perspectives and sensitivity to organizational culture to guide us through seven identified pathways to profitability. To read more about the seven pathways and see how these practices can fit within your organization, click on the quote below.
New Members: WorkforceChicago2.0 Business Leadership Group
We are pleased to add Dean Teglia, the Chicago location Managing Directorof Accenture as well as Deborah DeHaas, Vice Chairman and Midwest Regional Managing Partner of Deloitte & Touche,to the WorkforceChicago2.0 Business Leadership Group. Accenture is one of the 2006 Exemplary Practices Award Winning companies and will host an Exemplary Practice Discussion Series event in January 2007. Deloitte & Touche believes in lifelong learning for their workforce and wants to promote learning and development in the region. We look forward to future collaboration with both Accenture and Deloitte
Upcoming Exemplary Practices Discussion Series at IBM (September 19, 2006)
On September 19th, from 9:00-10:30, WorkforceChicago2.0 will sponsor the fourth in a series of free workshops for the business community. The workshop, Learn while you work—Building capability in less time: How work-embedded learning can improve business results while fostering employee learning and development, will be hosted by IBM, one of our 2006 Exemplary Practices Award winners. Join us to learn from an expert in work-embedded learning—IBM’s Dr. Robert Weintraub. As a respected thought-leader, Weintraub will share ways to improve job performance through learning that is integrated with employees’ workflows. Through an open discussion, attendees will see how IBM has been able to integrate employee learning with job function and performance so that it can provide learning opportunities that don’t require taking employees away from work for formal training. IBM will also share how it has leveraged technology in the process.
Click here to learn more about this free workshop targeted for Human Resources leaders.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP to Michelle Sanford at msanford@cael.org or (312) 499-2337.
Upcoming Accenture Event at the University of Chicago on the ROI in learning and development (October 13, 2006)
On October 13th, Accenture, WorkforceChicago2.0, and the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business will hold a one-day conference by invitation only to discuss Accenture’s new book, “Return on Learning: Training for High Performance at Accenture.” The book features original research on return on investment in training; it also discusses the practices that made Accenture’s investment in training successful. The conference, held at the University of Chicago’s downtown campus, will feature not only the book’s authors, but also Professor Marvin Zonis, and Gary Becker— Nobel laureate for his work on human capital. Look for a summary of the event and a review of the book in our next newsletter this winter.
WorkforceChicago2.0 Begins Communications Work with GolinHarris
WorkforceChicago2.0 recently began a rigorous process with Insidedge, a consulting group at GolinHarris, to re-think our communications methods, messages, and vehicles. GolinHarris is generously providing this work pro-bono. This process, which started this summer and continues through the fall, will result in the presentation of a new strategy to our Business Leadership Group at our annual meeting in November. Members will provide input and support as we move forward with a new way of communicating our work. As Workforce2.0 grows, both in Chicago and in other regions, it is an important time to revisit the most effective way to reach the widest audience.
During the first stage in July we launched a communications audit in which over 130 WorkforceChicago2.0 stakeholders were surveyed with questions about our current communications practices. The results of the survey were analyzed by Insidedge. One of the themes that emerged was the idea of maintaining both “high tech and high touch” styles of communication. In August, a small group of marketing and human resources professionals took part in an “ideation” session—similar to a brainstorming session— to openly discuss the communications and branding needs of the initiative. Among the needs identified was increased momentum and visibility. Both the survey and ideation session provided WorkforceChicago2.0 with insightful ideas and next steps.
Please watch for changes in the months ahead as we begin to implement a new strategy for marketing and communicating our message and mission. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us hear from you. E-mail Michelle Sanford, Director of WorkforceChicago2.0, at msanford@cael.org.
