ARE YOU MANAGING WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT?

Overview

Reading Area Community College (a State of Pennsylvania WEDnet partner) found a way to get solid training-needs information for its client companies that fits perfectly into the larger context of the organization’s purpose, goals and needs yet does this while building collaborative team building skills inside the organization.

In less than six hours, the organization knows in finite terms what it needs, and RACC has the information it requires to deliver customized training proposals and/or offerings from its training catalog.

The Workforce Development Model that RACC is licensed to deliver includes a Framework that identifies “What good looks like” for the organization, a Business Action Planning workshop, a series of diagnostic wheels, and a comprehensive, web-based toolkit for personal and business development.

In addition, we trained a number of RACC advisors in the process and methodology, thereby expanding RACC’s capabilities beyond mere catalog courses to include customized training solutions; solutions that generated revenue for the college and help solidify their brand in a competitive training environment.

This is a flexible yet very solid process for identifying need. Let’s talk about how this can work for you.

The Workforce and Economic Development Network of Pennsylvania (WEDnetPA) was created to make companies across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania more competitive by updating and improving the skills of their employees to meet specific company needs.

WEDnetPA is an alliance of a variety of educational partners across Pennsylvania.  Each partner serves as the point of contact for local businesses accessing GFT funds. 

Reading Area Community College and the Schmidt Training and Technology Center realized that in order to effectively support their business and industry customers using these funds, they needed a system that would allow the customer to identify what “good performance” looks like and what was needed to get there. 

The system they use is The PEOPLE Model™.

Click above to view a sample presentation done for a
workforce development pilot in Pennsylvania.

A Success Story: Reading Area Community College Schmidt Training and Technology Center As told by John DeVere Dean of Economic & Workforce Development

What looked good 10 years ago when the Schmidt Training and Technology Center at Reading Area Community College was designed is different than what looked good two years ago when we opened the building, and what we’re doing today is different than what we did two years ago as we respond to the changing needs of the companies who come to us to meet their training needs. As we listened to the companies we work with, we heard a need for not just a training and technology center but also a people development resource center. We at the STTC see our role as: inspiring leaders to define what good looks like for them and their companies providing tools that let them explore what their needs are helping leaders facilitate implementation. We chose The PEOPLE Academy to lead us with easily accessible tools and processes that reveal deeply meaningful insights into our client companies. From these insights we are more able to develop customized training initiatives that meet real needs. We’ve adopted two tools that can assist companies in sustaining progress and potential in the area of people development: The Business Action Planning workshop is a first step to ensure that companies, divisions, departments— whatever level—are on the same page when it comes to defining that group’s goals in moving the organization forward. The PEOPLE Model™ Framework is a powerful tool used with companies to define what good looks like in various aspects of operation. (What does good customer service look like for XYZ Company? What does a good maintenance technician look like for ABC Company? Who has ownership and what resources are needed to move toward that definition of ‘good’?) How are you adapting to the changing business environment?

The Process

The PEOPLE Model™ is a valuable resource for identifying needs and discovering solutions. It has applications far beyond workforce development and has been used successfully in everything from personal development coaching to process improvement in industry. The framework is ideally suited to workforce development in that it goes to the heart of the organizational effort.

Workforce Development customers have a menu of diagnostic resources to choose from.  These resources are not only for the development of a training plan as they assist the organization in uncovering a range of operational issues. 

Organizations typically participate in one or more of the following as a precursor to training interventions and also to internalize and evaluate continuous improvement activities:

Business Action Planning Workshop (BAP) – 3 hours (A territorial license for funding agencies)

• Creates a six-page action plan if you are new to training plan design or have struggled to complete an effective training plan which links to your company’s goals and objectives.

• Identifies the “current state” of your business’s reality and positions the path for the “future state” of your business by focusing on key business challenges and skill gaps in organizational excellence and staff development.

• Conduct the BAP inside your organization to establish a baseline of skill gaps and goal setting from your Management Team/Supervisor’s perspective to keep your training plan on track.

PEOPLE Model™ Framework Workshop (PMF) – 2 hours

• Engage your workforce to identify “what good performance looks like” around any issue that you are currently facing in today’s business environment, i.e. what does a good supervisor look like; a good quality system; good customer service; what does a good safety program look like; what does good communication look like.

• Outcomes from the workshop will provide

• Customized training needs for individuals and the entire organization

• Process improvement needs

• What is going right!

• Allows you to be specific in your training plans

• Allows you to course correct your training plans

Diagnostic Wheels – 1 hour per wheel

• Nine diagnostic wheels that engage your workforce to identify their level of satisfaction and knowledge regarding specific skills needed for business topics currently and where they want that level of satisfaction and knowledge to be in 3 months.  Plus, they identify action steps or resources needed now to start to close those identified gaps. The list of diagnostic wheels to choose from includes:

Information Technology                                         Personal Development
Manufacturing Technology                                    Business Leaders
Workforce Development                                        Managers Wheel
Staff Development                                                  PEOPLE Wheel
Organizational Excellence Wheel

• Assist with the development of new initiatives and improvements from the employees' perspective

PEOPLE Model™ Business and Personal Development Resource Toolkit

• 500-page manual filled with resources, templates, exercises and developmental tools

• 35 web-based tutorials and print-on-demand resources and tools for you to use INSIDE the organization to customize, implement or strengthen your team in performance management, change management, training and development, recruitment and selection and business planning

• These tools and resources can be used by multiple areas of your company at the same time, and you only use the tools you need when you need them

• Diagnostic wheels are included in this toolkit if you want to facilitate the identification of your own training needs

• 42 bulletins that cover a wide range of business development topics that you can print on demand and send to your employees, vendors or customers