Aligning Two People-Centered Systems

There were politicians, educators, and soldiers. Locals, including activists and consultants, were in the gathering along with a few business leaders. Although these types of events ultimately aim to support local businesses, there are typically only a few industry leaders at a workforce development conference like this one. But on this day, several employers showed up. The folks concerned with growing the workforce in the Tri-Cities region of east Tennessee came together yesterday in their annual Education to Employment Summit. This E2E Summit is a great example of a regional workforce development system communicating needs, sharing best practices, and celebrating successful initiatives that connect real people to good jobs. There were three important takeaways for organizations seeking to optimize their internal people development systems (PDS).

• A commitment to connections
• Cultivate multiple and meaningful relationships
• Diversity means more and matters more

A PDS Can’t Operate in a Vacuum

For an organization, making connections seems obvious, however, being committed to more and better connections to strengthen their workforce takes increased dedication and effort. A mediocre PDS might join the local chamber of commerce or occasionally sit in on an industry roundtable discussion. The optimized PDS will sustain a variety of meaningful associations. The E2E Summit, for example, highlighted the Talent Pipeline Management initiative from the US Chamber of Commerce. TPM works to assemble multiple employers within a region to identify workforce needs so that the greater workforce system can take timely steps to meet those needs. The annual Career Quest Tennessee event seeks to connect K-12 students and teachers with employers and with hands-on experiences designed to expose them to career options. Other panels discussed how to connect with veterans exiting the armed services and how to connect future employees with work-based learning opportunities. How well is the organization’s PDS connected to these types of initiatives? Maintaining connections like these takes effort and time. However, the investment can pay handsome dividends when it comes time to increase staffing levels or to fill key job openings.

Many Relationships

It was repeated over and over again – building relationships is an important key to sustaining a workforce. Similar to connections, something else that seems like a no-brainer. However, those seeking to optimize their PDS would do well to examine how their system is built to support relationship building.

Every panel at the E2E Summit touched on this theme of relationships. Two high school students involved in apprenticeships with Eastman Chemical and Dreicor described the importance of the relationships they’ve enjoyed with the people at their new workplaces. These bonds were obviously instrumental in their continuing on their training path. Retired soldiers talked about the need to build relationships with veterans transitioning into civilian life because only through relationships could employers begin to understand some of the unique challenges these potential team members faced. Entrepreneurs talked about the support and mentorships they enjoyed with chambers of commerce and educators and how those relationships made all the difference in their being successful. The gold to be mined from this theme is that the optimized PDS will continuously seek to improve how they build and sustain relationships. Developing thriving partnerships with the larger workforce development system, and more importantly, ensuring that their own internal workforce development efforts cultivate meaningful relationships with all team members. Becoming exceptional at relationship building, not just being average, can be a real competitive advantage for an organization.

Include Many

Like countless others, this workforce development system is working to promote an inclusive culture in their area. For a variety of reasons – social, economic, and cultural – there is a need to ensure that everyone has a chance to thrive. Highlighting that it is a community-wide need, the United Way of Greater Kingsport presented a wonderful video about how welcoming the Tri-Cities area is for all people. It was from the perspective of teachers of color, some from different nations, and all from a variety of backgrounds. The community has obviously worked very hard to welcome folks to the region. At the organizational level, the optimized PDS actively considers that the workers in their organization have families that interact with other communities and have specific needs and concerns. Such a system echoes the welcoming message that the community initiates.

There’s also diversity of experiences. The panel discussing transitioning service members helped the attendees to better understand the unique experiences that these potential team members have and the obstacles that might prevent them from successfully adapting to civilian teams. People from different places and backgrounds have seen different things. They have a variety of experiences that could prove extremely valuable if these are welcomed and the environment allows for open sharing. The average PDS may have a narrow view of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The optimized PDS embraces the differences and the value that might be realized by adding new and different people to the mix.

Optimization means taking PDS connections to a higher level. It includes being more diligent about building and sustaining relationships both internally and externally. Continuously improving the systems used to develop people includes valuing a wide array of people and what each can contribute. The E2E Summit presented a great picture of the work that regional workforce development systems do to ensure that they can attract a robust workforce. The job of the organization’s internal people development system is to continually seek out ways to enhance and improve its processes so that both of these systems can realize a healthy ROI.