The Optimized People Development System

Author: Tim Waldo

  • Aligning Two People-Centered Systems

    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.

  • Building a Better Boat for Workforce Development Systems

    Building a Better Boat for Workforce Development Systems

    This isn’t necessarily the type of boat that Patrick Criteser was describing. He is the CEO of Tillamook County Creamery Association–a 113-year-old dairy co-op. In a Fortune.com article, Criteser highlights the innovative tenacity that drove the early founders of what would become the co-op to build a boat that could deliver their dairy products in a timely manner despite the harsh terrain and other obstacles. The real story, according to Criteser, was not the boat so much as the idea for the boat and that these farmers, “Allowed room for the kind of people who would suggest it.”

    What Type of Boat?

    Fast forward to today, and the connection of past to present that Criteser makes is the need for organizations to have a “better boat” – a culture that can work for and with many different kinds of people. More specifically, the article convincingly argues for a leader’s role in creating the environment for such a culture. He calls this a fluid culture, which, “Seeks to expand the potential of people and of the organization itself.” As opposed to a fixed culture which is, as the name suggests, rigid and limiting. Fluidity would allow new types of people to be added to the team. It would value participation and lend itself to idea generation and adventurous problem-solving. It would have hallmarks like openness and communication.

    As I pondered that idea of a fluid culture, one that, “recognizes that excellence comes from amplifying the good, not constraining the different”, the amplifying system that sustains this culture took center stage. I see this as a culture of learning, a culture of innovation that is supported by a robust people development system (PDS) that encourages growth and celebrates all who attain it.

    The Boat’s Systems

    Consider all of the system elements that are working together to find talented people for an organization. The elements that sell them on the idea of joining the enterprise and expending their energy and enthusiasm to generate great ideas in support of the organization. Think of the elements that are responsible for caring for these team members, helping them develop technical skills, and helping them gain new knowledge and additional capabilities that will meet the organization’s needs as well as their own personal and professional needs.

    The system would need to understand and align with the mission and goals of the organization. Such a system would have to communicate exceptionally well throughout the processes of recruiting, onboarding, training, retaining, and performance management. Strong leadership would be an absolute, and this workforce training system is responsible for ensuring that those leaders are developing and growing. To sustain such a culture of innovation, the system would have to thrive on relationship building and have access to data that would constantly keep leaders appraised of the system’s performance and health.

    Is a Good Boat Good Enough?

    All of this seems somewhat obvious, doesn’t it? After all, most organizations have processes in place for workforce development. They provide some type of workforce training. They work to retain their best team members. But, how good is the PDS boat…really? Criteser urges leaders to look more intently at their culture. Can it absorb new ideas, be adaptive, be flexible? Are they as leaders inviting change? Extending this a bit deeper, does the PDS support such a culture? How would it need to adapt and change in order to support a learning organization of this caliber?

    It would seem that only an optimized PDS could support a truly dynamic, fluid culture. A siloed workforce development approach can’t support a fluid culture. Neither could a system that is not people-centered. Building a “better boat” is a great metaphor for working to optimize the system that is responsible for finding people, bringing them into the organization, and cultivating relationships that makes them want to stay. A better boat that supports a robust development system that allows more room for people and their ideas, can help organizations navigate unrelenting change and chart new courses in the stormy waters of today’s marketplace.  

  • Improve Workforce Training to Fight Inflation

    Improve Workforce Training to Fight Inflation

    A continuous improvement mindset is a critical trait; now more than ever as inflation rages on. In the fight to offset rising prices, there is a need to look at all parts of the organization, and the system we use to find, train and retain people is no exception. This people development system (PDS) and its five elements can be optimized to provide a competitive advantage to the organization. An honest and in-depth examination of the training portion of the PDS can present opportunities to reduce waste, add new capabilities and increase engagement.

    Waste in Training

    Inefficient or poorly designed training efforts can waste time and effort. Change in our work systems is forever impacting the need for training; however, many training processes are slow to adapt. Over time, new processes are introduced, technology is added, raw materials are substituted, or other changes occur. How often are the training programs reassessed to absorb these changes? Using outdated material or training processes wastes the time and efforts of the new team members and the trainers.

    Wasting time can happen in a variety of ways with regard to training. Besides ineffective training, there’s the waste of the trainer’s time to be considered, and even the time needed for remedial training. Also, delivering training in a way that does not promote learning is a type of waste. This could be through a mind-numbing stream of videos that each person is required to endure on day one, or it could be in an ineffective classroom setting.

    Continuous improvement includes continuous learning. How often do long-established team members experience training? Is that training updated? Is it being delivered effectively – utilizing new learning tools and technologies; employing time valuing approaches like micro-learning or short webinars? Training is often out of sight, out of mind. Making the effort to truly see the process is a good start toward identifying waste.

    Expanding Capabilities

    Adding or upgrading capabilities can create new opportunities. This can include enhancing a technical skill or adding new knowledge such as conflict resolution, communication or leadership skills. Keeping staff these days is challenging and losing them is expensive. A culture of learning that invests in their capabilities can be a powerful determining factor when it is time to decide to stay or to go.

    Upgrading the teams’ skills is a part of continuous improvement. Helping each person to advance along their development pathway can help the organization realize untapped potential. For example, training the team to be better problem solvers can uncover hidden savings through the elimination of waste or the implementation of new and better ways of working. Improving the capabilities of those delivering training can also be beneficial. Train the trainers so that they are more effective and then give them the tools they need to do it well. Training is a key capability that can add value across the organization.    

    Deepening Engagement

    Keeping trained, knowledgeable people is good for the bottom line and development is a great way to support retention. Evaluate how well the current training regimen is performing with regard to these efforts and look for improvement options. A personalized development pathway helps to communicate the value that the organization puts on their learning journey. This also helps enhance performance management by establishing goals and highlighting growth. Using training and development to engage people is a tried and true technique. People who feel valued and can see how they are making progress within an organization tend to be more loyal.

    Pursuing perfection in the PDS can help fight high inflation. Last week we looked at optimizing the recruiting and onboarding efforts to lower costs. Continuous improvement in the way we train people requires a determined effort to see how time is spent and effort is expended. It requires that we look at workforce training delivery, at training materials such as job breakdowns, work instructions, and training modules, and at the technology we use. Thinking long-term about improving the people development system will help in this era of high inflation and will continue to pay off when inflation recedes.

  • Employers: Fight Inflation by Improving Your Workforce Development System

    Employers: Fight Inflation by Improving Your Workforce Development System

    Covid 19 and inflation have this in common; few escape the impact that they have inflicted. These wide-ranging effects are felt everywhere – at home, at work, and in every community; demanding that we change and adjust to their presence. In the case of inflation, the first line of attack for businesses usually includes the search for lower material prices, cost savings in operational areas, and, unfortunately, the perceived need to cut staff levels. However, with supply chain issues complicating matters and labor market challenges confounding the picture, there is a need to look in other places for efficiencies, savings, and improvement opportunities. As organizational leaders search for these elusive prospects, don’t forget to look at your people development system (PDS).

    Continuous Improvement for the PDS

    Although the concepts of continuous improvement have gained ground in many industries, often times, the PDS is overlooked as a system ripe for improvement efforts. For clarity, the typical PDS consists of the processes needed to attract, train, and retain talent:

    • Recruiting
    • Onboarding
    • Retention
    • Performance management, and the engine that drives the PDS
    • Training

    Even if these workforce training and development processes seem to be doing well and yielding acceptable outcomes, the system as a whole, and each of these processes separately, can still be examined to identify waste and opportunities for improvement. In future posts we’ll explore the potential of improvement in other PDS functions, but for now, let’s consider the processes for recruiting and onboarding.

    Look for the Less Obvious Options

    At a chamber of commerce sponsored event last week I heard a panel of employers discussing the changes they made to improve their efforts to attract and retain talent. The bulk of the conversation focused on the obvious levers – increasing wages, offering flexible schedules, increasing benefits, etc. Not much was said about the less obvious opportunities. Those opportunities that are often part of the system and can easily become invisible. These are varied and can include things like creating more inviting job postings that appeal to different audiences. Connecting to new and different recruiting avenues in the community that might help diversify the team. Evaluating recruiting sources and methods. Looking closely at communication pieces that are shown to potential new team members or to the community. How might these tools used during the recruiting effort be improved?

    The Importance of Connections

    The optimized PDS operates as a complete system utilizing connections and feedback from all five areas. For example; does the training program inform your recruiting efforts by helping to identify the ideal candidate’s knowledge, skills, and abilities? Does the training program also help build out the job descriptions and job postings thereby increasing the probability of training success? By connecting training to recruiting, the PDS becomes more efficient and can ultimately save money by making the recruiting process more effective. Connections should exist across the PDS, how might they be strengthened?

    Versatile PDS Tools

    Enhancing employee engagement can reduce turnover, driving down costs. These efforts start in the recruiting stages, gain momentum in the onboarding process, and are sustained throughout the other PDS processes. Using an onboarding plan and schedule can help with new employee engagement and potentially reduce attrition at the early stages of their time with the organization. Presenting a new hire with a personalized development pathway can increase the likelihood that they will stay connected longer, allowing the company to realize an ROI. This pathway is created by and used throughout the whole PDS. If you have this tool, how well is it performing? If you don’t, can you add it to your PDS tool kit? Also, a well-designed onboarding process will optimize the time and effort of everyone involved. Another source of savings.

    Other Potential Improvements

    It seems as though, pressured by current circumstances, many companies have made the screening process less strenuous by lowering standards and eliminating requirements and steps. After all, there is a need to get people in the door quickly. Could this be contributing to the cycle of high turnover that many are experiencing? There’s a future blog post on this whole idea, but for now the question is; can the recruiting and onboarding process be improved by updating screening tools and methods? Bringing the right person on in the right way could help reduce losses when a mismatch results in their departure. When they walk out the door, the organization’s investment up to that point goes out the door too. Perhaps the better investment is to be more selective in the early stages. It might seem counterintuitive, but certainly worth debating.

    Improving the PDS Adds Value

    For organizational leaders, in the face of stubborn inflation, the challenge is to find innovative ways to offset higher costs by gaining efficiency, cutting waste, and improving processes in all the systems within their control. Since every organization has a PDS in some form, operating at some level of efficiency, it stands to reason that working to continuously improve this important system can contribute to the bottom line, often in dramatic ways.

    It’s Worth the Time and Effort

    Like improvement efforts on all complex systems, it will take time to explore the PDS for opportunities. Numerous studies, papers, and articles suggest that high inflation is going to be with us for a long while. Which means that the time invested to improve the system should allow the ROI to be realized in the current circumstances and any changes implemented to pay dividends even after inflation is tamed.

  • How Well do You See This System?

    How Well do You See This System?

    Most organizations have this system but many are missing the opportunity to optimize it. That’s because nearly everyone is familiar with each system component, however, few see how they work in concert. This difficult-to-see system is the people development system. It is responsible for many, many deliverables with regard to finding, training, and retaining people. By many measures, it is the most important system within the organization because it empowers all of the other in-house systems. The PDS underpins numerous relationships and fosters communication across the organization and, for those that choose to maximize its performance, it offers opportunities to realize gains and improvements that otherwise might go unrealized.

    More than the sum of its parts  

    The PDS encompasses all necessary steps that bring people into the organization and connects them to organizational activities. But it is more than that. It may be more commonly known as workforce development or perhaps the human resource system, but I prefer the name People Development System because it is a reminder that real people with real names and real faces are the ultimate focus of these processes. This system is the mechanism by which value is exchanged; the value that the individual brings and the value that the organization brings. The PDS humanizes business plans. That is; it facilitates the human interactions that power those plans. The five functional components of the PDS are:

    Communication Channels

    Within the system, communication should occur all through the PDS. For example, information is passed through the system to determine performance, identify needs, and for planning and additions, etc. A well-connected PDS will pass communication through these five areas so that the different stages of the systems are all aiming for the same outcomes and using the same measures. Communication from the system to the team member begins in the recruiting process and that effort should become an ongoing conversation throughout their tenure. There should be a continuity to those conversations that both parties value and honor. To optimize the PDS, the organization can closely examine these communication connections and the tools and data used. Even if the current methods are good, there might be opportunities to make them better.  

    The PDS communicates via:

    • Data – what is happening, performance measures, system conditions, etc.
    • Artifacts – development pathways, reports, storyboards, etc.
    • Leadership – talking about the PDS, conveying info through the PDS, one-on-one discussions, and generally managing the system.

    To get the most out of each of these, a close examination might reveal some improvement possibilities. Are we getting all the data we need? Can all stakeholders see the PDS and how it is performing? Are leaders (this includes all leaders, not just the HR pros) equipped to manage the PDS effectively?

    Developing Relationships

    All five functional areas of the PDS are relationship driven. When a new team member is added, the obvious intention is that they will experience all five dimensions of the system. An easy analogy might look like this:

    Creating conditions and mechanisms that foster strong relationships can add strength to the organization. Conditions are mostly a factor of the organization’s culture. Does it support relationship building? Tools can include development pathways and career ladders, while leadership development strategies can help build stronger coaches, more empathetic leaders, and better communicators. Continuous improvement here can pay huge dividends.

    Hiding in Plain Sight

    As the PDS functions, significant system processes are transactional and therefore hard to recognize. Some aspects are visible – job postings, onboarding plans, training schedules, etc. However, crucial conversations occur at different times, development plans are discussed privately, appreciation activities are held, and coaching and mentoring play out somewhere in the organization. A visible system like that involved in the manufacture of some object is easy to see. The PDS is a non-linear system, with functions happening in various places and at various times all over the organization. A system like this can be easily overlooked for improvement opportunities.

    What if you didn’t have to rely on an image that pops into one’s head when the PDS was discussed? Some system functions are invisible and happen “behind the scenes” so to speak. But a flow map and some simple graphics could help the team begin to define the connections and their importance. Development pathways (a.k.a. learning plans, progression plans, etc.) can also help because these can be used throughout the PDS journey from recruiting through performance management. Helping employees make this personal connection to the big picture could potentially heighten engagement. Ideally, making the PDS visible to all stakeholders could help them relate to the system in a more meaningful way.

    Finding the Potential

    The processes that organizations use to find, train, and retain people is a dynamic system that can be difficult to see. This system, like all others, is open to the concepts of continuous improvement. A good place to begin is to look more closely at the whole system, the connections between the five areas, the tools, the data, and the leadership that administers the system. There are certainly benefits to be found by optimizing this system. This process, like all continuous improvement efforts, takes time and effort, however, the payoff can strengthen the most important of organizational systems.