I took a leave of absence to go work on the Obama campaign in Ohio. I could barely tweet (or do laundry for that matter). Blogging was entirely out of the question. I’m back in Oregon now. I picked up my own domain, and I’m getting started again here.

Thanks for checking and stay tuned – same time, different channel.

(For post @ paper #1, click here)

Proposed Adjustment Assistance Program

Building on their previous work, authors Grant Aldonas, Robert Lawrence, and Matthew Slaughter propose a new Adjustment Assistance Program to help all workers transition as their jobs and careers (and the skills required to do them) change.

The proposed program would build upon the current structure (enabled by Workforce Investment Act Legislation), taking advantage of the local participation, partnerships, knowledge, and strategic capacity that has developed over the past (economically turbulent) decade.

Expanded Role for Worker Transition Programs

But it also suggest an expanded role for worker transition programs – one aimed explicitly at continuous employment, lifelong learning, and economic security and not just short-term training and job placement.

Our current (short-term job-training and placement) system assumes that the point of training is to connect people to paying jobs as quickly as possible. But we have whole industries emerging, changing, relocating, and redefining themselves, while adopting new technologies and processes that make the same jobs barely recognizable to people who did them a decade ago.

Training No Longer Occasional

Training is no longer an occasional,  short-term, “gap filler”, it’s a constant – for people with jobs and those looking to find (or make) new ones. And for many workers, transitions are likely to be aimed at whole career changes, not just new jobs.

Jobs ≠ Economic Security

Moreover, jobs do not equal economic security. Income and insurance are also critical enablers of individual, family, and community prosperity.

The proposed Adjustment Assistance Program recognizes these labor market realities. It focuses on training and development for continuous employment (not just jobs) and economic security (not just wages).

Main Elements of Proposed Adjustment Assistance Program

While there are devils in the details, the program represents a break from out-dated program models.

Main elements include:

• A wage-loss insurance program.
• Provisions for continued health insurance (while eligible for unemployment insurance).
• Allowing workers to access saving and other assets without penalty.
• Expanded eligibility for federal training programs in combination with tax incentives for investments in lifelong learning (for employers and workers themselves).
• A wage tax (1.32%) to support an increased investment in worker adjustment programs and services.

Being Social (sharing e-books!) about Social Media

Chris Brogan’s original list/post (thanks Chris!) is here.

I’ve added others below.

• We Media – Chris Willis & Shane Bowman
• Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive – Mark Briggs
• Learning 2.0 (for Associations) – Jeff Cobb
• Strategic Communications Planning – Dave Fleet
• PR 2.0 – Brian Solis (the link goes to Brian’s blog, from which you can access several of his books – but you might also check out the recent posts and visuals on the Conversation Prism).

Happy treasure hunting!

A New Policy Agenda for the American Worker

Grant Aldonas, Robert Lawrence, and Matthew Slaughter offer a bevy of fair-minded and thoughtful policy proposals intended to make work in the global economy work better for people, firms, and communities in the US. While we could quibble with whether or not Congress is the most effective body through which to enact their proposed agenda, their ideas are important, and presented in a clear, cogent, and compelling manner.

I particularly welcome their ability to unpack the idea of “churn” (the simultaneous creation and destruction of jobs), explaining how it can affect people, firms, and communities in profoundly different ways that can be easily masked by national trend data.

Policy Recommendations

My abridged version of their policy recommendations follow (for the real thing, click the title above):

• Make FICA more progressive
• Combine Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) into a new progam that offers wage insurance, portable health insurance, relocation or small business start-up assistance, and training.
• Make all education and training expenses tax deductible.
• Create federal insurance to protect communities from economic shock.
• Create a national equivalent of enterprise zone programs.
• Make the cost of training to non-employees deductible for firms.
• Expand programs that help firms gain certification under international standards (ISO).
• Insure that US Trade Reps prioritize safeguards within the WTO.

More to come. They’ve also published a white paper on Adjustment Assistance. And I’ve posted a piece on it here.

Online Community Management for Businesses and Non-Profits

Deloitte’s ‘2008 Tribalization of Business Survey‘ is intended to inform the strategies of firms seeking to harness the value of online communities engaged around brand discussions, idea generation, and product discovery in the enterprise.

[Okay, I'm teasing a little here, the italics are meant to highlight a small sample of the jargon actually used in the article. What the authors mean (I think) is that the survey provides information that helps firms make money by communicating with groups of people on the web. Full disclosure: we non-profits also use language in ways that mystify, but I think the root of the issue here is that it's hard for (for-profit) research organizations to talk about how to make money from people they organize into communities but don't actually pay. A topic for another day...].

While obviously intended for a corporate audience, the findings should boost the confidence of many non-profits, and provide some insight.

Key Insights: Desire to Help, Shared Passions, Community Matter; Engagement Generates Knowledge; Community Management not Marketing

The survey reveals that successful communities are those about “people helping people” and whose members share a particular passion. (This is the confidence boosting part – any non-profit organization worth its salt was launched on this premise).

But it also provides a few pearls worth pondering.

First, the factors that most contribute ot community effectiveness:

• Ability for members to connect with like-minded people
• Ability for members to help others
• Community focus around hot topics/issues

Second, rich interaction and knowledge sharing generates collective insight.

Third, marketing has become community management, but one-to-many communications is not the same as community engagement.

Hmmm…..

Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research also contributed to the research.

Job Changing Reduces Incentive for Firms to Invest in Employee Development

Yesterday, I referenced Kauffman’s Disciple and Guru paper in a post about effective talent management practices. today I find “Your HR Guy” (Lance Haun) suggesting that firms have caught on to the fact that frequent job changing by employees reduces the likelihood that they will recoup the value of investments in employee training or professional development. In a post called “If Gen Y Gets Their Way, Training Goes the Way of the 8 Track”, Lance instructs us to get used to paying for our own training, education, professional development, etc. as firms stop investing in it.

This is precisely the opposite of the approach suggested by Disciple and Guru.

We Need Deep Knowledge, Technical Skills, and New Ways to Share the Cost of Acquiring Them

What’s happening here is a renegotiation process. Skills and talent are both individual and collective assets. People, firms, and government (representative of both) have shared the cost in different ways for decades. But today, technical skills become outdated more quickly, while and deep knowledge and creativity are ever more valued. This raises the demand for both higher levels of general education, and more sophisticated (and more frequent) technical training across the labor market.

But the costs of training, education, and development are increasing (along with housing, transport, child care and health insurance, as Elizabeth Warren points out here).

And the incomes of most individuals are not.

For Most, Incomes Flat or Falling

Change in Average Real Household Income Source: Economic Policy Institute

We’re going to have to reimagine, reinvent, and renegotiate.

Kauffman Foundation Report Highlights Effective Workforce Practices

The Kauffman Foundation’s recent study of workforce development practices of top Indian firms surprises. On the one hand, it offers descriptions of well-documented effective practices in recruiting, training, talent management, and so on. Ink (keystrokes) devoted to these practices fill volumes in American business texts, journals, magazines, and websites, and have long informed workforce programs across the US.

Ho-hum.

You’ll have to keep reading to get to the good stuff: case studies of 24 firms (many American, which turns out to be the point). Most of the firms profiled do not manifest one or two effective practices, but many. It is evident that the people agenda is a key strategic priority for them. The research team also documented multi-firm and industry-based collaboration on education, skills and talent – on a massive scale.

US Has Much to Learn from India about Workforce Development

The key insight is this: “Taken individually…certain practices may seem commonplace or conventional. Seen as part of a more integrated system, they become more than the sum of their parts and are able to realize significant advantages for the performance of their organizations.”

The report concludes: “The US can learn and incorporate…lessons from India as it rethinks how to train and develop its workforce to maintain its global competitive advantage.”

While we could quibble with who exactly we need to take action so “the US” can learn, the data (and insights) presented here deserve attention.

For more information about the research & team: www.GlobalizationResearch.com.

I’ve added a video of Vivek Wadhwa, the lead author, we (CSW) produced at an event last December. It’s not specifically focused on the Kauffman report, but it does address workforce issues.

Vivek Wadhwa on Skills and Worker Shortages
December 2007

Wallpaper Magazine’s Magnificent Work-themed Covers

Our friends at Wallpaper Magazine turned up the visual volume on the issue of work this month with the help of Anthony Burrill who designed four different covers. Collect them all (I’m framing mine).*

But wait, there’s more. The whole issue is devoted to work (spaces, places, tools). Yes, it’s an arts, fashion, and design magazine that can feel a bit indulgent. But take a look at “Off the Wall” in which Sophie Lovell and Joël Tettamanti document Montblanc’s approach to the factory floor – which doubles as an art gallery. A compelling (and simple) vision of a creative manufacturing environment.

Before you say, “That’s Montblanc…European…(etc., etc.),” there’s a company just outside Chicago that could give Montblanc a run for its money. Winzeler Gear has integrated art, fashion, and innovation in ways that profoundly inspire.

Exceptions? Or the new normal?

* Thanks to Creative Review bloggers for making the covers available and adding their own dose of humo(u)r.