'Workforce development'?

A recent Reno/Sparks Chamber member survey revealed that 95 percent of the respondents feel that workforce development is important. Nevadaworks is the local Workforce Development agency for northern Nevada. Local educators are engaged with businesses in defining what workforce development needs are most pressing for current and future work places. Question: What is workforce development? We are all using the phrase but do we agree on the definition?

Dictionary.com defines workforce as "All the people working or available to work ..." and further offers a synonym for development as "evolution." Thus we can define workforce development as "All the people working or available to work, evolving." And evolving is the key word. How our workforce evolves will determine the future economic success of this region.

As the northern Nevada workforce development agency, Nevadaworks is always challenged with interpreting this evolution. Working with businesses and individuals through the JobConnect system, we are faced with defining the obligations of individuals and their companies to continually learn. Yesterday's knowledge is a historical fact that often has little to do with today's jobs and many times will be irrelevant for tomorrow's workplace needs.

Learning and comprehension must be lifelong. In order to survive in the workplace, individuals must renew skills and learn new processes. Everyday items have changed and require new learning. Cell phones are no longer the size of brief cases and they take pictures. iPods the size of a pack of gum carry 10 hours of your favorite music and don't require a decision on 33, 45 or 78 RPM. Typewriters still exist, but who knows how to use them?

Businesses change daily if necessary in order to remain competitive. These changes cannot occur if the individuals hired to perform daily tasks are not able to comprehend and implement change. Once the changes are identified, whose responsibility is it to ensure the new procedures are learned and instituted? Must the business automatically pay for new training? Does the individual have the responsibility because once learned the knowledge cannot be taken back? The answer is yes. Yes because everyone and every organization has a stake in the outcome and thus has a responsibility for the training.

Current salary surveys have revealed that our regional average wages are below the national level by approximately ten percent. When businesses try to attract new employees, salary to be paid is very important. If an organization requires its workforce to evolve rapidly, then most individuals want compensation to cover that expectation. Starting with below-average wages adds to the burden of attracting qualified employees. Thus businesses are faced with ever escalating costs to hire, train and retain employees in this region. With the nationwide labor shortage, this will only become a grater burden on local employers.

All is not gloom and doom. When people care and leadership emerges, positive results occur. Organizations must add ongoing training as a cost of doing business. Employees must appreciate the necessity of continuously learning new skills as dictated by their employer and realize that having new skills courtesy of their employer is often their best compensation.

Sacrifice will be required on all sides. Training organizations such as Career College of Northern Nevada and Truckee Meadows Community College are very flexible in establishing class times but are often limited to locations and class size. When an employer coordinates with these schools, it may be necessary to have the classes in a classroom rather than on site and it might require paying individuals to learn in those classrooms. The individuals involved in the training might have to give up some non-work time in order to participate. Because of these sacrifices, all benefit.

Local training organizations and job help systems such as Nevada JobConnect exist to help the workforce evolve. Systemic help is no longer just for the entry level, skills challenged individual. Today, ProNet offers middle- and upper-level managers skill upgrades, business service representatives coordinate with company human resource managers and advise on a full range of employee issues. The JobConnect system is not the old unemployment office!

Change is often difficult and the worldwide competition of this century pushes change in Northern Nevada well beyond past levels. Not changing and evolving is not an option. Controlling and managing change as much as possible is the only answer. Together, this area must resolve to learn and comprehend and apply that knowledge in a positive way.

Nevadaworks continues to be the community advocate in identifying workforce evolution issues through its outreach with businesses, community based organizations and individuals. Nevadaworks encourages all organizations to support cooperative ideas such as the Reno/Sparks Chamber workforce initiative and EDAWN's Target2010 study. By working together, all people working or desiring to work will evolve into the future workforce needed to sustain our great region.

Tom Fitzgerald is chief executive officer of Nevadaworks.