Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Should You Get Rid of Classroom-Based Training?

My colleagues Bruce Tulgan and Jeff Coombs at Rainmaker Thinking have trained thousands of managers in their 20+ year careers as generational management experts.  In that time, they’ve identified five problems with the typical classroom-model of training.

Training is short-lived and event-based

When training occurs on one or two days every once in a while, it creates short-lived excitement and short-lived skill uptake and on-the-job application.

Training is in a bubble

Classroom training tends to be removed from the day to day work experience of the participants, both in terms of time and real world application.

Training is now or never

When an employee misses a training class due to other obligations or due to starting employment after the class, he/she is left behind until there is another opportunity to take the class and by that point the class may be “history” to the rest of the group.

For more issues with classroom-based training and alternative solutions you might consider, have a look at my full post at Intuit's Fast Track blog.

 

Do You Understand Your Business?

No matter your role or industry, understanding your business will help you succeed more quickly in your job.  Here are some tips for acquiring this knowledge without breaking a sweat:

Pretend You’re Preparing for an Interview

If you were heading over to your company to meet people there for the first time, you would do your research in advance.  You would want to know current details on the business’ mission, vision, and goals, as well as its operations and challenges.  As an outsider, you might check out the website, the most recent annual report, financial and product press releases, and your favorite business news outlets.  You would skim industry and trade publications online.

As an insider, you may have access to the firm’s strategic plan, which you should try to get a hold of if you can.  This document will usually list key goals as well as development, communications, and staffing plans, and you do not need to be a highly-placed executive to map it to your daily responsibilities.  And the more granular you can get, the better.  If you work with the marketing department, for instance, ask for a copy of its individual annual plan and budget, competitive analysis, and any status reports it regularly delivers to the CEO.

For more advice where this came from, read the full post on the Fast Track blog.

Take Control of Your Career Today

Don’t you love it when the fates align? At the same time that I was writing a New York Times op-ed on the rise of the independent workforce, I had the opportunity to meet Nacie Carson, a twenty-something author and steadfast proponent of training people in her generation to be prepared for a world of temporary, contract work.

In her new book, The Finch Effect, Nacie warns professionals that instead of waiting for a recovery in the job market that is never going to come, we must take our careers into our own hands. Using a set of five strategies, which Nacie calls “the Finch Effect” (in honor of survival of the fittest Darwin’s avian inspirations), we can evolve productively in the years to come.

For Nacie's advice on taking your career into your own hands today, check out my post on the Fast Track blog.

The Magic Formula for Entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur, I face a significant challenge.

When you’re working in a large company, some form of mentorship is a given. Even if there is no formal program in place, your manager is responsible for providing you with regular guidance and opportunities for growth.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, are on their own. And given that I started by own business when I was 28, I find this scary. I still have significant gaps in my skills due to the absence of senior people who have been in my shoes from whom I could learn.

I’m not the only entrepreneur with this issue, and in response, a unique type of mentorship culture has emerged. In-person conferences and meet-ups organized for entrepreneurs and independent consultants are popping up everywhere, filling our need to trade ideas, share war stories and view our business problems from a fresh perspective. Such events are not only a great place to get support, but they are also ideal for networking with potential partners and customers and for identifying funding sources.

For more on how an entrepreneurial conference can help your current or future business, check out my full post on the AMEX Open Forum.

College Career Centers Are Challenged in Preparing Students for Work

The skills gap is getting wider.

According to the Job Preparedness Indicator research conducted by the Career Advisory Board in late 2011, only 14 percent of hiring managers felt that job candidates had the requisite skills to fill open positions.

At the Career Advisory Board, which is presented by DeVry University, our mission is to help job seekers and careerists advance, so we decided to go to the front lines and assess what career counselors thought about this.  This summer, we worked with the National Association of Colleges and Employers, an organization that connects career services professionals with HR professionals, to conduct a series of phone interviews and a formal survey with college career center directors.

In this research initiative, we explored some of the challenges directors face in their mission to help students land and succeed in jobs.  These obstacles include working with administrations that don’t understand the value of the career center, being understaffed, and assisting diverse students. 

As a result of their current circumstances, career centers have had difficulty ensuring that graduating students are “marketplace ready.”  Indeed, less than 25 percent of directors felt that most of their students had the tools and skills necessary to find a job.

Here, we delve deeper into the directors’ most pressing concerns and share topline thoughts on how we can collaborate to narrow the skills gap.

College Administrations Underestimate the Career Center’s Value

Overall, college career centers have a perception problem.  Many administrations view them purely as immediate “placement centers” and marginalize their role in shaping America’s future talent pool.  Unfortunately, this attitude negatively impacts student perception, and they may not use the career center as expeditiously as a result.

In our conversations, many of the directors claimed that although administrators are generally supportive of their efforts, this support is overshadowed by bureaucratic processes, budget cuts, and a lack of appreciation for the full range of available student services (assessment, employer matching, resume help, interview coaching, job fairs and educational programming – to name a few!).  Our formal survey especially echoed directors’ financial concerns: nearly thirty-two percent felt that their administrations were not particularly helpful with respect to funding support for the career center.

Unfortunately, without strong and well-funded career centers, schools’ hard-won and well-educated students will become percentages in the growing nationwide problem of youth unemployment. 

Directors must develop a value proposition of “total career preparation” and proactively market the breadth of center activities to school administrators.  They should aim to get a seat at the table in discussions around school mission and overall leadership strategy. 

Using benchmarking data from the schools who are most successful in transitioning students from college to career, directors must advocate best practices and lobby for an earlier and more forceful introduction to students (for example, implementing a mandatory career services module for freshman orientation and/or making 1-3 career center visits a graduation requirement).  Only this type of integration will ensure a solid understand of the essential steps to launch a meaningful career, and sufficiently motivate students to undertake them.

Career Services Centers Are Understaffed

When asked about their greatest need with respect to helping students, 42 percent of the directors said more staff.  Several had experienced budget cuts that made it difficult to support existing programs – let alone launch new ones.  Extra personnel in the career center would make it possible to provide more one-on-one student counseling and follow-up, expand educational programming, and enhance marketing efforts. 

Hopefully, greater visibility within the administration will result in the strengthening of career center ranks.  Career centers can also work with third-parties to offer free online and on-campus career readiness bootcamps and mentoring initiatives, and connect with local industry via meet-and-greets with students.

Private sector organizations can use their recruiting dollars to sponsor relevant software licenses for assessments, mock interviews, and other tools.   And finally, if career centers must do more with less, they should develop scripts for typical conversations like the initial student consultation and handouts for frequently requested information such as occupational research resources.

Meeting the Career Needs of Diverse Students Is Difficult

An incredible 85 percent of directors feel that they are not as effective in helping diverse populations such as adult students, international students, disabled students, minority students, and veteran students land jobs and prepare for successful careers.

One idea for directors to facilitate the advising and hiring of diverse students is to form programs that pair current students with similar alumni who are currently employed.  Such mentorships would provide insights that are unique and expressly relevant to a particular student group.

In order to better customize the approach for each student group, career centers need to create systems that will efficiently track students’ progress through the career center, and the services that are being used.  This will provide critical data with respect to what is working – and not working – for each group. 

The skills gap is a complex issue, and certainly career center directors and their staff can’t solve it by themselves, or overnight.  Nevertheless, they are a critical piece of the puzzle, and with some targeted effort, improving student career readiness is absolutely within reach.

Is a Staycation Day at Work Totally Unappealing?

When I posted on the Fast Track blog about taking a staycation day (i.e. mini sabbatical) at work in order to rejuventate one's career, I received quite a bit of pushback.  It seems that many people object for a variety of reasons.  So I wanted to pose the question to this community:

Would you ever take a staycation day at work?  Why or why not?

Please check out the post and let me know what you think!

Employee Innovation on the Rise in American Companies

I’m always advocating for employees of large organizations to take it upon themselves to create innovative solutions for their challenges; it’s a terrific way to exercise one’s creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. Fortunately, a new survey by Intuit QuickBase revealed that a growing number of employees are creating new apps or software to solve business problems without help from their IT departments.

Solo Efforts Deliver Value

The survey revealed that nearly one in five information workers has built or customized a Web app or software for work purposes without support from IT, resulting in faster help for customers, improved productivity and better collaboration among employees. Sixty-eight percent of information workers who built or customized an app on their own said they completed the work in less than a week, and 82 percent reported that their do-it-yourself solution is still being used within their organization or team.

Allison Mnookin, the vice president and general manager of Intuit QuickBase, explained the importance of DIY innovation.

“There’s a fast-growing population of do-it-yourself app creators in every organization that is taking advantage of easy-to-use, Web-based platforms, social networks and communication technologies to react to customer needs and improve work processes,” she said.  “To remain competitive, management and IT departments must empower and embrace these employees and support their ability to act quickly and drive their business success.”

Some Have to Go it Alone

But not all businesses see it this way.  A full 35 percent of surveyed organizations do not encourage employees to create solutions independently, and 50 percent of information workers have to turn to online databases and Web-based productivity apps, instant messaging platforms, video chat services and social networks to solve their own business problems.

This is, in my opinion, short-sighted, as organizations that are hostile or indifferent to employee innovation risk losing their best contributors to companies that will be more supportive.  Also, if employees are forced to develop their resources in secret, the company will not be able to take advantage of them once employees are no longer working there.

Change Starts with You

Attitude shifts, of course, start with the individual.  As a leader, you can support DIY innovation by surveying your employees to see how they envision solving their most critical internal and external problems.   Ask for their suggestions about new strategies and tools that can be employed, first on a trial basis and then as permanent components of your infrastructure.  Give them time out from daily responsibilities to scout for and test different approaches.  And finally, when a solution is developed, assist your employee in gaining support for it on the ground, and reward her for her efforts.

 

Use eLearning to Master New Skills

Back in the day, learning a new skill was a detailed proposition for which you had to carefully prepare and budget.  Now, thanks to eLearning, it’s as simple as opening a new browser window.

The main advantage of eLearning is that you can do it on your own time, which is convenient for those who are balancing work and family responsibilities.  It’s also less frustrating because advanced learners can whiz past topics they already know, while novices can progress through new content at their own pace.  Lower cost is obviously a benefit too.

The best thing about eLearning, in my opinion, is that it allows you to increase your marketability while still generating income, as opposed to traditional learning methods, which may require that you give up your whole life and financial livelihood.

Determine if It’s for You

eLearning comes in all shapes and sizes, but are some methods more effective than others?  Some experts think that learning is maximized when digested in 45 minute online sessions as opposed to 8-10 hour blocks.  Shorter sessions give people the ability to process the information at hand and apply it to their everyday jobs as they are learning it.  I’ve also found that lectures interspersed with interactivity (videos or quizzes, for example) keep things interesting and help you avoid the temptation to surf the web.

However, online learning is not for everyone, at least not over the long-term.  People who pursue distance coursework rely on online multimedia tools to simulate in-person lectures and tests, and you have to be completely self-motivated to make it work.  Many are spurred to action by the camaraderie of being surrounded by fellow students, and online study groups are not the same.

Research Courses

To find eLearning options, tap professional associations in your target industry, media outlets who cover your area, or government entities that support people in your line of work.  If a degree program is what you’re after, you can identify distance learning options by searching Google and the big social networks – just make sure your target institutions are accredited.

If you’ve never tried eLearning before, consider auditioning it in a situation with little to no risk or upfront investment.  Popular and inexpensive eLearning sites to check out include prfessor.com, Lynda. com, and learningannex.com.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

 

4 Ways Current Labor Trends Will Impact Your Career

I have been reading Laurence Shatkin since I was in college.  In the process of releasing the tenth edition of Top 100 Careers without a Four-Year Degree, he shared some insights regarding how current labor trends might affect people’s careers – now and in the future.

Education Pays

It’s no secret that people who have more education and training generally earn more than those with less, but the advantages don’t stop there. According to Shatkin: “Jobs that require education and training beyond high school are projected to grow significantly faster than jobs that do not. People with higher levels of education and training are less likely to be unemployed, and when they are, they remain unemployed for shorter periods of time. There are always exceptions, but it is clear that more education results in higher earnings and lower rates of unemployment.”

Tech Knowledge is Increasingly Important

Shatkin explains that in all fields, people without job-related technical skills tend to have a more difficult time finding good opportunities because they are competing with others who do have these skills. “Employers hire people who have the skills they need, and people without these abilities won’t get the best jobs. So, whatever your age, consider upgrading your job-related computer and technology skills if they are not up to date and plan to keep them current on your present and future jobs,” he adds.

Ongoing Training is Essential

According to Shatkin, rapid changes in technology have prompted the requirement for people to continue learning throughout their work life. He says: “Jobs are constantly upgraded, and today’s jobs often cannot be handled by people who have only the knowledge and skills that were adequate for workers a few years ago. To remain competitive, you will need to constantly upgrade your technology and other job-related skills. This may include taking formal courses, reading work-related magazines at home, signing up for on-the-job training, or participating in other forms of education.”

Career Planning is the Name of the Game

“Most people spend more time watching TV in a week than they spend on career planning during an entire year. Yet most people will change their jobs many times and make major career changes five to seven times. For this reason, it is important for you to spend time considering your career options and preparing to advance,” he explains.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

 

Do You Use Mobile Learning to Your Advantage?

John Hollon, Vice President of Editorial for TLNT.com, reports on a recent research study by Bersin & Associates, which says that “mobile learning finally has gone mainstream, driven by consumers in both the developed and developing worlds, and by mobile-technology oriented industries including high-tech, business services, and health care.”

Rising Global Use of Mobile Devices

According to the Bersin study titled “m-Learning: Mobile Learning is Finally Going Mainstream – And It Is Bigger Than You Might Think,” the use of mobile devices for learning has risen from 9 percent of U.S.-based organizations in 2007 to an estimated 20 percent or more in 2010.  In addition, more than a quarter of the world’s population now uses a mobile device, and frequent mobile Internet use has almost doubled in the past year.

Informal Use is King

The research also notes that the informal uses for mobile learning (referred to as m-learning) vastly outnumber the formal, and that these new applications increasingly empower today’s workers to access the information they need on demand.  Says Josh Bersin, chief executive officer and president, Bersin & Associates:

“Today’s enterprise learning functions risk becoming irrelevant if they do not rapidly respond to the power of new mobile technologies to both deepen and hasten the sharing of information across organizations, and to the changing needs and expectations for learning by new generations and geographies of employees.”

Examples of Mobile Learning in Practice

• Accenture created a uPodcast program that enables subject-matter experts and the organization’s leaders to share knowledge at a minimal cost. To date, 180 podcasts have been created and more than 20,000 employees – 11 percent of the total workforce – have accessed them.
• Coca-Cola turned to Kelley Executive Partners to create an alternate reality game that combines social and mobile technologies – including GPS and smartphones – along with collaborative and competitive team problem-solving. The game was designed to drive understanding of how millennial consumers use Web 2.0 technologies.

John reminds us that if our organizations aren’t making use of mobile learning, we’d better take another look and see how it can fit into our training and development programs, because this study makes it clear that employees are using their mobile devices for everything…including workplace learning.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.