In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama said the administration was going to focus on creating jobs and getting people back to work. It’s about time. Really. We’ve all known for a painfully long time it will take getting people back to work to kick this recession in the butt. Employed people spend money and spending money grows the economy. I’m not Ben Bernanke and even I figured this out.
The initiatives to create jobs can’t come soon enough. In fact, I’m curious to know what’s going on with the outcomes from the jobs summit that was held last year. You remember the jobs summit? My recall of the event was very few human resources professionals were on the invite list. Such a shame. You’d like to think that any conversation about creating jobs would have HR pros in the room.
I’ve been biting my tongue about this for quite some time. I have my own theory on why human resources wasn’t at the jobs summit. It’s because HR pros aren’t focused on job “creation”. Instead they’re focused on job “readiness”.
Now be forewarned. If you’re not interested in job creation as a method to stimulate economic growth, or if you were hoping for something fluffier or sexy, please feel free to move along to another blog today. (But do come back tomorrow, I promise to lighten up. But today, I’m on a bent about job creation.)
Let me start by saying I’m not anti-job readiness. It’s important to prepare our current and future workforce for jobs. But let’s face it; if we have a whole bunch of ready people and no jobs . . . well, I think you can see the rest.
A few years back, I received an invitation to join our local workforce development board. My first thought was “Good grief, what does this have to do with me?” But I accepted the invitation and served on the board for several years. I learned a lot. Let me repeat that…I learned a lot. Here are a few highlights:
One of the most complicated things I’ve ever been exposed to is workforce board funding. The money comes from the federal government (via each state). The three major sources are the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the Wagner-Peyser Act. When I was on the board, we were keenly interested in everything that pertained to this funding. Interestingly enough, today I hear very little about the importance of these funding streams and the need to make sure workforce boards are fully funded.
Workforce spending is specific. Meaning that most of the time, workforce boards can’t just spend funding on whatever they want. Or in some cases what their community needs (do you see a problem here?). Each funding stream has very specific rules about how the funds are spent. This is why you might hear in some communities about training dollars being exhausted but other funds might still be available.
Partnerships are essential. Two key alliances are with economic development and education. Workforce boards work closely with their economic development counterparts to ensure businesses have access to talent. They also work with schools, colleges and universities to make sure certain jobs essential to the community have available curriculum.
Measurements are important, but they must be the right metrics. Workforce boards are no different than anyone else – their outcomes determine future funding. Unfortunately, when you work with standardized outcomes that have no accounting for local dynamics, a workforce board is placed in the position of balancing “making the numbers” with “satisfying a community need.” This has to be fixed.
Right now you’re probably saying: Sharlyn, this sounds so boring. Or maybe you think it sounds a lot like math. And that’s no fun.
Sorry but that’s the point. Fixing the jobs issue isn’t fluffy or light-hearted. It’s not sexy. It’s hard work. IMHO, it’s one of the best ways for human resources professionals (or any business pro for that matter) to demonstrate their ability to be strategic. Get involved in the creation of jobs. Learn how your workforce development system works and lead change where it’s needed. I guarantee it will be an educational and eye-opening experience. Not to mention the positive impact it will have on the economic recovery of your community.
Looking to help a friend or family member find a job? Help them by creating one.
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Michael VanDervort says
So, one of the things that I struggle with about the idea of so-called government created jobs is, do they last?
I am thinking about what I read a couple of weeks ago regarding the high-speed rails system planned between Tampa and Orlando. Estimates say it will create 40,ooo jobs – of which 600 will be permanent.
I understand that investment in infrastructure is important, that secondary employment and investment will result around the project, and that there is a likely long-term positive impact to the state from this investment in many ways – but $1.3 billion for 600 permanent jobs? Wow…
I’m kind of overwhelmed in being able to adequately state what I am thinking – that the role of government is to provide infrastructure to sustain a viable private sector economy, and to promote policies and programs that will allow the business community to invest and thrive, and create jobs in the private sector.
My brain is sizzling…
Avi Singer says
HRB-
Good post, what about conflict of interest? Won’t HR creating jobs be considered HR looking to stay relevant? Job creation is based on need. It’s nice to try and hire people, but what if we don’t really need them? I think the bigger issue we have is that the reason unemployment is so high is because spending is down. We don’t need as many cars, houses etc. therefore we don’t need people to create them.
I kinda like being focused on performance and ensuring that we recruit, develop and retain top talent. Personally, if we get that right, we could probably do with a few less employees.
As much as I would like to create jobs, my responsibility is to maintain a sustainable business model (it’s how and why I have a seat at the exec table). I agree with Michael on this one. Most of the spending is short term and will not solve the long term issue.
The long term solution is to identify future needs and ensure that the those who are unemployed today are not unemployed because their skill set has become irrelevant. If your skills are up to speed you have a higher likelihood of employment. I see too many resumes where the skills listed are no longer current. As an HR professional I try to spend my time ensuring that my employees and others I know are constantly honing their skills and keeping up with business requirements. Hopefully, this is where the bulk of any “job creation” money will go.
RHHR says
You are right on in this post – economic recovery is not going to be found only in entrepreneurial endeavors as some would have you believe but in commitment to reestablishing a large workforce that produces value beyond the jobs they create. Unfortunately creating that workforce development is not glamorous but real roll up your sleeves work.
hr bartender says
Thanks for the comments everyone. As you can see, the challenges of job creation are complex.
Avi mentions the Catch-22 we all face. If we want to grow the economy, we need more jobs. If we want more jobs, then we need to grow the economy. Obviously, any job that gets created needs to be relevant or we run the risk of not achieving the goal of economic growth. Which drives our nation’s sustainability.
Mike’s point also is key. We don’t want to equate bureaucratic boondoggles with the work of our local workforce development board. It’s about community jobs – created via government funded programs. Big difference.
Hopefully our conversation about workforce development boards will encourage people to learn more because they do need our help. As I mentioned in the post, they’re saddled with bureaucracy and inadequate metrics. If we want to see real progress in job creation (and economic stabilization), then change needs to happen. And some of the best business people to help usher in that change are in HR. We understand process development, job design, and metrics dashboards…just to name a few.
I really hope this post will get HR pros more intrigued about the dynamics of workforce development. And, I’d really like to see job creation become a larger part of SHRM’s agenda. As Robert mentioned, it would be great to see the entrepreneurial endeavors necessary to producing economic value.
Benjamin McCall says
You are right, this whole “Job Creation” thing is NOT SEXY…
but you know what IT SHOULD BE.
Hell if congress and the senate thought it was SEXY then maybe it would be done already!
my 32 cents!
Twitter: @BenjaminMcCall
Website: http://ReThinkHR.org
& LinkedIn
hr bartender says
@Benjamin – you’re right. People should want to make this happen. Hopefully, our enthusisasm will be contagious and we can get more people and organizations to make this a priority. Thanks for commenting.