Involving
Employees
You
can encourage your employees' participation and commitment
to learning by involving them in WEP development and
delivery.
Show
your employees that you value their input into the design
and development of your WEP and you build in their
commitment to its success.
Also,
by involving the participants of the WEP in the
development stages, you will likely increase the
usefulness of the training program to their
jobs. Employees may have insights into their
own personal training needs that management may not be
aware of.
Penn State University's
Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy conducts
research on Adult Learning, and has published
reports on Retaining Reluctant Learners in Adult
Literacy Programs and on Understanding and
Overcoming Resistance to Adult Literacy Education.
URL: http://www.ed.psu.edu/isal/nfrm_pubs.html
The
Employability Competency System by CASAS is
a structure for evaluating individual's strengths and
weaknesses as they relate to employability
competencies. The system focuses on
individual demonstration of employment competency mastery,
rather than spending a fixed amount of time in a program.
URL: http://www.casas.org/05Employability/05EmployabilityOverview.cfm
The American
Productivity and Quality Center (APQC)'s trained
experts support your internal efforts and work with your
existing teams to employ APQC's proven tools and
techniques. They also educate existing process and skills
"champions" in your organization on using and
applying winning methodologies.
URL: http://www.apqc.org/solutions/resources.cfm
Workplace mentoring
requires a partnership commitment that involves time,
energy, and resources of qualified mentors, school
personnel, and learners themselves. Workplace mentoring
requires planning, training, monitoring, and assessment to
ensure that the individuals being mentored will achieve
successful outcomes.
URL: http://www.ericacve.org/docgen.asp?tbl=tia&ID=152
This report explores
the term, informal learning, reviews the
results of research conducted by the Education Development
Center (EDC) Inc., and describes the planning strategies
and implications for practice offered by EDC and others.
URL: http://www.ericacve.org/docgen.asp?tbl=pab&ID=100
The Career Planning
and Adult Development Network keeps adults in touch
with career counselors, career coaches, job search
trainers and human resource professionals through its
publications, workshops and conferences.
URL: http://www.careernetwork.org/
Stanford's International
and Cross-Cultural Education Program offers teaching
materials on cultural differences, cultural awareness,
ethnic studies, international studies, and multicultural
education. Interdisciplinary lessons and tools include
cooperative group activities.
URL: http://spice.stanford.edu/
An article on an
unusual corporate philosophy, social leveling,
shows how Yarde Metals gets rid of the tension between
labor and management, and has everyone working together
toward one purpose.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/section/11/article/23/38/72.html
Companies that
build up internal training resources can reduce
their dependency on outside consultants and this lower
training costs. This article discusses combining the
training and design expertise of an outside organization
with internal experts prepped to teach the material.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/23/31/26/index.php
Teaching
employees who are subject-matter experts to be
trainers can be a low-cost way to teach the rest of the
organization. This article explores the issues of
developing employees into trainers, including training
needs and assessment, design, delivery, and evaluation.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/23/24/25.php
Sometimes managers
resist training for their departments. This
article illustrates how to work with reluctant managers
and show them the benefits of offering tailored training
programs to their staff.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/article/22/13/89.php
HR can create skills
and competency management systems, and can also
encourage employees to use them. Educate employees about
the benefits of improved skills to show their importance
for self-appraisal, career development, and other
processes.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/29/92/223613.php
Collective
bargaining agreements have spawned effective training
programs. By working together, unions and management can
create effective learning environments where adults can
take their next steps toward literacy and career
development.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/17/40/223650.php
This recent
report on joint labor-management educational programs
uses best practice examples to show the key design
elements as well as the benefits and impacts for
organizations, unions and individual workers.
Success
by Design (pdf,
258 KB)
This paper discusses
the union role in ensuring that American workers
have the skills they need in a dynamic workplace.
URL: http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/report3/rep23-27/rep24-01.htm
This report on the
importance of learners' perspectives on the
outcomes of adult basic education stresses the importance
of access to and participation in training. It also
provides a how–to guide for measuring performance and
outcomes. (69 KB)
URL: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/%7Encsall/research/op_bingman.pdf
A successful
joint labor-management training program is rooted in
cooperation. This article shares five qualities that
illustrate a good labor-management partnership for
employee training.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/17/40/223926.php
This article
discusses seven essential questions for employers
to ask before beginning an employee training program.
Answering the questions of who really needs training, what
are the costs and expected outcomes beforehand will help
to ensure effective and relevant training.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/17/10/223931.php
Employees can learn
informally through a learning process called
taxonomies - a matrix that shows how employees learn.
This chart condenses
the four taxonomies of informal learning by content.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/16/56/223792.php
A team-based
approach to mentoring can help reduce employee
turnover. Potential leaders are targeted by management and
coached through the development of critical leadership and
technical skills. Their progress is then carefully
followed by senior management and HR.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/22/16/68/index.php
Creating
a 'culture of work' by incorporating soft skills
into training can yield great returns in the workplace.
This article how examines how four groups have
incorporated soft skills training - such as courtesy and
team work -
into hard skills training curricula.
http://www.astd.org/virtual_community/research/What_Works/action/top_10.html
This
12-question quiz by Gallup can start employers off on
identifying and measuring levels of employee engagement
with their organization. Survey research shows a strong
correlation between high scores and superior job
performance.
URL:
http://www.workforce.com/section/09/article/23/53/40.html
Creating
a training program that doesn’t alienate employees,
and actually works as well, is no easy task. These
training tips, including asking employees about their
work-related challenges, can help employers create
training programs that employees really like.
URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/23/35/28/233530.php
This article identifies some of the
most common and critical patterns to know prior to
developing adult learning opportunities. Employers
and adult educators can learn about what it takes to teach
adults effectively, and the implications for traditional
and online learning.
URL: http://adulted.about.com/cs/learningtheory/a/lrng_patterns.htm
The Motivation Tool
Chest shares ideas on
developing productive skills through self-discovery.
Discovering and developing employees' natural talent is a
prime source of motivation.
URL:
http://www.motivation-tools.com/
Procevo sells
survey software that facilitates
staff satisfaction surveys. The results will enable
employers to improve staff motivation among other
benefits, including a clearer view of the actions needed
for success.
URL:
http://www.procevo.com/
WE LEARN promotes women's literacy
as a tool for personal growth and social change through
networking, education, action, and resource development.
URL:
http://www.litwomen.org/welearn.html
The Bernard Kleiman JobLink
Learning Center in East Chicago, Indiana serves unionized
steel mill workers. The Center's research findings explore
how to increase participation through improved
knowledge of workers' goals and motivations for
taking part in training.
URL:
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=217
This article
presents Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective
Adult Learning Programs. These are the results of a
study that investigated factors in adult learning
environments that best facilitate adult growth and
development.
URL:
http://www.newhorizons.org/lifelong/workplace/billington.htm
A new report by the Migration Policy Institute identifies
English acquisition as a serious challenge for both
legal and illegal immigrants. Businesses are encouraged to
invest more on English instruction as a way of improving
workforce capacity.
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/NCIIP_English_Instruction073107.pdf
Incentives to train:
Ensuring employer engagement is a UK research report
(40 pages) looks at findings from interviews and a
roundtable discussion. Participants evaluated existing
provision to incentivise training for employers,
identifying the major areas of concern and proposing
recommendations for change.
URL:
http://www.nationalskillsforum.org.uk/Incentives_to%20Train%20(2).pdf
Profiting from
Experience is a new research report that explores how
governments and employers in the U.S. and other countries
are responding to aging workforce issues.
URL:
http://www.aarp.org/research/work/issues/intl_older_worker.html
WelfareAtWork
shares ideas and information on how to encourage employees
to take part in training and development opportunities.
URL:
http://www.welfareatwork.co.uk/accessing-training-and-development-at-work.html
Dyslexia at Work:
Realising Your Employees' Potential
is an article that answers key
questions on dyslexia and provides advice to employers on
the best ways to create a dyslexia-friendly workplace and
to ensure you are meeting key disability legislation.
URL:
http://www.hrzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=184367
For
problems or questions regarding this web site contact campbell@conferenceboard.ca.
Last updated: Oct. 24, 2008. |