On the heels of yesterday’s post about rethinking employment process in America, China Gorman writes,
This is so timely, Laurie! I was at a meeting in Washington DC last week with a number of corporate, government and non-profit leaders who were considering a very basic question: What would have to happen for every adult in the U.S. to understand basic career management principles, be skilled in career management, and actually own their own careers? It was a fascinating conversation that was summarized in this way: is it really possible to have a national career development policy? What do you think?
I love the idea — but I wonder if you can you have a national career development policy without addressing other issues in the workforce.
- What about an improved national education policy?
- Do we need to think about Gen Y and Gen X disabled veterans have come home from war and need to reenter the workforce?
- What about a more forward-thinking approach to diversity and inclusion in the workforce? Where does that play a role in this debate?
There’s another elephant in the room. Can you have a national career development policy without a national healthcare policy?
I want to know what do you think about a national career development policy. What would it look like? Would we embrace Mike Rowe’s message about a re-commitment to trade schools? Should we encourage shop class along side of math and science classes in high school? Do we need to focus on a more skilled labor pool along with creating workers ready for a knowledge-based economy?
Thoughts, please. China needs them.
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I think that a national career development policy starts with ownership of whatever you choose to do – trade school, college or entrepreneur. But, I do not believe that the majority of workers will ever own their own careers. Many workers feel entitled and are complacent. The problem is that you get more out of your career if you take or demand more from yourself and your company. We’ve all seen it in HR. Those who ask, get. I actively encourage friends and employees to take ownership of their career and it rarely happens. How many people have an updated resume and linkedin profile? I do and I encourage our employees to update their resume after their annual review, but my guess is that no one has. Nothing good comes to those who wait and, unfortunately, most people are waiting.
Laurie, the short answer to the question “Is it possible to have a national career developent policy?” Is no. Today it would never happen.
That’s not to say it couldn’t happen down the road, but it would be a long and hard road for the following reasons:
- Each and every private company in the U.S. would have a difficult time rationalizing a national career development pool that they all share providing any of them with a unique competitive advantage over each other. This creates the next issue…
-Funding. Where would the money come from? The nation is mortgaged to the hilt (btw – both parties are guilty – this isn’t a political manifesto), private industry would be hard pressed to find reason to fund on a large enough scale (sure global competition can be a rallying cry, but in the end there is no altruistic sense of good that would hold private industry together).
-Culture. There would have to be a huge, fundamental shift in our culture the likes of which has not been seen since the great depression. The concept of removing equity disparity between executives and blue collar roles is not realistic. Americans have spent the last 60 years killing vocational training based on the drive to have our children “do better” than us, which has driven a cultural disdain for what I call backbone positions (builders, the trades, etc.). This is the culture that wants their kids to be as “succesful” as Speidi, not out driving nails.
Those are the BIG issues as I see them, however is it doable, yes, but as I said it will be hard and painful road.
In order to make it happen we need to do the following:
-define the value proposition, both short term and long term. How is this going to make the majority of Americans better off than they are today (also yesterday – people want that back or you better to give them a good reason why it ain’t coming back and one that shows that’s good for them), and tomorrow. This will be a very hard thing to do, and I would encourage a discussion extending beyond the egg heads in academia and in D.C. If you want a good value proposition, ask for it. Ask real American’s to define for you why this would be good.
-Redifine rights, responsibilities and expectations. A job is not a right, the ability to chose your job is. Education is not a right, it is a privelage. Hell, driving isn’t a right, it’s a privelage. We have come to confuse rights, privelages, and entitlements in this country and at some point lost the concept of the responsibilities that go with those. If we are going to have national career development, then we need to tie back responsibilites for all involved, the companies receiving the benefit of trained and skilled workers, the workers themselves that receive the training and the compensation, and the country as a whole the benefits from the labor and subsequent products and services. It’s too early to define those metrics, but you can’t say you’ve succeeded unless you can prove it.
-The Unions are out of the equation. I personally am ambivalent about unions, but they failed to protect the American workers for the last 30 years, and that means they’ve got to go. If we are going to have national career development, then I say training is non-profit (which doesn’t mean free btw), and tied to measurables. Unions no longer operate strong training and apprenticeship programs, so bye bye. Programs that are successful are rewarded, those that are failures are shuttered and replaced. As I noted above you redifine the rights and responsibilities and make them law. No the role of Union as protector of the worker can be assumed by government where it belongs.
As to your other bullet points:
Yes we need an improved education policy.
- Treated gifted students like you do special needs students. Give them individual attention and development plans.
- Shop is mandatory for all Americans. Let’s do our best to teach common sense, since clearly we can’t legislate it.
You take care of veterans, period.
Diversity and inclusion are givens. You create more jobs than people and all of a sudden everyone is chasing the best people regardless of race, gender, etc.
Laurie, sorry this rant was so long, but you hit a nerve with me today, in a good way!
To be honest, the government is the last place I’d look for something like this. I worked in city government for a bit when I was in college, and the people I met (most of them, anyway) were pretty much the poster children for NOT managing your career or taking any sort of ownership whatsoever.
I also think that career management is about owning it, and that’s something that can’t only apply to your career. People who manage their careers well are people who manage their lives well, by taking responsibility, by working to develop marketable skills, and by being open to opportunity. I think schools can certainly encourage this, but unfortunately, it’s really up to parents to instill those values.
One of the things that inspires me in terms of my own career planning is studying history. This summer I’ve been reading a lot about the pioneers (the white ones, anyway, not the original ones) who settled in upper Midwest and the western U.S. These people came from countries where you inherited your dad’s farm (or a piece of his farm, or maybe just the right to work on the farm or hire yourself out to your older brother). Then you worked on that farm until you died. Then your kids did the same. And some of them said, “Y’know, this isn’t for me. I heard about this place where I can do whatever I want. I’m going there.” And they spent eight weeks on a boat with no food except what they brought on, no running water, no antibiotics. Then they maybe took a train, or a stage coach, or even walked to places where there were no roads, no signs, no government office, and no internet. And they figured out how to make a life for themselves and their families, in this completely foreign place, in a foreign language, with no help (well, there was some help in the form of the government taking land from the people who were already there…but that’s another story).
So I read about these people, and I think, can I make a career change, here in my nice house with my internet connection and my antibiotics when I’m sick and my college education and my food that Peapod delivers right to my door? Yes. I think I can.
This might be my most delicious combination of ramble-ism and history-geek EVER. You’re welcome.
I’m not sure I buy into the idea of a national career development policy. Not that I’m against it, but if we can’t agree on a national healthcare policy I think career development policy is a long way off.
I do think we need to help students re-think career planning and development. Kids in school today can expect to live longer, and continue to work later in life. They will likely have mutiple careers in a lifetime, so they should be encouraged to think about what interests them and what will make them happy now and in the future. They should also think about learning, training and professional development as an ongoing process/journey rather than a goal/destination. Finally, I think we need to manage kids’ expectations and encourage them to take responsibilty for their own career planning and development.
Here’s a short clip of Ram Charan talking about taking responsibility for your professional growth. http://bit.ly/Th09b
I think Kip is right on the money with the need to focus on kids while they are in school and educate them about the workforce and career management. I was taught you go to school, get grades and you’ll get a good job (whatever that is). Boy was I ignorant.
I hope we never come to a day when we have a National Career Development Policy. Do we really need one more thing for the government to try to manage and get right?
@laurie I have to agree with Puf to a large extent. Far too many special interests exist for us to ever craft any form of coheent national policy that would stick. Even green jobs are problematic already, between unions trying to grab control for organizing purposes, and various govt. agencies trying to ensure placement of the jobs within their constitiuency.
And it just goes on and on:
AFL-CIO
Trumka Says Labor Will Challenge Democrats
Who Fail to Support Public Health Option
Trumka, who is expected to be elected president of the AFL-CIO at its convention Sept. 16, said in his prepared remarks that he was talking about “the politicians who always want us to turn out our members to vote for them, but who somehow, always seem to forget workers after the votes are counted.”
He denounced those legislators “who don’t understand that their job isn’t to make insurance companies happy; it’s to keep Americans healthy. Legislators who say they’re are all for health care reform, but refuse to stand up for a public system that puts people before profits.”
Contending that some legislators want to write a bill that Republicans will vote for rather than to come up with a “health plan that works,” Trumka said, “I think they need to understand that you can have a bill that guarantees quality, affordable health care for every American, or you can have a bill the Republicans will vote for. But you can’t have both.”
The public option is one of the measures that the AFL-CIO has said must be in any health care reform bill and was part of a grassroots campaign for health care reform during the August congressional recess (150 DLR A-7, 8/7/09).
Needs of New Generation of Workers Discussed
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard L. Trumka Aug. 31 warned Democratic lawmakers that the labor movement will challenge those who fail to support a public option in a health reform bill.
“We need to be a labor movement that stands by our friends, punishes its enemies, and challenges those who, well, can’t seem to decide which side they’re on,” Trumka said in a speech hosted by the Center for American Progress.
Trumka’s remarks on health care were part of a broader speech on the future of the American labor movement, which he said will be decided on whether unions can “reconfigure ourselves to respond to the needs of a new generation of working Americans.”
Trumka said that young workers are in an “economic free-fall” with many of them not having health care, paid sick leave, paid vacations, or pensions.
When young workers look at unions, they often see a “remnant of their parents’ economy—not a path to succeed on their own,” he said.
“We all hear a lot about unions coming back into the AFL-CIO—and that’s a personal priority of mine—but, ultimately, it won’t matter how many unions are in the AFL-CIO if we fail to capture the imagination of millennials,” Trumka said.
While young workers do not have some ”deep-seated hatred of unions,” he said, they do not think “we have much to offer them. That’s not the way it has to be.”
The labor movement must change “the way we work” and focus on the needs of younger workers as well as contingent workers, Trumka said, adding “we can’t ask millennials to change the way they earn their living to meet our model for unionism; we have to change our approach to unionism to meet their needs.”
Trumka noted that many young people going to college are in financial difficulties when they graduate. “Fighting to make college affordable may not be a traditional union issue,” he said, “but, if we care about the economic security of young workers it has to become one.”
In addition to addressing the interests of young workers, Trumka said the labor movement also must address the needs of workers who have been the target of racism or any kind of bigotry.
“That’s why, after the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law, our first priority has to be launching a drive to organize this country’s five million (4.8 million) poverty wage African American workers-and other minority workers and the women the labor movement left behind.”
Laurie: thanks for teeing this up with your brilliant and engaged readers. So, the group I was with last week pretty much focused where your readers are focusing and that’s in the curriculum of elementary, middle, and high schools. If we can’t start teaching concepts and skills around career management there, we’ll never have an adult population who own their lives or their careers and are employable throughout the cycles of their lives — and wo drive the competitive workforce engine of the U.S. So, it’s easy to describe, but we haven’t had much success graduating kids from high school who can read, do simple math and interact successfully with others, much less graduate with basic career management skills. Heck, we can’t even increase the percentage of kids who actually do graduate from high school! So is it pie in the sky to think we can impact the future of our workforce through a national policy? If a governmental policy isn’t the answer/or isn’t possible, then how do we get it done anyway? What can business do to begin to move the needle? What can HR do? Or do we just throw in the towel and relegate our workforce to continuing the slide out of global competitiveness?
Why not have HR professionals offer go to into schools and give talks to high school kids about this?
I recently connected with a friend from high school. She goes into schools and gives talks to kids about managing their money, not running up a big credit card debt, etc. (stuff their parents should be teaching them…but that doesn’t always happen). Why couldn’t we volunteer to do that for career management as well?
L, Better late then never. We can bail out the banking system, save AIG so why not a national policy?
Here’s the secret…keep it simple….Mandate every high school offer a career class in 11th grade (maybe an elective like shop or Art, but required)…build a framework and let every public and private school run with it…Don’t sweat the details, and what a great way to get the PTA involved in something real and meaningful…
M
@Bonita I think you’re right. Ownership of a career starts at home and most people don’t think of ‘jobs’ as a career. They think about it as an activity.
@Puf Awesome. I am thankful. You can get your rantypants in a bunch on my blog ANYTIME. I don’t disagree with you at all. I’d encourage you to reach out to China. You need to get in SHRM’s ear (in a good way) to influence this discussion.
@Kip “Do what needs to be done.” OMG. Nice and so fitting. That is exactly what made America. Not because it’s easy — but because it must be done. That’s success. Perfect.
@Michael Trumpka is kicking ass and taking names on the media front. Let’s see if he can deliver.
@China When you answer those questions, I’ll award you the Nobel Prize. Those are tough questions in the best of times. Do we want to teach career management techniques or accountability as citizens in our country? I’d start by teaching the basics: you must have a job, you will always have a job, and working is non-negotiable. How you work, what you earn, and how you spend your money will change. Your status as a contributing member of American society will not change. You will do something. There will be no more extended summer breaks and prolonged adolescence in America.
@Kerry It’s good to speak with kids — I wonder if this is a successful model, though. Planned Parenthood came and talked to the kids at my school, we watched horrible movies on teen driving and auto accidents and listened to speakers from MADD, and we had a whole entire Consumers Ed course in high school. I wonder it makes a difference? If you save one kid and he manages his career wisely, does it make the effort worthwhile?
@Mark I’m kind of ready to write off these current generations (mine included) and start fresh with the youngins. Is that too cynical of me?
There are more comments on http://facebook.com/punkrockhumanresources thanks to the Networked Blogs feed.
There are definitely ways that the HR community can become involved in helping teach career management to youth.
The Portland SHRM chapter (PHRMA) in Portland, Oregon has a Workforce Readiness project.
Their website explains the project. http://www.portlandhrma.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=13
“Workforce readiness activities include:
-Partnering with local schools to share information.
-Identifying and evaluating issues that impact workforce readiness.
-Serving as a resource for chapter members on workforce readiness issues.
-Monitoring local activities concerning workforce readiness.
-Developing and supporting workshops and seminars that address workforce readiness issues.”
The PRHMA Workforce Readiness Project has many partnership in our community. I volunteered with the organization New Avenues for Youth through the Workforce Readiness project. Our work included helping high school students prepare to enter the workforce, develop resumes and practice interviewing skills. PHRMA also helps run the yearly Northwest Youth Career Expo.
Career Management seems to fit right in with the mission of the Workforce Readiness project.
I’m thinking there are other SHRM chapters doing similar projects. Imagine what we could contribute if each SHRM chapter had a Workforce Readiness Project.
@Kerensa WHOA!!!! Are you on Twitter? @chinagorman would love to connect with such an awesome HR person like you!
Thanks Laurie,
Yes – I am HR_kerensa on twitter. After attending the Blogger panel session at the SHRM Conference I started using my twitter account. I also started reading blogs. It is exciting to participate in the online HR community.