DOCUMENT RESUME ED 480 002 CE 085 231 The Employer's Voice: Frontline Workers and Workforce TITLE Development. INSTITUTION Jobs for the Future, Boston, MA. PUB DATE 2003-00-00 NOTE 9p.; Results of a conference of Annie E. Casey Foundation Jobs Initiative sites (Washington, DC, March 13-14, 2003). AVAILABLE FROM For full text (requires registration): http://www.jff.org/jff/PDFDocuments/EmployersVoice.pdf. PUB TYPE Collected Works Proceedings (021) Opinion Papers (120) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Adult Education; Apprenticeships; *Cooperative Programs; Coordination; Employer Attitudes; *Employer Employee Relationship; Employment Potential; Employment Services; Entry Workers; Job Skills; *Labor Force Development; Labor Turnover; *Low Income Groups; Mentors; *Nonprofessional Personnel; Personnel Selection; Promotion (Occupational); Reentry Workers; *Social Services; Training Allowances ABSTRACT Seventeen small and mid-sized employers from Annie E. Casey Foundation Jobs'Initiative sites addressed the challenges of recruiting, retaining, and promoting frontline workers. Employers shared collaboration experiences with Jobs Initiatives sites to develop effective, efficient strategies to prepare and support low-income residents. Firms relied on frontline employees to ensure they thrived; all required literacy and job readiness far beyond what frontline workforce generally possess. Employers reported low work attendance and recognized these causes of retention problems: transportation, day care, and the relationship between wages and eligibility for public benefits. Many employers experienced problems recruiting workers with higher levels of skill and would have advanced frontline workers, but many workers lacked skills. Tuition reimbursement remained unused due to upfront costs, child care, transportation, and study time. Solutions to improve retention were a workshop on positive attendance, mentor/buddy system for foreign workers, and collaboration with Jobs Initiative intermediaries to develop work-readiness components. With collaboration of Jobs Initiative intermediaries, firm-based programs addressed advancement through improvements in tuition reimbursement policies, release time, reverse referral, internal career ladders, and reinvigorated apprenticeship programs. The Keynote Address (Steve Gunderson) described a workforce crisis consisting of the serious and widening gap between skills employers need to compete in the global economy and skills of the workforce. (YLB) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement . EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) his document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. O Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY The Employer's Voice: FrontLine Workers and Workforce Development TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 0 these slower economic times. Yet all took heart from their experiences with the Jobs Initiative sites, which n March 13-14, 2003, 17 employers from the Annie E. Casey collaborate with employers to develop effective, effi- 00 Foundation Jobs Initiative sitesMilwaukee, New Orleans, cient strategies to prepare and support low-income residents. Philadelphia, Seattle and St. Louisassembled in Washington, The following is a composite of the employers' DC, to address the challenges of recruiting, retaining, and promoting frontline voices, as they shared their experiences around hiring low-wage workers from Jobs Initiative sites and workers. Organized by Jobs for the Future, the conference provided a forum engaged in open dialogue with federal policymakers for a voice rarely heard inside the beltway: small and mid-sized employers on how the public workforce system can be committed to entrepreneurial success and the success of frontline workers. improved. The Challenge FRONTLINE WORKERS: Coming from a wide variety of industriesmanufac- turing, financial services, call centers, hospitality/gain- "Our previous owner invested $1 million in equipment but had no workers capable of using ing, fast food, health care, and business services the machines." these men and women came to Washington because Kenneth Hurzeler, Pferd Milwaukee Brush Company they shared the vision underlying the jobs Initiative: "There is a disconnect [between our needs and] America's businesses with good entry-level jobs can what they didn't learn at home, at school or in For More Information and will hire low-income residents from the nation's other work experience." inner cities if intermediariessuch as the Jobs _AA) Larry Crane, Northrup Grumman Ship Systems Initiative sitesplace a priority on meeting the work- PBS FOR 11-E FuruRE "Sorry, this conversation is not about high CICATINO STAATLGIt, force needs of America's businesses. Each of the 17 school, but why do we graduate these kids?" gave their own time for the opportunity to collectively Mike O'Connell, AD Tape & Label 88 Broad Street speak to an audience of key congressional committee Boston, MA 02110 Frontline workers represent 60 to 90 percent of the staff, U.S. Department of Labor representatives, and 617.728.4446 workforce for the firms represented at "The representatives from national policy and employer vo,Nw.jfilorg Employer's Voice." These firms rely on frontline organizations: the policymakers and opinion leaders employees to ensure that their establishments thrive. responsible for the nation's workforce development While their industries draw upon a variety of work- policies. Also in attendance were the directors for sev- place skills, all require literacy and job readiness far eral Jobs Initiative sites. beyond what today's frontline workforce generally Seated at a horseshoe-shaped table, the employers drew on their direct experience with their own firms possess. The ideal employee, one employer stated, is 18 and workforces. At the top of their agenda were the to 24 years old and drug-free. Even though these economic survival issues confronting businesses employers invest heavily in recruiting employees dependent upon the quality of a frontline workforce. "There is no place we are not looking!"the reality They all spoke of continuing challenges recruiting of who they find is available is "female, with one or and retaining qualified entry-level workers, even in BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 2 The Employer's Voice employer complained that public schools should do a two children, some high school and not enough work better job informing students that many of them could experience." make good livings in industries like construction without There was evident frustration with what young peo- going to college: the schools "should address this." ple know and can do when they finish high school. "We arc dancing around the big elephant here. We are looking RETENTION AND TURNOVER at 18- to 20-year-olds with third- and fourth-grade "Them is a new challenge in having a diverse workforce." skills." Welfare reform, with its "work first edict,' brings Debbie Bird, SAFECO Insurance Company employees into the workplace that do not have work "The folks who design these transportation systems need skills or a work ethic." One employer stated, "If you can't a new mindset." read a ruler, you are useless." Increasingly, these employ- Henrietta Mack, HMS Host Corporation ers believed, the pool of available frontline workers is composed of "non-traditional workers," with little or no employers noted that the incidence of "no call, no Many work experience, few skills, and often significant needs to show" is extremely high when frontline workers are poor improve their English language skills. and trying to raise families. One firm, which had recently Several employers had participated in local school-to- instituted a labor/management committee, reported that career initiatives and appreciated the diversity of students "attendance became 90 percent of the labor/management prepared to go on to college. But, as one employer noted, discussion." Another employer reported 100 percent "They are not going into my industry [construction]." turnover in the firm's fast food operation in one year. A number of heads nodded in agreement when one Many employers recognized that one cause of their retention problems was the sheer challenge employees face simply getting to work. Increasingly, frontline work- The Jobs Initiative ers live in cities while jobs move out to the suburbs. Public transportation connecting thc two locations is Launched in 1995, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Jobs Initiative spotty or non-existent, and new workers' personal trans- provides funding and support for community-based initiatives in five portation options are often limited. cities in order to help young, low-income workers find meaningful Day care is also an important factor in retention, jobs and to identify national employment and training models. For more information, see: www.aecforg/initiatives/jobsinitiative. especially for employers who operate shifts outside tradi- tional hours. New employees normally begin on the night shift, the hardest time to secure day care. The problem is exacerbated when children are in single-parent homes. Moreover, to secure subsidized day care, employees must Allocate more resources for skills upgrading. use certified providers and maintain a certain number of hours per week. Add the transportation barriers to the Invest additional resources in, and create incentives for, incumbent worker training. equation and problems result: employees don't put in Iniest additional resources in, and create incentives for, pre-employment enough hours, they lose day care, and then the job. training for entry-level workers. Even more disconcerting is the relationship between Include skills certification in training for entry-level workers. wages and eligibility for the public benefits that can help Improve the effectiveness of the public workforce system. working people make ends meet and avert the financial Encourage One-Stops to perform like any other employee sourcing service, difficulties that can lead workers to lose or leave their Have One-Stops utilize business-like customer management, with rapid jobs. As one employer said, "We face the whole issue of response and a clear point of contact. public benefits vs. work benefits, where earning too Improve the match between job seekers and the jobs employers are seek- much money takes away child care, Section 8, and a host ing to fill. of benefits, so people decide that work isn't worth it." Market the public workforce system to employers more Raising wages might appear to be an effective reten- effectively. tion strategy, but it is not a complete solution. According Conduct employer service fairs, including all relevant public partners. to another employer, "When people reach a certain wage Provide regular orientations for emoloyers about Workforce Investment level, they quit because they become ineligible for child Boards and One-Stops. care; to stay with us they have to turn down a raise." Use a consistent marketing message for employers. Another participant spoke ruefully of being aware that the Support intermediaries that use a dual-customer approach: firm paid "a little bit too much but not enough to survive." they serve employers by also serving low-income job seekers. AVAILABLE BEST COPY 3 3 Jobs for the Future la Solutions ADVANCEMENT TO HIGHER-SKILL JOBS "We can't wait for national solutions or look to "The reality is that people can't advance without Capitol Hill to make this work." advanced skills." Henrietta Mack, HMS Host Corporation Taylor Ward, Allegheny Child Care Academy "We can't do it alone. Intermediaries are essential." "Lots of people could benefit from on-the-job train- Leonard Toenjes, Associated General Contractors ing, and employers would use it if there were no strings attached" The employers attended the forum at the invitation of Tom Jones, Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. their Jobs Initiative partners. All were committed to find- ing "win-win" solutionssolutions that helped their Many of the employers at the forum were experiencing businesses andtheir employees thrive. And they had problems recruiting workers with higher levels of skill and ideas to share and innovations to recommend. would have been happy to advance their frontline work- ers. But many frontline workers were "locked in," as one RETENTION employer said, "by the specialized skills required." Often, As one employer said, "When workers improve their low literacy skills prevent frontline workers from benefit- attendance, they keep their jobs." How can that improve- ing from traditional training programs, which require the ment be achieved? ability to test at or near the eighth-grade level in reading "Wc collaborated with a provider, Workplace and, sometimes, math. Flexible, customized, work-based Change, and developed Positive Attendance, a four-hour training strategies are best, but, as employers pointed our, workshop that provided solutions for workers." The their cost can be beyond the reach of many businesses, workshop reduced attendance problems by 50 percent. and training removes frontline workers from work tasks. Another company, with 26 languages represented in its Many participating firms offer tuition reimburse- workforce, developed a mentor/buddy system that paired ment as a way to encourage their employees to acquire new employees with incumbent workers speaking the the skills needed to advance. However, this benefit often same language. Yet another created work-based ESOL goes unused. When asked why, several employers agreed programs for its "multicultural diverse workforce that that workers' upfront costsemployees pay tuition and includes African Americans, Lao, Hmong, and purchase supplies with their own funds and are only Russians." reimbursed latercan be prohibitive for people with low A large firm collaborated with its Jobs Initiative incomes. Added to that are the costs and hassle of secur- intermediary to develop a customized training/internship ing and paying for child care, finding and paying for program. The firm took advantage of the collaboration transportation to classes, and carving out study time. As to modify the site's training curriculum significantly, one employer concluded, "Skill training can be an adding work-readiness components to smooth the transi- impossible choice to make." Another suggested "trying to tion to employment. Internships at the firm immediately bring training into the community because the ability to followed the intensive training program, where new attend becomes an issue." employees had an opportunity to "learn the ropes" and Other factors as well can multiply workers' barriers to ger help from Jobs Initiative trainers before becoming advancement. For example, an employer reports that his full-time employees. requirement for frontline workers to have a "clean driver's license" for promotion to higher jobs hampers their Success Video: Advancing Workers: Achieving Business advancement within the industry. Stereotypes are also a common barrier to advance- a video from the Annie E.;Caser Advancing Workers: Achieving Business Success, ment. As one employer observed, "There is a disconnect Foundation; shows how the Jobs Initiative and other intermediary; workfOre because of the gap between frontline workers and super- efforts work with employers to help low-wage employees succeed and advance in visors, and neither sees the potential of the other. I want their jobs. This documentary shows bottom-line benefits to employers, including to be frank and candid: supervisors do not see frontline reduced turnover costs, higher worker morale, and increased productiVity.The workers as potential leaders or managers, and workers 15-minute video indudes compelling interviews with employers; workforce prac- lack self esteem." titioners, and employees, as well as footage from Jobs Initiative sites. Thpro;::. gram shows how changing demographics and'a decline in worker ecluCation are:': "With all that TANF does," another continued, "it increasing demands for a successful workforce. To view the video; goto::. makes people have no self esteem. If they had self esteem, www.aecforg/initiatives/jobsinitiative/aecf/;ump.ht(nl; it wouldn't be such a disconnect." 4 4 The Employer's Voice often with the collaboration of Jobs Initiative intermedi- Some employers have made use of a unique Jobs Initiative product, Managing to Work it Out, a training aries, firm-based programs to help frontline workers curriculum for supervisors. Another firm has benefited advance. Emphasizing that they "are committed to promoting from Twenty First Centuty Success Principles, a pre- employment training program developed by the New from within" and "investing in their people," employers talked about not only familiar topics, like skill training, Orleans Jobs Initiative. This program helps people with but also less-familiar innovations that sounded quite little work experience get ready for employment. Other useful ideas for improving retention rates came promising. For example, several employers recommended from Annie E. Casey Foundation Cultural Competence improvements in tuition reimbursement policies. Some committee member Karyn Trader-Leigh. The foundation employers have eliminated the barrier of "up-front" pay- and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies ments by paying themselves for textbooks and others supported Trader-Leigh's development of a series of tools for a multicultural workforce. The tools are designed for course materials and having "the community college send the tuition bill to us." Another employer described its the three major players in workforce development: work- partnership with a community college, which provides ers who will benefit from enhanced soft skills develop- "on-site, real time, comprehensive training that responds ment, employers who require new skills to manage an to individual workplace needs and worker skills assess- increasingly diverse workforce, and intermediaries who broker between the two. (For more information, see ment to develop customized training." One small company has instituted innovative strate- www.catalyst4change.com.) gies that allow frontline workers to take "controlled ADVANCEMENT release time" to explore advancement opportunities not Employers demonstrated a major reason the Jobs available within the firm. Another has set up a "reverse Initiative values their partnership when they addressed referral" system by working with other companies to the topic of advancement. People in the audience were advance and then "backfill" employees across an informal surprised to hear how many employers had initiated, industry network. Another offers Internet courses and 23 on-site paid training hours per year. s Several companics have benefited from strengthening D.. t or instituting internal career ladders. These firms develop t 1 I the skills of their frontline staff, creating candidates qual- ified for higher-skill vacancies within the same company. of Labor's commitment One firm offers paid incentives for workers to acquire At the forum, Tom Dowd detailed the U.S. Department in the publicly funded workforce develop- to employers as the catalyst to success certification in new skills, and in some instances pro- early successes and the challenges ahead ment system. He built a description of vided the payments up front. At least one employer offers education and employment (the public work- to underscore the need to align paid release time to acquire advanced skills. .. This, he noted, was needed in force sYstem), along with economic development. Another employer has tackled head-on the difficult and the economy forward. orderto move the duakustomer public system problem of managers/supervisors who assume that front- He reiterated the Department According to Dowd, "There are mutual interests." line workers can't perform higher level work. As the man- cannot succeed without busi- of Labor's principle that the "demand-driven" system ager of a trained information technology frontline work- is economic pohcy, not social policy." ness input. "Workforce development force, he has developed strategies to persuade his management colleagues that frontline workers can actu- ally do the job. Jane Oates, Senior Education Advisor Finally, several firms spoke warmly about innovative Kennedy M. to Senator Edward labor/management approaches they'd developed with of employers' com- To introduce a discussion of the public policy implications their Jobs Initiative intermediary to advance frontline assessment of the challenges facing ments, Jane Oates delivered a provocative workers. These include reinvigorated apprenticeship pro- According to Oates, a key reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act. grams tailored to meet the needs of frontline workers, as the one hand, reauthorization issue will be to strike a balance between, one well as labor-management oversight committees that hand, the needs of communities national, state and local policies and, on the other negotiate all such innovations in advance, a tactic that is a "systems building bill." and their business constkuencies. WIA, Oates went on, has sharply increased the support of long-time employees structure.legislation that incorporates uni- Given that, the challenge would be to for their new, "non-traditional" co-workers. formity, standards, consistency, and flexibility. Keynote Address by Steve Gunderson in what we are trying to do. And second, to educate the policymakers at the national level about the crisis that is Steve Gunderson, former Congressman from Wisconsin, set the stage for going on." Those are my two goals. Here are my two The Employer's Voice, opening the forum with a call to action. He problems. Number one, neither the business community described a workforce crisisand charged that neither politicians nor business nor the policymakers are paying any attention. Second, leaders recognize its severity. The crisis is the serious, and widening, gap they are not paying any attention because they don't think there is a problem. between the skills that U.S. employers need to compete in our global economy In fairness to them, if you want to understand and the skills possessed by America's workforce. Congress in the year 2003, you need to understand the concept of attention deficit disorder, and I don't mean that in a critical manner. I was on Capitol Hill yesterday, I want to tell you why I got involved with workforce meeting with one of the more enlightened Republican training. I represented rural, western Wisconsin, first in members of the House, who shares our understanding our state legislature, then in the U.S. Congress. The tran- and our concerns about this. He came back from a sitions in rural America are just as real and just as painful mandatory budget conference and says, "It's just awful as the transitions we see today in urban American, and I around here." He started going on about all the problems literally didn't know how to serve my agricultural con- they were facing, one after another. In that kind of envi- stituency without being able to talk to them about what ronment, there was no way I could say, "By the way, can they would do when the farm was no longer there. My we talk about what's going to happen in the next seven to field director back home was the best man I've ever met twenty years in this country in the workforce?" He would who could go out to the farm, sit at the coffee table with Morn and Dad, and when they were finished with coffee, have looked at me and said, "You've totally lost it." What I try to do when I get the opportunity to share take Dad out for a walk on the farm, put his arm around some thoughts with people like you is to try to put it all his shoulders, and tell him that trying to fight the foreclo- in a little bit of context and little bit of perspective. I try sure by the Farmers Home Administration made no sense. It was time for him to think about the future. to do some research about where we are statistically and why That's what all this means. I thought you would enjoy knowing I feel so passionately about the issue of job training and that we are now in the 106th week and the 24th month workforce investment and about the future of our coun- since the economy peaked in March of 2001. We're look- try. I came to understand that whether you're liberal or ing at 17 percent teenage unemployment in this country. conservative, Republican or Democratic, if you don't care Over 10 percent unemployment in the black commu- about the future, you shouldn't be in public office. nity. Almost 8 percent unemployment in the Hispanic We have a crisis going on in this country and it's not community. the deficit. We have a crisis going on in this country, and We are looking not only at temporary unemploy- it's not education. We have a crisis going on in this coun- ment, but, more importantly, we are facing a permanent try, and it's not Iraq or Korea. There is a crisis going on consolidation and restructuring of the American work- about the future of this country because of the huge, place, with jobs being eliminated permanently. Listen to emerging collision of demographics and workforce skills, some of these numbers. November of last year we lost and unless we're willing to understand and respond to 104,000 permanent jobs. In December we lost 115,000 this crisis, nothing else will matter in the next 15 to 20 permanent jobs; last month, we lost 308,000 permanent years. jobs. The only reason why we didn't lose jobs in January A week ago, at the National Association of is because the traditional December hiring for the holi- Workforce Boards, I said, "I've got two goals. Goal num- day season didn't happen. But over three of the last four ber one is to help engage you, the business community, months we have seen America eliminate for good over a million jobs. And nobody in the American political sys- "We are in the business of creating a two-class society such as tem is talking about it. Since March of 2001, we have witnessed over America has never imagined.The United States ranks tenth 236,000 jobs lost in the construction industry. Since April among modern industrial countries in terms of literacy and of that year, we have seen over 186,000 jobs disappear in - education, and the gap is increasing." the communications industry. In transportation in the 6 6 The Employer's Voice Sixty-five percent of all American employment now last two years, we have lost over 500,000 permanent jobs, requires specific skills. Seventy-five percent of the mainly in the airline industry but more broadly in the American workforce today will need training to simply whole industry. We are looking at an average at 48,000 keep their jobs. Not even to advancejust to hold on to manufacturing jobs eliminated in this country on a the job they have today. monthly basis. As we talk about the reauthorization not only about Guess what, that's the good news. Last month, we lost the Workforce Investment Act but also the Higher 53,000 manufacturing jobs, 5,000 more than the average Education Act, we are looking at the fact that in 1980 a over the last two years. Service employment fell in college degree produced the salary 50 percent higher February by 86,000 jobs. In the retail trades, it fell by than the worker who entered the workforce without that almost 100,000 jobs, and nobody in America is talking college degree. Today the person with that college degree about what is going on. will have earnings 100 percent higher than the person If that's today, what about tomorrow? Even under who enters the workforce without. We are, ladies and close to normal economic times, the labor force normally gentlemen, in the business of creating a two-class society grows by 1.6 percent a year and has almost every year in such as America has never imagined. The United States the last 50 years. We are now looking at about 0.5-0.6 ranks tenth among modern industrial countries in terms percent growth per year. And the workforce is becoming of literacy and education, and the gap is increasing. older. Today, workers over 55 make up 13 percent of the We not only have a worker shortage and a skill short- total workforce. By the year 2020, they'll compose over age in America. What we have is a system that is not pre- 20 percent of the workforce, and that's assuming their pared to provide solutions. Here's my sermon to you in 401(k)'s recover. If they don't, it's going to be worse. the business community, and I know it's unfair to speak The workforce is becoming more diverse. White non- to the choir, but you're the only ones in the church. The Hispanics will decrease from 73 percent of the workforce fact is, the business community in this country has cho- today to just over 50 percent before mid-century. sen since the passage of No Child Lefi Behind to pick up Hispanics will increase to almost one-quarter of the work- their bags and go home and say they no longer need to force. Blacks will grow to 14 percent of the workforce, be engaged in the advancement of public policy around and Asians will grow to between 10 and 15 percent. human resources, education, and training. If you don't If those numbers scem distant for you, let me bring it believe me, look at the fact that the largest, historic voice into the next five to seven years. White non-Hispanics for business in terms of training and workforce invest- will fall to less than 65 percent of our American work- ment, the National Alliance of Business, is no longer force. Hispanics will climb to 16 percent. Blacks will grow here. The challenge is to get the National Association of to 13 percent and Asians to almost 8 percent. Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to In addition to that diversity, we are bringing into this look beyond tax cuts and economic and trade policy to economy young people at the end of the baby boom. deal with the concept of having a qualified, competent, Almost three and a half million young people, 16 to 19 trained, skilled workforce in America. years of age, will enter the workforce by 2010. Between Consider the reality As of 2000, 7 percent or the now and 2010, 41 million people will enter the American white students, 11 percent of the black students, and 38 workforce. percent of the Hispanic students did not complete high That's under normal circumstances. We are, however, school. And that's with today's "inadequate standards." facing a major work shortage based on trying to keep up Impose new standards, and God bless America we need with the growth of the population. By 2028, there will be to do it, those 7, 11, and 38 percent digits are going to 90 million more jobs than there are workers, and at least double in front of us in a short period of time. Let's fig- 40 percent of the people available to fill these jobs will be ure out how to retain and mentor those most challenged minorities. by the new standards, The worker gap is just part of the challenge. The big- Reality. Remember I told you about the wage gap? As ger challenge is the skills gap. Those of you who are of today, 84 percent of the white workers in America, 91 employers know this well. Employers estimate that 39 percent of the black workers, and 97 percent of the percent of their current workforce and 26 percent of Hispanic workers enter the American workforce without their new hires have basic skill deficiencies. Basic not a college degree. We already trail three other nations in advanced. Forty-two percent of the new job growth over the percent of our population graduating from college, the next seven years will require some level of college. 7 7 Jobs for the Future with many other nations poised to overtake us in the "When I speak to groups like this, I usually say that the next five years. first crisis is that I am here. Why do you need to go to And don't let anybody tell you that everybody's going an elected official seven years out of office to have a to college today. Yes, we're recruiting them, and we're discussion about workforce training in America?" taking their money, but the college dropout rate is embarrassing. Entrance numbers mean nothing. Are peo- ple getting certificates or degrees so they can go into the Child Left Behind. And we're going to deal with reautho- workforce with proven skills? It's not happening. rization of the Workforce Investment Act. In the 22 years Despite all this, business investment in training has I've been engaged in public policy, we have never had a fallen almost 20 percent in the last 10 years. When we better time to sit down and put together a comprehen- were working on the Workforce Investment Act, we said, "We don't know how much public investment in job sive, coordinated response to investing in workforce training and preparation of Americans for now and the training we need because every corporation on America future. And it's not going to happen. is doing its own training to fit its own needs." Guess It's not going to happen this year. Do we give up and what? They were, but productivity; competition, etc., go home? I say, no. What those of you in the business have changed all that. It's not happening. Moreover, 53 community need to do when you leave this town is to percent of the American workers today are employed by recognize that those of us who are engaged in workforce small businesses. They don't have the ability to provide training from a public policy or association perspective training. They simply don't have the capital to do that. are automatically assumed to be biased, with an agenda. What does all this mean? It means that nobody is Only the business community can make the case for talking about the most significant question in this coun- what is happening in this country and what needs to try in the next seven to twenty ycars. It is the collision happen in this country today. between demographics, on the one hand, and workforce This isn't a partisan issue, but if you have a skills, on the other. And it will nor only challenge our Republican President, and you have a Republican Senate ability to be globally competitive economically, it will and a Republican House, and most Of your state legisla- challenge our ability to provide any kind of hope for tures are run by Republicans and half your governors are improved quality of life in this country, any kind of abil- Republicans, and the Republicans understand and listen ity for political, cultural, and social stability in the to the business community, let me tell you, it's up to you. American system. I'll tell you what this crisis really mcans and it's this. This is truly a nation at risk again, 20 years after the Unless we get serious about giving the changing face of challenge that we had before, and nobody knows about the American workforce the education, the training, the it. Our policy and our business communities are not jobs, the income, and the quality of life that they need aware of it. And because we are dealing with huge deficits and deserve over the next ten to twenty years, I don't at the federal and state levels, the federal government has know how to go back home to rural Wisconsin and tell decided its only response is to punt to the states. We're Grandma and Grandpa Olson that their Social Security saying to people, "We're going to give you the money won't be there. So if you think this is just a big-city issue regardless of training, rather than investing that money for people of color, get it and get it real. Unless we solve in training." this workforce issue, all America will be affected, because That is indicative of the fact that our policymakers there is simply no way we will have the growth in the are not understanding the crisis. When I speak to groups economy or we will have the contributions to the Social like this, I usually say that the first crisis is that I am here. Security that my dad and everybody else so desperately Why do you need to go to an elected official seven years needs in order to have the political and economic and out of office to have a discussion about workforce train- cultural and social security that we need. ing in America? That, in and of itself, ought to be an I really believe this. I think the homeland security indictment of what is going on in America today. issue is not terrorism in Wisconsin or in Texas. I don't If that's the problem, let me give you the context think it's Iraq, and I don't think it's global competition. I with which we're dealing. We're going to deal with the think the homeland security issue in the next 20 years is Higher Education Act. We're going to deal with Head whether we are going to give Americans skills and educa- Start. We're going to deal with vocational education. tion and opportunity. We're going to see if there's some way to implement No 8 The Employer's Voice I Guest Speakers on workforce issues. He was also Regional Administrator in Denver, Colorado. THE HONORABLE STEVE GUNDERSON Mr. Dowd is a graduate of the University of New Steve Gunderson is a senior consultant and managing direc- Mexico. He completed two years of Peace Corps Volunteer tor of The Greystone Group, a Michigan-based strategic service in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and has also lived and management and communications consulting firm. His worked in Denmark and Japan. He began his career in 1982 areas of expertise include strategic planning, communica- as a community economic developer with Futures for tions, and public policy. His current focus is youth develop- Children in Albuquerque. ment, education, and workforce investment. Previous Mr. Dowd has worked throughout his career to serve Greystone Group clients include the Republican Main the needs of America's workforce as a Department of Labor Street Partnership and the Mary Fisher AIDS Fund. He also employee and in the non-profit sector. He has extensive had significant responsibility for the National 4-H Council's first-hand knowledge and experience with federal, state, and National Conversation on Youth Development in the 21" local employment and training programs through his work Century. in ETA Regional Offices, at the Office of National The Wisconsin native served 16 years in the U.S. Programs in Washington, DC, as a former Private Industry Congress and three terms in the Wisconsin State Council member, and with national non-profit corporations. Legislature. During his tenure, Gunderson was a recognized JANE OATES leader on agriculture, education, employment policy, health care, and human rights issues. Representing the largest Jane Oates is Senior Education Advisor to Senator Edward dairy-production district in the nation, the *Wisconsin M. Kennedy on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions native chaired the Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Committee for higher education and workforce issues. Ms. Subcommittee in the 104th Congress and led efforts to Oates joined the staff during the 105th Congress and served enact the most comprehensive reform of dairy policy in our on conference teams for the reauthorization of the Higher nation's history. Education Act, the Carl Perkins Vocational Education Act, Continuing his focus on preparing citizens and organi- and the Workforce Investment Act. She continues to work zations for the 21" century global economy, Gunderson on the implementation of these bills, as well as general issues provides strategic planning and consulting for a variety of in postsecondary education, job training, and national and education organizations. His hallmark is his understanding community service, of emerging American workforce challenges, speaking and In the 107th Congress, Ms. Oates was the lead staff on consulting on these issues extensively. He has called the the Education Science Reform Act (the reauthorization of emerging collision of our nation's demographics and work- force skills "A Nation at Risk. Again," referencing the the Office of Educational Research and Improvement). famous 1983 study chat led to America's education reform During the 108th Congress, she will work on the reautho- efforts. rizations of the Higher Education Act, the Workforce Investment Act, the Adult Literacy Act, and the Perkins Tom Dowo Career and Technical Education Act. Tom Dowd is Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Before joining Senator Kennedy's staff, Ms. Oates Employment and Training Administration, having previ- taught in the Boston and Philadelphia schools and was ously been director of ETA's Business Relations Group. Mr. director of services to the field for the National Center for Dowd has also served as the Regional Administrator for Education in the Inner Cities and the Mid-Atlantic ETA in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was responsi- Regional Educational Laboratory at Temple University. ble for the oversight and guidance to the Mid-Atlantic states Debbie Bird James Curcuru Hurzeler Kenneth Toni Nazzario Erika Shaw- Available Communications SAFECO Insurance Company Pferd Milwaukee Brush Company Center City District EXULT Seattle. WA St. Louis, MO Menomonee Falls, WI Philadelphia, PA Seattle. WA Jeannine Brannum Emma Donald-Penny Tom Jones Mike O'Connell Leonard Toenjes CINTAS Algonquin Nurses P.R.N. Inc. Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. AD Tape & Label Associated General Contractors St. Louis, MO St. Louis, MO Harvey. LA Menomonee Falls, WI of St Louis St. Louis, MO Larry Crane Patrick Foley Larry Kreyling John Page Northrop Grumman Ship Dierbergs Markets Taylor Ward Regence Blue Shield Thomas Jefferson University of Washington State Chesterfield, MO Systems Philadelphia. PA Allegheny Child Care Academy Seattle. WA Pascagoula. MS Pittsburgh. PA Henrietta Mack Otrice Parker. HMS Host Corporation Pferd Milwaukee Brush COrnpany- St. Louis. MO Menomonee Falls. WI . 9 U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) Eincalional Ileseuites lalumnlion Centel National Library of Education (NLE) Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) NOTICE Reproduction Basis This document is covered by a signed "Reproduction Release (Blanket)" form (on file within the ERIC system), encompassing all or classes of documents from its source organization and, therefore, does not require a "Specific Document" Release form. 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