I spent several years teaching media writing at Kent State University. And during that time I developed an even greater appreciation for writers who can make their points concisely and forcefully. Bob Herbert, who writes a column for The New York Times, is one of the best.
Here’s an example — and it involves the issue of workforce readiness and high school dropouts. In his column May 17 — “Hard Roads Ahead” — Herbert writes:
At a time when the nation is faced with tough economic challenges at home and ever-increasing competition from abroad, it’s incredible that more is not being done about the poor performance of so many American high schools.
We can’t even keep the kids in school. A third of them drop out. Half of those who remain go on to graduate without the skills for college or a decent job. Someone please tell me how this is a good thing.
Well, Bob Wise certainly isn’t going to tell Herbert or anyone else that. Wise, the former governor of West Virginia, is now president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, described by Herbert as a “policy and advocacy group committed to improving the high schools.” He’s also written a book on the subject: “Raising the Grade: How High School Reform Can Save Our Youth and Our Nation.”
And in addition to mentioning some key points from Wise’s book, Herbert also highlights the recent announcement that the AT&T Foundation was sponsoring “a $100 million initiative to address the high school dropout problem and improve the readiness of American teenagers for college and the real world of work.”
This issue of workforce readiness is a key priority for Corporate Voices for Working Families and our member companies and strategic partners. And Elyse Rosenblum, an expert on this subject with Corporate Voices, is putting the final touches on our statement of principles on workforce readiness as well as a comprehensive white paper on the subject. Copies will be available soon.
In the meantime, here’s the conclusion to Herbert’s column:
An issue that is front and center in the campaign is the economy. We’re looking for ways to turn things around for the short and long term. One of the answers in this technologically advanced, highly competitive, increasingly globalized environment is staring us right in the eyes.
As Mr. Wise put it, “The best economic stimulus package is a diploma.”
In total Bob Herbert wrote 765 words. But he sure said a lot: concisely and forcefully.
The Families and Work Institute released yesterday the results of the 2008 National Study of Employers. A key finding: employers with more women and more minorities in top positions, and nonprofit organizations, are more likely to offer flexible workplaces.
“There has been surprising stability in many of the practices, policies and programs of U.S. employers over the past 10 years,” said Ellen Galinsky, president and founder of Families and Work Institute and lead author of the study. “The NSE confirms that in the face of economic volatility companies have generally held steady or reduced benefits that carry hard costs. Yet in certain areas — including domestic partner benefits and access to information on support services — we are seeing an expansion of benefits. We find it particularly interesting that having an employee base composed of a greater percentage of women, or the presence of women and minorities in senior positions, is correlated with a more flexible workplace.”
First conducted in 1998, the 2008 National Study of Employers is described as “the most comprehensive and far-reaching study of initiatives provided by U.S. employers to address the changing needs of today’s workforce.”
While employers are slashing benefits to save money, they are using other tactics to try to retain workers, according to a study that will be released today in Philadelphia.
In its “2008 National Study of Employers” the Families and Work Institute found that employees are more likely to stay with on the job if employers provide flexibility in the workplace.
The study also found that while employers are dealing with the faltering economy by cutting benefits, such as health care and pensions, that directly take away from the bottom line, programs that cost money but improve the quality of life at the workplace, such as on-site child care, are not being reduced.
The study will be presented today at the World at Work Conference in Philadelphia.
Donna Klein was among the speakers at the “Working For Change” public policy forum Friday, May 16, at the U.S. Capitol. Joining Donna were Corporate Voices board members Steve Wing, Director, Government Programs, CVS and David Paulsen, U.S. Human Resources Director, Accenture. Andy Chaves, Director for Workforce, Effectiveness and Diversity at Marriott International, a Corporate Voices corporate partner, also participated.
“Working for Change” is a monthly policy briefing to develop a consensus economic mobility agenda for low-wage workers. The series is sponsored by the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), one of the nation’s oldest not-for-profit organizations examining issues of poverty, and coordinated by CSS Senior Policy Fellow, Dr. William Spriggs, chairman of the Department of Economics at Howard University.
The May 16 forum marked the first anniversary of this series and focused on moving disconnected youth into the workforce
For more information about upcoming forums contact CSS Vice President for Government Relations, Walter Fields, at wfields@cssny.org.
“…the business case for flexibility is sound. Employees who have a measure of flexibility at work have significantly greater job satisfaction, commitment to work, and engagement with a company, along with lower stress, according to research compiled by the nonprofit Corporate Voices for Working Families. Increasingly, executives are dropping their past reluctance to part with the 9 to 5, in-office model of work.”
The Boston Globe article quotes Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute.
“We know from the research that if you have choice or autonomy and you have the support to make those choices and you’re held accountable, those are the things that most affect how you feel about your employer, as well as your health and well-being.”
Jackson concludes:
“Is flexibility a part of the fabric of work life in America? Not yet. There are still many organizations where different ways of working are forbidden, or handed out sparingly, along with lower pay or fewer promotions. The Sloan Award pioneers, however, are shifting that mindset, one flex-option at a time.”
The United Way of America is announcing at its annual meeting in Baltimore today that “it will direct its giving toward ambitious 10-year goals that would cut in half the high school dropout rate and the number of working families struggling financially.”
The nonprofit organization also wants to increase by one-third the number of youths and adults considered healthy. The announcement comes as it releases a report detailing a precipitous decline in key education, personal finance and health indicators.
The United Way of America has already joined with Corporate Voices for Working Families the Forum for Youth Investment and other national organizations to launch the Ready by 21 Challenge. This initiative, simply stated, challenges states and local communities to improve the odds that young people will be successful in school, on the job and throughout life.
Rucker writes in The Washington Post article that “today they [United Way of America] will pledge to spend the money raised in the next 10 years to support programs directly related to education, income and health care.” The article continues:
The United Way is the largest U.S. nonprofit organization, with about 1,300 affiliates that collectively raise more than $4 billion a year through workplace campaigns and other private donations. By harnessing its giving power, the United Way is trying to reignite a social movement of the philanthropic, government and corporate sectors to improve conditions for working families.
Donna Klein will be among the speakers at the “Working For Change” public policy forum this Friday, May 16, at noon in Room H-137 in the U.S. Capitol.
“Working for Change” is a monthly policy briefing to develop a consensus economic mobility agenda for low-wage workers. The series is sponsored by the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), one of the nation’s oldest not-for-profit organizations examining issues of poverty, and coordinated by CSS Senior Policy Fellow, Dr. William Spriggs, chairman of the Department of Economics at Howard University.
The May 16 forum marks the first anniversary of this series and will focus on moving disconnected youth into the workforce.
Joining Donna at the forum will be Corporate Voices board members Steve Wing, Director, Government Programs, CVS and David Paulsen, U.S. Human Resources Director, Accenture. Andy Chaves, Director for Workforce, Effectiveness and Diversity at Marriott International, a Corporate Voices corporate partner, will also participate.
For more information about the forum contact CSS Vice President for Government Relations, Walter Fields, at wfields@cssny.org.
In late February, six of our nation’s leading nonprofit organizations – the Forum for Youth Investment, United Way of America, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the National Conference of State Legislators, the National Collaboration for Youth, and the American Association of School Administrators – came together to launch the Ready by 21 Challenge. Quite simply, they are challenging states and local communities to improve the odds that young people will be successful in school, on the job and throughout life.
Here’s a presentation that Donna Klein made at a conference sponsored by the Forum for Youth Investment to launch the Ready by 21 Challenge.
And here’s an op-ed article by Donna and Karen Pittman, Executive Director of the Forum for Youth Investment.
Ensuring Young People are Ready by 21
Twenty five years ago, the blue ribbon National Commission on Excellence in Education stunned the country by declaring:
“Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. . . If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. . . we have dismantled essential support systems . . . We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.”
Well, we’re still a nation at risk. In fact, the risk is far greater today than 25 years ago. And right now we need to harness all of our resources and creative energy toward reaching one goal: ensuring young people are ready by 21. Here’s why.
Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce, a comprehensive study jointly designed and executed by Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Conference Board, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and the Society for Human Resource Management offers three stark realities that undercut our nation’s ability to compete now and in the future:
• Employers report major deficiencies at every educational level. Forty percent report that the overall preparation of high school graduates is deficient, and more than one quarter of four-year college graduates are deficient in their written communication skills.
• Employers place a premium on applied skills that allow workers to bring basic, technical and content knowledge into the workplace. Professionalism/work ethic, communications (oral and written), teamwork and critical thinking are the skills employers now value the most.
• Employers see increased need for a more far-reaching set of skills on the horizon. Foreign language, creativity and innovation, and personal health and wellness management are areas employers believe will become increasingly important over the next five years.
There is an urgent need to prepare our next generation of workers for the competitive challenges of the 21st century, and we cannot afford to approach this issue as business as usual. The time has come to affirm our nation’s commitment to ensuring that all young people are ready by 21 – ready for college, work and life.
There are encouraging signs that we are ready to respond. In late February, six of our nation’s leading nonprofit organizations – the Forum for Youth Investment, United Way of America, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the National Conference of State Legislators, the National Collaboration for Youth, and the American Association of School Administrators – came together to launch the Ready by 21™ Challenge. Quite simply, they are challenging states and local communities to improve the odds that young people will be successful in school, on the job and throughout life. Why?
The current way we approach preparing young people is not working. We fragment our efforts into narrow silos, shifting our focus from one area (such as teen pregnancy) to another (such as youth violence), rotating our attention and resources without ever providing the core family and community supports young people need to succeed. We approach young people as a set of problems to solve (keep them from dropping out, getting pregnant, breaking the law) rather than as a set of resources to develop (preparing them for success). We stare at academic test scores so long that we fail to notice that young people also need to grow in social, emotional, physical, civic and cultural ways.
The Ready by 21 Challenge offers our nation new hope for bringing precision to our passion. It provides a new way of thinking and acting that weaves fragmented efforts into a seamless set of family and community supports, helping people succeed in all areas of their lives.
We can be successful. President Bush recently signed an executive order, “Improving the Coordination and Effectiveness of Youth Programs,” a small first step toward what we hope will one day be the full implementation the Federal Youth Coordination Act passed by Congress. Government and nonprofits are realizing that we have to tackle this growing problem now. We can no longer wait.
Our nation remains at risk. If we wait another 25 years to ensure that our young people are ready by 21, it will be too late.
I’ll admit that I first saw a reference to this in the online version of The Wall Street Journal. But figured I would go to the source — a press release distributed by Korn/Ferry International. As we approach Mother’s Day this Sunday here’s the message. It’s still difficult for mothers to re-enter the workforce.
Here are some highlights from a recent survey conducted by Korn/Ferry:
Despite great strides made in the global workplace, more than three-quarters of executives (76 percent) indicate it is difficult for mothers re-entering the workforce today.
Almost half (49 percent) believe it is as difficult, if not more, for female executives intending to return to work than five years ago.
Why?
“A likely explanation for the perceived difficulty may be that nearly half of executives surveyed (49 percent) work for companies where flextime is not offered for new mothers. Almost three out of four executives (69 percent) rank ‘flexible work schedules’ as the most valuable benefit their employers could offer working parents.”
Corporate Voices for Working Families commissioned Harris Interactive last fall to conduct a survey to assess executive perceptions of flexibility. Survey questions were added to the Fall 2007 Executive Omnibus survey, a national telephone survey administered to a random sample of 150 senior-level executives at large corporations. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation sponsored the survey.
Today, Donna Klein our President and CEO had a meeting with America’s Promise where she learned some shocking facts about how children are treated in the federal budget.
For the past five years, only one penny of every new, real non-defense dollar spent by federal government has gone to children and children’s programs.
Children’s spending makes up only ten percent of the entire non-defense budget.
The overall share of federal, non-defense spending going to children’s programs has dropped by 10 percent over the past five years.
Real discretionary spending on children has declined by more than six percent since 2004, while at the same time all other non-defense discretionary spending has increased by more than 8 percent.
Ranging in age from 21 to 29, they [millennials] have the potential to create lasting change in the workplace because of the way they live, communicate and view their jobs.
The article points out that a recent study by JWT, a New York-based advertising agency, found that “millennials, compared with other generations, place a higher value on work-life balance, expect their employers to adapt to them and are more likely to rank fun and stimulation as one of their top five ideal job requirement.”
And that raises another challenge — although it is not addressed specifically in this article. How do you integrate into the workplace two generations that for the most part have very different values and approaches to work: millennials and baby boomers?
And equally important — how to you retain the experience and expertise of the baby boomers in the midst of a major demographic shift?
In October of 2006 WorldatWork, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and Buck Consultants conducted an
Internet-based survey to evaluate the impact of an aging workforce on the American marketplace. A copy of that survey — The Real Talent Debate: Will Aging Boomers Deplete the Workforce? – is available on our Corporate Voices Web site.
Posted by Rob Jewell
