Scary Demographic Offers Opportunities for Outside Experts

What's the biggest threat to the economy of the future? Some would (understandably) say the impact of global warming - and they might be right. I personally feel that global warming while undeniable in its potential harm, will give us at least a little time to make adjustments and hopefully we can minimize the potential negative outcomes. While acknowledging this unprecedented danger I believe that a different concern which has equal negative economic impact is already upon us and unlike the climate issue, most of us didn't see it coming. I refer to the critical shortage of a workforce in Canada and the United States.

Canada is somewhat worse off than Americans since Canada has a significantly lower birth rate (1.4 births per woman vs. 2 per woman in the US). The US also has a numerical advantage with the high number of emigrants arriving from Mexico, and while many American politicians are fearful of this, business and industry knows that this immigration wave provides an ongoing supply of labour which while initially low-skilled or unskilled is trainable to more demanding roles.

In searching for ways to train up our workforce, our two North American economies are equally handicapped in that both the US and Canada have devolved responsibilities for training away from the federal governments - making training the responsibility of the provinces or the states as the case may be. Hence little or no national skills strategies.

Rest assured that demographic projections make it clear that the birthrate alone is insufficient to supply tomorrow's labor force and global immigration is insufficient to close the gap. The answer must lie in greater productivity and this does not necessarily mean having people work harder but more appropriately working smarter with a much greater role for technology.

Every company in North America will increasingly face this challenge as no one is exempt. This shift will require companies to increasingly turn to outside experts to assist them in coming to terms with a new generation of HR and new strategies in corporate branding. Encore Workshops training program "the Skilled Workforce Shortage; How It Will Affect Your Organization and What You can do About It" has been delivered to many audiences - and they leave the classroom amazed by the demographic and economic projections but filled with energy and a commitment to bring their colleagues onboard with potential career saving solutions.

Stay tuned since we will be having much more to say on this issue.

trainers; the almost invisible resource

Qualified professional trainers might be best described as a company’s highly important on-call resource and yet the least easily found. We are by and large, an elusive lot with the often-used term ‘freelancer’ itself conjuring up visions of a highly independent and somewhat cavalier individual that comes and goes.

When corporate managers are surveyed about their use of independent trainers and facilitators their most frequent comment is how hard they are to find. These managers are used to having information at their fingertips; research, contacts, and consultants. Yet try to find a facilitator and they must resort to phoning a half dozen friends and colleagues with a conversation that goes something like this.

“Hi Jeanine, our sales volumes have taken a dip. I think the team needs a good workup on thinking outside the box so I’m looking for someone sharp that can run a course for me on relationship selling. What was the name of the woman that you used so successfully last year for your department and have you got her web address? Oh she doesn’t have a website. How about a phone number or her e-mail - and do you know what she’s up to these days?” And so forth.

It’s ironic really when you consider that so much of the content that we teach is about planning and organization. There’s a quote that goes “physician heal thyself” we could paraphrase it and say “trainers train thyself”. I’m as guilty as the next person in that I have been training for years and only recently did I get around to creating a personal website.

This paradox about the lack of trainer’s visibility got me to start thinking about the idea of creating an online community of trainers that would enable them to share issues such as billing rates and marketing ideas but also to serve as a bridge between trainers and their potential clients. After consulting a dozen friends and associates in the field we emerged with the idea of NAIT – the National Association of Independent Trainers. www.naitrainers.com

NAIT is now a reality and will offer many advantages including a nationally promoted database by geographic region that enables a purchaser of services such as training, facilitation and coaching to peruse a all of the CV’s of NAIT members that are locally available. Another advantage to members is the added prestige that comes from membership in a national body of peers. All this at an annual membership rate that most members will more than make up in the first hour of the first gig they gain from the database. So let’s get visible!

training: home or away?

When looking at training options, sometimes you are best off to consider sending key staff away to specialized courses. Such courses are usually run as part of a traveling road show of sorts with credible experts who come to your town or to major key cities in your part of the country and advertise their presence via such partner agencies as the chamber of commerce or other business group. These courses can be extremely useful – but they can be equally expensive with costs for the day of around the $500. If the event is out of town, add several hundred dollars in travel and accommodation costs and its easy to see why few companies can afford to send more than one or two staff at a time. For many managers the obvious alternative is to use the option of in-house training.

The advantages of in-house courses include:

• what transpires during the training day is confidential since other companies are not present
• convenience and less disruption - courses can be scheduled according to your business' day-to-day activities and held in-house, so employees don't need non productive time away from the office to travel
• value for money - there are no travel and accommodation costs
• better interaction and effective learning - because all relevant employees will learn together, there is more scope for them to interact, which can lead to more effective learning during and after the course
• time savings - you don't need to design a course and, and you have only limited need to train trainers since the only requirement is a good communicator
• freedom of expression - employees can talk openly in the knowledge that competitors are not present

rate the trainer

When I'm training I always like to get written feedback from my class. I helps me to identify gaps in my program and it enforces to the learners the idea that in business, client feedback is an essential part of the Darwinian development of one's products and services. There is of course a danger in this process since it is highly unlikely that everyone in the class is in harmony with the trainer. They may be having a bad day and not in the mood to give positive feedback or - what is more likely they have anticipated learning something that I failed to deliver.

My technique to address this is to keep an eye on the clock and about fifteen minutes before the scheduled end of the class to ask everyone if they have had all their questions addressed in the session and if not, to pose their question at this point so we can collectively address it. This makes it difficult for any of the learners to later say that the point that they hoped to learn was ignored, that then leaves the written assessment comments to focus more on the overall message and the quality of the deliverer.

As a trainer, I find that I always have room for improvement, plus of course, like all human beings I have my off-days when my energy lags and it is therefore both reasonable and helpful that a learner in the class can rate me as less than energized. I refer mostly to the energy issue because I believe strongly that this is the second most critical element in training next to content. Even mediocre material can always have impact if delivered with passion, although hopefully none of us would ever settle for mediocre material. On the other hand even superb material and anecdotes can fall flat if delivered from the safety of the podium with low energy and little engagement of the class. So I say to my learners, keep those assessments coming in - and keep me on my toes!

My aim for this blog site

I set this blog up to talk about the world of training and facilitation. I plan for it to be entertaining and educational. As I am both a curriculum developer and a trainer, I am constantly looking at new ways to do things; everything from new templates for PowerPoint to new advances in electronic projectors.

As for the entertainment part, I will be baring my soul and telling stories of my successes and failures, of the weird and wonderful people I come across in my training life. I don't know about you, but it seems that there is always someone in the class that stands out, for better or worse. I personally like the heckler. I once had a giant of man called Moses in my class. I had been warned that he could be trouble and that he was there under sufferance. My client even told me that he had to be ejected from a previous class recently. Apparently it took several staff members to manage this feat.

Anyway, as I did the standard round table introductions I got inexorably closer to Moses. When he introduced himself he was surly and challenging and I thought that what went on in the next minute or so would dictate the whole day-long seminar so, I joked about his name, his size (he really dwarfed everyone else) and asked him a few fairly tough questions, and then continued the round table.

The morning session went well, and although I kept catching Moses' eye, I couldn't work out what he was thinking. Had I really ticked him off, or had I established who was the boss in this situation?

At this point I should tell you that I am 5' 6" tall (I never could get the hang of metrics) and Moses was around 6' 6" and built like the side of a barn. At coffee break he stormed up to me, and I thought - okay this is where it gets interesting. As he got closer to the group I was talking to I could see my clients looking worried and starting to move towards us in force. My little coffee network parted like the red sea and I saw this large arm covered with red hair heading towards my head. As I flinched I felt the arm encircle my shoulders and Moses gave me a bone-crunching bear hug. As he slowly released his grip he looked down at me and said in his unnaturally quiet but deep voice "you're alright". His face was creased in a smile, his face red below a ginger mop of hair.

I never had a moment of bother with Moses after that, he was a positive force throughout the session and although I never saw him again, I often wonder how my convert to business training is doing!