Employers report hiring substantial numbers of new entrants who are poorly prepared, requiring additional company investment to improve workforce readiness skills, according to a new report. And while many employers provide workforce readiness or remedial training to bring their new entrants up to speed, many report less than strong results. The results of the survey accompanying this report raise the question whether compensating for poorly prepared new workforce entrants with on-the-job workforce readiness training is the most effective way to address the readiness gap.
The American Society for Training and Development, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management surveyed 217 employers to examine corporate practices on training newly hired graduates at three educational levels: high school, two-year college and four-year college. Almost half of the employers surveyed provide workforce readiness (remedial) training programs to erase deficiencies among their newly hired entrants in skills they expect them to have when hired. Yet, the majority of companies find these programs to be “moderately” or “somewhat successful”, at best. And employers are unable to report how much they are spending on programs to improve new entrants’ readiness to work. Equally troubling is that, in several cases, the programs offered do not match company needs. While programs are in place to address training needs in leadership, information technology and teamwork skills, there are substantial gaps in other applied skills – particularly those applied skills employers say they need the most – as well some of the basic skills like writing and mathematics.
Applied skills, such as critical thinking and problem solving, enable new entrants to use the basic knowledge acquired in school to perform successfully in the workplace. Yet, more than 40 percent of employers indicating a “high need” for programs in critical thinking are not offering them.
Companies fall especially short in programs to encourage creativity skills among their new entrants – particularly disturbing since creativity fuels innovation which is considered fundamental to business success in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. And, at the opposite end of the spectrum of skills, yet equally important, there are also considerable gaps in programs to improve basic skills in reading comprehension, writing and math.
Taken as a whole, the survey results raise critical questions that business needs to address: Do workforce readiness training programs represent the best use of business resources, particularly during these tough economic times? Is the workplace the most efficient place to be spending remedial dollars? And what are the true total costs of a deficiently prepared workforce, considering the lost productivity and time it takes to bring new entrants up to company expectations? Furthermore, if companies aren’t tracking the cost of these programs, there’s no way to evaluate their impact on the bottom-line measures that matter most to business.
There are examples pointing toward possible paths to success – companies that provide workforce readiness training for their new entrants and are reporting some positive results. To better understand the nature of workforce readiness training initiatives, this report draws on both the survey findings and case studies of five model programs that exemplify workforce readiness training. These include: Bank of America’s partnership with Year Up, a non-profit organization; CVS Caremark-TJX Companies joint initiative; Harper Industries; Northrop Grumman’s Apprenticeship School; and YUM! Brands. In addition, American Express is cited as an example of a major corporate employer that does not provide workforce readiness training but has instead taken an alternate route to ensure its new entrants are ready to work.
An advisory board composed of training development specialists from major corporations and other training experts helped design the questionnaire and interpret the survey results. Their comments, drawn from an informal sampling of their views, are cited throughout the report.
During the second quarter of 2008, more than 200 U.S. employers responded to the Workforce Readiness Training survey, commenting on three types of training: workforce readiness (remedial), job-specific and career development training. These were defined in the survey questionnaire as:
• Workforce Readiness Training includes training in skills employers believe are necessary to function effectively in the workforce and that new entrants should have when hired. Sometimes this training is referred to as “remedial training.”
• Job-Specific Training prepares employees to perform a specific function in the organization
• Career Development Training supports employees’ career advancement or promotional opportunities.
Read the full report by clicking on the link below:
http://www.cvworkingfamilies.org/system/files/Ill_preparedWorkforce_RR.pdf