Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Workforce Development

Beyond Work is our line of resources for people and community leaders looking for something new and innovative outside of the day-to-day job. Read this category specifically for Workforce Development.

  • Make the Most of your Training Dollars

    Make the Most of your Training Dollars

    I often talk to smaller employers who just don’t have the funds to allocate to professional development. They want to grow their people, but just can’t scrape the pennies together to pay for it. The good news is that professional development doesn’t have to be expensive, in fact it can be free. And we all like free! 

    Last week Jillian talked about why employers should invest in professional development for their people. As she mentioned, research shows that spending money on professional development for your employees leads to more money for your company. But what can you do if your available funds for such training is limited? 

    1. Utilize your current staff to provide training. Whether you realize it or not, you have a wealth of knowledge in your organization and some employees would love the opportunity to share their expertise with others. A couple great ways to provide free or low-cost training is to plan lunch and learns where your current staff train their colleagues on what they do. That training may even be just spending 45 minutes to an hour explaining what they really do in their position or what their department does and how it contributes to the organization as a whole. Another great opportunity that can benefit any organization is cross-training. Give employees the opportunity to step into another department and learn how to work in that department. Cross-training not only gives employees the opportunity to learn more about the business and other departments, it can also assist employers in creating a succession plan. 
    2. Find free resources. There are a number of organizations that will come in and provide free training to your staff. Last week I worked with Cindy Smith at Edward Jones to present a free financial budgeting workshop to employees at a client. The client works in the healthcare industry and not only did the training benefit the employees; it was information that they are now able to use to help their clients. 
    3. Start a book club. Books are a low-cost way to provide training and professional development to your staff. At Horizon Point we read a lot! We share book recommendations and each year we select a book of the year to share with our clients. Some of our clients have then taken that book and shared it with their staff or asked us to provide training on the topics covered in the books. Select a book that speaks to your organization and meet weekly or monthly to discuss what was learned from the reading. Make attendance voluntary and hold the book club meeting during working hours. 
    4. Don’t waste conferences. If you send an employee to a conference, be sure to have them come back and share the knowledge they gained. Too often organizations spend the resources to send one or two employees to a conference and then don’t follow up once they return. Get the biggest bang for your buck! Plan the time for them to debrief with their team mates or lead a lunch and learn to share their conference takeaways. Also encourage them to bring back any resources or materials available at the conference to share with other staff. 
    5. Be thrifty. Anyone who knows me knows that I love saving money (and thrift shopping!). When you’re sending staff to conferences, be careful with how you spend your money. At Horizon Point we start discussing what conferences we want to attend a year in advance. We discuss the benefits of each and together determine which we will attend. By doing that we are able to catch early bird rates and often save $150-300 or more on registrations. If more than one of us will be attending, we try to carpool and we always look to see if renting an Airbnb will be cheaper than separate hotel rooms. Also make sure that your expense policy covers what is reimbursable and how much will be covered. Set a daily dollar limit on meals and if meals are provided at the conference, do not reimburse employees who opt to purchase meals outside of the conference. Another great way to save on conference costs is to submit to speak. Most conferences give speakers a free registration. 

    Organizations can never provide too many opportunities for professional development, so even if your organization has the ability and budget to provide professional development opportunities, the programs mentioned above can only enhance your current offerings. 

  • The Best Place to Begin a New Year

    The Best Place to Begin a New Year

    Resolutions, Goals, Plans, and Turning Over A New Leaf.  This is the stuff that New Years are made of.  For individuals and organizations, the new year is always a natural place to think big and aim high.  And there is nothing wrong with this. 

    As 2023 came to a close, a theme we saw over and over again was the challenge many people were having in leading well. They were aiming high, but totally missing the mark. They had lost the people they were leading as well as themselves in the process, chasing some ideal they couldn’t even name. 

    So many of the conversations and client engagements we found ourselves in were due to this struggle. As we examined it closer, we realized that the key and consistent challenge was that people had lost touch with who they were, what their organizations stood for and how to get back to these things. 

    They had lost sight of their values, if they had ever even named any, and it had taken them to a place of shooting at a bullseye that was meaningless and also miserable. 

    So, as 2024 opens and you’re aiming high, I’d encourage you to name or rename your values.  What I mean by the word “value” are not moral values in a universal right or wrong sense, but values in what leads to your competitive advantage as an organization or a human being.  What makes you unique, and therefore something of worth? 

    As you think about this, two resources I’d encourage you to explore are:

    1. Brene Brown’s work in Dare to Lead.  Read or listen to Part 2: “Living Into Our Values” and use her pdf list of values found on her website to help think through your core values.  I would highly encourage you to listen to her words in an audio book format before using the pdf to begin action. 
    1. Based on Dr. Henry Cloud’s work, found in Boundaries for Leaders on team trust and defining operating values, create and examine two past case studies of your organization or personal practices: one that went exceptionally well and one that went horribly wrong.  What consistencies do you see in the good and the bad?  You can use this tool we’ve created based on this work to help you develop your case studies.

    What we typically see is that the bad reflects the opposite of what creates uniqueness.  It is what you are most ashamed to be or do because it is so opposed to your values.  The exceptional is what makes you feel most alive and yourself when you are living into them- the value creates value. For organizations, it is what makes people want to “purchase” from you instead of a competitor. 

    As we begin a new year aiming high, let us first reflect on if it is where we want to aim to begin with. Once we’ve done so, we can steer our behaviors towards the right bullseye. 

    What are your values and how will you aim for them in 2024?

  • The Point Blog’s Top 10 in 2023

    The Point Blog’s Top 10 in 2023

    From our Team to yours, we hope that you are enjoying the Holidays with your loved ones near and far. If you’ve had a little too much excitement, step back and do some light reading. We hope that you gain some space and perspective from The Point Blog’s most viewed posts of 2023. 

    10. 5 Steps to Help Determine the Essential Functions of a Job

    9. 3 Steps for Leading through Pressure & Change

    8. The Speak Out Act-Is More to Come?

    7. By his and His hands

    6. 4 Lessons in Personality from Hamilton

    5. Who’s on First? Solving the Talent Development Puzzle

    4. Caring About Someone You Can’t See-Empathy in Leadership

    3. What’s Relationshipping, and How Do I Do It?

    2. Create Bigger Impact by Alignment Your Interests with Your Work

    1. SPECIAL FEATURE: July Leadership Development Carnival

  • How to Get Millions Back in the Workforce

    How to Get Millions Back in the Workforce

    During the pandemic, it was estimated that between two and three million women left the workforce. While there are signs that women are returning towards pre-pandemic levels, there are still a variety of sectors, especially care workers, that have not recovered and signs don’t point to an optimistic outcome. 

    Why? 

    Women are largely those that leave the workforce to provide care for children and or the elderly. Providing care makes it difficult for women to work, especially in more traditional sectors where workers must be present and work hours that don’t align with school and care options. This is especially true for single mothers. 

    What should be done? There are many thoughtful people across the country that are working on this issue.  As you think about how your company and or community can support labor participation among women by tackling caregiving needs, here are some things to think about: 

    1. What is it that workers actually need and want when it comes to childcare?  In order to address caregiving, we must address quality and quantity and respond to what workers want and need when it comes to childcare.  For example, the West Alabama area has realized that blue collar workers want their childcare close to where they live, not close to where they work.  Whereas one solution would be for large manufacturing companies to build onsite childcare facilities, this would neglect to understand what the population they employ needs and prefers.  So they have launched an initiative to increase in-home daycares in their community.  You can learn more about their program in this Family or Group Childcare Homes Workbook.

    In addition, employers across the state are looking into options like Tootris to provide a customized approach to childcare instead of a one size fits all approach (and most likely saving millions by outsourcing the access to childcare).  In this model, Tootris helps families find childcare that meets their needs through an online network and then the employer provides a financial subsidy to the employee through Tootris to help pay for that childcare. 

    Finally, we also need to consider what people need when it comes to carrying not only for children, but also for aging and/or disabled loved ones.  Often, this is largely left out of the discussion when seeking to address the labor participation issue. 

    1. It is an affordability issue.  Systems like Tootris provide a means for employers to help offset the cost of childcare.  And to be sure, quality child care is expensive.  My youngest child just transitioned from a high-quality childcare program to a public school Pre-K and what we paid for that childcare now almost pays the mortgage on our home each month.  

    Some states are getting involved to try to figure out how public-private partnerships can make an impact on labor participation through subsidizing the cost of childcare. The state of Indiana proposed splitting the cost of childcare in thirds-  employers paying one third, employees paying one third and the state paying one third.  Although this legislation has not passed in Indiana, the research behind it showed that the state would more than offset the cost through increased payroll taxes being collected by those that were able to return or enter the workforce because their childcare needs were now met. 

    1. We need to examine what it means to work and when and how we structure education with working parents in mind.  I mentioned that my youngest child transitioned into a public school Pre-K.  While this is saving us over $800 a month, he now has to be picked up by 2:15 pm each day.  Given he is in Pre-K, he is too young to go to the school’s extended day program. My husband and I are fortunate to have flexibility when it comes to working hours and we have retired grandparents available around the corner from the school we can call on when needed. My issues, to be sure, come from a place of unique privilege.  But when we think about childcare, we have to stop and realize that school days and work days don’t often align when it comes to hours and schedules.  My school aged children are out of school now for fall break- five days- and will be out of school a total of seven days before December (not counting Christmas Break).  People working in traditional fields do not have access to seven days off in less than a two month period. 

    I don’t have the solutions for this issue, but we need to be talking about it.  Employers need to consider what it actually means to get quality work done, and oftentimes we are too rigid on when and how this takes place.  Communities and school systems need to work with employers to consider the demands placed on working parents when every time you turn around, kids are out of school and the hours in which they go to school aren’t consistent with a traditional work day.  Our workplaces would be better off and our schools would too because families would be better supported. 

    What are you seeing that is helping to address labor participation due to caregiving issues?

  • Alabama’s Best Kept Secret

    Alabama’s Best Kept Secret

    This week we have a very special guest blogger, Cassie Shropshire, with the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services (ADRS)!

    This year made the 33rd anniversary of The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The act is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in everyday life activities. The ADA guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to enjoy employment opportunities, purchase goods and services, and participate in state and local government programs. Just four years after the ADA was signed into law, the Alabama Legislature created a state agency that would be committed to serve Alabamians with disabilities throughout their lifespan. That state agency is known as the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services (ADRS). ADRS has a “continuum of care approach, meaning that there is help at every stage of a person’s life. Their mission is to enable children and adults with disabilities to achieve their maximum potential. 

    ADRS has four different programs to support their continuum of care approach with their Vocational Rehabilitation Service (VRS) program being its largest program. VRS provides specialized employment and education related services and training to youth and adults with disabilities, helping them attain their employment goals. These employment services and trainings are available throughout the entire state. Each year VRS helps thousands of individuals with disabilities across the state of Alabama with college sponsorship, training program, and obtain employment. This also includes insuring that these individuals receive employment and educational accommodations needed to guarantee success in the classroom and on the job. Not only does VRS provides services to individuals with disabilities, but the program has a special team of Business Relations Consultants that work directly with employers with recruitment, cost-saving incentives including tax credits, employment retention/disability, no-cost disability related trainings, technical assistance, and help with accommodations and accessibility guidance on the Americans with disabilities Act and other legislation.

    I know you’re thinking WOW, what an amazing agency! These programs sound great!  Why haven’t I heard about this organization before? I always tell people that we are the best kept secret in the state of Alabama and that our services are underutilized. I have worked with ADRS for 9 ½ years, currently working as a Business Relations Consultant. I will admit that being in this role has been one of the most fulfilling, yet challenging roles that I’ve ever been in. I’ve been able to see so many people have access to employment and accommodations, but I’ve also experienced closed minds and doors to potential job candidates because they weren’t considered ideal. However, as a Business Relations Consultant, our team works daily to show how hiring people with disabilities is the best choice a business can make.  My favorite success story that I like to share with people when they ask me about some of the harder cases I’ve worked, is the story of a brilliant autistic young man who was told he would never work because he was nonverbal. After working to determine his needs and partnering with a company that was open to hiring people with disabilities despite their challenges, that young man is now gainfully employed fulltime with benefits. I’ve been afforded the opportunity to train businesses on disability etiquette, hiring dos and don’ts for people with disabilities, and the current hot topic of how to hire and support Neurodiversity in the workplace. Thankfully in the Huntsville area and more areas across the state, we are beginning to see a shift in thinking and more people with disabilities are going to work.

    Are you a business wanting to hire more people with disabilities, or make your workplace more diverse, equitable, and inclusive? Then you should tap into the no cost resources available to you through the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services. We are eager to partner with you and fulfill your labor needs. 

    Cassie Shropshire, MS, CRC, LPC
    Business Relations Consultant
    Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services
    cassie.shropshire@rehab.alabama.gov