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.

  • 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

  • The Economics of Union Activity

    The Economics of Union Activity

    Supply and Demand. The first lesson of Economics, or at least I remember it that way. The most important lesson of economics as I remember it. 

    Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but I think the issues of the supply and demand of labor need to be reinforced when we think about anything and everything that is going on in our world. And one of those things is union activity. 

    The issues at Starbuck, Amazon, UPS… the list goes on and on about union organization and in the media seems on the surface to be about wages, benefits, and the overall treatment of workers. As Jillian pointed out in our last post,  People want to be valued and listened to.  They need to feel like they have some sense of control over their lives, and that includes at work.  Many employers don’t offer that.  When people don’t have this at work, they aren’t happy. 

    But none of that matters from a union sense if only one person feels that way. Many people have to feel that way. And when many people feel that way and there aren’t enough people to go around to fill the demand for labor, they have power.  Or in union terms, they have “collective bargaining” power. 

    And right now, there aren’t enough people to go around to fill jobs in many industries both in terms of the actual number of human beings available and or in terms of a desire to work in certain jobs or industries. And it is only going to get worse. 

    Typically, this issue of supply and demand for labor is measured by the number of job openings compared to the number of available workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there have been more job openings compared to unemployed people since May 2021.  In January 2023, there were almost twice as many job openings as there were unemployed people in the United States according to this BLS data. 

    This challenge is not unique to the United States. Boston Consulting Group’s The Global Workforce Crisis- $10 Trillion at Risk  highlights the differences in labor supply and demand by country (both Germany and Japan are experiencing particularly acute issues with labor supply).  Whereas some countries are currently experiencing a higher level of supply than demand, the piece emphasizes that by 2030 most countries will experience labor shortages.  BCG postulates that this issue could result in $10 Trillion in GDP not created. 

    So, when there is more of a demand for labor than there is supply, employers better pay attention. We would hope they don’t have to pay attention because they are treating people like people. But when they aren’t, the most important law of economics will bite you.  Workers will all leave and go someplace else, because someone else needs them, because there are more jobs than people available to fill them. 

    We can be distracted by the media saying artificial intelligence (AI) is going to take over all our jobs, but the data doesn’t show this. We may need to retool ourselves for the jobs of the future, and that may be where employers need to be focused to not only help with labor supply issues but also to employee engagement issues. Both impact union activity. 

    What are you doing to impact labor supply and union activity?