Policies that Increase Labor Demans

I was at a great seminar this week sponsored by CALED - Keys to Successful Economic Development. Bruce Stenslie of Ventura County made a nice point about workforce development, identifying that there are TWO ways to increase workforce/job expansion, one is to increase labor SUPPLY -- i.e. to produce more and better trained workers, the other is to increase labor DEMAND by being more innovative in job situations, benefits, perqs so as to increase the worker's interest in going to these jobs. With the common complaints these days about the Gen X/Millennial workers, this is a place of great opportunity. Work from home situations, family involvement, child care resources, advanced training opportunities, team contributions, a vision of the big picture -- all of these opportunities will increase a business' supply of great workers and retain them to grow and prosper. With the turnover costs of hiring new employees at almost 7 times retention costs, figuring out how to make good workers want to be at your company is a boon. Also see Sac Bee yesterday on best 100 places to work, VSP of our fair city made the cut!

Help for Managers of Non-Profits/Business Development Service Organizations

California Resources and Training -- CARAT -- is a non-profit organization designed to increase the effectiveness of business development organizations and support non-profit management expertise to increase service capacity through better management, increased funding and volunteer enhancement. http://www.caratnet.org/about.htm I work with many non-profit and service organizations --as well a a huge number of volunteer broad members of such organizations -- that are filled with people of great mind and heart for service without much support for the technical expertise of organizational development and strategic management of resources. CARAT provides training for non-profits, often Chambers of Commerce in management and resource development.

As part of CARAT's offerings, check out, The Free Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM): www.managementhelp.org/np_progs/org_dev.htm

This is Management Library's Free, Online Nonprofit Organization and Management Development Program. (Among many resources for management advice and support.)

Who Can Benefit From Program?

Nonprofit executives and board members seeking guidance to start a nonprofit or to firm up the foundation of an already established nonprofit. (And, from the lawyer's point of view...some protection against claims of Board mismanagement!)

Nonprofit service consultants and volunteers who desire understanding of nonprofit organizations, their systems and practices, in order to provide more effective community service.

Highly motivated learners who:- Have limited time and money- Prefer to schedule and locate their own learning experiences- Prefer highly practical results from programs.

Developed by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2007.Much of this program is based on materials adapted from the Nonprofit Capacity Building Toolkit(SM)and Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development.

The Hiring Process

I'm working with three high level, long career, professional people who are job hunting right now. The horror stories are incredible. With Internet submission of résumés, people infrequently get even any recognition that materials have been submitted; after discussing skill sets and expertise, employers will rarely illuminate for the candidate a "range" of what the expected salary might be; and then there are the formulaic questions repeated to each candidate, creating no opportunity to share information about actual skills, only skills of self-promotion.

And then there's the other side of the coin generation X -who has interests in and needs from their future employer that are very different from the needs expressed and sought by the previous employee generation.

Here is an interesting article discussing the message to then organizations and when it has a not very illuminating and perhaps even in net hiring process: http://www.governing.com/articles/10kmiller.htm

Preparing for Disasters

There was a very interesting article in the Sab Bee on 9/25 about the banking industry preparingfor a disaster such as a pandemic.



-- Unfortunately, (in my opinion) the Sac Bee website sucks so bad I can't find a link for the article even though I have the ripped out section in my hands....



But anyway, bans and other financial systems are preparing a 3 week long disaster scenarion to prepare resposes in case of emergency. These exercises include:



Coping with absenteeism: The over 2700 finnacial institutions recieved instrcutions that included assuming that 25% of the work force cannot comne to work. They were given certain letters to ID last names to ensure that the "hypothetical flu" could hit the bank president as well as the teller or janitor. In week two the scenario requies that the absentee rate be 49%



The planner have also proposed deling with shrinking bandwidth as more people try to conduct business from home, tring up the efficiency of transactions, possibly worldwide.



They expect cash withdrawals from ATMs to increase dramatically and considered how to get those machines re-filled with $$ as people are gone. Other interesting stumbles are considered as well.



This all just highlights the need for all of us do give some time and energy to thinking about how to be less caught off gard when something happens. Flood scenarios, home fires, etc. they are all hard to think about, but with some minimum consideration you could save you comany or family some of the pain and headaches of not having food, cash, communications, rendevous sites, etc. planned in advance.



http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_disaster_ap051707.pdf

http://www.sba.gov/services/disasterassistance/disasterpreparedness/serv_disaster_inthenews.html



Crisies are a lot less devastating when they aren't a total surpirse.

Call for suggestions of BAD for Business Federal regulations

Make your voice heard! It isn't that often that an organization makes a call for complaints!

The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration is issuing a call for nomination of federal rules and regulations in need of review and reform. You can help us streamline and update outdated or ineffective rules by nominating those that keep you up at night. Nominations are due by December 31, 2007.

Nominate them on the Office of Advocacy r3 Web site at www.sba.gov/advo/r3 or send an email to advocacy@sba.gov. For help, call Keith Holman at (202) 205-6936. For press release, click here.


And info on the BEST palces to do business... http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/fsb/beststates_top10/10.html

PRACTICAL Financial Projections for Small Businesses

Here's a great blog entry that can help you in thinking about some of the real costs of offices, staff and equipment in projecting expenses for you new company. Often we don't get useful tips on things like: How much sq. ft. per person do I need to set up a workstation, monthly telephone costs per employee, or how much is AC on my floor...

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/10/financial-model.html

Business Retention and Expansion Resources

Most firms and agencies that focus on developing economic growth and prosperity -- in Sacramento and elsewhere -- speak of "BRE", Business Retention and Expansion. Economic evidence shows that entrepreneur development and support -- especially of companies in a community with less than 20 employees contributes up to 85% of the economic growth of a community -- with tax base, sales tax and increased spending from job earning -- and also support much of the overall employment. Even though large companies employ more individuals, there are fewer of them so smaller businesses are really the workhorse of area employment. Of course, in Sacramento we also have a strong government sector.

We also know that retaining businesses that already live here, and taking the time and energy to grow them, contributes more bang for the buck than trying to lure new business into our area. This is especially true in California where costs to do business are high. Here, it's pretty hard to talk someone from Montana into paying rents, buying property, or paying Workers' Comp. fees here instead o f in their home state.

So BRE it is, where those charge with the economic prosperity of our region spend their time. Regional Economic Developers from the City of Sac., Sac. County, City of Folsom, City of Roseville, City of West Sacramento, El Dorado County, Placer County, Los Rios Community Colleges ,SMUD and SETA have partnered together to discover what our area businesses need to thrive. (MetroPulse)The plan is to gather information from many sectors of the business community and find out how to put businesses in touch with resources that can support them. Resources such as specific training for a company, subsidised by the state to increase worker performance; matched dollars to spiff up the front of your building, financing for your business expansion through Economic Development Corporation lending opportunities -- and lots of other things we don't even know businesses need - yet!

So, if an economic development professional contacts your business, tell them what's holding you back from growing and making new jobs for our friends, partners and children. You'll be surprised what's out there to support growth, once you find the person(s) that can help you navigate the "system".

Please post any successes or frustrations you've had with getting support for your business in the Sacramento region.


Building Tomorrow's Talent: A Practitioner's Guide to Talent Management and Succession Planning