Workplace Flexibility: Ensuring Success for the 21^st Century  Corporate Voices' Research and Women's Bureau Dialogues Highlight Imperative for Using Flexibility with Hourly Workers,
Opportunity to Participate in Focus Group Research

As reported in a recent Corporate Voices blog post, "Gaining a Competitive Edge in the Global Economy: Using Flexibility with Hourly Workers and in Healthcare," using flexibility to engage hourly workers and workers in the health care industry was the main topic of discussion at two recent Dialogues on Workplace Flexibility organized by the Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor in Pasadena, Calif. and Seattle, Wash. on February 17 and 18.

Research presented by Joan C. Williams of the Center for WorkLife Law at the Dialogues draws heavily on Corporate Voices' "Innovative Workplace Flexibility Options for Hourly Workers," which documents how employers can effectively use flexibility as a management strategy with hourly workers, just as they do with exempt workers. Corporate Voices published "Innovative Workplace Flexibility Options," which was researched and written by WFD Consulting, in 2009 with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Both Corporate Voices' research and the work presented at the Flexibility Dialogues shows how employers can use flexibility to improve work-life fit for the one-third of Americans who hold low-wage jobs, and who stand to benefit greatly from being able to effectively meet work and life obligations. As employers do so, they can benefit from the increased retention and resulting cost savings by using flexibility to effectively manage their hourly workers.

Corporate Voices' blog post was republished on MomsRising.org, The Custom-Fit Workplace, and will be republished on the Sloan Work and Family Research Network Blog on April 4.

Additionally, Corporate Voices, in partnership with WFD, The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), WorldatWork and The Twiga Foundation, is conducting virtual employer focus groups in conjunction with the Women's Bureau's Flexibility Dialogues. The focus groups will gather qualitative data on how flexibility is implemented and the business impacts of flexibility. The next focus group will analyze the manufacturing industry. If you are interested in participating, please contact Tiffany Westover-Kernan at twestover-kernan@corporatevoices.org.

The schedule for the remaining Women's Bureau Flexibility Dialogues is:

U.S. Dept. of Labor Announces Career Pathways Innovation Fund Grants  

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of up to $122 million in federal grants to be awarded under its Career Pathways Innovation Fund program. Federal grants-in amounts ranging from $1 million to $5 million-will be awarded to community colleges and Workforce Investment Boards who must partner with employers as a condition of eligibility. The money may be used to support a wide range of career-pathway training programs valued by employers and local labor markets.  At least half of the new funding is reserved for career training in the health care sector. 

The program's deadline is March 31.  For the detailed eligibility guidelines and application, click here. 

Corporate Voices Hosts a Business and Community College Leader Gathering at the Innovations 2011 Conference

Businesses and Community Colleges Discuss Opportunities and Obstacles to Successful Learn and Earn Partnerships

Corporate Voices for Working Families hosted an "Opportunities and Obstacles" dinner on Monday, February 28 at the 2011 League for Innovation in the Community College Conference in San Diego, California. The dinner created a forum where business and community college leaders could discuss the benefits, challenges and successes of partnerships between businesses and community colleges.

Dr. Mark David Milliron, Deputy Director, Postsecondary Improvement, U.S Program, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, opened the dinner with welcoming remarks.

Business leaders from Pacific Gas & Electric, CVS Caremark, Verizon Wireless, and EMC Corporation joined community college leaders from Maricopa Community College, Kentucky Community & Tech College System, San Diego Community College District and St. Louis Community College who networked and discussed their work engaging with each other and learned from best-practice examples.

John-Anthony Meza, Vice President, Workforce Readiness and Peggy Walton, Senior Director, Workforce Readiness at Corporate Voices examined findings from their most recent report, "From an "Ill-Prepared" to a Well Prepared Workforce" and discussed the findings from the organization's Learn and Earn micro business case series. This case series illustrates innovative collaborations such as the Verizon Wireless partnership with Pima Community College, AOL's partnership with Northern Virginia Community College and Year Up and Northrop Grumman's partnership with Thomas Nelson and Tidewater Community Colleges.

The dinner carried forward the momentum of Corporate Voices' Learn and Earn work, which encourages partnerships between employers and community colleges to enhance workforce readiness skills and help increase college completions rates in America.

Corporate Voices' Learn and Earn initiative is part of its larger body of work on postsecondary education completion and workforce readiness, and was made possible with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Postsecondary Success Strategy. Learn more about this program and read its related publications on Corporate Voices' website.

Reminder: Save the Date - Corporate Voices' 2011 Annual Partners Meeting 

Corporate Voices Members - Please join us for our annual partners meeting and our 10th anniversary celebration June 15-17, at the Mayflower Hotel in in Washington, DC. Our annual meeting will bring together leaders from the public and private sectors as we highlight and focus on Celebrating Ten Year of Success: Shaping the 21st Century Workforce and Workplace.     

If you have not already done so, please pay your 2011 membership dues now to ensure your seat at the Annual Partners Meeting. If your company is not currently a member of Corporate Voices, please contact Tiffany Westover-Kernan, twestover-kernan@corporatevoices.org or 202.467.8133, for information on membership.

Stephen M. Wing Presents at AARP Foundation's Inaugural Workforce Roundtable 

Corporate Voices' President Stephen M. Wing recently spoke to leaders from business, industry, education, and workforce development at the AARP Foundation's Inaugural Workforce Roundtable.  The purpose of the roundtable was to identify emerging trends, analyze data, and create solutions for increasing opportunities for at-risk older workers now and in the future.  

Wing spoke to the key components of successful programs that inspire adults to identify goals, develop behaviors that support these goals and achieve these goals.  He was joined by Mary Sue Vickers of the American Association of Community Colleges, Kelly Lapetino of Joliet Community College and Richard Martin of the Prince's Initiative for Mature Enterprise.

Addressing the Next Generation of Skilled Diverse Talent  

Accessing globally competitive, diverse talent is a growing concern for U.S. employers.  As the U.S. is falls behind other OECD nations in percentage of working adults with post-secondary credentials, employers are seeking sources of skilled talent.  This issue clashes with current demographic trends of retiring baby boomers, the most highly educated cohort in America, who will be replaced by immigrant populations, historically less inclined to complete higher education.    

Corporate Voices is proud to be leading a featured session titled "The Next Generation of Skilled Diverse Talent: Growing Your Own vs. Competing in a Shallow Talent Pool" at the upcoming Integration: The Path to Inclusion forum (March 22 - 24). Corporate Voices' Senior Director of Workforce Readiness, Peggy Walton will lead the session, which will examine these workforce "trends and truths" and will present research findings on corporate best practices to meet this challenge.  Select corporate leaders, including Kevin Jordan from KPMG and Van Ton-Quinlivan from PG&E, will discuss ways in which their companies have put in place Learn and Earn models of talent development.    

On a related note, KPMG and fellow Corporate Voices' partner companies CVS and Marriott, are all highlighted in the recent Profiles in Diversity Journal - Vision of the Future issue for their work in addressing this very issue.   

Ready By 21 Webinar Series: Setting Bigger Goals for Postsecondary Success 

We invite you to listen to the latest addition to the Ready by 21 Webinar Series, Setting Bigger Goals: Postsecondary Success. This webinar, hosted on February 22, 2011, examined the transition to adulthood and, in particular, the importance of postsecondary completion as a critical goal for community and business leaders to focus on.  

In the webinar, key barriers facing low-income, first-generation college students were examined.  Peggy Walton, Senior Director of Workforce Readiness, at Corporate Voices also provided an overview of best practices business and community partnerships through Corporate Voices' Learn and Earn Micro-Business Case Studies.

Workforce Investment Works Launches New Campaign to Education Nation About Workforce Investment

It is clear that workforce development is essential to keeping America competitive in a global economy. Workforce Investment Works has recently unveiled a campaign intended to educate the nation about the Workforce Investment System and its many successes and to connect citizens to the right resources.

If you are part of the workforce investment system and would like to submit a story and/or participate in Workforce Investment Works' educational efforts, please register to download the Campaign Toolkit. You can also sign a petition in support of adult/dislocated worker/youth funding and there is a button to contribute to the work of sharing the successes of the system.

Two Different Realities About Workplace Flexibility, The Huffington Post, February 24, 2011.

Many Michigan High School Grads Not Ready for College, Data Show, Detroit Free Press, February 22, 2011.

Building Roads to Success: Key Considerations for Communities and States Reconnecting Youth to Education, National Youth Employment Coalition, February 2011.  

The Custom-Fit Workplace: Choose When, Where, and How to Work and Boost Your Bottom Line, Jossey-Bass, 2010.  

America at the Crossroads: American Worker Retools with New Skills, NBC News, March 2, 2011.

NBC's Tom Brokaw reports on the shift away from old-line manufacturing by the American worker towards information, science and technology. How can the American worker acquire this new skill set for the next generation of quality jobs?

The Promise of PowerPathway, PG&E, February 15, 2011.  

Van Ton-Quinlivan, PG&E's Director of Workforce Development, talks about the "3-legged stool" of collaboration among employers, public agencies and educational partners to ensure a talent pool for the green jobs of the future, and her role in an international panel discussing "the greening of the workforce."