More on Talent

It seems that the region is now fully awakening to the talent imperative. Yes, we’ve aall known of the need for some time. And our educators and work force intermediaries have been working extremely hard, and companies have voiced their challenges for years. However, the topic has only recently risen as a true civic priority that is on everyone’s mind. Much is behind this, including the severe labor shortages in our health care sector (and even manufacturing), the economic research of the Dashboard/other studies, the strong call for action out of Voices & Choices, the attention given by the new Governor, and the progress being made in other parts of the country.

 

In recent weeks, the Fund has been out trying to connect with various groups tackling the topic, ranging from higher education leaders, union leaders, literacy professionals, work force investment boards, employers, and economists. These conversations have been encouraging but they provoke several observations:

 

1.)    The community not only lacks an overarching strategy for addressing the region’s talent needs, we do not yet share s common definition of the needs and priorities, nor do we have a shared framework or even vocabulary for discussing the situation. The situation is like the proverbial story of the blind men and the elephant – each touches a different piece of the problem and therefore perceives the situation distinctly. 

2.)    “Work force” is largely viewed as a social service concern, rather than an issue of economic competitiveness. It is becoming increasingly obvious to all that how we handle the talent issue will determine our economic destiny – this is not just about wealth transfer. We are already facing acute labor shortages and we cannot afford to lose the talents of a single individual. Indeed, we are probably better off talking about talent rather than work force because of the images it conjures.

3.)    This is especially true of literacy efforts. It is vital that our literacy groups recast their work in economic terms and that we bring their efforts into the mainstream of the economic transformation;

4.)    We don’t have – but would benefit from – a shared rallying cry for our talent efforts. What would it mean for us to double the number of incumbent/displaced workers pursuing lifelong learning? Or what would it mean to reduce the number of individuals with sub-basic literacy from 25% to 10%?

5.)    A window of opportunity seems to be open on this topic – more people are discussing it than ever and we may be able to move past the collective civic fatigue that has surrounded this issue for the last decade.

 

The good news: we may be closer to consensus and shared action than we think. Groups within sectors are beginning to meet (e.g., the Governor’s Commission on University Innovation, Education Works, the work force “one-stops” from across the region, unions). One of the tasks now is to develop a shared perspective on the challenges, to set some priorities, and agree on the most promising actions.