Last month I mentioned the need to be clear about your people development agenda, which should directly contribute to the shaping of your organisational DNA. I was at the Westpac Federal Budget client dinner on Tuesday evening and Gail Kelly talked about ‘people’ being a critical competitive advantage for the Westpac Business. How refreshing to hear this from a CEO of a major Australian Company. Just FYI Westpac has also recently announced the launch of their Davidson Institute, which is Australia’s First School of Money. This Institute offers a complete educational resource of seminars, short courses, accredited courses and financial education and advice designed to help all Australians make more confident financial decisions. Well done Westpac!
What do you think of this initiative? Would you use this service as a consumer?
The education theme continues to be a hot topic this month as Wayne Swan’s Federal Budget announcement reinforced the need to ‘build a more productive workforce in Australia’ and focus on ‘training Australians for the future’. With the strong economy over the past 12 months over 300,000 jobs have been created, so the challenge for business is how are you going to train these 300,000 individuals quickly, cost effectively and retain them in your organisation?
It is about time we recognise the need to invest in the development of our current and future generations. We have a serious problem that a lot of our Generation Y audience have no hesitation to island hop jobs because they become disenfranchised so quickly.
You might be thinking well how do I over come this problem? I am always challenged to do more with fewer resources (people and money). Well most organisations face this challenge, but this should not deter you but rather make you more creative with your 21st century learning agenda. Generation Y are the ‘connect me to everything’ learners. The ability to give them connection and meaning, search and explore or make it fun/entertain me is how they learn best. This also means that these learners need to have their current and future roles learner opportunities at their finger tips. Organisations need to be able to offer a ‘learning portal’, where they have access to their manager, SMEs, internal knowledge databases, technical support, peers, content and courses etc, so they feel part of the organisational community and ultimately part of our organisational DNA.
Every employee should be able to easily identify answers to the following:
- What knowledge do I need to know right now?
- What skills and competencies do I need?
- How do I get help if I need it?
Can your employees answer all of these questions?
