KCSpeaks

    If you took a look at the state of workforce development in the past few years, there has been a change. Gone are the days of plentiful resources for staff and customers and plentiful job placements. It seems that those days are now a fairy tale that begins with “Once upon a time.” Now our story has fewer castles, less princesses and knights in shining armor, but rather more caves, moats, and fire breathing dragons. For the job seekers and ourselves it has become a “dog eat dog kind of world” with Olympic like competition daily. With this, I have noticed a disturbing decline that threatens our industry and ultimately any competitive rapidly changing industry … the decline of mentoring.      Maybe this is a cultural shift we have had due to competition in the industry, funding, and or just the bad economy, but we have gone from an industry where we grew our own to a cut throat “every man for himself” mentality.  In the past, I had been fortunate...

Ethics is a small word with big meaning and big implications. Every day as we go about our business of being workforce development professionals, we are being asked to make ethical decisions. We may not always know we are, but because of the day to day interaction with the public and the ever changing political and funding environment, our world can be a mine field of ethical decisions.   All that being said how does the average workforce development professional know what to do? How does the average person navigate the day to day? How can an organization prevent their organization from becoming an ethical garbage dump? Although I am not an ethics expert, I am recommending the following:   §   Organizations need to define clear ethical guidelines. These guidelines determine how an organization determines its business.   §   Organizations should look at national organizations’ ethical guidelines for guidance. In workforce development, the Na...