We
live in a world where your success is judged by dollars in your account, high
ranking and influencing positions that are held, and the toys you have. This is
true for everyone from professional athletes to the business world. When you stop keeping up with the Jones’ for
two minutes and start to really think about success and achievement it puts it
in a different perspective. Those of us who work in workforce development world
are torn between success measured in contractual benchmarks and the success that doesn't fit the numbers.
Would
you consider the following people successful?
§ Youth that graduated from high school and recently
obtained his first part time job at a clothing store in the mall making minimum
wage.
§ Single mother of three children under the age of
five years old obtained a job that allowed her to leave TANF assistance, but
still allows her to receive SNAP food assistance and Medicaid insurance.
§ Dislocated Worker and former business manager that
used to earn over $100,000 annually obtained a job in the non-profit sector
making $35,000 annually.
Based
on everything that society has taught us- none of the people are successful.
Based on many of the performance benchmarks that workforce development programs
are held to – perhaps not, but often it is not what can’t be measured makes all
these people successful.
§ The youth is the first in his family to graduate
high school. He lives in a neighborhood where many of the young men quit school
and join gangs.
§ The single mother comes from a family where both her
mother and grandmother collected TANF assistance and never worked.
§ The former business manager has been unemployed for
three years before re-employment.
These
are the back stories that make these people successful. These are the stories
that make benchmarks, contractual numbers, and statistical analysis garbage.
Success is relative to the person achieving it.
How
would you view the workforce development professionals that worked with these
people? Would they be the heroes that helped people change their lives or the
professionals that are not capable of meeting their performance benchmarks? Are
they successful? Unfortunately because many performance measures are strict-
the professionals are not seen as having achievement and success. After all, the
dislocated worker is only making $35, 000 annually- not even close to the
$100,000 salary he used to make; the single mother is not self-sufficient
because she still relies on the government for food and medical assistance; and
the youth is not enrolled in college and does not have plans to do so in the
near future.
I
am proposing that it’s time for funders at all levels take a look at the
outcomes they are asking programs to achieve. I am proposing organizations take
a look at the true outcomes their professionals are producing and start taking
measures the government is not looking for so that they can go back and show
the true success level of their programs. Maybe what we will find is that the
programs designed for one thing are actually successful at something else.
Maybe as result we can see the true benchmarks of success and achievement and
we can re-define workforce development as we know it. Maybe as a result, we
help redefine success and achievement in America, one success story at a time.
Pondering
Points:
§ How do you
define success and achievement in a job seeking customer? Do you consider a job
seeker that does not meet the performance benchmarks successful?
§ How do you
define success and achievement in a workforce development professional?
§ Do you have
success stories of job seekers that achieved success, but did not meet the
standard of success by your program?
I
am interested in your thoughts on this subject. It appears that we are in a
period where everything is up for debate, including the existence of government
funding as we know it. As the shutdown continues, having healthy conversation
and redefining our industry will be the key to survival. I welcome your
comments on this subject. Feel free to post or email me at kcirincione@gmail.com. ~ Karen
Cirincione
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