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Ron Elsdon

 

Building Workforce Strength


Workforce strength helps bring meaning and fulfillment into individual working lives, it enables organizations to operate more effectively and it is intimately connected to vibrant communities.  Ron Elsdon will discuss what workforce strength is and how we, as career professionals, can contribute to building workforce strength through workforce and career development. This will include exploring frameworks and practical approaches to bridging the disciplines of workforce and career development, drawing on successful practices in organizations.


Exercise: How Organizations Represent Their Purpose, Progress, and Workforce


Consider two broad groups of organizations - those that you admire and those that concern you.  Select one or two organizations from each of these two groups and review on-line information, and/or talk with those who know the organizations, about how the organizations represent their purpose, progress and workforce. 


Consider the following questions:


  •     How does each organization define purpose, success and progress?
  •     How prominent are references to the workforce?
  •     What words are used to describe the workforce?
  •     How does the compensation of the CEO compare with that of the average employee?
  •     What do others say about each organization?
  •     Would you want to work there?  Why?  Why not?


 


Bio
Ron Elsdon is founder and President of Elsdon, Inc.  Ron specializes in the workforce and career development fields, providing organizational consulting, individual career counseling and coaching, public speaking, publishing and lecturing.  Ron has more than 25 years of leadership experience at diverse organizations in a broad range of sectors, and has been an adjunct faculty member at, or affiliated with, several universities, including John F. Kennedy University.  He has authored numerous publications and has spoken regularly at national and regional events in the career and workforce development fields.  He is author of Affiliation in the Workplace (Praeger, 2003) and editor of Building Workforce Strength (Praeger, 2010).  With his co-author, Ron was awarded the Walker Prize by the Human Resource Planning Society for the paper that best advances state-of-the-art thinking or practices in human resources.  He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge University, a Master’s degree in Career Development from John F. Kennedy University, and a first class honors degree in Chemical Engineering from Leeds University.  


Contact

Ron Elsdon
Elsdon, Inc., Elsdon Organizational Renewal and New Beginnings Career and College GuidanceRevitalizing Workforce Relationships
renewal@elsdon.com

www.elsdon.com
61 Milano Court
Danville, CA 94526
Tel:  925 838 2362
Fax:  775 860 8613
Mobile:  925 586 9039

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

 For more info, click on covers.

 

 

Praeger

Amazon.com

 

Affiliation in the Workplace is noted in American Counseling Association November, 2010 Issue of Counseling Today (p. 18).


DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Intro


This is Dr. Sally Gelardin with Careerwell Tele-Interviews. Ron Elsdon is one of the most analytical career professionals I ever met. When I invited him to speak to a career counseling class that I was teaching several years ago, the counselors-in-training looked at him presenting all his charts and graphs as if he were from a different planet. However, he is very articulate and very patient with those of us who are less analytical than he.  Plus, he has a poetic side.  In the last sentence of the introduction to his new book, Building Workforce Strength, he quotes Franz Kafka, noting "it is necessary to 'become quiet, and still and solitary.  The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked.  It has not choice: it will roll in ecstasy at your feet'." I was so impressed by his both analytical and compassionate approach that I devoted an entire lesson in the Job Juggler's Job Search Practitioner online course to his concept of "Affiliation in the Workplace," as one of nine essential employability skills; and I recruited Ron to serve on the California Career Development Association Board when I was president of CCDA. He brings a professional business sense to any career development gathering and is a highly sought after instructor at universities throughout the country. Today he is going to talk about how to build workforce strength.  Welcome Ron.

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Interview Questions

(refer to powerpoint presentation frames)


  1. What is workforce strength? (Frames 1, 2 and 3)
  2. Why does workforce strength matter? (Frames 4, 5 and 6)
  3. How can workforce strength be measured? (Frames 7, 8, and 9)
  4. What are some barriers to building workforce strength? (Frame 10)
  5. What are some factors that influence the implementation of workforce planning and development initiatives? (Frames 11, 12, and 13)
  6. How have career relationships evolved over time? (Frame 14)
  7. What are important considerations in creating and implementing a career development initiative in an organization? (Frames 15 and 16)
  8. What are principles that need to be considered in measuring progress of a career development initiative? (Frames 17 and 18)
  9. Tell us about the implementation of these practices at Kaiser Permanente. (Frames 19 and 20)
  10. How about implementation in a high technology setting? (Frames 21 and 22)
  11. What questions are important when considering implementation of workforce and career development initiatives? (Frame 23)
  12. What resources are available to support this work? (Frame 24)
DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.