Workforce Development (Literature Review)

Workforce Development is defined as: “a process in which an organization attempts to estimate the demand for labor and evaluate the size, nature, and sources of supply which will be required to meet that demand” (Reilly 1996). Reilly’s principal aim is to facilitate the development of the labor force at different organizational and structural levels. Currently, its implementation has been mainly affected by the beliefs that market forces or other factors would adequately resolve workforce needs and issues (Roche 2005).

This paper sets out to review the research available on workforce development and

will focus on three subjects with great significance for its understanding and implementation. These subjects are the importance and benefits of workforce planning in organizations, frequent gaps, and solutions to future issues in the labor force. This review addresses some of the difficulties that employees may experience and proposes the need for a more integrated view of working societies.

Why do we need workforce development?

Many studies have focused on a wide range of key areas for workforce development. Anne M Roche (2002) included education, training, environmental trends, and indigenous workforce development. Similarly, Ronald L Jacobs (2002) added education and public assistance programs, and regional economic development initiatives. Indeed, the term workforce development is a broad one used to summarize several key factors concerning individuals, the organizations within which they work, and the systems that surround them.

Workforce development can bring a number of reasons and benefits at all levels of an organization. From his report, Peter Reilly (1996) asserted that it is mainly used for two reasons: 1) to plan for substantive reasons, e.g. to determine staff numbers required at a new location and to deal with the problems of retaining highly skilled staff. 2) the benefits that the activity brings. This aims to improve the functioning of the entire workforce while creating environments and systems that support the full range of strategies. At an individual level, it ensures opportunities to develop individual skills, knowledge, and high-quality attitudes. Development of the workforce also involves ensuring a sufficient pool of skilled workers for the future (Roche 2002).

What is the gap?

Throughout the literature, there is consistent evidence that a primary area of concern is the translation of research findings into practice. It is important to note that it is difficult to achieve the process of change in an individual professional or an organization. The implementation of workforce development raises the significance of partnerships between entities to make it real. Collaboration is needed since workforce development programs are for organizational as well as individual goals.

Hawley and Taylor (2002) have highlighted that programs run by employers associations have better results in the involvement among educational institutions, businesses, and other organizations to provide services to individuals seeking employment.

However, not every workforce development program can achieve broad results on its own. On this subject, Simpson (2002) mentioned that traditional training approaches are fraught with difficulty, and the most common training methods are associated with 80-90% transfer failure, that is, in 80-90% of cases the content of the training programs is not translated into practice. It can be argued that alliances between the public and private sectors are key components of translating research into practice, and involve a wide range of learning and working opportunities at all levels.

What problem are we trying to solve?

Currently, problems exist when considering workforce development. In light of this, researchers have become increasingly interested in the three following points:

1) Redefinition of educational professionals and policy makers work plans in several settings e.g organizations, agencies, and schools, keeping in mind that the programs should connect with another level of related goals, such as the government-sponsored dislocated worker programs. This should allow them to define inclusive societal goals beyond the program goals.

2) Selection of criteria for judging the effectiveness of programs using both proximal and distal criteria. That is, achieving program goals through the use of indicators, such as the number of graduates from a training program. Similarly, long-term criteria should also be considered.

3) Identity of professionals in their own roles e.g. human resources specialist, or vocational educator. There must be correlated thinking and working among professional groups, especially when it involves projects for the economic and social welfare of the community.

Conclusion

Workforce Development is a topic of great relevance and benefits for professionals and organizations. Currently, organizations face great challenges in a changing economy, and because of this, it is necessary to have the right amount of skilled workers to perform the tasks. Although translating the theory into practice is complex, this review proposes that workforce development policies, programs, and activities should be considered from an integrated perspective by the public and private sector in the elaboration of workforce development policies, programs, and activities such as educational programs and training, in order to ensure the economic and social well being of everyone.

References

Hawley, J. D., and J. C. Taylor. The role of employer organizations in local workforce development systems. 2002, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1079.6458&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Jacobs, Ronald L. Understanding Workforce Development: Definition, Conceptual Boundaries, and Future Perspectives. 17-19 October 2002. CiteSeerX, http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1079.6458&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

Reilly, Peter. Human Resource Planning: An Introduction. Institute for Employment Studies, 1996.

Roche, Ann M. Workforce development: Our national dilemma. 2002. Research Gate, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ann-Roche/publication/228944401_Workforce_development_Our_national_dilemma/links/0deec51b0068fdb03a000000/Workforce-development-Our-national-dilemma.pdf.

Simpson, D. D. A conceptual framework for transferring research to practice. 2002. Research Gate Net, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ann-Roche/publication/228944401_Workforce_development_Our_national_dilemma/links/0deec51b0068fdb03a000000/Workforce-development-Our-national-dilemma.pdf.